Bloating and gas in the evening no matter what

Hey everybody,

I am at a loss. I try to make it short.

First off, I never really had issues with my gut before. Then, end of september last year I got bloated one evening and had symptoms for about a week. We allocated it to having eaten long expired cheese crackers that day. The symptoms subsided.

A few days later I took a single dose of 5-htp (5- hydroxytryptophan, serotonin precursor from griffonia extract). Just wanted to test the supplement for sleep and mood and such. I had immediate stomach pain after taking the pill. It was a bad idea, since I am very sensitive to serotonergic drugs.

The next day I went to the bathroom like 4-6 times and had a feeling of incomplete bowel movements each time (I had no issues with BM prior to that). This happens now every day. It's been three month. My stools in the morning get increasingly loose with each one. After the last bowel movement (usually around noon) my large bowel feels sore and I often feel fatigued. In the evenings I am bloated and have "wet mucus farts" now and then. From 2pm to 6pm I am rather symptom free.

So my issues start when food hits my large bowel and develops gas and water there. The problem is, I have no idea if it is serotonergic/motility or structural/microbiome related (see background information above). It started with a 5-htp supplement, but there could have been an underlying issue that just manifested there.

My symptoms can be explained by something like SIBO, but also just by an accelerated small intestine transit time resulting in malabsorption there.

I did a glucose SIBO test which was inconclusive (and besides just tests the first part of the SI). My pankreas enzymes are fine, as well as inflammation marker in the stool. I did fodmap low diet, low carb diet. While low carb alleviated the symptoms a bit, they were still there. No matter what, I get bloating in the evening. Even if I just eat cucumber or plain potatos.

I am now taking digestive enzymes (Xylose Isomerase to help with fructose and Alpha-Galactosidase to help with oligosaccharides), psyllium husks and linseed and I avoid fructose and fresh vegetables. My symptoms are a better now: particularly my bowel movements went down to ~2 quite good shaped in the morning. I have no wet farts any more and the bloating is better. But it still is there, like, a lot on some days (I was never one to fart, before). And my gut just feels off.

It seems that I am not really addressing the root here. And I don't know if I should shoot in the one or the other direction.

Perhaps someone finds himself in this description and has some ideas :)

Thanks so much and much appreciated!