Chronic bloating issue and constipation ? I feel very depressed and lost all hope.

[machiavelli]

I have bloating issues. And also very underweight . I have hard time gaining weight as I feel bloating just by eating few bites of food. So doc has put me on ppi to control my acid . Without ppi I cannot even eat properly. As I have to gain weight doc put me on ppi. But I have chronic constipation issues too. I have incomplete bowel movement problem.

I tried quiting ppi with the help of ayurvedic doctor and successfully weaned off . And stayed on herbal medicines for 1.5 years. But they were not giving me complete relief as compared to ppi. My symptoms returned in vengeance once I stopped taking ppi. I started getting acid regurgitation and used to wake up immediately at night with food in my mouth. It was horrible .

Without my ayurvedic medicines I would not able to eat fatty foods or protein supplements. I dont used to feel hungary for a long time . I feel bloated everytime no matter what I used to eat. Eating oilly food give me indigestion and slow digestion. But I wanted to gain weight.

After experiencing lot of misery for several months I again have gone back to my Gastroentrologist and he again put me on ppi.Which improved my symptoms again .

 

The problem is I want to gain weight. I am very underweight.  But doc are soo clueless that they dont know how to fix the root cause. Doc has done every kind of test on me ~

Ct scan of entire abdomen - normal

Ultrasound - normal

Colonoscopy- normal

Upper Gi endescopy which showed gastritis and lax las

CBC -normal

I am very depressed now. I want to gain weight but I feel bloated after eating few bites of food. Even drinking water give me gas. I burp alot. 

It feels like my stomach produce lot of acid.

Also I have chronic constipation issues too. For which I take fibers and take lot fruit . And avoid stimulant laxatives as it has messed up my bowels for a long time. My doc had prescribed me stimulant laxative for 5 years straight and it made my bowel movement weak. I even didnt know the dangers of laxative then as I was small and was in school . 

My doc ruined my digestive system completely by giving stimulant laxative to a normal person for years straight. I mean who give laxatives that too stimulant to a normal person with slight complain of constipation ? When a gentle case of constipation must be treated with stool softeners first.

For years I took them without having any clue of dangers of it. As doc hasnt gave me any prior knowledge about it. If I were aware of the dangers that time I would have not taken it on the first place. 

I slowely weaned of stimulant laxatives and shifted to mild stool softeners and fibers. 

It was very hard journey. I experienced lot of suffering due to mistreatment at the hands of my doctor. 

I now have incomplete bowel motion. 

Doctors has destroyed my health. I feel very depressed. They even dont listen . Just straight away start prescribing medicines. I switched many doctors over the course of 12 years. 

Its a constant struggle between trying to gain weight and controlling symptoms .

I want to heal my body. I feel very depressed now.

Right now I am on ppi . But still have gas problems. Feel bloated just by eating anything. Without ppi I cant even eat properly.

The supplements I am taking right now~

Multivitamins

Probiotics

On on hand I have to gain weight as I am very underweight on other hand I have gut issues which needs to be resolved completely.

How can I heal my body completely?

How to heal bloating after eating anything?

 

 

 

[Leo Gura]

Bloating, gas, and burping are obvious signs of bacterial action.

Sounds like your problem is not lack of acid but SIBO. You likely have a bacterial infection in your gut. Traditional doctors are basically clueless about treating SIBO, even gastro-entrologists.

You need to do a SIBO breath test and research how SIBO works:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SIBO/

Your microbiome is probably badly screwed up and needs correction.

You need to look for a functional/holistic doctor who specializes in treating SIBO and knows what it is.

SIBO also causes depression and many other negative mental effects.

SIBO can also cause constipation and gastritis.

To heal you need to go on a strict elimination diet, kill the SIBO off entirely with antibiotics, and then slowly rebuild your gut microbiome and reintroduce foods one at a time.

[Windappreciator]

I am sorry for that and the bad treatment of your doc. I hope you get better over time.

