DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I have read articles about irritable bowel syndrome many times, but no one mentions what foods to avoid. Just the other day I found out that foods I eat the most are no-nos – French fries, cheese, ice cream and any milk product. – M.S.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Would you discuss IBS? — J.R.

ANSWER: Stomach pain (often crampy and often relieved by a bowel movement), too few or too many stools (constipation, diarrhea or alternating between the two) and a change in stool consistency (hard or liquid) are the main features of irritable bowel syndrome. Scopes, X-rays, scans and lab tests show no abnormalities. However, the muscles that encircle the digestive tract and propel food throughout its length are out of sync, and the sensations they produce are interpreted by the brain as painful signals.

Diet? It’s an individual thing. Whatever bothers a particular patient should be eliminated from the diet. Often-incriminated foods include dairy products, eggs, wheat, goods baked with yeast, beans and caffeine-containing foods and drinks. If a person cannot identify a particular food that’s troublesome, then that person begins to fashion a diet by setting aside one of the commonly incriminated foods for two weeks to see if symptoms improve. If they don’t, bring back that food and eliminate the next one.

People for whom constipation is a problem should slowly increase fiber in their diet, and a good choice is psyllium, available under many names in all drugstores. For crampy pain, hyoscyamine (Anaspaz is one brand name), belladonna or dicyclomine (Bentyl) can often control it. Loperamide (Imodium) works for diarrhea. Many find that probiotics – friendly intestinal bacteria taken in powder or capsule form or in yogurt – are a boon. Culturelle contains the bacterium lactobacillus; Align has bifidobacterium; VSL#3 has eight different bacterial strains. There are many other probiotic products.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I would like to know about the condition called sarcoidosis. – C.T.

ANSWER: Sarcoidosis is a mystifying illness without a proven cause but with many suggested contenders – viruses, bacteria, the mineral beryllium and pine pollen. The illness can attack many body organs including the liver, heart, eye, skin and brain, but the two leading organs are the lungs and lymph nodes.

Granulomas are the trademark of this condition. They’re heaps of dead warrior cells whose remains are found in targeted organs.

Some affected people have no symptoms. With lung involvement, difficulty breathing and cough result. A few people with widespread involvement are quite sick and face a daunting challenge.

When called for, the most common treatment is with prednisone, one of the cortisone drugs. Most sarcoidosis patients have a good prognosis. Somewhere between 10 percent and 30 percent have to contend with a longer-lasting illness or an illness that progressively worsens.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I have two questions. After looking at my CT scan, my urologist told me I have some small cysts in my left kidney. He said that, at my age (91), I have nothing to worry about. Is this true?

After breaking a bone in my foot, my doctor suggested I start taking Centrum Silver. Could this medication cause constipation? – F.M.

ANSWER: You can trust your urologist with as much faith as you would trust Honest Abe Lincoln. Those small cysts are not going to bother you one bit. They’re not going to make you sick or shorten your life. They’re “incidentilomas” – incidental findings that have no bearing on health.

Centrum Silver really isn’t a medication. It’s a multivitamin, one that contains all the important vitamins as well as many minerals, including zinc and calcium. It has vitamin D, which is so essential for calcium absorption. Perhaps your bone break came about from osteoporosis and your doctor made the suggestion to take this preparation to stop osteoporosis from worsening. The pill shouldn’t constipate you.

Dr. Donohue regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but he will incorporate them in his column whenever possible. Readers may write him or request an order form of available health newsletters at P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. Readers may also order health newsletters from www.rbmamall.com.