A newspaper doctor recommended Peppermint enteric coated, and also some form of Acidophilus which was hard to get, I can't remember the name but I'm trying enteric coated ones just in case getting the bacteria past the stomach works better. Someone also recommended Dr. Christopher Lower Bowel formula and I have had encouraging results with it. I take all 3 at night. A major factor for me has just been identifying food triggers for IBS. Keeping a journal and maybe starting with just a few foods, find some that cause no problems then add new foods one at a time. I also have a tendency to get into eating a food I like daily and then eventually develope problems with it, while I seem to be able to tolerate it if eaten once a week instead. Some foods I have trouble with- *tomatoes- cooked *wheat and other gluten grains- especially whole grain, can tolerate a little white flour once in a while, do OK on oats *nuts and coconut- I became a vegetarian and ate these heavily, eventually realized they were causing new very bad symptoms when eaten daily. *flaxseed allergy- can eat some if pre-soaked as this gets rid of enzyme inhibitors present in all seeds and nuts, soaking could also help in eating raw nuts. *once experimented eliminating raw fruits and salads when visiting and had almost no problems all week until I ate a raw banana. But usually keep eating my fruit and salads, if I take psyllium seed once a day it seems to make up for eating them as in preventing diarrhea. I've also found that buckwheat has a beneficial effect, and I've even been losing some weight eating it whereas I tended to gain eating other carbohydrates. Anyway, I've been a lot better, your MMV, experiment, keep notes.

This was so much information! Thank you! I want to pull out what I found to be the most interesting and post it on it's own. "Just as the body was formed and operates on a priority basis, so it heals on a priority basis. This means that the most important parts of the body get the healing attention before the less vital tissues. We can't force the body to place its healing priority on weight loss when in fact the liver is about to die, for example. The liver is more important to your body than the extra pounds. So all the energies of the body go to heal the liver and weight loss will stop. The body will not compromise what health and vitality it does have in one part of the body to bring about healing in another. In other words, the body will not "rob Peter to pay Paul." So you may be eating nutritionally and exercising and you start out losing some weight. But then all of a sudden, you become stuck at a certain weight -- the needle on the scale won't budge anymore. The body is rejoicing on the inside and saying things like, "You know, we have all this extra energy now because Mr. Doughnut here has decided to start eating right and exercising -- let's take some of our new available energy and start the healing process on his congested liver!" So the body will take all the available energy and channel it into the liver. As a result the weight loss stops. The body will NOT take away any energy needed for daily activities and maintenance. It will only take what is left over to start the healing process. It's my belief that the body does not completely heal one part before moving on to the next item on its priority list. Rather, it heals a part to the degree that it is no longer a priority. At that point the healing attention is shifted to the part of the body that is now in most need of repair. In the above example, once the liver has been cleansed somewhat, the body will refocus its attention on other areas... perhaps back to weight loss. During my weight loss period, I would hit plateaus where it seemed like I'd never lose another pound. I lost 10 pounds and then nothing for 3 weeks. During that time I woke up one morning and my arthritis was gone and my blood sugar had stabilized somewhat. If you keep on your diet and exercise program, you will eventually lose all the weight you want. A healthy body is not overweight. Remember, "Always strive for health and the weight loss will happen!"

MaryAnn, I happened to hear a man on TV talking about diets for being fit and healthy. He said when a person is carrying their extra weight in the belly, it is usally from sweets. Too much sugar, and that is my problem. I'm now into the start of my third week of cutting down drasticly on my sugar intake. I haven't left it out completely, but I can tell you if you try to make a batch of homemade brownies with half the sugar - don't bother wasteing the ingredients! LOL! Yuck! To still indulge myself in chocolate, I eat about 6 - 8 semi sweet chocolate chips. I have always prefered dark chocolate over milk choco. No deserts around here! I have to watch out for beverages with corn syrup in them too. I drink a lot of water. The first week w/o sugar I thought I was going to have to give up, but I hung in there and wrung my hands a lot, and paced the floor often. It is diffinately an addiction! I have finally lost 3 pounds and my belly is a bit improved. This is tough, and I am sticking with the biking, but "I WILL do this!" Hayjud

I have 5 gallons of home brewed beer. It is a "full body" beer, so plenty of complex sugars, with low alcohol and low hops (.9oz hops, most of which was left in the brew kettle). The yeast slurry (mix of proteins and inactive yeast) is about 4" thick in the 12" round jug. Unfortunately for ME the brew was infected with some sort of bacteria or fungus that has produced a white layer on top and rendered it undrinkable (for flavour reasons, not health concerns. Pathogens don't grow on beer) I read about the really crappy experiment to see if beer helps plants (it was used in a hydroponic system), but I'm more interested in using it to feed the microbes that I just deposited on my lawn in the form of compost, hoping that it will boost them to ravenously eat the soy bean meal I just spread so I can spread some more asap. As a brewer I don't make beer, I farm yeast. So understand the idea that I don't grow grass, I farm soil microbes. This seems perfectly reasonable to me as a means of a) disposing of the beer in a useful manner and b) temporarily boosting the metabolism of my micro herd. Bad batches happen now and then, so I may make this a semi-regular occurrence. Perhaps toss down some SBM and jolt the herd into action with a bad batch of beer. Thoughts?