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A market to push SSRI/SNRIs–IBS or irritable bowel syndrome
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Giannakali:
I think this is good advice. I have had IBS for 10 years and wondered about the advantages of probiotics, even used some for a while – not regularly enough. I was wondering where you got your info for about malabsorption causing mental health problems. I am on SSRI’s right now and am intersted finding about more about the IBS-mental link. Very interesting and helpful I appreciate your devotion to help others.
mike too sick to really help right now…read my about page…all the info is there…sorry I can’t direct you to specific posts or books right now.
Vinil,
I actually give a lot of direction in this very post! did you even read it??
I have been having IBS from last 5 months which I strongly believe due to side effects of medication called Isotetroin I was given for 40 days.
I am trying everything from Homeopathy to Aurved to Yoga. Nothing seems to be working.
I get incomplete evacuation and pass 2 bowels a day. Lots of rumbling sounds in stomach and have muscle twitching all over my body.
Any advice to cure my IBS
yes, do a search for probiotcs on this site (use the search box top right and also the category box down towards the bottom of the page.
I healed my IBS with probiotics and enzymes AND a strict diet…also do a search for ELIMINATION DIET…you need to figure out if you’re sensitive to certain foods…
IBS can be healed naturally in most cases…but you need to do the right stuff…
after reading the stuff here you might want to consult a naturopathic doc or a integrative doc…I found traditional gastro docs useless…totally!
So, I need some advice on something..i know you aren’t gastroenterologists or anything, but hear me out (hopefully there are a few chemistry majors in here will explain later).
After reading this blog something occured to me about my wife’s recent symptoms (sp?) (which I just chalked it up to be IBS, now I am not entirely sure) which I will explain. As of two weeks ago, she has had an enormous amount of stress on her shoulders. She is BPD and takes SSRIs for quite some time. A while back she had her gall bladder removed and after that the above started happening (abdom cramps/diarr after eating spicy foods,etc).
To understand this better let me tell you that she is extremely lactose intolerant. Recently her doctor prescribed her something called perphenazine, because the highest dosage she was taking on her main drug wasnt working for her as well as it used to. As of 2 weeks ago, she has had extremely bad cramping in the stomach, which followed with either diarreah, or loose stools. I felt very helpless and didnt want to think it was c or IBS.
I was reading about perphenizine tonight and came across an interesting discovery, that might be coincidental but I dont know..
People who are not lactose tolerant may suffer uncomfortable and/or socially unacceptable symptoms of too much lactose consumption. In these people, lactose is not broken down and provides food for gas-producing gut flora. This can lead to bloating, flatulence, and other gastrointestinal symptoms, now let us look at the perphenazine.
Main drug:
Inactive ingredients are povidone, dibasic dicalcium phosphate dihydrate, microcrystalline cellulose, sodium starch glycolate, [lactose (monohydrate)], magnesium stearate, hypromellose, polyethylene glycol and titanium dioxide
Perphenazine – C21H26CIN3OS.
inactive ingreds are [lactose (monohydrate)], hydroxypropyl cellulose, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, etc
anyone catch my drift? or am I just plain nuts.
no…you’re not nuts at all…I’m quite sure you hit the nail on the head…advocate for your wife if she won’t do it herself and ask her doc to take her off the drug. Sounds like your wife has a caring husband…hope you guys find yourselves through this maze okay.
well, yes, there is a spectrum of possibilities….some people actually experience no withdrawal symptoms at all…
Cold Turkey is not recommended.
However, after I watched some youtube videos showing some woman going off of Paxil slowly, I decided to get it over with quickly.
well….2 weeks of hell is 2 weeks of hell and I have no intention of minimizing your misery…
But at the same time some people have months and months of hell getting off paxil and some people years…
but yeah, you certainly got a good taste of the horrible shit it does.
actually if everyone could get away with what you did, cold turkey would make sense….but for many it leads to months of disability…
anyway…again, good for you!!
glad it’s out of your system.
I was having serious stomach problems, so I went to my Medical Dr.
I told her I though I was overmedicated (psych drugs).
She perscribed me a bill for IBS.
I stopped taking Paxil.
As soon as I stopped taking Paxil my IBS was cured!
Sometimes when our body gets sick it is a warning sign, it was for me.
thanks Felice for sharing that story…
you’re very lucky the Paxil was not a nightmare to get off of…it is for so many people…
good for you for finding something that worked for you.
LOL, it was a total nightmare to get off of!
I was sick for two weeks straight!
I had “Brain Zaps” (it felt like someone was zapping my brain with electricity.)
It was like having a bad case of the flu also.
I went Cold Turkey off of the Paxil.
After two weeks I felt great!
Anti-depressants for IBS? This just makes me sick and is such an outrage. I’ve read articles on studies done on the gut and SSRIs, and it’s believed that SSRIs have actually caused upper GI bleeding! And now they’re recommending them for IBS! Absolutely sickening. Wish I could remember where I found the articles I read on this research – they were excellent.
