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Well, a beer and a smoke won’t do too much to screw up your guts, I think. I had a problem a few years back because I just wasn’t eating right, not getting enough sleep, that kind of thing.

I tried handling it with a few different over-the-counter meds but after a few days of increasingly painful stomach cramps, I went to the hospital. The doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me for 16 hours, and gave me no solid food, which just caused other problems. I noticed the stuff they gave me in an IV drip, which was just a different OTC med, immediately made my symptoms disappear. Finally some doc came back and told me I had an “irritated small intestine” and they wanted to hold me overnight and do a colonoscopy.

I said “no thanks”, got the same meds they were giving me at the drugstore, went home, and just made sure I ate better, getting a bit more fiber and some yoghurt in me. After a week, I never had the problem again.