Monday, September 6, 2010

Stomach Pains



Oh hi! It's me again... I have been on hiatus between work, training, life, and a very near and dear friend moving away I delegated less time to this blog than I had intended last week.


So as I have increased my mileage (anything over 12 miles or over 2 hours continuous running) I am finding that my stomach will cramp up afterwards and I will feel terrible. Much the way I would assume a Crohn's patient would feel. I have been doing much research online (yeah, I know) and am interested to see how a bunch of home remedies will work out for me. Also, people experience pain ranging from 'Runner's Trots' to ischemic colitis - which I am interested in, but do not feel I can self-diagnose at this point in time. Anyhow, I will then research at work tomorrow...

Does anyone out there have any other interesting or helpful ideas? I'm incredibly open to recommendations.

Things that I am interested in trialing:

1.) Making sure I get enough sodium. I sweat when I run. ALOT. I live in Phoenix, my treadmill room is routinely 90+ degrees. I had never really thought that I might be hyponatremic. I will definately invest in Powerade or Gatorade. I know I am not all that dehydrated because I feel dehydrated, but I'm still game, besides it tastes way better than plain water!


2.) Limit caffeine intake is another recommendation, but this is not a problem for me. I do not drink soda, coffee (maybe on Saturdays). So there may not be much hope for me there.


3.) I'm already not on any NSAIDs (ibuprofen etc).....

4.) Some doctors recommend to take Loperamide 2mg 30 minutes prior to running.... I might actually try this. This medication is over-the-counter and will slow the transit time in the GI tract.


5.) Eliminate lactose in the diet. Neonates will have cramping and other fun markers when they are lactose intolerant so this makes sense to me, however I do not really have any lactose incorporated into my diet for the most part.

6.) Eliminate stress. Yeah right. I wish.


7.) http://www.coolrunning.com/forums/Forum11/HTML/005260.shtml (This is a good runner's forum

Ok, I couldn't wait for professionally published literature. You can bet I'll be looking into these very soon:

Rehrer NJ, Janssen GM, Brouns F, Saris WH.Fluid intake and gastrointestinal problems in runners competing in a 25-km race and a marathon. Dept. of Human Biology, University of Limburg, Maastricht, The Netherlands.Int J Sports Med. 1989 May;10 Suppl 1:S22-5.

Up-To-Date: (AWESOME!!!!!!! Doctors and health care providers use this site very often)
http://www.uptodate.com/patients/content/topic.do?topicKey=~gvaTKHSBXABFQ

 Here I am after my 12 mile run this weekend. Hot 91 degree room, yes 3 sports bras. Glad that run is over. Ugh.