Dr Leyton:Six years ago I had a bad bout of diarrhea after having a barium enema and sigmoid colonoscopy. I was diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome.

One doctor advised me to take Metamucil. I took it twice a day for six years and it worked beautifully. Now it has stopped working.

I’ve had diarrhea for the last two months and I’m waiting to have another colonoscopy. I have tried everything! I’ve given up coffee, tea, meat, salads, white flour and wheat, sugar and dairy products. I eat rice, rice cakes, baked potatoes, squash and baked fish. I make my own vegetable juice and eat pears, apples and cantaloupe.

I’m 67 years old and live in a small town with one health food store. I hope you can help.
AD

There are many causes for persistent diarrhea (loose and frequent stool). Some are benign and some are due to serious disease. At your age, a full investigation for underlying disease is essential, including the colonoscopy. If your tests turn out to be negative and you’re told that this is irritable bowel there are a number of actions you can take. Since Metamucil helped you before, it’s likely that a high fibre diet may help you again. You can get psyllium or flax seeds in the health food store and a tablespoon of either one per day may quiet things down and bulk up your stool. Build up gradually to that dose over three to four days. Grind the flax seeds fresh each day.

You could have an overgrowth of yeast or some parasites--your doctor can check for the latter with a stool test. Common parasites that make irritable bowel symptoms worse are Dientamoeba fragilis. Yeast can sometimes be eliminated by using two to six drops of grapefruit seed extract three times daily. In addition take a good quality Lactobacillus acidophilus product--these are the friendly bacteria residing in bowel that can be overgrown by parasites or yeast. Take one teaspoon or two to three capsules three times a day.

Be aware of what precipitates your symptoms--diarrhea due to irritable bowel can be brought on by stress, anxiety, too much fruit (especially fruit juices), corn, beef, eggs, pork, dairy products and of course the usual processed foods with high sugar content. Your diet sounds like it’s fairly good-- congratulations! Although wheat may precipitate diarrhea in susceptible individuals, once your symptoms are under control try adding it back to see if you can tolerate it. Calcium and magnesium can relax the muscles in irritable bowel disorders, so you might want to consider a combined supplement of both minerals. Spearmint tea can also be helpful in relieving the symptoms of irritable bowel.

Dear Dr Leyton:
I have a low thyroid problem. My organs have been weakened, I am weak and dizzy, have terrible water retention and have gained between 70 and 80 pounds in a short period of time. Sometimes I can hardly breathe. I puff when I do the least bit of exercise.

I’m violently allergic to drugs and antibiotics. Are there any natural remedies I can take to get my thyroid gland healthy again and get rid of my horrible water retention?

I’m taking four kelp capsules, two calcium tablets, two acidophilus capsules, B6 tablets and two garlic tablets a day. I hope you can help.
RD

Fluid retention can be a problem for people with low thyroid, but it can also be due to many other things. If your thyroid is low, you should be supplementing with a thyroid replacement that you can tolerate. Many of the synthetic thyroid medications only contain T4 (T4 is thyroxine--the hormone produced by the thyroid gland)--when often people need T3 (T3 is tri-iothyrodine, the active hormone synthesized from T4 inside the cell) as well. It’s actually T3 that regulates the changes in metabolic rate through the thyroid gland. T3 can be promoted in the body by taking extra zinc (20 mg/day), copper (2 mg/day) and selenium (50 mcg/day).

Written requests for advice must contain your age, gender, height and weight and a good description of your present problem; any past medical problems and treatments; a list of drugs and supplements you are taking and any recent blood or other test results.

Address letters to the medical advisor, 7436 Fraser Park Drive, Burnaby, BC, V5J 5B9. Please include a cheque or postal money order for $20 made out to Canadian Health Reform Products Ltd. Expect six to eight weeks for a reply.

Dr Edward Leyton has practised complementary and alternative medicine in Kingston, Ontario for over 22 years. He is also a member of the Canadian Complementary Medical Association.

Source: alive #224, June 2001

Calm Your Irritable Bowel
You're only minutes away from your business presentation and your nervous butterflies have changed into those horribly familiar cramping pains in your abdomen.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a disorder of the large intestine that's characterized by abdominal pain, constipation or diarrhea, flatulence, nausea and varying degrees of anxiety or depression. IBS has been referred to in the past as nervous indigestion, spastic colitis, mucous colitis and intestinal neurosis..

Avoiding Adrenal Exhaustion
Driven to be superwoman at home and on the job, you can overtax your hormones and eventually suffer burnout. But there is hope and hel.

Irritable Bowel-Irritable Person
What is it? Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a "functional bowel disorder. Unlike inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis), which may have similar symptoms, when IBS patients are, probed, scoped, and X-rayed, nothing appears abnormal about the structure of the digestive tract.

A Symbiotic Relationship
The body's gastrointestinal tract or gut is central to maintaining health as it is this set of organs that digests food to properly nourish the body. Good digestion requires normal flora (good bacteria) and a healthy pH balance in the gut.

Natural Thyroid Health
If you wake up in the morning complaining that you are as tired as when you went to sleep, if you've gained weight you find impossible to lose, if your hair is falling out...

Irritable Bowel Syndrome Support
In Canada, six million people suffer from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and currently its symptoms are second only to the common cold as the most frequent cause of absenteeism from work and school. IBS is commonly characterized by abdominal pain and altered bowel function such as constipation and diarrhea. Some people have mild symptoms, while others have chronic, disabling symptoms.

Ease Knee Pain Through Movement

Exercise Improves Quality of Life for IBS Sufferers

Working Out at Work

Understanding Bowel Disorders
Apparently mother was right about that apple a day. For good and ill, what we eat and how we live are central to the onset and control of irritable bowel syndrome and diverticulosis.