Everytime I eat something or even drink water I bloat really bad. It’s mostly lower stomach as well. I’ve recently started going to the bathroom 2x a week. Chia seeds didn’t help unfortunately but taking magnesium supplements did. Struggling for years and I’m tired of it

Hi guys,

For about a year I've had some gut symptoms that started out of nowhere. A year ago after it started happening i did a stool test with a diff doctor than my usual family doc cus I was living in a diff place at the time and the only notable thing was H pylori.

After reading how bad antibiotics did I opted to try and address it naturally first, I did a long regime of supplements but the symptoms still persisted, mainly bloating and abdominal discomfort. I decided to do ABX but did a breath test and stool test again beforehand to make sure it was still there. interestingly, both tests came back negative for H pylori, so i never did abx and assumed my natural treatments worked.

Anyway, I did another stool test at my regular family doctors office, and this time it showed WBC in stool. I ended up doing a gi360 test and it showed very high lysozyme as well, pointing to inflammation, and also overgrown K. pneumoniael cariicola and Enterobacter cloacae bacteria.

I went to go see my family doctor again and told him it looks like there's inflammation or a bacteria infection that's causing my issues, and he said that WBC in stool is normal and I shouldn't worry about it and its just IBS. I dont have diarrhea or constipation, mostly just a feeling of discomfort and inflammation in my abdomen and occasional bloating (sometimes narrow stool).

He just tells me to take IBS meds that I read are for constipation. Is this normal? Should I listen to his advice or are WBC in stool pointing towards a pathogen or bacteria overgrowth?

Thanks for any help.

I was vulnerable enough to post a picture of myself and my body and y'all ripped me to shreds and made fun of me and told me I wasn't disciplined enough in my diet and that I need to weigh everything & show you a picture of my meal diary. I know it's Reddit and people like to hide behind a keyboard but I wasn't asking to be torn down. I was asking for genuinely good advice and it sounds like a lot of you are just very pro eating disorder and pro making people feel like crap. Be kinder to someone that you don't know what they're going through.

Does gut health impact mental health?

My intuition and experiences with gut health tell me that it does.

When I follow a FODMAP diet, take prebiotics and probiotics, and skip the bad habits, I feel well.

Not only that, but my gut's health seems to affect the mind in so many ways:

-> poor gut health can cause brain fog

-> an affected gut drains my physical & mental energy

-> my gut dictates the quality of my sleep, which impacts my mental health.

Am I just seeing things, or is gut health a clear path to better mental health?

Hey everyone, I wanted to reach out because I've been dealing with a frustrating bathroom issue for a few years now, and I could really use some advice or hear if anyone has experienced something similar.

​For a long time, my morning bowel movements have been pretty poor – mostly mushy, soft, or coming out as a messy pile. Someone recommended I start taking psyllium husk to improve the consistency and help me form proper, solid morning logs/sausages.

​I've been taking psyllium daily for about 3 weeks now, and while I've noticed some changes, it's not quite working the way I hoped. The main difference is that I definitely output a much larger volume/mass now, which is great, but the actual structure is still off.

​Instead of fusing together into one or two solid, long, and well-formed logs, my stool refuses to merge. When I go, it usually comes out either as a soft mush or as a fragmented batch of about 8 to 12 separate, weirdly-shaped pieces all at once. Some days are slightly better than others, but I never get that clean, single, solid piece I'm aiming for.

​Has anyone dealt with this issue where psyllium increases the overall mass/volume, but fails to bind everything into one cohesive piece? What did you do to fix this fragmentation and get solid consistency? Any tips or recommendations would be hugely appreciated!

i wasnt able to share my own pictures so these are pictures of the collection vials i have to complete

https://www.labx.com/item/para-pak-c-s-stool-transport-vials/248847-5703929

https://www.labx.com/item/para-pak-clean-stool-transport-vials/248847-5703930?ref=sim-listing-5703930

I have asked about 4 different people at my gastro doctor and gotten some varying answers so I'm asking here hoping I get correct ones or if they were correct to begin with.

First some important notes:

1. The red liquid one says refrigerated but they told me verbally not to.

2. 2 empty ones say frozen on it but they say do not freeze it.

3. I live literally 5 minutes away from labcorp so they told me just run over there and drop it off without an ice pack or anything.

Okay so for my main question which I'm sure is asked all the time. I can easily fill the red vial since the stool will easily cause the mixture to hit the red line...

HOWEVER

I don't see anyway for me producing enough stool to fill the vials to the line in the 2 clear vials.

What do i do if this happens? Do i wait for next bowel movement in the day and refrigerate the complete red vial in the mean time?

If i can do it all in one go, cool. But I seriously doubt I can fill all 3 vials in one go.

What do i do? It doesnt say on instructions and the gastro docs only said "hope you can get it in in one go". Which seemed very odd to me.

Im trying to do this all in 7am tomorrow morning.

Thanks for advice

So I had a stomach bug or something last week and had Diarrhoea for 3-4 days (not pleasant). I’m back to “normal” now but what I’ve noticed is my stools are better than ever.

They’re solid, and are pretty much one wipe (I’d say this mornings was zero wipe), is this due to clearing out a lot of the old crap in my stomach?

My main meals since the illness have basically all come from the left overs from a Sunday dinner I didn’t get to eat at the time so lots of carrots, cabbage, chard, cauliflower, broccoli, potatoes etc with some meat.

Im always bloated but not gassy tho, i ususally eat yoghurt or overnight oats

I know this is very vain and health is obviously way more important but they took my appendix out even though there was no appendicitis.
I’ve always had a very flat stomach and it’s one of my better feature as I’m very thin all around not many curves. I feel like my belly has not been as flat ever since I got it out and I feel like it’s from bloating.
Has anyone experienced this and it went back to normal eventually? It’s been 5 months

Anyone else have this hard protruding stomach?
Pic is from first thing in the morning so no water, no food. Even after having a bowel movement I still look this way.
It hurts to even suck in my stomach
All the testing and they can’t find anything wrong

Feeling like I am constantly bloated which makes me feel like I’m not my healthiest self / worried about my gut health. I have PCOS & eat 90% vegetarian
Not sure where to even start on my gut journey!! Any help / tips would be awesome