Anyone else suffer from bad wet wind?

Feel free to discuss any topic of general interest, so long as nothing you post here is likely to be interpreted as insulting, and/or inflammatory, nor clearly designed to provoke any individual or group. Please be considerate of others feelings, and they will be considerate of yours.

Moderators: Rosie, Stanz, Jean, CAMary, moremuscle, JFR, Dee, xet, Peggy, Matthew, Gabes-Apg, grannyh, Gloria, Mars, starfire, Polly, Joefnh

Post Reply
Relatively lucky
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2013 9:03 am

Anyone else suffer from bad wet wind?

Post by Relatively lucky »

Hi

I've been diagnosed with collagenous colitis only a few months ago - and luckily within a couple of months of symptons.

I don't have coeliac (often concommitant) and nor do I have bile acid malabsorption - have been tested for both.

I am lucky - the MC has responded well to budesonide and am now just down to taking 3 mg/day.

I am also eating pretty normal diet (although I haven't tried coffee yet!).

The problem I have is with terrible wind - in the evenings. It often comes with watery leak - so I spend a lot of my time rushing to the toilet - just in case.......

....the problem only happens on weekdays (and only some weekdays)- never the weekend - and my food diary really reveals nothing

I talked to my dietician and gastro, who both suggested that maybe I had some intolerance to wheat just now - but an elimination diet showed this isn't the case.

I am totally at a loss.....I wondered if anyone might have any ideas - the only thing I can think of is that during the week I tend to not eat so regularly - and often miss out on my 4pm snack. I often eat far less ss weel (can go from 7-3 or later and forget to eat!) At the weekends I take care to be more careful.

But would not eating enough give me really bad wind? And where's the water coming from? ??! I have had regular and good NBM for sometime now.

So, as I said, pretty lucky but the wet wind makes the weekday evenings a bit of a misery - and ongoing anxiety.....just in case it happens.....and all the 'just in case' running to the toilet.

I know I'm really lucky compared to a lot of people here - but getting a bit tired of this!
User avatar
tex
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 35072
Joined: Tue May 24, 2005 9:00 am
Location: Central Texas

Post by tex »

Hi,

Welcome to the board. "Wet wind" (and worse) is a common symptom of this disease. Most of us have been there, done that. The water is coming from what is known in medical lingo as secretory diarrhea, and it's typical of MC (or CC or LC). I have no idea what sort of elimination diet you did to prove that you are not sensitive to gluten (how long, or how careful you might have been to avoid all traces of gluten), but I can guarantee that virtually no one initially realizes how meticulous their diet must be in order to avoid gluten, nor do they realize all the places where it is hidden, so as a result, they just think that they have done an exclusion diet). In addition, most people have no idea how long they actually have to avoid gluten in order to see any effects in their diet (it's many months, not days or weeks, in most cases).

So, because of what I have just described, and because of the fact that more than 95 % of us here are sensitive to gluten, I have no doubt that your "wet wind" is due to gluten and probably other food sensitivities in your diet. And for most of us, just eliminating gluten from our diet is not sufficient, we also have to avoid all dairy products, and many of us have to avoid all soy-based products, and eggs, at least until we have recovered sufficiently for our gut to do a significant amount of healing.

Probably 95 % or better of the newly diagnosed patients who come here insist that they "have been tested" and are not sensitive to gluten, but they are almost invariably wrong. Doctors have absolutely no test to reliably detect gluten sensitivity, and they can't even diagnose celiac disease until after it has caused extensive damage to the intestines, which usually takes several years or more. That's why the average length of time from the onset of symptoms until an "official" diagnosis is handed down for celiac disease, is still 9.6 years, based on the latest available data. Trust me, doctors don't understand gluten sensitivity, and most of them don't have the foggiest idea how to treat CC.

As proof of that statement, please be aware that if gluten remains in your diet when your doctor weans you off the budesonide, your symptoms will relapse. It may happen within a few days, or it may take a few weeks, but it will happen, because as long as you are eating gluten and certain foods, the inflammation that causes the disease will be continuously regenerated. At that point your doctor will then scratch his (or her) head and pretend that he (or she) is surprised (despite the fact that this happens with virtually every patient he (or she) treats who has this disease.

FWIW, I kept a food diary too, but as long as I was still eating gluten, I never could see any trends, either. The half-life of gluten antibodies is 120 days — that's 4 months. That's why gluten in the diet masks everything else, and makes it impossible to make any sense of anything else. As long as gluten remained in my diet, it seemed as though everything else was causing me to react, and none of it made any sense.

Again, welcome aboard, and please feel free to ask anything.

Tex
:cowboy:

It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Relatively lucky
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2013 9:03 am

Post by Relatively lucky »

Hi Tex,

Thanks for the quick reply...I had no idea that the half-life of gluten was so long....we certainly didn't exclude for that long...

But why would it be that I suddenly developed the problem (about 2 weeks into starting treatment with budesonide ?) - and never had it before - even when I hadn't been diagnosed, so was taking loperamide to control my symptoms.

And any idea why it should come and go - so, as I said, on most weekends and quite a number of days, I don't have the problem ?

Thanks a lot
User avatar
tex
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 35072
Joined: Tue May 24, 2005 9:00 am
Location: Central Texas

Post by tex »

What were your symptoms before this developed?

There might be some clues concerning the cycling of your symptoms in the history of your diet, medications, or even activities. There are probably differences in some of those items that vary with some relationship to the cycling of your symptoms.

Do you have a very stressful job? The absence of symptoms on weekends suggests that symptoms could be work-related, and that would implicate stress as the trigger.

