Bowel Probs

Mark2Bikes

Not pleasant reading - but after many months of bowel problems (bloating, constipation, wind etc) which wakes me up in the night I had a colonoscopy - given the all clear, but problems still there.
Have tried all the usual exclusions (wheat, yeast, milk, red meat, alcohol, tea, coffee, sugar) with no affect. Before you ask I eat plenty of fruit and veg' - probably more like 7 - 10 a day, not 5 and drink plenty of fluids.
So rather than continuing to bark up the diet tree, could it be due to the bent over position during cycling - a physical compression of the bowel maybe - or perhaps over development of certain muscles used in cycling!!??? I hope not!

Any ideas?

simon_says

Sorry to refer to diet but I suggest you have a look at how much and what kinds of fibre you are taking. Too much of a good thing (veg) can be a bad thing as you can end up over-shortening stool transit time and the tail end of your GI tract will feel hyperactive, shall we say. On top of all that veg you're probably also having a lot of cereal and whole grains, again packed with fibre.

Fibre is a good friend for everyone and especially the "dieter", its energy reveals itself in bomb calorimeters (as calories) and it can make us feel full (satiety) yet we don't digest it so it doesn't contribute to our energy balance.

Irritable bowel syndrome is something which is very common but your physician will doubtless have considered that possibility carefully. Bristol stool charts are something you may want to have a look at on the internet, it provides a first order understanding of "what it means" to pass a stool "this composition" and "this colour" etc. Don't think of it as gruesome or embarrassing, animals analyse what they pass all the time with great success and to be frank it's humans and this somewhat complacent feeling of being at the top of the food chain complemented by embarrassment of nature that makes us miss out on these fundamentals.

Apologies for straying away at the end there, here's the abstract version;

No I don't think it's posture during cycling, it could be fibre, IBS, insufficient intake of lipids, overtraining or something else. Have a bit of a think and of course consult an expert if problems persist.

stratcat

I had probs in that area, more from piles than anything else ( so probably not the same). I too had a colonoscopy and was given an all clear (quite fascinating watching your insides, even though it's a bit uncomfortable!)

I was eating loads of fruit as well.
With me it was a lack of fibre. A big bowl of porridge every morning sorted me out.

Old Tuggo

I am belching frequently whist riding the bike but never off it. Also I am always constipated on the Monday following a long Sunday ride. Fortunately these problems are fairly minor but they do indicate that cycling does affect the workings of the bowel.

alfablue

The constipation could indicate you are getting dehydrated.

simon_says

stratcat wrote:

With me it was a lack of fibre. A big bowl of porridge every morning sorted me out.

Interesting. I find the correlation between exacting physical exertion and fibre consumption to be one of the most under-emphasized aspects of sports science, in the media at least let's say. Without being too nosey can I ask if your doctor gave you a suggested daily consumption of fibre? 24g probably but I was wondering if your doctor compensated for the training you were doing or provided any general advice.

Most people tend to fall short of their targets for fibre uptake hence the problem more often than not is not enough dietary fibre.

Mark2Bikes

Thanks for the bowel interest!
Yes I tried porridge - every day for at least a month - same old same old.
Fibre, I don't think so, being overactive on the home grown veg front we have (organic) veg coming out of our ears in this house! Eating pretty much the same as rest of family and they are just fine.
Stool transit certainly isn't short - just before a race (triathlons) the nerves sends me several times to the loo and 2 - 3 days worth comes out!!!
Dehydration - could be - will aim to drink more even though I drink plenty. I am back on the tea and coffe now, but 1 or two a day rather than several.
Doctor - rubbish. Maybe I've got a duff one, but doesn't even consider training levels. Put me on 'Fibogel' (Psyllum husk stuff) to no affect. Finally (after about 6 months) I went private for colonoscopy. Plenty of pethadin so I didn't get a look at my insides! All clear byt a 'polyp' was removed - quite common I'm told - though I don't remember swallowing any coral!
Used to suffer from Piles years ago (now 45) but training (I do triathlons) seems to have cleared that up completely - or could it be the high fibre diet and less booze?

IBS has been suggested, but I think it is just a 'catch all' phrase used by medical proffession meaning they don't know what the problem is exactly (the doctor said as much). If it's irritable then something must be irritating it - surely. Stress has been suggested, but don;t feel stressed - except for the stress of not knowing what is wrong with my insides!
Lipids - Very interesting - just back from 10 days in France, went from 11st 10 to 12st 4, ate loads of soft cheese, ham, fresh fruit, beer, no wholemeal bread or bran - drank plenty of wine, continued to cycle and run and must say feel a bit better for it!
Have pretty much stopped using energy drinks as well - can't be good for you really and what cave man had access to SIS anyway.

