I have always had certain issues with Christian dogma and in recent years it has become more bothersome to me. Of late I have been studying Judaism, Jewish traditions, and Jewish culture. During my studies the reasons for my issues starting becoming more and more clear to me. My heart has always been Jewish, it's just taken a while for my head to catch up. I directed my studies toward eventual conversion. This is a deeply personal thing to me and is between G-d and myself, and I state in no uncertain terms that this is not an invitation for religious debate, so just don't.
As part of my studies I adopted a Jewish diet about 10 days ago. I won't say it's kosher because in reality keeping kosher on the road, eating in truck stops, is nearly impossible. But I have done as best I can given the situation. I have avoided under cooked meats, pork ,shellfish, and the mixing of dairy and meats. The latter has proven a bit more tricky than I had thought. It's the little things like remembering to order toast without butter, or making sure to use non-dairy coffee creamer (or none at all). It really does require a bit of thought (which may actually be the whole point).
I bring all of this up simply because I have discovered that over the course of the past 10 days the dietary change has had a very unexpected effect. My IBS symptoms, which had been really flared up due to stress, have quieted down. While it's hardly a pleasant topic, everyone has a bowel and everyone has the related bodily functions. The past few days mine have been as close to what is considered "normal" as they have been in a good many years.
The best explaination for this side effect is most likely cutting out the mixing the dairy and meats. Both can be difficult to digest and having them both together may simply over tax the digestive system, at least for me. It coiuld also be the cutting out of pork from my diet. I had never realized just how much pork I actually ate in a week. Mostly breakfast foods, but it was quite a lot.
So despite all of the gloom and doom going on in my life at the moment there is a little good too. I'll take what I can get.