What You Should Not Be Eating When You Have IBS

Irritable bowel syndrome affects roughly 20% of the population. The constant bloating, gas, cramping, and unpredictable bathroom urgency don't just wreck your digestion. They fuel anxiety, drain your energy, and keep you scanning every room for the nearest exit.

Your gut isn't broken because you're weak or dramatic. It's struggling because certain foods trigger inflammatory cascades and bacterial overgrowth that your intestinal lining can't handle anymore.

Here's what needs to go, and why.

Remove ALL Grains First

Yes, even the "healthy whole grains" the USDA and food pyramid told you to eat six servings of daily.

This includes: bulgur, whole wheat flour, oats, corn, popcorn, brown rice, rye, barley, farro, wild rice, buckwheat, triticale, millet, quinoa, and sorghum.

Why grains wreck your gut:

Most grains contain gluten and gliadin (proteins that trigger zonulin release in your intestinal wall). Zonulin blows open the tight juncti...

What Is Irritable Bowel Syndrome?

Most patients don't walk into the office saying "I have IBS." They describe gas, bloating, inconsistent bowel movements, abdominal discomfort—symptoms they've normalized because they've had them for years. When I ask about bowel habits, I hear "I'm regular—I go once a week, every week."

That's not regular. That's constipation.

Approximately 20% of the population suffers from some form of IBS. One in five people you meet has digestive dysfunction they've either normalized or don't recognize as abnormal. They live with chronic gas, constipation, diarrhea, or alternating between all three, assuming everyone feels this way.

Diagnostic Criteria for IBS

IBS is diagnosed when a person experiences abdominal pain or discomfort at least three times per month for the past three months, without other disease or structural pathology that explains the symptoms. The pain typically correlates with changes in stool frequency or consistency, and often improves afte...

Every time a new patient comes in, I take a thorough history and ask them the medications and supplements that they are currently taking.  It is shocking how many people are taking probiotics these days. 15 years ago when I started studying health and wellness, most people would look at me like I was crazy if I mentioned that they might need to take a supplement of bacteria (probiotic).

I still find it funny that people will buy their yogurt because it has the “good probiotics” in it and will at the same time be loading up on hand sanitizer and antibacterial soap because they are a “germaphobe."  

The question is, does everyone need probiotics? We have previously talked about how the microbiome or balance of bacteria in and on your body affects your health.  However, today we need to look at if the supplementation of particular strains of bacteria change your health.

Personally and clinically, I have only seen significant results with the supplementation of Lactobacillus be benefici...

Know your egg labels! What exactly is the difference between cage-free and free-range eggs?

Well, honestly not much. These are just labeling terms that the food industry has been using to make their product seem superior to another. The best eggs you can buy are probably pasture raised eggs.

Eggs are a staple here in most people's homes today with approximately 250 eaten by the average American every year. The sad part for me is that I do not get to eat them that often. When I do, I have become a massive label reader. The problem is that labels are massively deceiving in what the say about how the chicken was raised.

This was a lesson that I had to relearn a few weeks ago. I have been buying organic “cage-free” and "free-range" eggs from whole foods for a couple of years, feeding them to Erin and the kids on a daily basis.  I knew that cage-free wasn't caged free, but I thought that free range was a great equivalent to pastured at a lower price point. 

Then I picked up some pasture...

What is Adrenal Fatigue?

Adrenal fatigue is one of those terms that natural health practitioners have discussed for decades, but conventional medicine is only recently beginning to acknowledge.

You won't find "adrenal fatigue" in medical textbooks. It's not recognized as a disease. But the symptoms are real, the mechanism is understood, and millions of people are suffering from it right now.

Adrenal fatigue describes a state where your adrenal glands can't keep up with the demands placed on them. They're not pathologically diseased (Addison's disease). They're just exhausted—hypofunction rather than complete failure.

This matters because your adrenal glands regulate stress response, inflammation, blood sugar, immune function, energy production, and more. When they're depleted, everything breaks down.

Here's what adrenal fatigue actually is, how to recognize it, and what to do about it.

