Bloated intestine/colon (desperate!)

Hi.
I'm a thin(ning) guy at 35 years of age. My large intestine feels and looks bloated, swollen and gassy. Now the situation is not extreme, I can for sure pull my stomach in and everything looks flat and dandy, but if I relax the muscles involved...yeah you guessed right, I look somewhat pregnant which looks odd on me since I am 1) a man and 2) thin.

I very rarely so far have stomach pains (maybe once per year for a few day) but more commonly my large intestine area feels bloated.
A couple of years ago I had terrible pains for 5 days and didn't eat anything during this period (just water) and my stomach went down in size, frankly I couldn't even get my stomach out even if I tried, it was perfectly flat...but when I start eating foods..

I also feel that my stool consistency is irregular and I don't empty as frequent as I wish even though I can go twice a day. My posture is not top notch and I think I might slowly start develop haemorrhoids. I don't eat a lot of vegetables or fruits but I drink plenty of water.

What can I do and what could it be due to?
All help is very appreciated!!

JeetKuneDo wrote:Hi.
I'm a thin(ning) guy at 35 years of age. My large intestine feels and looks bloated, swollen and gassy. Now the situation is not extreme, I can for sure pull my stomach in and everything looks flat and dandy, but if I relax the muscles involved...yeah you guessed right, I look somewhat pregnant which looks odd on me since I am 1) a man and 2) thin.

I very rarely so far have stomach pains (maybe once per year for a few day) but more commonly my large intestine area feels bloated.
A couple of years ago I had terrible pains for 5 days and didn't eat anything during this period (just water) and my stomach went down in size, frankly I couldn't even get my stomach out even if I tried, it was perfectly flat...but when I start eating foods..

I also feel that my stool consistency is irregular and I don't empty as frequent as I wish even though I can go twice a day. My posture is not top notch and I think I might slowly start develop haemorrhoids. I don't eat a lot of vegetables or fruits but I drink plenty of water.

What can I do and what could it be due to?
All help is very appreciated!!

Your symptoms are consistent with SIBO (small intestine bacterial overgrowth), a very common gut issue.   I'd recommend reading:
http://digestivehealthinstitute.org/2012/08/17/sibo-diet-and-digestive-health/
You may want to look into his Fast Tract Diet book.

I suspect I've had this myself for some time, although I never had bloating.  My issues were more sinus-related.  I'm doing a lot of juicing and
general cleansing, and I've added glutamine and colostrum, as they're good for gut healing and colostrum is antibacterial among many other benefits.

Thread in which a woman relates how her husband overcame SIBO with colostrum/glutamine combo: http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=63400

Thank you for your info, I will look into SIBO more in depth and maybe seek professional testing.
I also have quite a lot of gas, so probiotica is a must have for me!

Are you taking any antidepressants?
Are you taking probiotics?
This can also be a parasitic infection.

Would also suggest you consider SIBO. There are some simple tests that can detect this problem.

There are protocols involving antibiotics that are effective, however, if you want to avoid that route, I'd look into a couple of things:

(1) Take a digestive aid with meals. Betaine HCL and an ezyme/bile salt.
(2) Take a period where you eat more of the "elemental" diet. This involves eating quickly digestible foods that are absorbed quickly, and won't make it to the distal gut where they can feed the bacteria. I believe a good part of it is liquids. Think of a shake containing protein and simple carbohydrate  and marginal levels of fat. Avoiding meals with a lot of fiber, complex carb, and high fat content (temporarily). Controlling bacteria ecologically is safer than eradication.

Besides this, changing the fatty acid makeup of the diet can help. Taking certain combinations such as colostrum with lactoferrin and butyric acid can also help. Also, it would be key to attempt to introduce a more diverse range of bacteria which would compete, such as by eating garden vegetables with only a slight wash so that you can get some soil organisms. Just an example.

Besides this, I would be looking at food allergy/sensitivity. Wheat. Dairy. Or corn being the major offenders in most cases.

People who are high in histamine can also suffer from this condition and taking DAO enzyme with meals can counter it.

The only other possibility I might suggest would be hiatal hernia, which can cause too much air to enter the GI tract. Aerophagia. Although traditionally,
aerophagia has more to do with excessive swallowing of air due to improper breathing. But hiatal hernia sort of increases the "communication" between the esophagus and the stomach. If you are suffering from bouts of indigestion/reflux pretty often, this might be a more likely cause.

So for me, the order of likelihood would be:

1) SIBO
2) Food Sensitivity/Intolerance
3) Histamine overproduction or under-metabolism
4) Hiatal Hernia

SIBO was my diagnosis also as I posted above. Food sensitivity and histamine intolerance are usually the result of SIBO and leaky gut. Most of us
have leaky guts to some degree due to antibiotics etc. Colostrum can heal that, along with the other measures you suggest.
http://www.clinicaleducation.org/resources/reviews/colostrum-meets-the-microbiome-a-tried-and-true-remedy-for-gut-health-takes-center-stage/

I did consume antibiotics and cortisone drops for some issues like 7 years ago but it made me very tired so I stopped and the body healed.
After this chemical route though I think something happened that affected my stomach in a bad way...probably this is when the gut dysbiosis was born.

angstman ::
No such medication no.
Ive tried it on and off but I will stick to it this time and also add colostrum and l-glutamine.

Thanks Gates and Delphine!

Have you tried going on a paleo diet?

I would highly recommend against a paleo diet.

Gates wrote:I would highly recommend against a paleo diet.

Why's that? It seems to be helping with my hair and weight since cutting the grains and dairy.

Bayman,

My bad. I should have been more specific instead of just saying avoid paleo. There are certain *attributes* about paleo I do not like. But paleo has more than one feature. The idea of cutting out grains and dairy is good. What I don't like is the general tendency to go very low carb on paleo.

Take Bio-Kult capsules, had same bloated feeling and these worked for me

I also notice that I recently get (temporary) heavily bloated right after ejaculation, weird isn't it?

Bio-kult looks interesting, not due to the amount (2 bill/cap) which is not that high, but due to the live bacteria diversity.

Gates wrote:Bayman,

My bad. I should have been more specific instead of just saying avoid paleo. There are certain *attributes* about paleo I do not like. But paleo has more than one feature. The idea of cutting out grains and dairy is good. What I don't like is the general tendency to go very low carb on paleo.

Right on. Low carb diet will worsen hair loss for anybody. I have seen guys that are on ketogenic diet going bald very very quickly.