Flatulence and bowel problems
 

:confused:I have been having flatulence problems really bad for about 18 years, the past 10 years it has subsided. But I have to have several bowel movements a day. I thought maybe it might be related to medication being taken for schizophrenia. I do not know what else could have possibly have caused it. i have tried everything, eliminating selzer water and soda is not it. Of course it i have a whole can of baked beans i will be in and out of the bathroom all night and get no sleep. It usually is not that bad, and maybe by now the flatulence is going away, but i still have to have more bowel movements than is normal in a day.

does anybody experience anything similar to this?

i was going to have tests done to find out if i have ibs or celiac disease, and now i don't know what to do. it could just be from the shizophrenia treatment.

Shop girl. It sounds like you have irritable bowel syndrome. But go to the doctor to make sure its not any thing more serious like celiacs disease or crohn's disease. If its IBS you need to take a couple of drops of peppermint a day for one to six months and that should significantly reduce your symptoms. Since you have had it so long you might have nutritional deficiences so you might want to get B12 levels checked. Even if they are okay would reccommend taking supplements for B vitamins and maybe folic acid because can sometimes help schizophrenic symptoms as well. It is more common among people with bipolar and schizophrenia to have IBS.
Hope that helps.

Hi there Shopgirl.

Jade*D had some very good advice for you.

The food you eat, and the medications you take have a big influence over what takes place inside our "innards". I was an RN until 2 years ago and as a nurse, we always treated flatulence with peppermint capsules. They were both natural and effective, in the treatment of this rather embarrassing condition.

If you think that your tablets might be to blame, may I suggest that you post this same question in our Medication Forum? If you do, hopefully our resident medication expert, mrsD, might see your question and give you more advise that I can provide.
Here's the link: http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum72.html

there does seem to be a sub set of schizophrenics that are GLUTEN SENSITIVE with or without gastric complaint.....point being, the tests for celiac may come up negative and gluten could still be a problem.....get the testing done, and if it does come up neg., you can still try the diet. Good luck

Hi,
Check out the gluten sensitivity forum here.

You can try giving up gluten and find that you feel wonderful.
It's possible.

M.

Food sensitivities
 

Your schizophrenia may actually be a problem with food sensitivities. Horrible that they get diagnosed as schizophrenia but they often do. Other things get diagnosed as schizophrenia and other "mental" type illnesses as well.

Read here and here

Risk of Colon Cancer from Antipsychotics
 

After seeing this: "Patients with schizophrenia taking antipsychotics had a 308% increased colon cancer risk (adjusted OR, 4.08; 95% CI, 2.43-6.84)." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18056544

I hope you do get regular check-ups and colonoscopies. Although one little tidbit the doctors keep forgetting to tell the patients (they teach it to the nutrition students-which doesn't help the patients who don't see them) you must take probiotics following colonoscopies to avoid increased cancer risk from it.

More on this topic, you may want to read some on Gut And Psychology Syndrome (GAPS), which is often talked about in autism and schizophrenia literature.

Interesting reading:
http://www.gaps.me/
http://www.gutandpsychologysyndrome.com/
http://www.itsnotmental.com
We Have Sick Children

I found another site with this: Food Sensitivities and Mental Illness The video link to the talk show over 25 years ago with children and adults affected by it was astounding! Today they would be diagnosed with mental illness!