Edited June 6, 2021 by Windappreciator

[machiavelli]

@Leo Gura My gastroentrologist dont know about SIBO. All they do is prescribe drugs to treat symptoms instead of root cause. He is giving me PPI to lower stomach acid and avoid bloating. It helps alot. But not completely. I still feel bloating during eating anything. 

Doctors has ruined my health. First they put me on harsh stimulant laxative for 5 years straight which messed by bowels . After lot of struggle and pain I weaned off stimulant laxatives and is on mild laxatives now. 

10 years back I went to GI for constipation issue for the first in my life. Before it I had completely normal bowel movement. No matter what I had eat I enjoyed normal bowel movement . But the doc put me on stimulant without resorting to milder laxatives first. And ruined my digestive system. I mean how can doctors do that. How can they give such a harsh laxatives daily to a teenager.

I weaned off it now. 

My problem is my new GI doctors dont know what is SIBO . Even my ayurvedic doctors didnt said anything about SIBO. My ayurvedic practioner prescribed me bunch if anti acidity herbal medicines which partially helped.

So I went back to my GI who again put me on PPI.

I am depressed due to it. Doctors dont know what to fix. All they say every test result is coming back normal .

All they do is treat symptoms. 

There is no FUNCTIONAL doctor in India. 

Edited June 6, 2021 by machiavelli

[Girzo]

@machiavelli I live in Poland, Europe and have been to a few gastroenterologists and all of them knew what SIBO is and tested patients for it routinely. They also prescribe PPI for every condition, though, haha.

I am unsure if what you have is sibo, but it's weird you have never been tested for it specifically. 

[machiavelli]

@Girzo Will probiotic cure it?

I have been on long term ppi therapy for my indigestion and bloating issues. Without ppi I cant eat properly. And I am very underweight and need to put on weight. 

I have to eat caloric dense food. And all high caloric food give me stomach discomfort. 

Its a real struggle.

I dont want to self treat myself by taking antibiotics myself without consulting GI. 

I feel what if I do more harm than good. What if this not SIBO?

 

 

[Girzo]

@machiavelli Oh no, don't try to treat it solo until you have a solid diagnosis. It might be anything and not SIBO.

I have never gotten to get a diagnosis for my digestive problems because they have cured themselves after 6 months of being there and one month of using PPI. But I feel your pain. All the tests I have done prior to its healing itself were negative.

[Leo Gura]

Most doctors are idiots. Surprise! Welcome to life.

Stop expecting anyone to heal you but yourself. Take extreme ownership over your health.

Heal your SIBO yourself. You got a brain. Use it. Do the research, read all the books, find your own cure.

I linked you a resource with basically all the answers. But are you smart enough to use it?

It's time to stop playing games and get serious.

[machiavelli]

7 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Most doctors are idiots. Surprise! Welcome to life.

Stop expecting anyone to heal you but yourself. Take extreme ownership over your health.

Heal your SIBO yourself. You got a brain. Use it. Do the research, read all the books, find your own cure.

I linked you a resource with basically all the answers. But are you smart enough to use it?

It's time to stop playing games and get serious.

@Leo Gura Should I have to stop taking ppi ? Bec I cant stop it now because it gives rebound acid hyper secretion. It is called rebound effect where acid levels rose to 10x the normal baseline levels for months. 

So stopping is impossible right now.

Also my indigestion and bloating gets severe without ppi.

You didnt mentioned whether my conditioned which showed on endocopy lax las and pan gastritis is bec Gerd or SIBO?

Do SIBO cause Gastritis?

Will taking few weeks of antibiotic will also kill good bacteria in my colon? 

 

 

 

[tatsumaru]

Hey @machiavelli, I am a nutritionist with deep knowledge of gut health and I've healed myself successfully from terrible gut problems including bloating.

A probiotic is very unlikely to cure it, and might actually cause more harm. Bloating issues can have very complex and resistant causes. It can be SIBO/SIFO/LIBO/LIFO/IBD/IBS/H.Pylori etc.