As always, thanks for keeping us updated on these things, Gianna.
This is by far the most frighting information I’ve read in awhile. Doctors always diagnose stomach problems as being IBS. It’s easier than doing all the trail and error a doctor may have to go through to figure out the real problem. I was diagnosed with IBS for severe stomach cramps, I’ve come to realize, on my own, that artificial food additives were causing the majority of my problems. Doctors never even asked about my diet, just based on my symptoms concluded I had to have IBS. Just another indication of the drug companies taking advantage of a diagnoses that is thrown out there way to frequently, and then claiming there’s a quick fix by taking a pill. IBS actually requires a great deal of research and diet control on the part of the patient. Why is this allowed to continue? I’m sure if I went back into any doctors office right now, and explained my upset stomach to them they would claim I have IBS, when in fact it’s withdrawal form these horrible antidepressants! God help us!
This reminds me of the tragic story of thalidomide – the rehabilitation of another monster drug..
Thalidomide was originally used in the treatment of morning sickness – nausea during pregnancy. I’ve yet to become pregnant, but I’m told the nausea is certainly unpleasant, but fortunately transient and definitely not life-threatening.
The manufacturers of thalidomide cooked the results of the original safety trials. By hook or by crook they were determined to get their drug on the market without delay so they could reap the enormous profits from its sales.
Consequently, thalidomide was never properly tested before the crooked fools in government licensed it for use. The drug was soon being prescribed to millions of pregnant women. It was a “wonder drug” of its time.
Nine months or so after the drug’s launch, and the reports started flooding in.. It was becoming clear that this wonderful new drug was causing a plague of the most appalling birth defects. Thousands and thousands of babies were being born with shortened or missing arms and legs..
Medicine immediately wrote off the thalidomide babies. “Don’t worry”, said the pompous nerds in medicine.. “these creatures won’t live long.. besides, they are mentally retarded any way, so don’t even realise their plight.”
As ever, how very wrong medicine was… One of my first teachers – perhaps my very favourite teacher – had no arms thanks to thalidomide. I guess she was in her 40s and anything but retarded. In fact, she managed to be a great teacher in a dreadful school in the arse end of London! No mean feat!
Initially Big Pharma washed its hands of the thalidomide scandal.. “Nothing to do with us.. No plague.. Just coincidence. Don’t blame us.. Not our fault.. it’s down to the mothers – they were pre-disposed to giving birth to deformed babies…”
Eventually, as the public anger grew louder, Big Pharma was forced to pull thalidomide, the “wonder drug”, from the market. But not before many many thousands of babies were delivered into this world without arms, or legs, or both.
That was the 1960s.. Wind forward to recent years and I open up the Sunday newspaper.. There’s a story in the colour supplement featuring Prince Charles (eugh!).
“His Royal Highness” had just given an Export Award to some tiny drug manufacturer hidden up the Welsh valleys.
Yawn…
So what drug are they making, I casually wonder. Yup, unbelievably, it is Thalidomide! This monster drug has been resurrected for the treatment of AIDS-related diarrhoea!!
“It’s a very effective treatment.. it would be wrong to deny patients the chance to benefit from it”, the grinning drug rep tells the newspaper….
Riiiiiiight..
And what about the risk of birth defects, asks the newspaper?
“Oh, that’s no problem”, grins the Pharma goon, “we include a warning leaflet in with our pills. It reads: “Don’t get pregnant while taking this drug..”
Riiiiiiiiiight.
The story continues on the next page… and this is when my blood really starts to boil…
The shitty little drug company making the thalidomide is exporting its poisonous pills to Ibero-America.
Literacy rates there can be very low, and it is common for poor people to share their medicines amongst friends and family, without realising the risks involved..
If you can’t read, you won’t know what the warning leaflet has to say about the drug and pregnancy..
And yup.. reports of thalidomide birth defects were already rolling in… And what does the Award-winning drug company have to say?
“Nothing to do with us.. Not our fault.. it’s down to the mothers…”
I found you through Anonymous Drifter tonight.
I have a mental health blog, as well: http://stigma-busters.blogspot.com.
Great post, Gianna. I’ve had IBS for many years now, and been on all kinds of psychiatric meds, including SSRIs, for depression etc., and the meds have NEVER improved the IBS. They may have in fact made it worse. My IBS is ALWAYS worse during hospitalizations, too. I know my IBS triggers and manage to control it well with metamucil.
nice to see you here Wandering Coyote…I’ve seen you around…must go check your blog…
yeah, it seems that study is full of crap (pun intended!!!)
I struggled with digestive issues for “only” one decade. 😉
I sought out from MDs like gasteroenterologists and allergist. Then I turned to alternative docs and expensive tests, etc. Then I modified my diet to eliminate foods that damaged my gut.
In 2006, I ended up coming across the book, Gut and Psychology Syndrome. WOW! I was blown away at the info!
I was so fascinated with the material, I became a Certified Body Ecologist. Also, I was priveledged to help organize two conferences in the US to have the author, Dr. Natasha Campell-McBride, come and speak (she is from the UK).