Tex
:cowboy:

It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Relatively lucky
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2013 9:03 am

Post by Relatively lucky »

Hi Tex,

Only symptom I had was very watery diarrhoea - usually a couple of bouts first thing in the morning and sometimes another one in the evening. Diarrhoea could be controlled by loperamide.

I was wondering about stress/the fact that I have not altogethet been diligent about eating regularly and/or enough since as you say, the occurrence of symptoms seems more related to level of tiredness/stress and bad eating habits - but I wasn't sure if these would manifest themselves as such physical symptoms.

I also thought it odd thst I am having very good NBMs every morning, since I would have thought a genuine food intolerance (or lack of effect of budesonide) would result in more continual diarrhoea.

Are stress/tiredness/bad eating habits likely to have such an impact?

Sorry to be so naive, but until the last 6 months I have never been bothered by such digestive problems. I had thought about trying sn over the counter wind relief, but the one I tried didn't do much good.

I am aware of the likely chances of relapse when I stop the budesonide - but thought I would cross that bridge in a coup months.

Really appreciate your support.
User avatar
tex
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 35072
Joined: Tue May 24, 2005 9:00 am
Location: Central Texas

Post by tex »

This is a complex disease, and we don't all have the same symptoms. Some of us have constipation, and some even have normal bowel movements (of course, the chances of being diagnosed with this disease for someone who has normal BMs are pretty slim. They would just about have to be "accidentally" diagnosed while their doctor was using a colonoscopy to take biopsies for some other purpose.) Some of us (such as myself) have alternating D and C when our MC is active.

Are you by any chance taking any drugs known to trigger MC? Possibilities include antibiotics, NSAIDs, PPIs, SSRIs, SNRIs, bisphosphonates, beta blockers, statins, and others. While symptoms are still mild, if your MC is drug induced, stopping the use of the drug that is causing it can often bring lasting remission. Eventually though, the condition will be come irreversible, and additional intervention will be necessary in order to control the symptoms.

The reason why we develop food sensitivities virtually overnight is because research shows that when the genes that predispose to MC are triggered, the genes that predispose to gluten sensitivity are also triggered at the same. If the disease is drug-induced though, food sensitivities can sometimes be avoided, if the problematic drug is avoided in a timely manner.
Relatively lucky wrote:Are stress/tiredness/bad eating habits likely to have such an impact?
In a word, yes. The details are too extensive to add to this post, but an entire chapter of my book (28 pages worth) is devoted to a discussion of my theory of how stress ultimately causes not only MC, but virtually all so-called autoimmune diseases (and the information in that chapter is backed up by 64 medical research references, most of which are published in prestigious, peer-reviewed medical journals).

Tex
:cowboy:

It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
User avatar
MBombardier
Rockhopper Penguin
Rockhopper Penguin
Posts: 1523
Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2010 10:44 am
Location: Vancouver, WA

Post by MBombardier »

:wave: Welcome! :smile:

One of the ways we know we are starting to get well is that we can FWC. The end of that acronym stands for "with confidence."
Marliss Bombardier

Dum spiro, spero -- While I breathe, I hope

Psoriasis - the dark ages
Hashimoto's Thyroiditis - Dec 2001
Collagenous Colitis - Sept 2010
Granuloma Annulare - June 2011
Relatively lucky
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2013 9:03 am

Post by Relatively lucky »

Thanks for the encouragement :smile:

I guess on that basis the fact that FWC is on the cards pretty often for me, I am even luckier!
User avatar
DebE13
Rockhopper Penguin
Rockhopper Penguin
Posts: 1657
Joined: Sun Nov 27, 2011 5:32 am
Location: Wisconsin

Post by DebE13 »

Going GF does take time. I felt that a couple months was a terribly long time when I first began and I did not notice any improvements. That was in November of 2011. I am finally down to one entocort once a day skipping three days in between. I've been on entocort since February of 2012. I'm too scared to drop it entirely even though it may not be doing a whole lot for me at that dose. Try to be patient, it's worth it.

Marliss, FWC is such a great feeling! The things other people take for granted.
Leah
King Penguin
King Penguin
Posts: 2533
Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2012 10:16 pm
Location: San Francisco Bay Area

Post by Leah »

Welcome lucky. maybe you should purchase Tex's book. It will answer all your questions. Just click on the picture in the upper right hand corner of this page. This disease is a tough one and everyone is different. That's what makes it so difficult to figure out. I also went on Budesonide pretty fast and also got releif right away. The difference is that I change my diet at the same time because I didn't ever want to go back to the multiple WD episodes again. I was able to slowly wean off within 6 months, but had to remove gluten and dairy at first. When I was down to a very low does, I realized I was reacting to soy also. REACT can mean ANY reaction... gut noises, bloat, D, C, pain.... there are many foods that still give me problems ( fresh fruit), but if I stay away, I mostly am OK.

We all have to take this journey ourselves and decide how many foods we are willing to give up to feel good and keep the inflammation down. Another good reason to do so is that you can develop other autoimmune diseases if the inflammation goes unchecked. Budesonide is masking what you are reacting to, so just be aware of ALL symptoms because that is telling you that you are still reacting to something.

Good luck
Leah
CathyMe.
Rockhopper Penguin
Rockhopper Penguin
Posts: 641
Joined: Mon Feb 27, 2012 10:42 am

Post by CathyMe. »

I definitely suffered from the wet farts numerous times and knew I was healing when I could FWC (LOVE this acronym). I often tell my DH how good it feels to know that I'm not going to have an accident!!!!
Post Reply

Return to “Main Message Board”