Did they do a biopsy of the colon, in multiple locations? No sign of any form of colitis? There's a form of that which is diagnosed with a microscope. Most other forms are visible by the "naked" eye when doing the "usual" modern colonoscopy. Something else to check, though it's rare to be active in a female due to the nature of chromosomes, is a primary immunodeficiency, such as CVID (which is what I have). It involves a sickly child, who gets better as they hit puberty, then decline in their twenties to thirties, so I'd say it's probably not that. It does have IBS with resultant malnourishment involved with it ('course, it could be "malnourishment with resultant IBS", depending upon what came first, the chicken or the egg... tic). Anyway, all sorts of AI stuff comes with IBS/IBD as a "side-effect", so that should be checked into. Stress can also be an issue. When I was 16, I was a nervous high schooler (who didn't want to be there), and I had all sorts of issues with my colon. Turns out, once I got older and had a child that has Asperber's, they now think that I had that, but have "outgrown" it (was it *really* asperber's?...). The autism spectrum person can have all sorts of issues with their intestinal tract.
One med that helped immensely for me, while they tried to get my system to calm down, was Bentyl. It slows the intestinal tract down, resulting in more absorbtion of the nutrients in the food consumed. However, it does have it's side effects, such as drowsiness and/or constipation, among others. Use of probiotics is probably the easiest thing to do, and most docs usually recommend them. The elimination diet is what I've attempted to do several times, but I've always gotten too impatient with it, and not gotten the full benefit from it. All possible allergens are removed from the diet for a period of time, then one item at a time is added back into the diet, and any reaction noted, adjustments made if necessary, and then another item added back in.
Doctor supervision is needed for these issues, and oftentimes, it's recommended that a nutritionist be involved. My insurance, while it's good, does not cover a nutritionist for anything, unless it involves a medical disease diagnosis, such as Crohn's or Ulcerative Colitis, but IBS (the diagnosis I got) is not covered, since it's not a "disease", per se, so they may have issues along those lines...
Last edited by jmail; 10-16-2012 at 02:01 PM.
Reason: flying fingers of fickle futility
"There but for the grace of God, go I."
"... His mercy endureth for ever."