Hi! A lot of your IBS experience overlaps with mine, and I know how frustrating people's suggestions can be, but just wanted to share that I saw a functional doctor to see if my hormones were playing a role in this (I long suscepted they might be) and turns out my progesterone was too low every month which was causing an estrogen dominance effect, leading to all sorts of digestive issues. I've been taking bio-identical progesterone for 6+ months with DIM/CDG and it's been seriously transformative for my gut health. Perhaps something you can explore! Wishing you the best.
Wow, really! Love to hear that. I'm wondering how many women could basically solve their digestive issues with hormone treatment, but don't know about it because it tends to be reserved for menopausal women (and even then, very difficult to get).
Whenever I’m around that generation of women who eats low-fat dairy, I wonder where they find joy in this world. Low-fat dairy is a metaphor for how not to live, I think. It is sad. Maybe we should all eat full fat everything and enjoy it.
great read! while I hope you continue to heal, it's refreshing to read an angle of "this didn't fix everything, but here is what did change". I never thought of the ED angle of the "hot girls have tummy issues" meme, and goodness that's dark-- but I do have complaints with it because going around and giggling "hahaha my tummy always hurts // same" with friends is probably trivializing issues we should be getting checked out or at least made aware of as dysfunctional. (I am a hot girl with a disturbed tummy and I really hope I am just stressed, because I'm scared to get it checked out and be something horrible!!!!)
I don't know a single person who does ballet seriously and doesn't have an ED. I do not understand why America thinks this is a good hobby for young girls.
Read "Little Girls in Pretty Boxes", if you haven't already. Both gymnastics and ice skating are full of EDs, for the same reasons as ballet. I was a skater for several years as a kid and to this day it's given me an unerring eye for spotting EDs. I've never been proved wrong.
Can confirm. I have a kid who said depressive and suicidal things at age 6! I started him on a probiotic and his emotional state improved so much that others noticed. It's almost disturbing to think that the balance of bacteria in our gut can make or break how we feel about life.
That must have been so scary! I'm in my 30s and have developed sensitivities or intolerances to a handful of foods, and I absolutely notice mood swings when I decide to have "just a little bit", too. I read something on a food allergy Reddit that "corn rage" is a thing for people who have corn allergies, as well. It's crazy that messing with our guts can cause anger, depression, anxiety. etc. Hope your kiddo has continued to be freer from it!
Loved this! I think it’s also worth mentioning a lot of people who experience disordered eating are highly aware of any perceived changes in their bodies. What other people might dismiss as regular digestive discomfort or not even notice (for better or worse), those who are already oversensitive to their bodies’ fluctuations are likely to fixate on. Not that this is a wholly negative thing! As you lay out in this article, treatment for digestive issues should be part of a holistic, person-centric approach to treatment for disordered eating. But I do think it complicates the question of correlation, causation, and overrepresentation of IBS among those with a history of eating disorders, and raises further questions about the mind/body connection and cyclic nature of both conditions.
Incredible post! I’ve always hated the phrase “hot girls have stomach issues” because i dont think stomach issues are something we should romanticize! Especially given our industrial food system which encourages a diet of ultra processed inflammatory foods. Thank you for sharing your experience and backing it with such rigorous research. I think you really said the quiet part out loud here in terms of the connections between disordered eating and gut issues.
I used to worry about too much chocolate, but *licks fingers* now not so much.
I was told for ages that I was lactose intolerant. Finally someone asked me if I'd ever tried organic milk. So I bought some and sat down with a full glass and a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie.
No bad reaction from my digestive system. Happy mouth and brain. Turns out my allergies to certain common antibiotics also used in regular dairy cows was the problem. I hadn't had trouble as a kid because the allergies didn't happen till my 20s!
I'm glad things are better for you after going through all that.
I suffered from severe depression/anxiety and IBS-adjecent issues for years. Finally found meds that help my brain not eviscerate itself and all the gut problems + severe migraines + intolerable lethargy were gone in a few months. The gut/brain link is so real and it goes both ways!
I switched from paxil + a low dose antipsychotic (I actually forget which one) to wellbutrin. I also have ADHD AND my dad started taking wellbutrin and it was helping him. It was difficult transition because I was taking Paxil which has really nasty withdrawal symptoms so I was a zombie and cried every day for six months. And some people have a really bad reaction to wellbutrin. Not to scare you, just things to consider.
