For those with IBS, what changes did you make to improve your quality of life?

I will also mention FODMAP. I eat most home cooking and I just could not pinpoint specific triggers until I tried this elimination diet, turns out that onion and garlic are major triggers for me and they were included in almost all of meals, along with some other veggies. After slowly reintroducing foods I can tolerate some shallots and garlic powder in small quantities and I can decide for myself when I'm ok with eating riskier foods. It's not a complete cure, and sometimes I still have surprise issues but it's helped immensely with what used to be daily pain for me.

I have Crohn's, so a little different experience and YMMV. Before getting on my current medication, I tried all the diets. I have seen anecdotal evidence that dietary changes can help manage symptoms, but in my case nothing worked once I was in a flare. Consistent medication to get my flares under control has been the only thing that works.

But I do have some advice based on my experience:

1. Install a bidet on every toilet you can. They are relatively cheap, and they make such a big difference in quality of life. You don't even need a fancy one. Warm water bidets are nice, but I installed all cold water ones in my new house (don't have hot water nearby the toilets), and I have been totally fine with it.

2. Carry flushable wipes anywhere where bidets aren't an option. Self explanatory, but easy to forget.

3. Manage stress and sleep. These seem to be much bigger contributors to my flares than food, surprisingly.

4. Try to avoid antibiotics, and when that's not possible make sure to follow up any rounds of antibiotics with probiotics to replenish gut bacteria. I usually discuss antibiotic use with my gastroenterologist, and get him to prescribe me some high quality probiotics (the ones that need refrigeration).

Eliminating potential triggers and seeing how your body reacts is usually the way to go. It will take time and it requires paying attention to what you eat and how your body feels. There are different 'methods' such as the elimination diet or the FODMAP diet. If your family member has any food allergies or is underweight they should definitely speak to their doctor first before making any drastic changes to their diet. Sometimes it's not even necessarily food - if I drink a couple of cold glasses of water, especially on an empty stomach, I'm in trouble. It took a while to figure out and I only made the connection when I started paying attention. Good luck, IBS sucks!

Strictly following a low FODMAP diet has given me a new lease on life. My IBS was so bad I was spending literally hours in the bathroom every day for almost a decade. Every activity I did had to be meticulously planned to ensure I knew where restrooms would be at all times. It basically consumed every aspect of my life.

With the low FODMAP diet, I have 1 regular bowel movement every day and only have IBS systems when I have a cold/virus coming on. It's been basically a miracle. It did take about 3 months of adhering to the diet for things to settle down and for me to notice a difference. Since then, I've very slowly reintroduced things into my diet.

In addition to the low FODMAP, I also avoid fatty foods, especially since I had my gallbladder removed. I've seen some people here recommending fiber. For me, insoluble fiber makes my symptoms significantly worse. I do take Citrucel, which is 100% soluble fiber, and that has also helped to event things out. Finally, I don't drink any caffeine, as it both irritates my stomach, but also causes some acid reflux.

Obviously, I'd like to be able to eat whatever I'd like, but the freedom from the IBS and the acid reflux has been so life changing I really don't mind the sacrifice.

Just taking fiber pills properly in my case. I buy them at costco, and take 8 a day (4 in the morning 4 in the evening which is in the middle of the recommended amount).

After almost 2 years of medicine, tests, and procedures, it was all I really needed. We had written it off originally because I think some other health issues were causing problems then so it didn't look like it did anything, and because I wasn't taking as much (just 2 in the morning and evening) nor taking them consistently.

After jumping through all the hoops and resolving some other issues, I figured it wouldn't hurt to try again and it basically 90% of it up.

I assume if you've got a diagnosis you've already gone this path, but it's worth mentioning in the off chance like me it winds up solving so much.

I'll second utilizing tools like FODMAP to isolate triggers is a great start. Increased fiber intake helps. I don't see much mention of medication so I'll list several that really helped me:

Pepto (bismuth subsalicylate) - it relieves discomfort associated with heartburn, indigestion, diarrhea, etc.

Pepcid (famotidine) - an antacid that works by decreasing stomach acid production. Avoid using them consistently, and talk to a GP if one does, proton pump inhibitors can reduce certain vitamin intake as I recall.

Imodium (loperamide) - antidiarrheal, more or less halts activity down there if things have gone quite sour.

