IBS terribly underweight

Before being diagnosed & was going 6-8 times a day & lost 50 lbs.I had to learn how to eat different for me.No greasy foods,corn,gassy foods.Eventually I was able to eat corn again but the rest I leave alone.........I'm doing very well now as long as I watch what I eat........

Howdy,

A good diet is certainly a must. It can be supplemented by dietary supplements and additions of Vitamins and Miners through IV. If that still doesn't compensate for the weight loss, there is always medication.

Don't know anything about the breath though.

Keep us posted.

Bad bacteria problems are often associated with bad gas AND bad breath (and oftentimes diarrhea)--especially a yeast infection (which can happen anywhere in the GI tract; it's not just a woman's problem). I can tell from your post you're not in the U.S. I don't know the availability in other countries, but here we have access to a breathalyzer test. A GI doctor will have you breathe into a machine and it can tell by the gasses you expel if you have something in your guts causing gases to come out that shouldn't be coming out. The doctor can then prescribe the appropriate course of antibiotics to try and wipe the bad bacteria out.

If you can't get that kind of test, or can't find a doctor willing to work on that premise, you can try taking probiotics, which are good bacteria. They are not nearly as effective at combating bad bacteria as antibiotics, but taken in large doses for a long time, they can sometimes successfully crowd out the bad bacteria and get it back in check. Probiotics are over-the-counter, don't interact with any other medicines, and their only side effect is gas, which usually goes away after you take them for a week or two.

The other thing you should be tested for is Celiac's disease. Celiac's is an allergy to gluten. Food allergies of any kind are prone to causing gas and are sometimes associated with weight loss (because you stop absorbing food properly). Celiac's is becoming more common, and is often the first thing doctors look for. But if that comes up negative, you might also look at dairy products, fish, and nuts. And, I should warn you, food allergy tests aren't totally accurate, so you might get a false negative. You might want to try eliminating things from your diet on your own and seeing if you notice any improvement. Even if your test comes back negative for an allergy, if you find eliminating something takes care of your problem, then go with it; either your test was wrong or you have a non-allergic reaction to food which is still just as bad as having a real allergy.

If either of those things are your problem, then treating them should take care of your gas and bad breath problem, not to mention you should then be able to regain weight normally, simply because your guts will be funtioning correctly again.