IBS can be painful, but food poisoning can be even worse.

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I have IBS, aka Irritable Bowel Syndrome which tend to come in waves without warning. Since yesterday I had a terrible attack of IBS and it was painful to say the least. If you have ever had these symptoms: 1. gas 2. bloating 3. trouble breathing (pressure against the rib cage from bloating) 4. acid indigestion 5. waves of nausea If you have had these symptoms you either have a case of stomach flu or food poisoning or a bad episode from IBS. Both can be triggered by certain kinds of foods. I must have a food allergy because I go for months without any of these symptoms but usually the symptoms occur a day after I have eaten or drank something that is perhaps out of date, spoiled or too spicy for me to tolerate. The cure for this is time. some steps to alleviate the nausea and localized stomach and intestinal bloating and gas require the following: 1. Try to be calm and if you are stressed out by the symptoms you will only swallow more air and get more bloated and then feel more inner pressure in your tummy and gut area all around to the back of your ribs. You may not even be comfortable laying down. You may experience acid reflux in addition to the bloating and this may create a feed back situation of fear, anxiety and a state of panic. 2. If you can, take a dose of sodium bicarbonate in a half level teaspoon to an 8 ounce glass of ice cold water, sip on it slowly while sitting up on a couch and try using a cold washcloth and apply it to the tummy and back and lower abdomen. 3. Take an anti-acid or swallow some maalox liquid: The only problem with this is, the symptoms may just have to go through their basic stages that might very well end in you throwing up everything in your stomach and heaving until you have nothing left in your stomach. This sometimes helps the symptoms go away faster but can be avoided if you try to relax and even spend an hour soaking in a very warm bath tub. I can't say that what experience I had last night was actually IBS and it very well could have been food poisoning. It happens. Spoiled milk, old cans of real lemon juice that has turned brown after setting in the cupboard for a year and a can of eagle brand sweetened condensed milk that when poured out of the can is not light yellow like it is when fresh but a deeper brown color. I had a slice of lemon ice box pie 2 days ago and after my wife descried the discoloration of both the lemon concentrate and the condensed and sweetened milk as well as the unusual flavor I had already consumed the piece of pie. I knew almost certainly that if I had eaten a contaminated food product I would have symptoms in under 24 hours. The next evening, the symptoms kicked in by starting off as general sense of acid indigestion and mild gas that became more intense every half hour until it was intolerable. So if what happened to me was food poisoning symptoms from some form of bacteria or IBS I am only glad the symptoms ended after 8 or nine hours of agony.