Newly Diagnosed, Need Some Support!

[confusedl18]

Hi there, i'm new here and needed some support.

Here's my history, i'm 20, female, but for years i've been having problems with my stomach. Ever since I was anorexic about 4 years ago, i've had horrible bloating and gas and digestive problems. I did everything ,from going from one dietician and doctor, finding/trying medication and nothing really helped. I went on birth control pills the past year or so, and my problems have exacerbated. For years, we had thought i had IBS, but didn't know for sure what was wrong. I just went off of the pill becaause of a rare side effect, so not only are my hormones all over the place also! I have been seeing a naturopathic nutritionist since november and since december was placed on an elimination diet: no dairy, no wheat ( still could eat oatmeal and oats and spelt), no raw vegetables, no nuts not seeds no chocolate/sugar/sweetners/coffee/candy/alchohol, limit fruit intake... very very bland diet. I was on it for a while and it still wasn't working really. Until i went to a naturopathic doctor who found out all this: I am allergic/have intollerances to soy, milk, some cheeses, corn, all wheat and gluten, and am deficient in iron, calcium, estrogen/progestin are off and my livers all messed up. and I also have celiac. This was about 2 weeks ago.. She told me this avoid dairy except i could have plain yogurt; avoid all wheat/gluten, and that was it. I still dont feel any better. I still have bad stomach aches, as i'm writing to you, i'm sitting with a heating pad on because of the immense bloating and pain i'm in. I'm having an endoscopy and a colonoscopy on wednesday, but i am sort of fed up. I used to be very slim, but since i've been sick this past year, i've gained about 15 pounds. My questions are:

Should i totally eliminate the yogurt too, could this be making it worse? Also, i need breakfast ideas, i always seem to feel really bad/my symptoms are worse in the mornings (I've been having rice cakes and natural peanut/almond butter and i'm getting bloating and acid reflux and burping, but thats with everything i eat).

As well, I'm taking acidophilus on an empty stomach every morning, as my naturopath said, is that making anything worse? and taking l-glutamine afterwards, and then during breakfast taking 1tbsp flaxseed, b-vitamin and a clacium/iron supplement.

Any help would be great! If anyone has suggestion for how to deal with bloating, it would be very appreciated!

[gfpaperdoll]

I do not know about supplements so cannot comment on that.

I will say that if you want to be gluten free that you cannot eat oatmeal, spelt or any of that stuff. really at this time in your healing process you should not be eating any grains. It is just really easier to stick to the basics like baked chicken, cooked carrots, baked sweet potatoes, that type of thing, fish is good. Just eat meat, veggies, fruit & seafood & nuts if you can tolerate those. At 20 you should be healing up pretty fast...

& I do recommend dairy free at the same time & that would mean NO dairy not even yogurt...

& do not drink soy milk, you should not have soy either...

for breakfast I would eat the same things you eat for dinner...

[confusedl18]

I am totally Gluten free, sorry for the confusion.

I have been gluten free for the past 2 weeks, no grains ie only eating rice/brown rice/quinoa... Are you saying that maybe I should just skip all these and stick to only chicken/eggs/cooked veggies/fish/sweet potatoes and forgoe my almond butter/rice cakes/nuts and fruit for now??

I'm having a colonscopy and an upper GI in two days but afterwards I need to know what I should be trying to eat; maybe I've been eating things that are too hard on my stomach.

Also, I'm going to try to go yogurt free, i'm dairy free other than that anyways and i'm soy free, i have a soy intolerance/allergy anyways.

[Lux]

Hi there, i'm new here and needed some support.

Here's my history, i'm 20, female, but for years i've been having problems with my stomach. Ever since I was anorexic about 4 years ago, i've had horrible bloating and gas and digestive problems. I did everything ,from going from one dietician and doctor, finding/trying medication and nothing really helped. I went on birth control pills the past year or so, and my problems have exacerbated. For years, we had thought i had IBS, but didn't know for sure what was wrong. I just went off of the pill becaause of a rare side effect, so not only are my hormones all over the place also! I have been seeing a naturopathic nutritionist since november and since december was placed on an elimination diet: no dairy, no wheat ( still could eat oatmeal and oats and spelt), no raw vegetables, no nuts not seeds no chocolate/sugar/sweetners/coffee/candy/alchohol, limit fruit intake... very very bland diet. I was on it for a while and it still wasn't working really. Until i went to a naturopathic doctor who found out all this: I am allergic/have intollerances to soy, milk, some cheeses, corn, all wheat and gluten, and am deficient in iron, calcium, estrogen/progestin are off and my livers all messed up. and I also have celiac. This was about 2 weeks ago.. She told me this avoid dairy except i could have plain yogurt; avoid all wheat/gluten, and that was it. I still dont feel any better. I still have bad stomach aches, as i'm writing to you, i'm sitting with a heating pad on because of the immense bloating and pain i'm in. I'm having an endoscopy and a colonoscopy on wednesday, but i am sort of fed up. I used to be very slim, but since i've been sick this past year, i've gained about 15 pounds. My questions are:

Should i totally eliminate the yogurt too, could this be making it worse? Also, i need breakfast ideas, i always seem to feel really bad/my symptoms are worse in the mornings (I've been having rice cakes and natural peanut/almond butter and i'm getting bloating and acid reflux and burping, but thats with everything i eat).

As well, I'm taking acidophilus on an empty stomach every morning, as my naturopath said, is that making anything worse? and taking l-glutamine afterwards, and then during breakfast taking 1tbsp flaxseed, b-vitamin and a clacium/iron supplement.

Any help would be great! If anyone has suggestion for how to deal with bloating, it would be very appreciated!

Hi Love.

Gosh, I feel like I've found a kindred spirit here.

I, too, suffered with anorexia four years ago; since then, I have been experiencing chronic bloating/gastrointestinal probs. I have tried everything under the sun to treat the bloating; it is by far my worst symptom (accompanied with/perhaps caused by intestinal blockage). For years, I had taken my problems to be a direct result of the eating disorder - damage that I would have to live with for the rest of my life. I don't know why I made this assumption. Perhaps it is. But I never considered the notion that I might be able to manage it in any way - or that I should try to understand exactly what was going on with my body.

Recently, it got so bad (a result of chronic stress, I believe) that I finally managed to persuade a doctor that my problems were not merely psychological (related to the ana); she gave me a blood test and found me to be sensitive to both gluten and wheat.

Since going gluten free, I would experience days with absolutely no bloating. Granted, there was still mild discomfort - but the bloating virtually disappeared.

Then, recently, I accidentally ate some wheat (in a particular brand of rice crackers) and it came back with a vengeance.

As is common with recovering anorexics, I still possess fairly strange eating habits - "good" and "bad" foods have been categorized in my head in a pretty uncompromising way since I was about 18 (I am now 25). Yoghurt was one of my "good" foods. I am rather obsessed with it. I have, however, been advised to try and eliminate all dairy, as well as the wheat/gluten as it is said that the casein contained in the former can impact the healing process.

I'm not sure as to whether or not it has made a difference...but I am determined to stay as strict as I can for at least a year, in order to get the results I so badly need.

As for breakfast ideas - I eat a gluten/wheat free cereal (with soy milk) found in the "healthfood" section of the supermarket. It's relatively expensive, but I would definitely recommend it. For the bloating, I also drink pure fennel tea (it really does seem to help). If your bloating is C-related, be careful on ingesting too much fibre - I've found that this can make it far worse. In saying that, brown rice is pretty remarkable in aiding digestion.

O! Also - make sure you get lots of "good" fats and oils into your diet. I find that avocado/tuna helps (I usually eat this with rice, and for some reason it seems to settle my stomach when I'm having a particularly bad day).

Also? Please try to give it a bit of time. Don't be so hard on yourself. Gentle exercise (walking, yoga) tends to help me. As well as regular deep breathing and relaxation exercises.

Good luck to you honey. xo