Understanding Your Adrenal Glands

Your adrenal glands sit on top of your kidneys. They're smal...

Gas, belching and bloating. All fairly typical problems that present when a patient comes into the office. They typically point to gallbladder dysfunction or that you have eaten too much and not properly digesting the fats that you eat.

Todays Q & A is because the practice can be strange sometimes. If I have one or two patients with thyroid problems, you will probably end up getting at least four or five more thyroid patients over the next few months. I would like to think it is God testing me and helping me find better ways of educating people on how they can take better care of their health through diet and chiropractic.

However, in reality, it is more likely that birds of a feather flock together and when I can help one patient with a problem they usually have a friend or two that has the same problem.

Well, patients that have undergone cholecystectomies or gallbladder removal are the most recent wave to hit the office. Most of my new patients push back on the paleo or primal bas...

This time of year I often I get asked what I use for sunscreen. When I tell patients that I don’t believe it's necessary, they look at me like I'm crazy.  Of course, the next obvious question is what about all the skin cancer and melanomas in the news.

I have to tread lightly on this subject because skin cancers are, in fact, on the rise. The question I have always had about this increase in the incident of skin cancer is why it has increased so much over the last 30+ years?

The sun isn’t putting out any more radiation, and there isn’t any proof that we aren’t getting any more radiation here on Earths surface. So why then the dramatic increase in skin cancers? Well, honestly it is most likely the massive increase in dietary sugars and decreases in fat over the past 35 years.

The logic is pretty simple when you increase sugar consumption you increase the number of chemicals in your body called advanced glycation end products (or, appropriately, AGEs for short). These AGE’s are likely...

A few months back I got inundated with questions about the “latest,” study saying that gluten sensitivity wasn’t real, and they could find no credence to non-celiac gluten sensitivity. The part that was perplexing to me was that this group had previously published research that wheat was the cause of Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Their most recent study was to refine the earlier experiment by isolating the gluten protein and give this isolation to their patients, creating an artificially high gluten diet. This study showed that there was no difference between the pain IBS patients experienced between the high and low gluten foods.

This is exactly the opposite of what I have found in the last 12 years of Chiropractic and AK based practice. While I have never tested the patient with isolated refined gluten because they rarely ever eat just the gluten they eat foods that contain gluten like wheat. I thought it might be important to write about why this study may be a bit flawed.

The ...

Back on Valentines Day, I posted a paleo fudge; I thought I would make a play on that by making a paleo Reece's Cup. I am not usually a huge fan of these paleo treats because sugar is sugar, but on special occasions are justifiable reasons to “cheat."

Well, yesterday Erin finally told her corporate job that she would be leaving to work full time in her own business. It was a massive weight off of her shoulders, and she was visibly calmer and more relaxed. I couldn’t have been prouder of her; she is finally living her dream.

If you want to check out her webpage and podcast, they are both incredible sources of information if you want to start or run your own business.

So, I felt we needed to celebrate last night. We made filets with haricot verts in creme fraiche, mustard and chives mixture. We had been debating if we could make a paleo Reece's cup from the fudge recipe, and I thought that this occasion deserved an attempt at them.

These were amazing. The only thing that I will chang...

This ended up being one of those great set it and forget it crock pot meals.  I started it on a Sunday morning when everything was going crazy with the kids, Erin and I running around with tons of errands and work to do that day.  I diced and sliced everything seared it off and turned on the pot and didn't think about it again till 5:30 when the kids were hungry.  That was incredible!   This was that simple of a meal.  The Mango Curry Beef had a great flavor.  It will work great on a weekday, just set it up before you go to work and it'll be ready when you get home! Hope you all enjoy this Mango Curry Beef.

• 3.5 lb chuck roast 
• 2 pounds of carrots chopped

• 2 mangos Diced
• 2 cans coconut milk
• 3 tablespoons red curry powder or 1 jar of red curry paste
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil

1. If using the curry powder, rub 1/2 of the roast the night before and refrigerate overnight. 
2. Melt the coconut oil in a heavy bottomed skillet and sear the ro
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