I don't want to scare you but I am extremely concerned about the fact that you've been taking PPIs long-term. PPIs were originally designed for short-term treatment of reflux disease and have been known to dramatically worsen gut health if taken long-term. PPI's are drugs that can actually cause SIBO by reducing stomach acid to the point where pathogenic microbes survive the trip through the stomach and take up shop in the small intestine. This can turn a small heartburn problem into a major SIBO problem (or worse).

Quote

From: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20060064/

SIBO was detected in 50% of patients using PPIs, 24.5% of patients with IBS, and 6% of healthy control subjects; there was a statistically significant difference between patients using PPIs and those with IBS or healthy control subjects (P < .001). The prevalence of SIBO increased after 1 year of treatment with PPI. The eradication rate of SIBO was 87% in the PPI group and 91% in the IBS group.

You will also be much more susceptible to food-borne illnesses and major pathogens like c.diff and h.pylori while on PPIs and other antacids. PPI use can lead to magnesium, calcium, iron, zinc and vitamin B12 deficiency. They can also lead to depression, IBS, and more (possibly due to these vitamin/mineral deficiencies). Research also shows that PPI's can lead to a dangerous overgrowth of intestinal Clostridia bacteria.

Quote

From: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24012413/

The duration of PPI therapy is significantly associated with CDI. Clinicians should strongly consider restricting PPI use given the short exposure time associated with this increased risk.

Quote

From: https://gut.bmj.com/content/65/5/740.full

The differences between PPI users and non-users observed in this study are consistently associated with changes towards a less healthy gut microbiome. These differences are in line with known changes that predispose to C. difficile infections and can potentially explain the increased risk of enteric infections in PPI users. On a population level, the effects of PPI are more prominent than the effects of antibiotics or other commonly used drugs.

Proton Pump Inhibitors were approved by the FDA to be taken for no more than 12 weeks. However, doctors have discretion over how to prescribe already approved drugs, and many doctors leave people on PPIs forever!

Long-term PPI use is also correlated with gastritis, ulcer and stomach cancer. PPIs are not your friends in the long-term and as usual our misguided medical system is causing more harm than good. Most doctors do not know much about actual gut health and will not be able to help you.

For starters understand that the majority of the bloating is probably caused by pathogenic bacteria which is fermenting the carbs in your diet and as a result producing various types of gas. Therefore the first thing you should consider is dramatically decreasing the amount of carbs in your diet, especially starchy carbs such as potatoes, rice, bananas but really you should start by minimizing all carbs including wheat and corn. This should ease your suffering a bit although it's not going to solve it, it will simply remove the pathogenic bacteria's favorite fuel from your system, but it's a great start. If this works for you consider asking your doctor to completely go off of the PPIs for the reasons I stated above.

Even though the situation may seem dire people have fully recovered from worse as long as they were approaching the problem the right way. You will have to educate yourself on gut health and your best starting point is John Herron's Book "The Gut Health Protocol". It's not an easy read, but your alternative is to keep allowing misguided doctors to hurt you with their ignorance.

Important: After you read the book you will realize that reflux disease isn't caused by too much acid, but by too little. What ends up happening is that due to not producing enough stomach acid in the first place, various pathogenic microbes including h.pylori overgrow in your stomach and when you eat carbs they produce a lot of gas which elevates the little acid you are producing up towards your esophagus. As a result you feel like you are overfilled with acid but actually you have too little and that's why these microbes are thriving down where the acid is most needed and they are pushing it away. PPIs make this situation significantly worse as they remove the little acid you've left and help even more microbes take home in your stomach. You actually need more acid not less, however you need it where the microbes are, not up in your esophagus where it's causing damage. You might actually have to supplement stomach acid (aka HCL) to solve this. However the first thing you should try is to remove the carbs from your diet as I said previously. As an experiment try eating a meal that consists of meat only (maybe just a steak, nothing else). If the bloating is much less then it's very likely that the situation is exactly as I am describing it. If that works, keep the low-carb diet and gradually wean yourself off of PPIs (with the help of your doctor).

