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Hello! My Stomach Has Been Bothering Me A Lot. When
Question: Hello! My stomach has been bothering me a lot. When I eat sometimes my stomach is good and other times I eat and get diarrhea shortly there after. It can sometimes be over the littlest thing (coffee, a candy, water, cheese), not sure what brings it on??? I have suffered from irritable bowel in the past, but lately seems to be much worse and sometimes on a daily basis. I was taking pro biotics before which seemed to help and don't know if I should go back to this or what is going on. Scared to eat anything.
Brief Answer:
You should go back to probiotics, some other helpful measures explained below
Detailed Answer:
Hello and welcome to "Ask a Doctor" service,
I carefully read your query and understand your concern.
Diarrhea after food may happen for many reasons. IBS (Irritable bowels syndrome) may predispose patients to diarrhea after food. Also, certain food intolerances such as lactose or gluten intolerance.
To help with the symptoms I would advise you to:
- continue to take probiotics as these help with the bacterial flora of the bowel and thus improve the digestion and absorption of food.
- yogurt may be another good source of fermenting bacteria that may help with digestion
- try to avoid milk for a while and see if the symptoms are better. You can still get yogurt and cheese regularly
- try to avoid very sweet food as sometimes the bowel may struggle to digest food high in sugar and thus cause diarrhea
- eat frequent small amounts of food. You have eat 5 small meals a day instead of 2-3 large ones as large meals may provoke the bowel motility and cause diarrhea
- try to pay attention to the food that makes you worse and try to avoid them
- if you still have the symptoms even though you have tried the above measures for a few weeks, maybe gluten intolerance should be considered. Also, some tests would be indicated in this case such as: blood test for gluten intolerance, stool test for ova and parasites, stool antigen for giardia, stool test for the amount of fat, stool microscopy, etc.
I hope this is helpful and answers your query.
I remain at your disposal in case further assistance is needed.
Regards,
Dr. Antoneta Zotaj
General and Family Physician
You should go back to probiotics, some other helpful measures explained below
Detailed Answer:
Hello and welcome to "Ask a Doctor" service,
I carefully read your query and understand your concern.
Diarrhea after food may happen for many reasons. IBS (Irritable bowels syndrome) may predispose patients to diarrhea after food. Also, certain food intolerances such as lactose or gluten intolerance.
To help with the symptoms I would advise you to:
- continue to take probiotics as these help with the bacterial flora of the bowel and thus improve the digestion and absorption of food.
- yogurt may be another good source of fermenting bacteria that may help with digestion
- try to avoid milk for a while and see if the symptoms are better. You can still get yogurt and cheese regularly
- try to avoid very sweet food as sometimes the bowel may struggle to digest food high in sugar and thus cause diarrhea
- eat frequent small amounts of food. You have eat 5 small meals a day instead of 2-3 large ones as large meals may provoke the bowel motility and cause diarrhea
- try to pay attention to the food that makes you worse and try to avoid them
- if you still have the symptoms even though you have tried the above measures for a few weeks, maybe gluten intolerance should be considered. Also, some tests would be indicated in this case such as: blood test for gluten intolerance, stool test for ova and parasites, stool antigen for giardia, stool test for the amount of fat, stool microscopy, etc.
I hope this is helpful and answers your query.
I remain at your disposal in case further assistance is needed.
Regards,
Dr. Antoneta Zotaj
General and Family Physician
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Prasad
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