My IBS Cure

I wouldn't really say that I'm "cured," but I will share with you, as I promised yesterday, the little regimen that has changed my life in the last few weeks.

I'll start by saying that I am not good at remembering to take medication.  I am particularly good at forgetting to take medicine that tastes bad.  :-)  Yes, I've even forgotten many, many days to take my prenatal vitamins when I was pregnant, and almost never took them while nursing.  However, I was/am tired of being a slave to this illness!  Secondly, my initial IBS symptoms appeared when I was experiencing extreme stress and anxiety, and is almost always worst when I am nervous, and I often get anxious/nervous about being sick, so it's really an ugly cycle.

I'm not saying this will cure everyone, or even anyone else but me.  However, if you are suffering from IBS-D and you know that anxiety is one of your major triggers, it may help.  So, here are the things that I am doing:

The "meds":

• Sustenex (probiotic)
• St. John's Wort (2 capsules/day)
• Prenatal Vitamin
• B-Complex Vitamin (this is the yucky tasting one!)

The non-meds:

• Walking almost every single evening with my husband and kids.  Most nights it's about a mile.
• Avoiding a lot of greasy foods.  I still eat some occasionally, but it's really not worth the pain.

The results:

I did this for one week inconsistently (the forgetting to take pills thing) and two weeks infallably, and for the last two weeks have not had any attacks.  I had not been two weeks without an attack for the last two years!