Dr Steve
07-10-2008, 12:46 PM
i don't know if this is related but i noticed that when i have raw tomatoes or chunky pasta sauce, within 45 minutes i am in the bathroom. it doesn't happen with ketchup (catsup) or processed tomato sauce (prego, francesco rinaldi, etc). depending on the amount of tomato that enters the system, the bathroom gets a workout up to 3 days. i've been to 2 g.p.s and a gastro (who gave me a scope for another reason) and all they told me was it could be an allergy and to avoid raw tomatoes. what do you think, dr steve?
for awhile, if I drank any kind of red wine, I'd get screaming abdominal cramps that would only subside if I completely emptied my bowels of the raw sewage therein contained. That went away. Subsequently, a bunch of us noticed that if we ate at the local Japanese restaurant, the "shrimp sauce" (that is totally as American as apple pie) would have the same effect. We all called it "Fuji House Enema", respectfully naming the syndrome after the aforementioned eatery. That too, eventually went away.
My advice on this is to follow your gastro's advice; the old joke goes "Doc! It hurts when I do THIS!" "So don't do that!" Well, calling it a "joke" is a stretch, but you get the point. The good news is, whatever is causing this may be a temporary thing, as mine was.
If you want to try a thing or two, you could take a BEANO tablet just prior to eating tomatoes and see if it still happens. If it doesn't, there's a sugar in the tomatoes that your body can't digest but the beano can. (Beano is just an enzyme tablet that helps to "crack" undigestible sugars to keep them out of the hands of pesky bacteria in your blood stream).
The most consistent treatment for irritable bowel syndrome is CITRUCEL...it's methylcellulose and sold as a laxative, but it's really a normalizer of bowel function. It's the perfect fiber supplement as it's not digested by anything in our bodies so it causes NO gas or bloating. Methylcellulose is also the same stuff they made slime out of for Ghostbusters II, so you can have fun with it in between doses.
Hope this helps!
As always, check any advice out with your regular doctor. :wink:
for awhile, if I drank any kind of red wine, I'd get screaming abdominal cramps that would only subside if I completely emptied my bowels of the raw sewage therein contained. That went away. Subsequently, a bunch of us noticed that if we ate at the local Japanese restaurant, the "shrimp sauce" (that is totally as American as apple pie) would have the same effect. We all called it "Fuji House Enema", respectfully naming the syndrome after the aforementioned eatery. That too, eventually went away.
My advice on this is to follow your gastro's advice; the old joke goes "Doc! It hurts when I do THIS!" "So don't do that!" Well, calling it a "joke" is a stretch, but you get the point. The good news is, whatever is causing this may be a temporary thing, as mine was.
If you want to try a thing or two, you could take a BEANO tablet just prior to eating tomatoes and see if it still happens. If it doesn't, there's a sugar in the tomatoes that your body can't digest but the beano can. (Beano is just an enzyme tablet that helps to "crack" undigestible sugars to keep them out of the hands of pesky bacteria in your blood stream).
The most consistent treatment for irritable bowel syndrome is CITRUCEL...it's methylcellulose and sold as a laxative, but it's really a normalizer of bowel function. It's the perfect fiber supplement as it's not digested by anything in our bodies so it causes NO gas or bloating. Methylcellulose is also the same stuff they made slime out of for Ghostbusters II, so you can have fun with it in between doses.
Hope this helps!
As always, check any advice out with your regular doctor. :wink: