Stomach trouble

With the greatest of respect, you need more nutrition education.

Please watch the podcast on YouTube that I posted earlier in the thread.

Atm you are blindly guessing, Dr Spectre's ZOE programme would allow you to actually know, because of tested data on your work own biology, you would 100% then know what foods are beneficial to you.

All the best

Good point.

At school I had stomach trouble but being out of that environment has helped me.

My food situation is as follows: 

I have a coffee subscription which i use until 1800 and then I eat one meal.

That keeps me from over-eating.

I walk a bout 4 miles a day broken into several parts.

the coffee probably makes me more ….anxious?  I’m not sure.

But I don’t eat carbs or sugar foods

I focus on nuts blueberries

cheese

black bread 

If I take chocolate and biscuits etc it sets off a beast within and there is no offswitch I get a high but a type of weird dependence and withdrawal from those foodstuffs.  I’m 57 and am predeiabetic.

It's super interesting what you say about the bread- My mum is adamant that the type of bread and quality really makes a huge difference and it's the same for me. I also tried gluten free bread and it never went well for me... and some bread give me instant acid reflux, others give me bloating and some types work well. I think with bread a big factor is also how long it was left to rise and whether it is yeast or sourdough and the type of  grains that were used etc. My mum also feels that for her bread is often more digestible when it is toasted... not sure if there is truth in this or what the scientific basis would be but it's interesting... 

Water intake is something I really struggle with, how anyone can drink 2 litres a day is beyond me. My wife bought me some Berocca tablets, she dissolved one in a glass of water and couldn’t understand why I was nearly drowning.

I am 100% with you on movement - helps loads for bloating too and it relieves stress so it does even more good :) Sadly I'm a bit limited in what I can do since 3 years now due to injuries... 

Oh, and upping water intake, and movement helps a lot (especially if you have constipation).

And meditation, sticking to a daily practice has also changed my life completely. It take years to get confident with it, but is so worth doing

Good luck guys

Wow, thanks for the response everyone, I think this has confirmed my theory!!

So, let me share with you my progress in the hope that it helps somebody here.

I've had IBD since 2012, and spent over 10 years trying everything with the help of my partner who is a food expert in industry (I got lucky there).

I've tried FODMAP, Low Fibre, BRAPS, Keto, Paleo, Gluten Free, Vegan,.... I've tried it all based on the latest research available today, and it has led me to...

...the ZOE study (yes, same company who do the Covid study). It is run by Dr Tim Spectre (wrote the Diet Myth) etc. He ran the biggest study of identical twins ever, over 15,000, where he found that the same food reacted differently for two identical twins.

Drum roll, this is because of the profile of their microbiome in their intestines. It's different in each of us. So this means we react differently to foods based on this microbial environment.

Long story short, the programme has a waiting list, but is worth the wait. It's totally revolutionised my diet and my energy is through the roof.

This week I reintroduce gluten in the form of food quality bread. And I'm fine 

So, what the food industry doesn't want us to know is, it's the quality of food that is the major issue. The amount of ingredients in a loaf of GF bread for example, it's full of rubbish!!

Instead, buy a loaf of properly made bread and you'll likely be fine. Not many people are celiac, but everyone thinks they must be. Not true, it's just rubbish quality processed foods causing you issues.

Stress is a big issue, so not surprised by your responses. So focusing on developing coping mechanisms and changing your environment to lesson stress has really helped me.

Anyway, hear it is from the Dr himself, then join up to ZOE. I promise you, it's helped me more than anything else.

This is long, but full of wisdom:

https://youtu.be/66hWntvp0_4

This is for the ZOE programme:

https://joinzoe.com/

...I have no affiliation with ZOE, just like to help people

I still have IBD, but this has made me feel whole again

Hope it helps you to x

I'm sorry, I am struggling with similar issues on a daily basis and it is also disrupting my sleep... it's so hard. But I do think it will get better eventually. That's what I am telling myself at least- I am hoping that at some point I will feel more settled and calmer and become better at dealing with stress and that will help a lot... Have you had any help for the anxiety? (I've not really had any useful support for that yet but I would like to have some help with that.... ) 

I’ve had problems for most of my life with certain foods, I have cut nearly all wheat out of my diet and have been much better.

