As the mourners stood in line to sympathize with my siblings and I, I was struck by the irony of me reassuring them that my 68 year old dad was OK. He had just been admitted to the same hospital in which his wife had died 36 hours previously. He is fine I uttered, the same gut issue (sub-acute bowel obstruction) happen to him as had happened numerous times previously in the past 10 years.
Many years later I remember clearly asking the ambulance personnel to try and be quiet as they stretchered my father down the stairs. I wanted them to be quiet as I had just got my 6 month old son down to sleep having coped with my Dad going through the agonizing motions of a sub-acute small bowel obstruction.
It was during this time that the wheels were put in motion and the pennies started to drop about what had been plaguing my Dad for the past number of years. 2o years prior to that he had a failed lithotripsy where by the perforated ureter was repaired using part of his gut. As anyone who has had surgery on the gut will know there is always a risk of adhesions where by parts of the gut will stick to one another and cause the gut to obstruct. If you are lucky this painful episode will resolve and you will go back to normal again.
Up until my son was born, we blamed my dad’s obstructions on stress and the unknown. Priory to my son being born I had completed training as a Dietitian on what is known as the low FODMAP diet. My dad’s sub acute obstruction when my son was a baby made it clear to me that the obstructions were the result of diet and not stress and certainly not the unknown. I clearly remember at the time of my mother’s removal cooking a huge pot of chili con carne full of fructan FODMAPs.
My dad a plain eater had been sick always when I was around, I used to joke that I was causing him stress! What I was doing was feeding him foods that were causing him to obstruct.
If you had told me this story before I had completed this training and without witnessing what my dad went through I would have silently rolled my eyes to heaven in disbelief! Since making the connection, every time my Dad has obstructed and ended up in hospital I have been able to track it back to Fructan FODMAPS. These were times when family members unwittingly brought him out to dinner or brought him food containing these fermentable carbohydrates.
I am sharing this story with the hope that it will help other individuals out there. Also to highlight that matters of the gut both upper and lower gut are very much influenced by how and what we eat.
The low FODMAP diet has up to a 75% success rate helping those individuals with irritable bowel syndrome. In other countries Registered Dietitians run front line clinics triaging clients who present to their doctors with IBS type symptoms. Often sparing the need for expensive tests and for medications.
CORU registered Dietitians are the only health care professionals trained and qualified to give dietary advice to support gut health. They are the only health care professionals trained to delivery assessment, advice and guidance on the low FODMAP diet. My advice to you dear reader is to speak to your doctor and to get help from a Registered Dietitian if you feel you need advice on diet and gut health.
Valerie O’ Connor, CORU Registered Dietitian is the owner and founder of the Galway Nutrition & Therapy Clinic.
