Reaching out
While Heather had found relief, she still felt isolated. “I thought I was the only one in the world who had these problems.” It wasn't until she went online that she discovered she was far from alone. In chat groups and on message boards, she discovered a huge community of IBS sufferers, all reporting the same complaints and eager for any advice on how to relieve their symptoms.

Heather sympathized with her fellow sufferers, and began posting responses on the message boards, giving out advice based on her own experience. By 1998, she'd developed a long e-mail that compiled her tips, and posted a message offering to send it to anyone who wanted it. “I was immediately overwhelmed with responses,” she recalls.

Soon, Heather began including recipes along with her dietary and lifestyle guidelines. “So often, people would say, ‘You've taken away my whole diet,' when I'd send them my guidelines,” she recalls. “And I thought, ‘But there's still plenty to eat.' I was a good cook and had lots of great recipes.”

Eventually, Heather's collection of IBS became too much for a single e-mail. “My document was just too large. I was crashing people's e-mail systems!” she says with a laugh.

Friends urged her to turn her insights into a book, but Heather was hesitant. “I assumed there would already be good books out there with dietary advice,” says Heather. “But after I looked around, I realized there weren't any. There were only a few books, and they were terrible. They had horrible advice. So I started to think maybe this would be a good book.”

Heather's first book was Eating for IBS . It outlined her basic dietary guidelines and offered a full cookbook of IBS-friendly recipes. She followed it up with The First Year: IBS , a comprehensive guide to the ailment. Her original e-mail eventually evolved into an extensive website that now supports one of the largest online IBS support communities.