Suspect Pepto Bismol may be a problem for me... maybe other

[sunny]

Reacted to the baby aspirin ( to replace coumadin) just as Tex said I would. I stopped that one.
I've been reading your book Tex & it is worth it's weight in gold!
I got to the section on supplements and so was inspired to read the labels on the ones I take... OMG!!
I looked at the generic Pepto Bismol label and it has Aspertame ( never used equal before) plus D & C red 27, dextrates, flavor (?), magnesium stearate, microcrystalline cellulose ( wood?) silicon dioxide. Don't have the regular one which I had been using so can't compare ingredients.
HMMMM... so I stopped that one too. I had 2 days of no D!! Yay! happy days!

Then it was back.... not so much happy days any more...
I then thought i'd try adding some rice to my broth diet... I discovered that broth may be problem too after reading the article on histamines posted from Peeling Back the Onion Layers ( or something like that) so looking for other foods to try. That seemed to settle OK. A friend who follows Weston Price said Quinoa would be even better and gentler on your gut.... OK! I'll try that.

Next day I was headed for a thyroid ultra scan to check on 3 nodules that everyone forgot about for 2 years , but the diarrhea started in the car ( GASP! OH NO!) and I spent the time in the bathroom at the hospital talking to nurse at Entero Labs whilst perched on the throne! Violent, unrelenting watery diarrhea filled with quinoa.... and more water and more quinoa..... and one more time for good measure! *Insert Bad word here...*

And then another bathroom free day... guess s there was nothing left in there so 24 hours of freedom was pretty nice.

And then this morning ,NORMAN! was back..... only to be followed by another shower after a huge blowout... maybe the rice cake with almond butter last night? Sigh I guess I am just making rookie mistakes...too much at once... I think I am still insure what to eat... I've done the broth for so long i am just stuck and to think it might be a problem also ... geesh! now I am really stuck... going to try just hamburger for lunch and dinner .... maybe some carrots....
I will not give up... I will not give up... I will ... not.... give.... up....
Sunny

[tex]

Hi Sunny,

I'm sorry that you're having such a tough time finding safe foods to eat. One thing to keep in mind is that some brands of quinoa are cross-contaminated with gluten, because farmers in some areas of South America mix it with barley or some other glutenous grain, in order to help it dry faster, and then they presumably try to separate the grains later. Always look for kosher quinoa — it will be gluten free.

Most of us can tolerate most nut butters, even if we cannot tolerate the nuts themselves. There are at least 2 of us though (Gloria and myself come to mind), who cannot tolerate any nut butters at all. The strange part is that we can both tolerate almond milk, even though we cannot tolerate any other form of almonds.

That said, your reaction after eating the rice cakes with almond butter may just have been a carryover from the quinoa reaction, because reactions to gluten sometimes take a while to settle down, and they can come and go for a week or so (or longer) until the antibodies begin to settle down again.

You can scroll down the page at the following link, to see the inactive ingredients used in the various versions of branded Pepto-Bismol. As you can see, different types of sweeteners are used in various versions. Most of them use saccharin, but a couple use mannitol (a sugar alcohol). Sugar alcohols are usually not as big a problem as saccharin for most of us, but many of us react to sugar alcohols if we are exposed to a significant dose. It's a shame that most medications (including prescription meds) tend to be made with ingredients that cause people who have food sensitivities to react. It just goes to show that the people who formulate most meds know virtually nothing about food sensitivities, because such ingredients are totally unnecessary for the efficacy of the medication itself.

http://chealth.canoe.ca/drug_info_detai ... me_id=5164

The interesting part is that the Pepto versions that contain saccharin also contain salicylic acid. NSAIDs are derived from salicylic acid, so it would seem that anyone who is sensitive to NSAIDs might also react to Pepto, if it contains salicylic acid. Research published years ago by Dr. Fine shows that most people who react to NSAIDs may also tend to react to mesalamine (the active ingredient in Asacol, Pentasa, Apriso, Lialda, Salofalk, Colazal, etc.), because mesalamine is also a derivative of salicylic acid.

If the food manufacturers and pharmaceutical manufacturers would just do their homework, it would be far, far, easier for us to develop a treatment plan that provided a smooth recovery. Instead, they provide a mine field that makes navigating our way back to good health sometimes seem like mission impossible. They make our job of figuring out a safe diet, and finding safe medications or supplements about a hundred times more difficult than it would have to be.

They force us to learn to be researchers and detectives with the patience of Job. Bless their greedy and ignorant hearts.