Stomach problems are a common occurrence for people with autism. Stress intensifies stomach problems to. I have anxiety and Irritable Bowel Syndrome and I would say both are severe. I get nausea, pain, wind, acid reflux, upset stomach almost every day and this increases my anxiety and that makes it worse.

A lot of the time it causes disturbance in my sleep and my eating. I have seen the GP and had every test you can think of but it is just anxiety and IBS. 

Years ago a specialist at the hospital suggested a low fodmap diet to me. 

https://community.autism.org.uk/f/adults-on-the-autistic-spectrum/15392/ibs-and-the-low-fodmap-diet

I found it quite restrictive as so many of the foods I loved were on the avoid list. There are some foods that clearly do increase gas and bloating, perhaps for everyone but maybe we are more sensitive to it. Nowadays I try to be mindful of limiting some of those rather than avoiding completely.

I agree that the issues are so strongly linked to stress and anxiety. In the fight or flight response the body slows down or shuts down the digestive processes. 

Autistics (Au) tend to Sense-Perceive dangerous elements before Allistics do. A theory in psychoanalysis is either a design function or difference in the ability to Dull the Senses. Every time you hear about Resilience or Adaptability, or even dismissing someone who feels a sensory assault by their environment, it reinforces this theory. There's a reason behind it that creates a type of tribe-inclusion function. This would be fine if the Autistic were respected as someone with a potential to sense-perceive dangerous elements, but that's not often the case. There are many things which take time to cause cancer or death, and often it's a slow progression, like never wearing sunblock or consuming too much alcohol and not heeding ones biological warnings.

From what I've read and am still trying to work out, I have a sinking *feeling* we'll eventually say the same thing about certain GMOs and agriculture crops. Changing the skin of an apple so it's resistant to a bug can create a structure problem for human teeth and saliva. Crops are only tested against environmental factors when modified, never against human digestion. Just some things to think about. 

Yes I also wish they would have more guidance on how to manage such digestive issues in autistic people. So far only my dietitian has been helpful but the doctors have mostly not been and have even made things worse... because they then thought I must have anorexia nervosa... I knew this was not the case and I even tried to convince myself (because I just wanted an explanation...) but it just never fit. My dietitian agrees... and I wish I had been listened too. Now that I know that I am autistic, I can understand my problems around digestion and food much better... but still there is just no proper support. I really feel like decreasing stress and anxiety in my life would help so so much also for digestion. 

Yes it's something I have suffered from for as long as I can remember. I've had all the tests to rule out any serious disease and I've had to learn to live with it on a daily basis.

Thankfully my issues haven't been as bad as my (undiagnosed autistic) mum. She has been in and out of hospital with her gastrointestinal problems since I was a child and has had surgical intervention on numerous occasions.

JT said:

Could the difficulties we have to navigate day to day be interrupting our 'gut-brain-axis' and so be an easy to spot sign of an autistic person?

It does seem to be so common in us that I am surprised it is not asked about in the diagnostic process.

Yes I have had digestive issues all my life and worse so the past 7-8 years. I have nausea, bloating, cramps etc. etc. And certain foods make it worse. And Stress- I am realising this more and more... It runs in the family too, my mum, gran and cousin all have similar issues ... it can be very debilitating. I struggle a lot with food and eating at this point because of all this and I am again super underweight and often don't sleep much due to the digestive issues...

I have had digestive problems since birth. So has my father who is also autistic. Basically my digestive system runs at about three times the speed of a normal person's. I can either take immodium to slow it down, but that has side effects including headaches and extreme fatigue, or I can eat like I'm recovering from food poisoning: lots of bland, starchy foods, nothing raw, nothing greasy or overly fibrous. For the last few months I've eaten the same diet every day based around white bread, soy milk, tofu, white rice, peeled potatoes and soft-boiled root veg and it's helped a lot: I'm only going to the toilet 2-4 times a day now.

Apparently it's common for autistic people to have too much serotonin which affects the gut.

"Gastrointestinal disorders are one of the most common medical conditions that are comorbid with autism spectrum disorders."

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32471598/

Yes I've had stomach issues since I was a baby. My mother used to being me to the doctor all the time about it but nothing ever worked. It gets particularly bad when I'm anxious about something.

Yes all the time. My stomach is all over the place. I have IBD which does not help matters.

And the medication I'm on causes stomach problems too.