Alternatively you could work with a gut health coach. John Brisson of Fix Your Gut is quite good in my opinion.

Let me know if you have any questions I'd be glad to answer any.

Edited June 6, 2021 by tatsumaru

[Leo Gura]

46 minutes ago, machiavelli said:

@Leo Gura Should I have to stop taking ppi ? Bec I cant stop it now because it gives rebound acid hyper secretion. It is called rebound effect where acid levels rose to 10x the normal baseline levels for months. 

So stopping is impossible right now.

Also my indigestion and bloating gets severe without ppi.

You didnt mentioned whether my conditioned which showed on endocopy lax las and pan gastritis is bec Gerd or SIBO?

Do SIBO cause Gastritis?

Will taking few weeks of antibiotic will also kill good bacteria in my colon? 

Look man, I am not your doctor. You must research and test all those factors.

You may not even have SIBO, you must test for it.

Gut problems can be very complex with many different factors. I was just giving you some basic pointers. It's up to you to do the research and find solutions that work on your gut.

Antibiotics will nuke all bacteria, good and bad alike. But your gut sounds already screwed up so you got little to lose.

If you have bad bacteria overgrowth it absolutely needs to be killed off. And don't feed it with probiotics until you kill it off.

It's also possible you got parasites or H Pylori. That also needs to be killed off.

[machiavelli]

1 hour ago, tatsumaru said:

 

For starters understand that the majority of the bloating is probably caused by pathogenic bacteria which is fermenting the carbs in your diet and as a result producing various types of gas. Therefore the first thing you should consider is dramatically decreasing the amount of carbs in your diet, especially starchy carbs such as potatoes, rice, bananas but really you should start by minimizing all carbs including wheat and corn. This should ease your suffering a bit although it's not going to solve it, it will simply remove the pathogenic bacteria's favorite fuel from your system, but it's a great start. If this works for you consider asking your doctor to completely go off of the PPIs for the reasons I stated above.

 

 

I have upper stomach bloating just by eating something. How come my stomach suddenly bloats by eating few bites of food. Isnt it too much acid in stomach rather than low acid that produce sudden gas? Low stomach acid will not produce immediate gas while eating. How do you explain this?

 When we have higher than normal acid level even the water will bloat you. 

Please clarify this. 

1. Why do ppi work in relieving symptoms if it is low stomach acid problem in first place?

2. I feel better on ppi . My bloating get reduced. How do you explain this?  Ironically ppi should lower acid levels which are already low. But taking ppi reduced bloating how?

3. How common is SIBO prevelant among people?

 

 

 

[tatsumaru]

13 minutes ago, machiavelli said:

I have upper stomach bloating just by eating something. How come my stomach suddenly bloats by eating few bites of food. Isnt it too much acid in stomach rather than low acid that produce sudden gas? Low stomach acid will not produce immediate gas while eating. How do you explain this?

 When we have higher than normal acid level even the water will bloat you. 

Please clarify this. 

1. Why do ppi work in relieving symptoms if it is low stomach acid problem in first place?

2. I feel better on ppi . My bloating get reduced. How do you explain this?  Ironically ppi should lower acid levels which are already low. But taking ppi reduced bloating how?

3. How common is SIBO prevelant among people?

 

In case you don't know this already - relieving symptoms and curing diseases isn't the same thing. When your foot is broken and you get morphine to dull the pain does that make your foot whole again? PPIs work in the same way. They suppress all the acid you are producing and that's why you don't feel the reflux burn. However the pathogenic microbes increase more and more because your primary defense against foodborne microbes (STOMACH ACID) gets disabled. Coincidentally the action of PPIs on H.Pylori is not related to its ability to suppress acid production. Instead PPIs inhibit the ability of H.Pylori to produce urease, which is what H.Pylori is using to produce ammonia in order to raise the pH of the stomach (pathogens thrive in alkaline environments) which is why PPIs are used in the classic triple-therapy (PPI + 2 antibiotics) when treating H.Pylori.

