Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

I'm predominantly IBS-D with occasional bouts with C. But something new has started in the last month that is really troubling me. I'm wondering if this is a common experience?

I read somewhere that taking calcium supplements (without magnesium!) helps to solidify BM, especially for people with no gallbladder (like me). So I started taking some, only half the dose the bottle recommends so as not to overdo it, and it worked. My BM were normal!

But then I found that if I went more than a day or two without a BM, my body would abruptly decide it wants to clean itself out, and I'll have the most excrutiating cramping all over my whole torso, sometimes lasting for hours, until I'm "cleaned out." This has never happened to me before, even in the past when I've been much more constipated than I've been lately. I'm really flustered, because on most days I feel wonderful, better than I have in a while.

I'm not sure what's causing these cramps. Is it the calcium, even though the BM don't seem too hard? Could it be I'm eating some sort of trigger food? I think on the last two times I had this experience, the first time I ate an apple just before it happened, and the second time raw mushrooms. Or maybe it isn't a trigger food that's the problem, but simply my body deciding "Ok, it's time to clean house now!"

Is this sort of prolonged cramping common for people who are predominantly IBS-C? And does anyone have any feedback?

Thanks for any input.

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IBS-D with gas and cramping; dairy and wheat intolerant

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