How To Eat With IBS – An Inspiring Success Story!

Kathy and I received this wonderful email from Bronda in the UK, who has graciously allowed us to reprint it here. She offers her personal success story about how to eat with IBS in case it can help you.

Even if you haven’t had Gall Bladder surgery, Bronda’s dietary information and the action she took may apply to you. Please read her inspiring story and send us yours or leave a comment about your own experiences with eating for IBS.

Hi Karen and Kathy

I just wanted to thank you for the reply to my email and the help you’ve given me this last month!

My story is a wonderful one!

I developed IBS in a mild way after a Gall Bladder Op about 8 years ago. Just before Christmas this year, the IBS became worse and ended up with me being in agony after everything I ate.

About 8 weeks ago I had diarrhoea almost every day, …unable to go out too far from my home….having to be near a toilet and a range of other things which made life difficult!!

I lost weight…had no energy…..picked up infections and looked terrible.

I went to see a Medical Herbalist with not much hope!

Well…she tested me for food sensitivities [this is something Kathy and I recommend in The No IBS Program] and found some, mainly milk and milk products, pork, apricots etc… all things I ate, some a lot, like yoghurt/milk.

Stopped all of these…changed my diet…no milk in any shape or form and here I am…not quite back to normal but 90% there. I’m fit and well, have almost normal BM’s…lots of energy!

[Milk and dairy products are the number one allergen among foods. So when you’re exploring how to eat with IBS, you need to know that they can be deadly for IBS digestion, whether or not you have a Gall Bladder.]

I can hardly believe that something like milk could be so devastating.

It seems that because I am minus my Gall Bladder, my body (over the 8 years) just cannot cope with it now.

The moment I stopped the offending foods, (my body) started healing. It will take a while for the healing to be complete and I am told to be patient.

Mine is a lovely story and I wanted to share it with you and others.

My story to all the people who have IBS…is to never give up hope…to listen to you guys and to listen to their body…it really does tell you that something is not right!

I never listened to mine before… but I do now!

Bronda  UK

Much love

It’s interesting that, while dietary factors helped Bronda clear about 90% of her symptoms, she’s still not quite back to normal. Kathy and I would suggest tapping – possibly on the original stress of having the Gall Bladder surgery – to help alleviate that other 10% of symptoms.

Thank you, Bronda, for sharing your story. We celebrate your success! All our best wishes for your increasingly good health.

If you’re looking to transform your health, there’s more about how to eat with IBS in The No IBS Program, along with key information about how to reprogram your brain to stop triggering symptoms.

Diggin’ this content? Sign up on the right for regular updates, plus a copy of our report on: How to STOP the Top 5 “Hidden” Triggers of IBS. It’s free!

15 thoughts on “How To Eat With IBS – An Inspiring Success Story!”

  1. I dont know if I have IBS as some doctors told me or I have NEURODISPEPSIA, but I am lost With the food I am afraid of any food And I take care a lot about it. I suffering this for two years And is changing My lífe, it is very hard to cope With this.
    If you know something more to help me please tell me.
    Thanks in advance.
    Montse

  2. Hi Montse,
    You say you have been suffering this for two years. What happened two years ago or in the years before that? Did you have a car accident, relationship breakup or other upsetting life event? IBS can result from these challenging events and that is why we suggest that people use EFT tapping. Your brain often reacts to trauma by storing it, and EFT tapping helps to discharge the old memories that can trigger IBS symptoms.

    You can get more help with this from the videos on our site in other blog posts (see the posts on Anxiety, especially) and from our ebook and the No IBS Program, which you can find on the Products page.

    Although I don’t know your exact situation, Kathy and I have often found that when food is a huge problem, it is because there are underlying emotional issues that need to be cleared.

    I hope that helps.

  3. I found carrageenan to be a trigger for me. Dread the thought of giving up all dairy – I started drinking milk kefir to help heal!

  4. Hi Sandy,Interesting about the carrageenan. I wonder if you react to other seaweeds?Might be an idea to be tested on dairy and find out whether or not it’s a problem for you. Some experts believe it’s a problem for everyone with IBS and other digestive issues. Possibly if you make your own kefir or yogurt, it will be okay – you can ferment it long enough to develop all the good bacteria your gut needs (almost all commercial yogurts are not fermented long enough.) You can also try making fermented vegetables – carrot with ginger is delicious – to get the beneficial bacteria that would be in the kefir. Check the web for recipes. Inexpensive and easy to make.If you are clinging to dairy for the calcium, the reality is that more people are deficient in magnesium than calcium. If you have IBS-C, try taking supplemental magnesium citrate, glycinate, taurate, or pico-ionic. Do not take other forms such as magnesium oxide – your body cannot absorb them well enough and some other forms apparently break down into neurotoxins.

  5. Thanks, Karen. I do make my own kefir, yogurt, kombucha, sauerkraut and other fermented vegetables. I long ferment the kefir, yogurt and kombucha to reduce the sugar in them (I am also diabetic). Except for the yogurt, which I’ve made off and on for years, I started all of this last summer. It seemed I was always running across articles about how important our gut bacteria are, and I wanted to see if fermented foods would help.I’m aware of the importance of magnesium and can usually tolerate the citrate version (I definitely do NOT have the “C” type of IBS!!)

  6. Hi Sandy,Sounds like your diet is pretty good. You are probably aware that eating a soluble fiber food at the beginning of a meal also helps. It will bulk up inside the intestines and help to slow the transit time of your food (useful if your problem is the opposite of “C”!)If food is not the culprit in your case, perhaps the IBS is linked to some sort of trauma that has occurred in your life. IBS is a common outcome of trauma, as you may know. This is why Kathy and I suggest people work with EFT tapping – it helps to clear the trauma so the brain stops triggering IBS symptoms. Dr Robert Scaer, who is an expert on trauma, says that it’s very important to use a technique such as EFT tapping that engages both mind and body simultaneously. We have some videos on this site that show you how to do the tapping (for example, look at the blog post on Self Treatment for Anxiety.)I hope you will find some helpful information in our articles.

  7. Amazing story.If you have problems digesting fatty foods I’ve heard that supplementing with Ox bile is meant to work wonders!God bless

  8. I am trying a gluten free diet per my son’s request. So far it has not helped with the constipation part of the IBS I have been suffering lately. I am experiencing lot of gas and flatulence and bloating. Life has not been good. I am having surgery in July to remove a cyst from my abdomen area. I hope this helps.

  9. Hi Karen and KathyJust reading Bronda’s letter, I have now given up all Dairy Products and have gone on to soya products i.e soya milk and yogurts, and lots of water. My symptoms sound very much like Bronda’s so am giving it a go.My Doctor is sending me for tests. He thinks it could be something called Pylori some sort of bug I have somehow caught. It has been agonising these past few weeks, not getting any sleep because it is too painful and affecting the stomach really awful as well as finding difficulty breathing and catching my breath.I managed to get an appointment with an Gastroenterologist but unfortunately not until 22nd September. Seeing my Doctor tomorrow and see if I can get earlier appointment.Symtoms are like Bronda’s lost quiet a bit of weight which, I really cannot afford. As I very slim anyway, He has already diagnosed IBS and puts it down to the fibromyalgia. I never realised about how IBS can affect you, and am really pleased I found your site, your articles are very good, and with excellent information.So with Kind Regards.John

  10. Hi John,Thanks so much for your kind words. I’m glad you are finding the articles helpful. According to Dr Robert Scaer, whose speciality was trauma and chronic pain relief, fibromyalgia may also be caused to some extent by trauma – whether the event was physical or emotional. For that, tapping can help. I have also read that chemical products are best avoided by people with fibromyalgia. Natural and unscented products are much easier on the body and the nervous system.H Pylori has been connected with ulcers – whether or not it’s a factor in IBS, I don’t know. But some people with IBS do have too much bacteria in their small intestine which can cause pain and bloating. My understanding is that this can be relieved by avoiding FODMAPs – foods that contain fructose (which is apparently the food of the excess bacteria and other problematic microbes), and other naturally-occurring sugars. The best information about FODMAPs is on Dr Sue Shepherd’s site. She’s in Australia and has done a lot of research about this.All the best to you!

  11. Everyone with gastro distress should be told about zinc carnosine!!!! It started to heal my gut right away!!!!

  12. Thanks for the tip, Lisa. We’ll have to look into zinc carnosine.Some nutrients are incredibly helpful. At the same time, I think it’s important for people with IBS to realize that IBS is often triggered by trauma – whether current or from several years ago. These experiences set up a pattern in the brain that sets off the limbic brain to “protect” you (even when you don’t actually need that protection.) This response triggers the nervous system to either shut down or speed up your digestive tract – or both – which is when you get alternating constipation and diarrhea. Kathy and I specifically developed the No IBS Program to deal with this, and the people who have used it have reported excellent results in terms of reducing or ending their symptoms.I thought I’d mention this because people sometimes spend years searching for the “right” diet or supplement, only to be disappointed. These are the people who are best helped by our program. That being said, I’m delighted you found a supplement that works so well for you!

  13. Thank you for the article, it was very inspiring. I have a little niece who suffers from this illness and it has been super hard on her parents, who feel like they can never feed her anything that she likes and won’t suffer from. They recently went to a specialist in gastroenterology who helped them find a schedule and planned eating habits. They have seen great success from that as well!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Shares