FediMan

My digestion used to be awful: venomous wind, uncontrollable diarrhoea, and cramps that felt like someone squeezing my balls. I often had to cancel social engagements at the last minute, or couldn't leave the house at all.

Over the years, I've found some things that help. I'm not a doctor and can't give medical advice, but perhaps some of what I've learnt can help you.

Caffeine

For me, caffeine is a gut stimulant. I now avoid caffeinated tea and coffee, cola and chocolate. (Decaf green tea seems to be safe.) There must be something bad in chocolate besides caffeine, because it used to cause worse symptoms than coffee.

As anyone who's given up coffee will tell you: don't go cold turkey.

Alcohol

If I drink in the evening, I'll be on the loo the following morning. Ale and Belgian beer seem to be worse than wine, but wine will still do it. I do still drink, but in moderation, and not if I have to go out early the next day.

Animal fat

If I went into Burger King or McDonalds, I'd be rushing to the toilet within minutes. I now cut the fat off meat and avoid commercial hamburgers and other processed meat, and we always buy skimmed milk.

Home-made burgers made from low-fat pork mince are fine.

I can't comment on cheese, because I hate the taste of it.

Stress

Most people's guts are more troublesome when they're seriously stressed. I'm no exception. There are lots of online resources about combating stress. A few of them are even worth reading, though most don't quite hit the spot for me.

Vitamin D

I'm low in vitamin D. (That's not guesswork: I've been tested.) Supplements make a noticeable, but not revolutionary, improvement to my digestion.

It's easy to overdose on vitamin D, because it's fat-soluble: unlike (say) vitamin C, the bodyh doesn't just excrete what it doesn't need. More is not always better. Read up from trusted sources, and remember that 90% of the health information on the Web is tendentious tosh written by snake-oil sellers.

Probiotics

I've tried several brands over the years, and I've now settled on one that really helps. Everyone's gut is different, and what works best for me might not be best for you, which is why I'm not naming it here. The only way to find out is to try several brands, one at a time, for a month each. If you stop taking them and, within a week or two, things get worse again, you know you've found one that works for you.

Probiotics are expensive — typically 50p to £1 a day — and so they're not within reach of everyone. AFAIK, they're not available on the NHS: you have to go to the health food shop or the usual online retailers.

Prebiotics

I didn't get any benefit from prebiotics, but I've always eaten plenty of fruit, vegetables and wholemeal, so I'm probably not the target market. Some people say prebiotics help.

Exercise

I've seen exercise touted as a digestion aid. It has all sorts of benefits, and you should definitely do it, but it doesn't help my digestion at all.

CBD

CBD really helps with stress and anxiety, and I still take it, but it doesn't help my digestion as much as I'd hoped.

Curcumin (from turmeric)

I find curcumin not only reduces joint pain but helps me tolerate wholemeal bread.

If you try it, you'll want to take one of the modern curcumin preparations, such as Meriva or NovaSOL, because whole turmeric is often contaminated with lead and is very hard for the body to absorb.

Some people, including those who take blood thinners, shouldn't take curcumin. Do your reading before you buy.

Again, AFAIK, Curcumin isn't available on the NHS, but you can get it from the same places that sell probiotics. Again, you'll be paying 50p to £1 a day, which isn't affordable for everyone.

Sleep

My digestion seems better when I've slept semi-decently. Sleep is a struggle for lots of people, including me, but better sleep seems to mean better digestion. (Or maybe bad sleep and bad digestion are both consequences and causes of stress.)

Loperamide

Loperamide is useful when nothing else works. I find it more useful for cramps and diarrhoea than for wind. I get it on prescription, but I hardly ever need it nowadays. It's a drug of abuse, so take as little as you can. I rarely take it, even as a precaution, because:

The big one: junk food

Some people reading this will have Arfid. I'm not judging anyone. I understand that food is difficult for many people. Everyone has to eat on a budget, everyone has time constraints, some people have children who are picky eaters, and some don't have cooking facilities. I get it.

Nevertheless, I got huge benefits from cutting junk food out of my diet. In a normal week, I'll have no crisps, biscuits, cakes, sweets, chocolate, takeaways, ready meals, pizza, fish and chips, curry, commercial hamburgers, sausage, bacon, ham, white bread, fruit juice or fizzy drinks. And you know what? My digestion is hugely better — close to normal now. I'm free of painful cramps, I can leave the house whenever I want to, and I can go to dinner with friends without having to walk out during the main course. Not only that, but I'm more relaxed and buoyant, I weigh less, and I have less joint pain. (Still a significant amount, but meaningfully less.)

Who'd have thought that my body and mind would work better when I stopped feeding them junk and gave them healthy, home-cooked food instead?

I didn't just cut out all this stuff in one big bang. That would have been unsustainable. Instead, I stopped eating one or two types of junk food at a time, waited until I no longer seriously missed them, and then moved on to the next one. It took years.

You don't have to go as far as I did. Just cutting down on junk food, rather than cutting it out altogether, is still helpful. Crisps and chocolate were the biggest culprits for me, so you could go for one month, replacing crisps with unsalted nuts and replacing chocolate with fruit. Don't replace crisps with salted nuts, because those often use the same cooking oil as crisps and you won't learn anything from the experiment.

Ten years ago, living without crisps and chocolate would have sounded miserable and unsustainable. That stuff is addictive, and I used to crave it. If I go to a party and start eating it, I'll inevitably binge, because junk food is engineered to make you crave more junk food. But, now that I no longer eat it routinely, I'm happier, healthier and calmer, and pretty well in control of my digestion.