Captain Fagor

Mark2Bikes wrote:

Any ideas?

Do you have much stress in your life?

Blonde

I had a lot of trouble with bread and with some wheat based food generally (but especially bread) and although my stomach and other health problems were ultimately stress related I still avoid bread and pasta most of the time now and I'd never eat bread before/during a ride now. Greatly reducing my previous over reliance on bread really seems to have cured the problem. Too much fruit can also give you wind and painful stomach cramps and ferment in the gut. Fruit is very acidic as well as sugary so it's not that surprising. I used to drink fresh (homemade) fruit smoothies every day (like, an entire food processor jug-full) but the nutritionist suggested that this wasn't helping and could in fact be making things worse. Lower sugar, lower acid foods and a deliberate reduction of the amount of fruit I eat (particularly on cycling days) has really helped calm my stomach. As some kind of "insurance" I also take a "good bacteria" supplement daily (not a weak yogurt drink, but a proper high dose supplement that has several millions of Acidophilus bacteria in it). I too no longer use carb drink for cycling - they really make my stomach bad. I just use Nuun electrolytes (no sugar/calories/carbs) and I'm very choosy about which energy bars, and how many, I use, as most make me ill. Hope you too can get to the bottom (sorry!) of your troubles. You may find it needs a two pronged approach - stress reduction as well as diet alteration.

NWLondoner

You have my sympathy.

I suffer from chronic IBS and it is not pleasant.

Have to near starve myself everyday just to be able to manage to go out to work. Then when I do eat on my days off it is like suffering with 48 hour stomach bugs rolled into a 12 hour period :shock:


Doctors don't give a sh*t and dieticians give advice that is completely useless.

I managed to work out a diet that works but you try doing a 130k ride on just a bowel of all bran and energy gels :?

ut_och_cykla

NWLondoner wrote:

YSNIPbut you try doing a 130k ride on just a bowel of all bran and energy gels :?

I'm sure bowl of bran is what you mean - good freudian slip tho! Hope all sufferers find help - too much fruit and full corn products can cause a lot of problems. water soluble fibre tends to be easier on the guts - peeled fruit, oats, well cooked veggies etc. You miss out on some vitamins perhaps but yoou're probably already losing a lot due to bouts of diarhea (sp?)

Mark2Bikes

Thanks Again,
There are so many contradictions it's hard to choose the right path - just lots of trial and error. I too have really cut down on bread from maybe 1/2 a loaf a day several months ago to a couple of slices now. Maybe helps a bit but still have bad days. Also try to replace carbs with protein - again the 'cave man diet' may only have been 20% calories or less from carbs. But then again maybe cave men had IBS too!! Not too many giant ground sloths, bison, cave bears, mammoths around so hard to do a proper cave man diet.
Did a 50 mile ride yesterday (with about 2,000m climbing and 1,200 Kcal used) and sure enough constipated today. Drank so much before and during the ride had to stop 4 times for a pee! Ate a banana and a go bar during ride. Will keep on trying to figure it out,
Cheers.

markjohnson-coaching

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ut_och_cykla

Mark2Bikes wrote:

Thanks Again,
There are so many contradictions it's hard to choose the right path - just lots of trial and error. I too have really cut down on bread from maybe 1/2 a loaf a day several months ago to a couple of slices now. Maybe helps a bit but still have bad days. Also try to replace carbs with protein - again the 'cave man diet' may only have been 20% calories or less from carbs. But then again maybe cave men had IBS too!! Not too many giant ground sloths, bison, cave bears, mammoths around so hard to do a proper cave man diet.
Did a 50 mile ride yesterday (with about 2,000m climbing and 1,200 Kcal used) and sure enough constipated today. Drank so much before and during the ride had to stop 4 times for a pee! Ate a banana and a go bar during ride. Will keep on trying to figure it out,
Cheers.

Just wondering about your definition of constipated. If you are eating easily digested foods including lots of protein there won't be much errrm pooh. if you eat lots of fullgrain bread/fruit/veg etc there is a lot of cellulose that doesn't get broken down fully and leaves the body as excrement - but if youre not doing this there won't be much. Constipation has a medical definition - it isnt just passing a normal stool less often - some people just dont'go' that often, others do.