MICROSCOPIC COLITIS SUPPORT

You are still my "teacher" b/c you know way more than i do! I guess we all should be considered teachers, in that we learn from each other......

Hey there. So I'm a teenager with history of lactose intolerance (on off yearly) - was suspected because my dad had it
I haven't been taking foods with lactose since 2012 but recently I've been having symptoms like chronic loose stools (2 times per day), morning watery diarrhea, constant gassy pain on far left side of abdomen at the level of the belly button, weekly stabbing pains on the same spot. Does these symptoms sound like microscopic colitis?

Hi Snowycrystal,
From your brief description it could very well be MC. There are definitely different stages that MC goes thru. Hopefully you just have a yeast overgrowth that can be treated.

The only definite way to know is a colonoscopy with many biopsies taken during the procedure as MC can elude the test if not enough biopsies are done.

Cheers
Erica

Hi,
I was diagnosed with l.c. last yr but im sure ive had this for the last 18 yrs but just been to scared to get the colonastopy until last yr i just cocouldn'take it no more! I too suffer from panic disorder most of my adult life & have a major fear of taking any type of pills. I am a very picky eatter so really dont follow any diet and i usually suffer all the time. Whats really driving me nuts is these heart palps. I know there related to this but doctors dont think so. Its like i got so much air in me. I take omeprozole everyday that helps a little. And i hve this dull constant pain in my lower left side for yrs. Its where my overie is. Ive had all my female parts cked out and there just fine so docs say its from the l.c. does anyone else have this pain & heart palps? My D isnt really that bad latly but i feel like crap....

Hi Patty,

Welcome to our Internet family. Based on your panic disorder symptoms and heart palpitations I would guess that you have a chronic magnesium deficiency. I had those same symptoms until about a year ago, but fortunately I finally figured it out and doubled my magnesium intake. That resolved many problems that had been bothering me for many years.

My experience has been that doctors are almost never able to help with this type of problem because they virtually never recognize magnesium deficiency even when it is right under their nose. Last spring my symptoms became so bad that I went to the ER, and even though the doctors there ordered a serum magnesium test that showed a flagged deficiency, they ignored it and told me that the test results were all "fine" and there was nothing wrong with me. 2 days later I looked up my test results online, doubled my magnesium intake, and I've been fine since then.

The pain in your lower left quadrant is most likely either due to diverticulitis or LC. Omeprazole is well known as a trigger for LC. I'm surprised that your doctor would allow you to take it if you have LC, but maybe she or he doesn't understand the disease (or the dangers of taking a PPI).

I'll guarantee that a magnesium deficiency will make one feel rough, because magnesium is a vital electrolyte and if it becomes depleted in the bloodstream, the body becomes unable to properly regulate vital functions such as heart rate and contractions, breathing, blood pressure, hormone production, body temperature regulation, etc. When I went to the ER, the magnesium deficiency was so bad that it even adversely affected my electrocardiogram results by creating a right bundle branch block (which indicates a disrupted electrical signal in the heart control system), and yet no one there even noticed any significance of that change.

After I doubled my magnesium intake, a few months later my ECG results returned to normal, and the right bundle branch block was gone. We have to take charge of our own health, because our doctors miss too many important details. They can handle the easy stuff, but the more complex issues often evade them.

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

Tex

tex wrote:"Mostly early morning bathroom traffic is the most common pattern for people who have MC."

Why is that? My husband has his most watery D in the morning. Curious why.

When diarrhea is present, the body naturally wants to purge it's contents. It perceives the contents of the colon as a toxic substance, so it operates on the presumption that the sooner it can get rid of that substance, the better off it will be, It even produces copious amounts of mucus in most cases, to help protect the lining of the colon from the "toxic substance" and to facilitate motility. During the night, contents accumulate, but the digestive system tends to relax with the rest of the body, so diarrhea is usually not a problem until morning. When first aroused in the morning, the digestive system becomes active (along with the rest of the body's systems) and it naturally feels an urgent need to empty. And similar to a response to the cleanout prep solution used to clean out the bowel prior to a colonocopy, it continues to feel the urgent need to empty, as long as any content remains (and even afterward in some cases — this is known as tenesmus). Once that's past, the rest of the day usually sees less bowel urgency because it takes a while for food to cycle through the rest of the system into the colon. Normally, digestive cycles have approximately a 24–30 hour turnaround time. Food takes about 2–4 hours to leave the stomach, plus another 4–6 hours to get through the small intestine, before it reaches the colon.

Tex

Wow to your amazing knowledge. Thank you so much!