Is having gas of any value to a J-pouch owner?

I am not sure but the question may be a moot point...meaning, gas is a by-product of what you eat and what is eating you (bacteria...) and the interaction between the 2...

Gas is produced most often during digestion (although you can drink it by ingestion carbonated drinks like coke or bubbly water etc).

Depending on what you eat and how your body feels about it, you can produce less or more, plus pouchitis and bacterial overgrowth can also be culprits...you can find yourself in trouble due to a run of antibiotics that kills a lot of the good bacteria along with the bad as well.

You can fight this with probiotics, digestive enzymes, yogurt, a low carb/low sugar diet and supplements like Beano.

Reducing your gas will not effect your pouch in a bad way...it may make you feel better too...

Get yourself a food diary going, write down what you eat and how it effects your digestive system and how it goes through you...that may show some patterns as well...I know that straight milk (cold or hot), will throw my pouch into a gassy tizzy, so will highly carbonated drinks, any mix of carbs and sugar (pancakes & syrup, toast and jam...) or things like sweet potatoes and prunes...

If I eat them I know that I am in for a bad, bad night.

On the other hand, I eat a banana at 10am then 2 plain Greek yogurts for lunch and can go all day without emptying my pouch...no gas, no output.

Just play with your diet it and see what happens.

Sharon

Beano is only helpful for gas from beans, cruciferous vegetables, etc. It does work well for those foods, though. You don't *need* gas, but to some degree you're probably stuck with it.

Thanks, guys!  You answered my key question about whether gas was "necessary" to help digestion, out through the pouch.  I take strong probiotics and eat a pretty low-carb diet, now, but am also on a run of Sulfasalazine to prevent pouchitis, after a bout with returning anastomosis  strictures, which i now keep open by self-dilating with an18mm Hegar Uterine dilator, once-a-week.  Maybe when I get off the Sulfasalazine I'll have less gas, and I 'll use Beano when I eat those veggies!  Thanks again for your advice.