Now, I am going to share with you a few resources regarding your gut health problems that you need to read in order to educate yourself so that you can heal yourself and ask better questions. Right now the questions you are asking aren't good and as a result we are wasting time explaining the super basics when there are already books that have this information. It is very likely that by reading these resources you will actually get all the answers to your questions and you will be able to heal yourself. If you are not willing to commit to educating yourself then you aren't really serious about healing yourself.

Read this book to understand how stomach acid works:
Why stomach acid is good for you - Jonathan Wright : https://www.amazon.com/Why-Stomach-Acid-Good-You/dp/0871319314/

Read this book to understand how digestion works:
Digestive Wellness 5th edition - Elizabeth Lipski: https://www.amazon.com/Digestive-Wellness-Strengthen-Prevent-Digestion/dp/126001939X/

Read this book to understand how to identify and address gut diseases (includes information about SIBO/SIFO/IBS/IBD/H.Pylori and why PPIs ruin your health):
The Gut Health Protocol - John Herron: https://www.amazon.com/Gut-Health-Protocol-Nutritional-Intestinal-ebook/dp/B00VCP5PKW/

Read this book to learn how to eat a healthful low-carb diet:
The Keto Reset Diet - Mark Sisson: https://www.amazon.com/Keto-Reset-Diet-Metabolism-Forever-ebook/dp/B06Y56VD6P/

Bonus:
This book might be helpful for bloating but I've not read it:
The Bloated Belly Whisperer - Tamara Freuman: https://www.amazon.com/Bloated-Belly-Whisperer-Digestive-Distress-ebook/dp/B07CWS59NK/

Do not waste time begging people on the forum to be your doctor. I've already given you everything you need to solve this. Now it's up to you sit down and educate yourself. If you don't want to educate yourself, then check out John Brisson's gut health coaching service. If you don't want to do that either and you want to get different results by continuing to the same, no one can help you.

After you read the books, if you still have questions I will be glad to help, but not if you are lazy.

Good luck!

[Harikrishnan]

 

 

[machiavelli]

@tatsumaru Thanks for helping out.  I will read the above mentioned information. 

Can I contact you for further help? 

[tatsumaru]

10 minutes ago, machiavelli said:

@tatsumaru Thanks for helping out.  I will read the above mentioned information. 

Can I contact you for further help? 

Yes, feel free to contact me, but first read the resources so that you can ask better questions. All of your basic questions that you can think of right now and more are already answered there.

[machiavelli]

@Harikrishnan How can I test for SIBO in INDIA? I spent 10 years going to several doctors which keep on prescribing medicines without having a clue what is happening . 

Most of doctors here dont know much about SIBO. And I even dont know where to test for it as hydrogen / methane breath test is not available in my city as far as I know. Not sure about Delhi too.

[tatsumaru]

25 minutes ago, machiavelli said:

@Harikrishnan How can I test for SIBO in INDIA? I spent 10 years going to several doctors which keep on prescribing medicines without having a clue what is happening . 

Most of doctors here dont know much about SIBO. And I even dont know where to test for it as hydrogen / methane breath test is not available in my city as far as I know. Not sure about Delhi too.

Best way is to search for the labs in your city or nearby city, go to their website or call them and see if they offer these tests. Then go to them and do the tests yourself. You might not be able to test. I live in a country where a test isn't offered and so I cured myself without testing. It's better to test in order to be sure what you have, but it's not the end of the world if you can't test because a lot of the things you are going to learn about gut health help with almost all gut problems.

[machiavelli]

@tatsumaru Where do you live man?

[tatsumaru]

5 minutes ago, machiavelli said:

@tatsumaru Where do you live man?

It doesn't matter. It's not in India. It's yet another country where doctors don't know anything and only cause harm to patients. Generally speaking doctors are worthless for chronic health issues almost everywhere. I used to think they were great but realized most of them are idiot sociopaths. Your health has to be your responsibility. It's not an easy journey but it's the truth for this society.

No matter how dire the situation is you can cure yourself 100%.

Edited June 6, 2021 by tatsumaru