Lactaid (lactase enzyme) - breaks down lactose from dairy products. Best taken before consuming dairy, I try avoid dairy to begin with, but keep it on hand if I've accidentally eaten dairy.

Prevention is the best medicine, figure out sensitivities and try to avoid trigger foods rather than rely on these, but they're handy to have.

I was diagnosed with Crohns disease, but it's been in remission for years now (replaced by rheumatoid arthritis 🙄). Related to that I had IBS problems and my doc told me to test out different diets.

So, I experimented two years with food (basically trying to eliminate all possible triggers). At some point I landed on a pretty restrictive (mostly FODMAP) diet where I only ate a few different vegetables (plus chicken) that I felt were ok for my digestion. I did that for a few months, and that really helped longterm, so that I could slowly add more and more different foods again.

I still have/had to avoid some types of groceries (e.g. beans/cabbage, sugar/sweets, fatty/oily stuff), but I have diverse enough choices and can eat quite varied again.

Recently I have discovered psyllium husk (two teaspoons, one in the morning, one in the evening, with lots of water) and that's really great for my digestion. I'm now slowly testing more and more 'problematic' food again, and so far it works out great. IBS is mostly gone these days, I just have to be a bit careful.

I have IBS tied into depression and anxiety, struggled with it for years. Unrelated, I had a kidney stone, which was enough to make me finally stop with the Diet Dr. Pepper (I was drinking a LOT). Now I only drink seltzer water, and I drink 60-80 ounces a day. If I want caffeine, I take caffeine/L-theanine capsules, but my caffeine intake is way down. After making this change, I feel a lot better in general, and the IBS symptoms are gone 99% of the time

I logged in to comment on this. I've been dealing with my own IBS journey for about five years now. The start of my problems I've linked to a trifecta of enourmous life stress, a medication that seriously irritated my gut lining, and a concurrent stomach flu with fever - I've never been the same since. Sadly, my primary symptom is a reaction to dairy protein. Everyone in my life is convinced that I'm the lactose intollerent guy but my response to dairy, even lactose free varieties, is skin rashes and extreme dehydration without much accompanying fecal problems. So, definitely not lactose intollerence.

Funny enough, a lot of work into trying to correct my problem did help but what really helped was a major coincidence. I had a recurrent case of strep and was given a strong antibiotic, a month after taking it I was 70% back to normal and can even tolerate a little dairy now and then.

IBS is unfortunately and umbrella term used by the medical community to mean, "we don't know." That's why you see people with IBS whose food triggers are radically different or sometimes even shifting. Some people need more fiber, some need to avoid it (me), some can't eat greasy food anymore, etc. Anyone with new IBS will need to start paying attention to what they're eating and find what doesn't sit well with them. As far as treatment goes, that's also not well defined. What works for one might not work for another and what works for some time might eventually not.

I can say though that the common thread among all IBS sufferers seems to be stress and exercise. Whatever new healthy coping mechagnisms for stress that can be cultivated should be the primary focus and getting some more exercise, which also helps regulate stress, will help a lot too.

Knew somebody who went hardcore gluten free and it was life changing for them. It was that simple, but it takes discipline to make that adjustment.

No onions ever, Since I personally feel like onions taste like sweaty gym socks I'm not even mad.

A few other people have mentioned fiber being all they needed - for me, that was a part of it. I used to get 2-3 sinus infections a year that were bad enough to require antibiotics. So when you do that for 10 years, you're basically nuking your gut biome. For me what I've come to realize now that I no longer have any symptoms was that having a messed up gut biome from antibiotics, combined with not enough fiber, was what pushed me into diagnosable IBS territory. Eventually I started taking daily probiotics, for a couple of years, and mixing in some things that were fermented (like kambucha). And I had sinus surgery, so eventually stopped needing antibiotics as often. Eventually I got to a point where I was super regular, no longer having any IBS symptoms, and didn't need to take probiotics anymore to maintain it. I still occasionally augment with fiber, but - I think for me it was a gut biome problem that I was able to fix over a long period of time. Good luck!

Might get yelled at for this (ya never know on the Internet).

I haven't been diagnosed with IBS but my doctor says I might have it cause I definitely have a lot of symptoms. Regardless.

Going mostly plant based alleviated almost all my issues. And talking to one of my friends with actual IBS. They said it helped them significantly when they went vegetarian and even more when they went vegan.