Re: Odds & Ends -- Gas in the Afternoon (how romantic!)

September 3, 2001

At 10:41 PM +0000 9/3/01, joannm@... wrote:

>... 3. What have you done for gas pains? Sometimes I have gas very

>bad in the late afternoons and it can get painful at time.

Jo Ann,

Gas had been one of my constant scourges, especially in the

afternoon, like you. In my case, the principal (but not the only)

villain turned out to be milk. I did not ingest milk, ice cream or

other undigested dairy products at first, using soy substitutes

instead. Then, I tried milk after a month or so, and it seemed OK,

so I started having about 6 oz. with breakfast and again with dinner.

Baaaad move! It was OK for a while, but the effect seemed to

accumulate, and after a week or so, I was having explosive gas

attacks in the afternoon and lots of oily discharge. I cut out plain

milk and went back to Lactaid skim milk, and things quieted down

tremendously. Also, from tips on this list, I , too, found that a

FiberCon tablet in the morning and one in the afternoon also

diminished the gas problem. Also, one of the biggest helps came from

taking a mixed culture of " good " bacteria that is known by one of the

ingredients: Acidophilus. Solgar makes Acidophilus 40+, a

refrigerated mix of dried bacteria with four kinds of bacteria in

capsule form. I took three daily at first, and now take one a day

for maintenance. Many yogurts also have live cultures (including

acidophilus), and they are helpful.

Now, in the first month or so post-op, the above solutions did not

work, except for Acidophilus. I tried Gas-X (actually it is just

simethicone which you can buy cheaper as house branded names in big

drug chains), and sometimes it helped. I also tried charcoal

tablets, and they also helped a bit. Walking helped, too. But, not

all of the things helped all of the time. There were still times

when I had to grin and bear it.

Now, I still get gas in the afternoons, but it is not painful. And

since starting on FiberCon again, the gas seems to have diminished

further.

YMMV, but I hope you find the right combination of stuff to bring you relief.

--Steve

--

Recommended Posts