I setup this website to help her sell the book in the US, since this information is needed sooooo much her in the states.
http://www.GutAndPsychologySyndrome.com/
Great post! I as having many psychiatric diagnosis, I also have stomach problems that might be diagnosed as IBS.
When young, my mother cooked meals for me. She could not conceive of the idea of a food , pasta, being bad for my health.
Stomach upset was blamed on a virus/flu or “Stress”, the same stress that antidepressants can be issued for.
It really was the food.
I NOW don’t eat whole wheat products and my stomach works pretty good. There is no test for food allergies per-se, ( like an easy quick lab test) you have to be intelligent to figure out the “feeling bad” that can come from foods you eat.
Liz Spikol, posted the opposite side of this arguement, pesticide phobia, where people so worried about pesticides do not eat enough food and get anorexic.
http://trouble.pwblogs.com/2009/02/26/orthorexia-an-obsession-with-health-food/
thanks for that link Mark,
I think this culture eats way too much crap and walking a fine line with kids would be very hard…especially if your kid is sensitive to foods and chemicals and some of the most delicate of us are…
so it’s a difficult thing I’m glad I don’t have to tackle.
one must eat well to have good mental health and in general I’m sure psych med use would be greatly minimized if the population started eating whole food.
I never liked junk food even as a kid—at least I didn’t crave it because my parents gave me good food for the most part, though I’ve gotten much stricter to maintain my health now…
Laura: be sure, it won’t be too long!
Duane: you’re a true hero, and your son is too.
Oh god!
I cannot believe this…SSRIs did very little for me… the one BIG thing it did do was give me diarrhea – sick to my stomach.
Do you just get the feeling they will say anything in order to get more medication out the door?
BTW – off topic – Listened to you on the radio show, quite good!
V
He was brave enough to make his story known around the world on Bloomberg….
Scared how others might view him, and/or think of his ‘bipolar’ diagnosis, but he did it anyway….
Very proud of him….
You’re exactly right….first comes the SSRI, then the manic episode, then the ‘bipolar’ diagnois…..
Again, and again, and again….
Horribly sad,
Duane
China, India….
Sadly, there is so much poverty in these places….
Ironically, we have the wealth to invest in their forms of medicine, and yet we are so guided by profit-motives, we won’t spend the time/money to study them….implement them….
Ironically, it would be a good thing to learn from these poorer nations, and find ways to make sure people have access to these ancient medicines – around the world.
Perfect-world scenario stuff.
Duane
Our son was diagnosed with irritable bowel, and we were told it was due to ‘anxiety’ – He was placed on Paxil for IBS….
This led to a manic episode, and later diagnosis of ‘bipolar’….
that’s exactly the nightmare scenario I was envisioning and it’s already happened to you!!
I did not know the genesis of your son’s story…so glad you supported my almost last statement:
Especially an antidepressant which has some chance of making you suicidal or manic even if you’ve never had either of those symptoms which will most likely lead your doctor to conclude you’re mentally ill.
and as some of us know, Duane, saved his son from a fate many of us have not avoided. He took his son off drugs and found healthy alternatives and his son is wonderfully healthy and happy and ready to go off to college!!!
too many of us know what happens when we buy into that “bipolar” diagnosis caused by the SSRI…
Gianna,
Our son was diagnosed with irritable bowel, and we were told it was due to ‘anxiety’ – He was placed on Paxil for IBS….
This led to a manic episode, and later diagnosis of ‘bipolar’….
That’s the problem with using these SSRI’s for IBS….
Also, I agree – this is happening with all kinds of meds…being prescribed for all kinds of things for which they’re initial approval was not designed….
Dr. Mercola says that only 1/3 of ‘new’ drugs are ‘new’….2/3 are re-treads….they bring out last year’s model to treat illness a, and slightly alter it to treat illness b….
What a joke…We have the worst medicine in the world, I’m becoming more and more convinced….
China – Acupuncture….India….Ayurvedic…..
Lots of countries run circles around us!
Duane
Duane, you should make sure your child’s diagnosis gets changed to Bipolar 3, so at least the doctors will know it was their fault.
Primal Defense is not the only good probiotic out there…I am simply not familiar with another one I can say delivers…
how about on gluten free websites? they must recommend products, no?
there must be support groups for natural healing among the gluten free that can help?
This was really, really a thorough and hopeful counterpoint to the IBS new market new. Well said, Gianna. I only wish Primal Defense could certify they were gluten free.
Dear Gianna,
Great post, and I feel like beating my head against the wall reading it.
Not because of your excellent content, but because any lay person with a smattering of education in natural health could have saved you years of suffering.
WHEN will those MDs learn to respect the living miracle of the human body, with its inner ecosystem?
I have nothing against the proper, careful use of antibiotics. But why are MDs still not recommending probiotics, automatically, right along with the prescription?
You keep going girl.
I’m surprised they’re not prescribing anti-depressants for the common cold … sheesh