IBS and Yeast Free Diets

by Pat
(Oklahoma)

Hi. About 6 weeks ago, woke up feeling great. Did my yoga, had a breakfast of 2 scrambled eggs with cheese. About 3 hours later...started feeling bad. No appetite. The next morning I had diarrhea for 4 days. Went to the doc, gave me antibiotics for 10 days. Started to feel better but then started with non-formed stool with some undigested food in it. My belly hurt really badly! I could feel my intestines moving in my belly. My stools turned yellow, with rectal burning, loose stools with belly pain. No appetite...started dropping weight. 6 weeks later, dropped 10 lbs (117 lbs at 5 ft 7 in). Went to the ER, the put me on Flagyl for parasites. I started feeling a little better but appetite still down, intense burning sensation across upper abdomen. Finally I got in to see a GI doc. GI doc did an EGD and colonoscopy. EGD showed yeast infection in my entire esophogus with grade 2 esophagitis. Stomach ok and colon normal. Felt much better after I had done the bowel prep. Started on 1week of Diflucan for the yeast infection. Appetite came back and I started following a yeast free diet. I am starving! I eat every 2-3 hours. Am having a hard time gaining wt (it has only been one week). I get up every morning and have 3-4 large soft stools (very large)...I feel like my intestines have been dumped every morning. Haven't see any undigested food the past few a.m.s. I started on Heather's fiber yesterday. Don't feel as bloated today but concerned about getting the weight back and maintaining what I have. I have started taking probiotics too. I need help. I still feel like I am starving! Just cannot seem to get enough food even though I am eating every 2-3 hrs. I’m having a hard time maintaining my weight because I have so many stools in the a.m. Any thoughts about what I can do while following a low yeast/sugar diet and gain weight...I cannot find any products out there that are safe for me to eat. GI doc said I have IBS....HELP! I’m shrinking away without any help from the medical world.

Help For Your IBS and Yeast Free Diet

Your description certainly fits with post-infectious Irritable Bowel Syndrome. However, another possibility is small bowel bacterial overgrowth (SBBO) where the small bowels bacterial composition is disturbed due to your recent infection and antibiotics. It is interesting that your symptoms did improve a bit with antibiotics and this is a treatment for SBBO! You might like to ask your GI doc about this as the treatment is usually pulsed antibiotics and probiotics.

IBS is also a likely diagnosis and as you mention, this is the diagnosis that your GI doc has given to your symptoms. I note you have been on a yeast free diet, but you shouldn’t be feeling hungry with this. Essentially you are avoiding sugars and carbohydrates, but there are plenty of foods that can help improve your satiety. You can eat as many vegetables as you like, although you are better off having the skins removed from vegetables such as potatoes (yes, you can have potatoes!!). You can eat meat and fish, rice, couscous and whole grains. You can supplement bread with rice cakes too and vegetable fats and oils are fine too. There are many supplements that you can take too and your local health food store will be able to help you with this. Yeast free diets are controversial, but certainly seem to work for some. You certainly shouldn’t be on this diet to the detriment of continuing weight loss.

If you continue to loose weight, you really need to be reassessed by your GI doc. There are many other small bowel conditions that can cause weight loss and these may need exploring. If your stools are yellow, this would suggest fat malabsorption in the small bowel and you can read more about this by going to Yellow Diarrhea.