Stomach upset, gas and bloating. What could this be?

Posted on Mon, 25 Nov 2013

Question: My wife has had stomach upset, gas, bloating, etc for several weeks. She has kept a food diary, but has had no success eliminating anything in particular. This has led her to a conclusion that corn could be an issue since it is in nearly everything in one form or another. However, she has also noticed she has a lowered body temperature coincident with stomach symptoms (just took temperature and was 96 F). Anything these symptoms might suggest?

Answered by Dr. Chobufo Ditah (3 hours later)

Brief Answer: ?Irritable bowel syndrome..See gastroenterologist. Detailed Answer: Hi and thank you so much for this query. I a so sorry to hear about what your wife has been experiencing. I hope together we can figure out what the cause is and propose long lasting and worthy solutions to her. From the information you have provided, this could very much represent an irritable bowel syndrome. In this condition symptoms similar to those that you have described must have been going on for at least 12weeks with all investigations failing to identify any possible cause. I will like you to double check whether she has been having these symptoms for at least this time duration. This diagnosis is only arrived at through elimination. It means that all other possible causes would be investigated and completely ruled out before bringing this option on the table. With symptoms like the above, we shal carry out a complete and thorough clinical, laboratory and imagery test to investigate all possible cause. when none is found, then she shall be considered and treated fr the above condition. It has no identifiable cause and the good news is that it often always resolves in a majority of clients. For now, I will suggest that she gets consulted and evaluated by a gastroenterolgist. If there are no other concerns and the diagnosis confirmed, then she shall be proposed a treatment plan that would help her address this problem. I am afraid it is a little too early to conclude that corn is the probable cause of this. Wit a closer monitoring we may be able to do this in future. I will suggest that she tries to monitor the symptoms and correlate severity with different meal types as this can be very useful diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. The temperature is on the low side of normal but not completely abnormal. Please, do not get bothered by this. It is simply a coincidence and not abnormal from the outskirts. I hope this addresses your query fully and provides some guidance towards obtaining a solution to this. Thank you so much for using our services and feel free to ask for clarifications if need be. I wish her well. Dr. Ditah MD

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar