Dr. Ajeet Kumar
Medical Gastroenterology
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Patient's Query
Hello doctor,
I am a 36-year-old male, and for the last month on and off, I have been having urgency to defecate, extremely gassy, bowel rumbling, the undigested fiber in stool, and floating stool sometimes. The stool breaks apart in water and becomes mushy.
I had a colonoscopy and full bloodwork three months ago, and everything was normal. My liver, pancreas, and gallbladder are also fine. I usually only defecate once a day, but now it is 2 to 3 times a day. If I take fiber, I feel my poop starts to float, and I hate that. I think I have rapid intestinal transit. My doctor told me I had IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) and SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth). This all started to happen only after I quit my job and stopped smoking Marijuana. But I am going back on it now to slow down my gut.
Please help.
Hello,
Welcome to icliniq.com.
The symptoms you mention can be due to marijuana withdrawal symptoms that happened due to the stop of marijuana. It is important to remain sober since long-term use of these addictive drugs may affect your cognition, function, and dependence on these drugs.
Meanwhile, you should have certain medications which probably would have to improve your symptoms. Since all this started after drug withdrawal, I do not think it is related to IBS. Although it is not uncommon to have both things simultaneously, silent IBS can be precipitated due to stress over the gut, which could easily develop during drug withdrawal. Sleeplessness, anxiety, tremors of hands, mental fog, or irritability are the other common withdrawal symptoms.
If you are still willing to stop marijuana, I may help you by suggesting some anxiolytic medications plus medications which can improve your gut transit. It will also improve cramps or pain before your bowel movements.
Try the following medicines:
Tablet Rifaximin 200 mg thrice daily for two weeks
Tablet Colofac (Mebeverine hydrochloride) 135 mg thrice daily half an hour before meals.
Use tab Phloroglucinol thrice daily half an hour before meals for cramps and pain.
All these for two weeks and see if it improve your symptoms.
Patient's Query
Thank you for your reply, doctor.
This rapid intestinal transit has been going on for a month. I feel the weed has been masking my IBS for a long time. As soon as I quit, I get this issue where I defecate food that I ate the same day or night before. While I smoked weed, I did not have this problem often. Weed does slow down the intestinal tract. I have anticholinergic meds for IBS, but I dislike them because it gives me a dry throat and makes it hard to swallow.
Does any of my symptoms sound like cancer or something sinister? This has been an on-and-off issue since I joined the veterinary school. But it becomes very bad after leaving my job and quitting weed. I feel a little better since starting weed again, but this loose stool scares me, especially when I feel urgent to defecate. Will I be fine?
Hello,
Welcome back to icliniq.com.
No. I do not think there is any sinister diagnosis in you. Since you quite surely relate the weed withdrawal and onset of symptoms, your symptoms are secondary to drug withdrawal. If you happen to keep quiting marijuana this loose stools and various other withdrawl symptoms would improve on their own. Use the above regimen as described and I think this will certainly improve your symptoms. Marijuana works on Mu receptor of the gut, and this causes slow transit constipation, and to some it causes rapid transit, this largely depends on human body. But I am quite sure that you develop withdrawal symptoms and nothing serious like cancer.
I hope this helps.
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Medical Gastroenterology
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