Once my mood stabilized it really was like a switch flipped in my brain though! Also my executive function is much better and I am better able to physically take care of myself - exercise, not eating like crap, not drinking too much, taking vitamins to deal with anemia and chronic vitamin D deficiency. Let me know if you have any more questions.
this was amazing. so well researched and well communicated. excited to dive into your sources. your work makes me proud as a neuroscientist to see how this information is evolving and being disseminated (: great work!
Thank you for sharing your story, and agree with your science. In addition, gut issues are symptoms of a parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system imbalance. With most of us stressed most of the time (whatever that stress is about), the nervous system gets stuck in sympathetic ( connected to fight/flight). Parasympathetic , or rest and repair (or rest and digest), isn’t active, or it is weak and lacking tone, so that body can’t repair, and can’t digest well. Even when it is asleep, body isn’t often hitting repair mode.
It was gutting when I went to my nutritionist to say that I didn't want to keep restricting but I didn't know how to make the symptoms stop. She was like look I hate to tell you this but your anxiety around food sensitivity could be making the symptoms worse... she was 1000% correct.
Absolutely wonderful article. I think having something like this in college would have had a major positive impact on my health at the time. Thank you for sharing
Checking to see if flare ups are cyclical in nature (any time of the cycle, just recurrent) might show that it’s endometriosis rather than IBS. GI symptoms are the most common and most overlooked issue. If that does seem to be a possible issue, an excision specialist (not ablations or hormonal treatments) is your best bet. We are still parsing apart some of my health issues, but one of them is that scar tissue due to endo had my stomach adhered to the sidewall of my abdomen.
Hi! A lot of your IBS experience overlaps with mine, and I know how frustrating people's suggestions can be, but just wanted to share that I saw a functional doctor to see if my hormones were playing a role in this (I long suscepted they might be) and turns out my progesterone was too low every month which was causing an estrogen dominance effect, leading to all sorts of digestive issues. I've been taking bio-identical progesterone for 6+ months with DIM/CDG and it's been seriously transformative for my gut health. Perhaps something you can explore! Wishing you the best.
thank you sundus, I will definitely look into that!
Seconding this! Using my birth control to skip my periods drastically reduced my IBS flares - I still have flares but it's been a huge help.
I also found out I had low progesterone at the same time I found out I had leaky gut. I take a bio identical too and was able to heal my
leaky gut with an autoimmune-paleo diet for 3 months. I’ve had no issues since!
Me too.
Wow, really! Love to hear that. I'm wondering how many women could basically solve their digestive issues with hormone treatment, but don't know about it because it tends to be reserved for menopausal women (and even then, very difficult to get).
Whenever I’m around that generation of women who eats low-fat dairy, I wonder where they find joy in this world. Low-fat dairy is a metaphor for how not to live, I think. It is sad. Maybe we should all eat full fat everything and enjoy it.
great read! while I hope you continue to heal, it's refreshing to read an angle of "this didn't fix everything, but here is what did change". I never thought of the ED angle of the "hot girls have tummy issues" meme, and goodness that's dark-- but I do have complaints with it because going around and giggling "hahaha my tummy always hurts // same" with friends is probably trivializing issues we should be getting checked out or at least made aware of as dysfunctional. (I am a hot girl with a disturbed tummy and I really hope I am just stressed, because I'm scared to get it checked out and be something horrible!!!!)
Knowledge is power, don't suffer not knowing ♥️
I don't know a single person who does ballet seriously and doesn't have an ED. I do not understand why America thinks this is a good hobby for young girls.
Read "Little Girls in Pretty Boxes", if you haven't already. Both gymnastics and ice skating are full of EDs, for the same reasons as ballet. I was a skater for several years as a kid and to this day it's given me an unerring eye for spotting EDs. I've never been proved wrong.
Can confirm. I have a kid who said depressive and suicidal things at age 6! I started him on a probiotic and his emotional state improved so much that others noticed. It's almost disturbing to think that the balance of bacteria in our gut can make or break how we feel about life.
That must have been so scary! I'm in my 30s and have developed sensitivities or intolerances to a handful of foods, and I absolutely notice mood swings when I decide to have "just a little bit", too. I read something on a food allergy Reddit that "corn rage" is a thing for people who have corn allergies, as well. It's crazy that messing with our guts can cause anger, depression, anxiety. etc. Hope your kiddo has continued to be freer from it!
Loved this! I think it’s also worth mentioning a lot of people who experience disordered eating are highly aware of any perceived changes in their bodies. What other people might dismiss as regular digestive discomfort or not even notice (for better or worse), those who are already oversensitive to their bodies’ fluctuations are likely to fixate on. Not that this is a wholly negative thing! As you lay out in this article, treatment for digestive issues should be part of a holistic, person-centric approach to treatment for disordered eating. But I do think it complicates the question of correlation, causation, and overrepresentation of IBS among those with a history of eating disorders, and raises further questions about the mind/body connection and cyclic nature of both conditions.
Incredible post! I’ve always hated the phrase “hot girls have stomach issues” because i dont think stomach issues are something we should romanticize! Especially given our industrial food system which encourages a diet of ultra processed inflammatory foods. Thank you for sharing your experience and backing it with such rigorous research. I think you really said the quiet part out loud here in terms of the connections between disordered eating and gut issues.
Thank you Veronica!
Highly recommend this episode of Maintenance Phase about how there’s no real agreed upon definition of “ultra processed foods”:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5KQF5pdphEjhvyIzATJEFN?si=kcFbWwufRDiUad4RlsTHrg
Harping on them so much can cause more disordered eating and blame people for systemic issues we should be working together to address.
I used to worry about too much chocolate, but *licks fingers* now not so much.
I was told for ages that I was lactose intolerant. Finally someone asked me if I'd ever tried organic milk. So I bought some and sat down with a full glass and a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie.
No bad reaction from my digestive system. Happy mouth and brain. Turns out my allergies to certain common antibiotics also used in regular dairy cows was the problem. I hadn't had trouble as a kid because the allergies didn't happen till my 20s!
I'm glad things are better for you after going through all that.
I suffered from severe depression/anxiety and IBS-adjecent issues for years. Finally found meds that help my brain not eviscerate itself and all the gut problems + severe migraines + intolerable lethargy were gone in a few months. The gut/brain link is so real and it goes both ways!
Incredible! So glad you found relief
If you don't mind me asking, what meds have you found useful? Also going through this same combo of depression/ ibs
I switched from paxil + a low dose antipsychotic (I actually forget which one) to wellbutrin. I also have ADHD AND my dad started taking wellbutrin and it was helping him. It was difficult transition because I was taking Paxil which has really nasty withdrawal symptoms so I was a zombie and cried every day for six months. And some people have a really bad reaction to wellbutrin. Not to scare you, just things to consider.
Once my mood stabilized it really was like a switch flipped in my brain though! Also my executive function is much better and I am better able to physically take care of myself - exercise, not eating like crap, not drinking too much, taking vitamins to deal with anemia and chronic vitamin D deficiency. Let me know if you have any more questions.
this was amazing. so well researched and well communicated. excited to dive into your sources. your work makes me proud as a neuroscientist to see how this information is evolving and being disseminated (: great work!
wow griffin that means so much to me, thank you
Thank you for sharing your story, and agree with your science. In addition, gut issues are symptoms of a parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system imbalance. With most of us stressed most of the time (whatever that stress is about), the nervous system gets stuck in sympathetic ( connected to fight/flight). Parasympathetic , or rest and repair (or rest and digest), isn’t active, or it is weak and lacking tone, so that body can’t repair, and can’t digest well. Even when it is asleep, body isn’t often hitting repair mode.
It was gutting when I went to my nutritionist to say that I didn't want to keep restricting but I didn't know how to make the symptoms stop. She was like look I hate to tell you this but your anxiety around food sensitivity could be making the symptoms worse... she was 1000% correct.
this is so good, I’m obsessed with it! I’m now thinking about how I communicate with my tummy and reassessing food priorities
hell yeah! hope this spreads good gut vibes
❤️ The suffering is real—and diet culture is diabolical
Absolutely wonderful article. I think having something like this in college would have had a major positive impact on my health at the time. Thank you for sharing
There’s so much about this that we still don’t understand
Doesn’t help that a lot of the mass-market nutrition advice from the 90s and 00s was misleading
Checking to see if flare ups are cyclical in nature (any time of the cycle, just recurrent) might show that it’s endometriosis rather than IBS. GI symptoms are the most common and most overlooked issue. If that does seem to be a possible issue, an excision specialist (not ablations or hormonal treatments) is your best bet. We are still parsing apart some of my health issues, but one of them is that scar tissue due to endo had my stomach adhered to the sidewall of my abdomen.
Well, shit. +1