HI Heather

It is normal for alot of people to have mucous in their bowel motion due to poor intestinal function. But this is not ‘normal’ for you to have. The presence of mucous can be an indication of IBS, intestinal wall inflammation caused by infection, parasites, candida, worms, food allergies , sensitivities, intolerances and/or other intestinal diseases. I suppose what you have to work out is where is your IBS coming from. Are you a stressful, nervous person or do you have the above reasons. Can you track back to when your bowel problems started?

Have you explored food allergies , sensitivities etc? You can have this done by blood but this won’t pick up sensitivities or intolerances only allergies. I have found electrodermal screening to be effective for picking up these. You could try an Elimination Diet to see if there is a food or groups of food causing the IBS. What about coeliacs- are you gluten sensitive? Some may say that if you have allergies then this could be from a congested liver and would warrant a liver cleanse. This is usually good to do anyway. Allergies can also be an indication that you do have some kind of infection and your body is working so hard to get rid of it that it gets exhausted and starts to see food as being foreign. This can also be from a dysbiosis.

If your transient time is slow, like mine, then your food is probably festering in your intestines before it has time to be excreted. Drinks lots of water as well as taking your fibre. I find drinking warm water helps this. I never drink cold water; it’s like a shock to the system. Eat lots of vegetables- ones you are not sensitive to, of course. Have you got a thyroid problem? This also can cause constipation. Even hormonal problems in women can cause constipation and poor bowel function. You have probably had so many tests and had a look at all these possibilities. You could explore yoga exercises specifically for improving bowel function.

I don’t know what it is about change in bowel motion when you travel, but this used to happen to me, my mother and a few friends as well. You are not alone. When ever I went away I would firstly find a liquorice shop and prunes. This sometimes worked, but it was still a strain (I don’t want to get too graphic). I remember being in Vietnam for 2 weeks and my friend was happily going and my belly was getting bigger and bigger. I was stuffing myself with Vietnamese prunes and eating loads of garlic and chilli and fibrous food- but no- hopeless. Do we get stage fright from being away from home? Because as soon as you get home you go straight to the toilet-bizarre! So I can relate to your predicament, but don’t have any answers to why this happens. May be it was the change in water and routine?

Can you get a comprehensive stool analysis done? I know there is a lab called Great Smokies in the US and also there is one in Australia called Analytical Reference Labs (ARL) who also does this. I don’t know where you live but this might be useful. It can give you an indication of what is going on done there. It will also tell you what the little buggers are sensitive to, so you can get rid of the infestation. It, like a normal stool test done by Dr might come back negative for a parasite/worm but I wouldn’t be put off by this. I would do a parasite/worm cleanse anyway. What have you got to lose!!!!! Do a search on curezone for what to do and use.

I hope this has been of some help to you. I have probably left out something. I hope that someone else might have some input. Best of luck!!

Nat