I’ve looked all over online and haven’t found an answer: My boyfriend has had several of these “bouts” in the last year where he’ll eat something (2 of these times it was something I ate too- never the same thing) and within 4 hours he’ll have these terrible sulphur-smelling belches followed by terrible, hours-long diarrhea. The first time it WAS eggs, so we chalked it up to bad eggs, but the last 2 times, it was something entirely different. Last night we had ribs at a local chain restaurant- I tasted just about everything he had.
WTF? I haven’t convinced him (yet) to see a doctor. Any ideas?
Speaking generically, and not at all trying to diagnose over the net, I’ll point out that foul burps and episodic diarrhea can be symptoms of bacterial overgrowth of the bowel. In other words, although bacterial growth and presence is normal in the large bowel (colon), there are conditions where bacteria can also proliferate in the small bowel and stomach.
The most frequent causes include conditions where the motility (movement and peristalsis) of the bowel is slowed down. Normally, such activity and movement of the bowel (peristalsis) tends to prevent bacteria from taking root. If bacteria do take root and then multiply, the products of bacterial metabolism lead to the foul smell and the diarrhea. Some of the predisposing conditions include previous stomach surgery, active ulcers near the far end of the stomach, and diabetes.
Sometimes, there can be outpouchings of the small bowel present (diverticuli - similar to the common ones found in the colon) where food gets trapped. This can also lead to bacterial overgrowth.
In theory, the long term use of potent drugs that turn off stomach acid secretion (e.g. prevacid, prilosec, nexium) can also cause bacteria overgrowth (the absence of killing acid allows the bacteria to grow where they normally wouldn’t be able to).
He has high cholesterol (well, not any more) and takes 7.5 gram scoops of Colestid powder in his morning shake and 10 mg of Zocor at night. Of course he eats whatever he wants. His cholesterol is below 180.
p.s. his stomach also sounds like an aquarium during this thing. It’s the freakiest-sounding thing ever. It’s like his stomach is full of 3 gallons of water and air is bubbling up to the top.
I’ve made him swear to me he’ll go to the doctor next week. I told him I’ll leave him if he doesn’t (of course I won’t, but that’s how I’ll get him to go ; )
Seeing the doctor is important. There could be more than one explanation.
However, if it is bacterial overgrowth in the bowel (and there are some bacteria that are known sulphur producers), just eating live-culture yogurt could do a lot to alleviate the problem - both the odor and the diarrhea. Lactase-producing bacteria are the ones that a breast-fed baby has, and they will also drive out competitors in the intestines. There is (now rather old) published research that established that breast-fed babies are much less susceptible to salmonella, shigella, and other nasties (it was a very large twin study in South America - Brazil, IIRC).
There may be other things going on, especially since he’s on medications. Seeing the doctor is the very first thing. However, I think that getting him to start eating yogurt regularly will help with the odor problem. If the doctor puts him on antibiotics, tell him not to eat yogurt within an hour (before or after) taking the antibiotic. It’ll kill the lactase producers. Even more importantly, the calcium would inactivate many of the most common antibiotics, which would mean a waste of both time and money.