July 7, 2007
Watermelon a Day Keeps IBS Away
More accurately, the right type of fruit each day keeps IBS away. I'm not much of a fruit and veggies eater but my week-long test of eating fruit every morning or evening (watermelon, papaya, banana, or just a mix) has been rather successful. I began by increasing my intake of water for three full days. I really didn't plan it that way, but with the recent heat wave, it's been a nice side effect of roasting in the heat. Then I started buying those instant fresh fruit cups at the local market that run $2.99-4.99 each. A pricey investment, but right now I'm barely getting off the couch much less sitting in the kitchen slicing fruit.
By the third day, I had some cramping but also had a movement that made me feel significantly better. The next four days after that, I had a movement per 1.5 days (yippee!) that was relatively painless. In fact, by the 6th day, my bowel movement had stopped ... stinking. I know. Weird. It had also started to discintegrate faster in the toilet bowl. Those of you without IBS will find me strange, but my fellow suffers know that a vigilant watch prior to flush can mean the difference between going to happy hour with my friends or an evening of reruns with my dog.
Anyhow, I was told by a doctor once that a healthy (poo) is marked by little odor and easily flushed. I hope this one psuedo-factoid is true and will mark off my little experiment as a success.
Posted by Christine on July 7, 2007 1:38 AM
Hi Christine,
I came across your blog and wanted to let you know about a product that could help relieve your IBS symptoms. It's a probiotic called Digestive Advantage Irritable Bowel Syndrome and I work for Ganeden Biotech, the company that makes Digestive Advantage. We hear from people all of the time how much this product has greatly improved their quality of life. If you'd be interested, I'd gladly send you a two-month supply to try and hopefully you would write about your successful results on your blog. Please let me know. Thanks - and here's to better digestive health.
Posted by: Gail at July 17, 2007 7:23 AM
My son has been diagnosed with IBS-D. We have tried the Digestive Advantage for IBS and it does work. He has to take 2 a day, also he is on digestive enzymes and calcium caltrate for the D which is helping a lot. I also got him on acacia fiber which does not cause much gas and is good for constipation too. Got that from http://www.helpforibs.com.
He is doing much better now but just a few weeks ago, he was losing lots of weight and pretty much could not eat most foods. Anyway, I can relate to what you are going through.
Posted by: palette48 at August 27, 2007 8:20 PM