Tex

[Leah]

Sunny,I know figuring out this whole thing can be so hard and frustrating- especially when you have so few foods to eat. When you have a violent reaction like that, it is best to retreat to the few foods you know are ok for a least a few days…. or until you feel pretty stable again. THEN, try one new thing and try that new thing for about three days in a row before you deem it "safe". When I feel pretty good for a while, I STILL (after almost two years) try something I know I probably shouldn't or I eat too much of something and get a reaction that could last 2-3 weeks ! It's so frustrating.

Hope you get a handle on some for sure answers soon
Leah

[sunny]

Thanx Tex for your as always words of wisdom! I appreciate having that web site. Had I been able to know all this, I would have stayed away from Pepto all together...for so many reasons, kidneys, flavoring, food coloring, artificial sweeteners,etc.
So I take another step toward understanding what will work for me. I have been GF & Dairy free for almost 5 months and still symptomatic.
I think the wild card for me is the 4 months of Cdiff with one of the most virulent strains producing a higher rate of spores and more resistant to antibiotics... Then there is the damage done from Flagyl which is 90% Ineffective against the mildest pathogen, liquid & IV Vancomycin... All of this on top of MC.
So it may take longer to heal.

[sunny]

Leah, thanx for chiming in. The problem is I have NO foods to retreat to. After 4 months of Cdiff while GF, I have had constant explosive diarrhea, severe abdominal pain, and gas, but no clue what eat. My daughter has healed UC with the Gaps diet of bone broth and she is mostly symptom free ...after 9 months. But she is 44, while I am 74, with heart & kidney, & thyroid issues. My violent reactions have been long standing and unrelenting.
That said, thanks for a road map for that time when I do find an eating plan on how to then add foods. I am transitioning from the broth from every meal to one meal a day and see if that changes anything.

[wmonique2]

Sunny,

I am curious...why aren't you medicated with such violent symptoms? Shouldn't you be on budesonide or mesalamine in addition to your diet?

Quite often diet alone is not the answer until some healing has occurred. You can starve yourself to death and you'll still be symptomatic (which is what happened to me). I am puzzled...

Monique

[Nancy]

when you mentioned quinoa I thought maybe that is the problem. I am trying to find something I can eat for breakfast and I tried quinoa a few times. Seems each time I have very loose stools. It's Bob's Red Mill certified gluten free so I'm thinking it is the quinoa. I've eaten buckwheat and that seems to be OK. I can't eat rice, oats or corn as I reacted to each of those. No eggs or soy for me either so what I consider breakfast foods are rather limited.

[tex]

Nancy,

That really cuts your options. Millet is a possibility, but since it's a grass, it's a distant relative of corn, so it might or might not work for you. I doubt that sorghum would work, because it's a pretty close relative to corn, and the grain has very similar nutritional characteristics, suggesting that the molecular composition of the primary proteins may be similar to the zein in corn.

Have you tried amaranth?

Can you eat potatoes? Hash browns are pretty good for breakfast, and should work with most meats that are suitable for breakfast. Some members have mentioned that they sometimes eat sweet potatoes for breakfast.

Tex

[Nancy]

I haven't tried amaranth yet and hadn't thought of hash browns. My husband would love that too :) Thanks.

[Nancy]

And I'm thanking God that white potatoes were one of my safe foods. Would sweet potatoes be OK then too?
I do love them.

[tex]

They're not very closely related, so a sensitivity to one shouldn't affect the other. Most members here can tolerate sweet potatoes, so the odds are in your favor.

Tex

[Gloria]

I thought I'd mention that while I had slight problems after eating lamb broth soup, I've never had problems from eating turkey broth soup over the last three years. Perhaps it due to the difference between poultry an meat or the antihistamines generated by each.

Gloria

[Leah]

Sweet potato is a go to food for me…even when I am in a flare.

[DebE13]

Yay, sweet potatoes and hash browns. Yummy. Sometimes I'm not in the mood for squishy sweet potatoes so slice and fry them in olive oil. Goof stuff.


Millet- just couldn't hack it. My cockatiel loved it. I've tried quinoa but found no pleasure in eating it so it sits on the shelf similar to my varieties of rice pasta. Just not the same or possibly I'm not making it right.

Sunny, it's too bad you couldn't try entocort to possibly ease your D. Although, I totally understand your feeling for doctors. I don't believe I'd be in the situation I am in now had I been treated correctly after my initial CC dx.