Those with IBS often try the low Fodmap diet by themselves but it is a complicated diet with many moving parts and they may not get it right. However, there could be something else going on too. In my video, I cover other possible complications that are preventing you from getting the results you want.
If the Low Fodmap Diet is Not Working...
Today, I’d like to talk to you about something that comes up every now and then. Somebody writes to me or it might be in the comments that they’ve tried the Low FODMAP diet, and it’s not working for them. So what do they do next? First of all, before you give up on the diet, I want you to check a few things. First, that you’ve tried it correctly and really strictly for at least two weeks – if you only try for a few days, you might not see any difference. I also want you to look at that question of amounts, and combinations, and accumulation that I have made another video on. And just make sure that you’re not eating too many vegetables at the same time, definitely never too many fruits – two a day is probably about right. You could maybe have three if you spread them well out. But with the vegetables, having small servings, between four and five a day would be good, and I’m talking about very small servings. Spread them out between the five meals that you have. And don’t have something like a vegetable soup with six or seven different vegetables in there, and then have two bowls full, because that is going to be too many FODMAPs together. So do check out all those things, and if you need to, have a look at that video that I made about amounts, combinations, and accumulation.
The first thing is to make sure you are doing this diet correctly, and a lot of people don’t, unfortunately. But, let’s say you’re doing it perfectly and you’ve still got symptoms, then there are probably a few things you should be looking at. For example, do you have SIBO, a small intestinal bacterial overgrowth – too many bacteria in the gut of the wrong kind? If you do have that, you’re probably going to need a course of antibiotics – any other way to get rid of it is going to be long-winded and painful. Don’t stop the Low FODMAP diet and you definitely continue it after the antibiotics are finished because SIBO is something that will continue to come back if you’re eating incorrectly so you need to stay on the Low FODMAP diet.
Another thing, of course, is that you might actually have IBD and that’s Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Perhaps something like Crohn’s. Though you’d probably know if you had Crohn’s because you would be really, really sick. But there is colitis – there are different types of colitis – and this involves inflammation of the bowel. So when they do a colonoscopy, they can actually see that. The diagnosis of IBS is when they find nothing. But that could develop at any stage, so even though you’ve had a colonoscopy in the past and they haven’t found anything, and you’ve been doing the diet without success, it could be that you’ve developed colitis. It is a separate issue from Irritable Bowel Syndrome by the way. So check that out. If you do have that, always stay on the Low FODMAP diet, but you’ll probably have to make it a low-fibre one for a while, so take the advice of your health practitioner on that.
It’s possible that you could also have a gut infection of some kind – there are many, many gut infections that you can get, and that would be causing exactly the same symptoms and the Low FODMAP diet would not remove them. So have that checked out – they might test your stools for that and it can be seen quite clearly if you have an infection. Again, it’ll be a dose of antibiotics. Don’t stop the diet before, during, or after.
The other thing that sometimes happens is your gallbladder. The symptoms of somebody who’s having trouble with their gallbladder are the same as for IBS. But be very careful with this – a disproportionate number of people with IBS have their gallbladders taken out – often mistakenly – and they don’t feel any better afterwards. Talk to your doctor about this, but be very careful if they seem too sure that it’s the gallbladder unless there’s really solid evidence because you don’t want it taken out if it’s not necessary.
There you are, you’ve got a few explanations of what might be happening in your gut if the symptoms don’t go away. But please do try the diet really accurately first before you give up on it. Good luck with that, and goodbye.
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