I am 27 yrs old and am overall healthy. I have been dealing with constipation for about 8 years and in the past 3 years, things are no better. I feel like I have tried absolutely everything as well as all of the tests to see if something is wrong. My gastro doctor came to the conclusion that I for sure have IBS-C and my blood work is significant of Crohns but the other tests such as colonoscopy and pill test did not support that. He said that Crohns is indeed a disease and my symptoms will worsen if not taken care of. The only thing I have is severe constipation and do not go to the bathroom.My daily routine consists of aloe vera juice 2 times a day, fish oil, probiotics, and tons of water, veggies, and fruit. I recently started using digestive enzymes and have not seen any difference and just started taking Magnesium citrate today. So, I am not sure if this will make much difference.I excerise daily and feel like I eat very well. Hardly ever do I eat anything that is high in fat or bad for me. I hardly eat raw salads because I have heard that they are harder to digest. So, I stick to eating alot of cooked vegetables. I have tried eating high fiber foods but may need a bit more? Im not sure at this point.I have even tried prunes and prune juice and all this has done is left me very bloated. I also tried taking Amitza daily and....no change.Does anyone have any suggestions that I could try or do differently? At this point, I am willing to try anything.Thanks
Advice needed
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About 8 yrs ago, I was taking for about 2 years prior Cascara Sagada. I went into GNC telling them of my problems and they recommended this. Of course now me knowing what it is and does, I know that I may have ruined my colon. Previous doctors when mentioned this didnt think it was a big deal taking these pills. When I went to my present gastro MD, he said get off of those right away. He said that long term use can slow down the colon. I do think that this may be one of the issues and hopefully it is going to get better because I have not taken any of those or anything with stimulants in it for about 2 1/2 years. My mom said that when I was a baby, I was constipated and she would put Karo syrup in my bottles to help me. I was fine up to about high school and got worse after that.We did test my blood, sythroid, did the gluten test, and several other things. Iron levels were good. We did the colonoscopy about 1 year ago and he biopsed and there was some inflammation. And the blood work showed increased levels pointing to crohns but he says its difficult to diagnose. Yes, I did the capsule endoscopy about 3 months ago to make sure that small intestine was ok and it looked fine. He just mentioned that it went VERY slow and he was suprised at how slow it was. Therefore, since I haven't gotten worse over the past 2 years he says IBS-C and to try magnesium and digestive enzymes to see if these make any difference. I just got up and did aloe, probiotics, and magnesium and am just waiting : ) this is only day 2 on the magnesium and I have taken the digestive enzymes for 1 wk. I am never in any pain. Only occassional discomfort when I eat to much at one time or am gasey with certain foods I eat.Just frustrating because I spent so much of my time focusing on my diet and trying to see what works and doesn't work for me. Do you think that I have a lazy colon and am going to have to be like this and try to find things that help and maybe one day it will start working normally?
Hard to say Heather but see how these new things you are trying help. But sometimes.. our IBS has very little to do with what we eat. The whole stimulant thing.. Not sure your Dr is right on dismissing ALL of them.Read this thread and pay particular attention to Kathleen's responses:http://www.ibsgroup.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=118950Keep us posted on how you do with this new regime.
Thank you for your response. I do too want to stay on top of things and let me body more or less talk to me. So, after reading that blog from Kathleen, I am under the assumption that the daily use of magnesium citrate tablets is ok and not habit forming or damaging to the colon. And if I am not seeing an improvement with the use, that I can up my dosage? What is the most that a person should take daily? I definitely do not want to exceed that.I do drink tons of water. That is all that I drink daily and occassionally a glass of tea. So, I am definitely doing well on that.
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And I forgot to mention, my other gastro drs in the past dismissed the stimulant thing and said that it was ok to take, so back years ago I did continue to do so. So, about 2 1/2-3 years ago, I went to my new Gastro Dr. and he is the one that said that Casara Sagada is NOT good to take daily, to get off of immediately. So, now I am aware of the ingredients of things and make sure that with my teas and everything that they do not contain any of those.
Heather, just so you know, it isn't a blog btw. We have some of those too here. (You can find them in the medium blue menu bar above us here.But the link I gave you was simply another thread like this one you started. It's just further down the page is all.Again here is another thread that will have the inofrmation about how much magnesium is ok: (This thread is back a few pages on the forum..) Just click here:http://www.ibsgroup.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=117215You can also use the "Search" function up above us here to locate information too. It is on the right side towards the end of that same medium blue menu bar.
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Most of the recent data shows that whatever "cathartic colon" they though a stimulatory laxative did to you (one that was taken off the market for other reasons) the current ones on the market do not seem to cause. If the constipation gets worse, it gets worse with or without out them so they don't seem to cause added damage.However if you want to avoid all stimulatory laxatives, stop the aloe. Aloe latex (so whole leaf aloe, not extracts with just the gel) have the same thing in them cascara and senna do. You also want to avoid any tea with rhubarb and quite a few other ingredients. http://www.herbs2000.com/h_menu/anthraquinones.htm has a fairly good list of the herbs with the anthroquinones like Cascara. However it does buy into the older idea that they always in all people are extremely damaging, and like I said the recent medical data does not support that theory.Osmotic laxatives pull water into the colon. They do not effect the colon muscles at all. Magnesium salts are a common osmotic laxative (all the different salts work) but you do have to watch dose. Most people will clear any amount of magnesium they take but if your kidneys are not completely up to snuff it can build up. The usual recommended daily upper limit is 1000 mgs a day (and there is some in the diet). Some people are OK above that, but if you need a lot of magnesium to keep things going you may need to limit the total amount of magnesium and add Miralax. It isn't absorbed so you can't really overdose it like you can magnesium and if you build up too much magnesium in your body over time you can screw up your heart rhythm and that can be fatal. Even though we need an average of 400 mgs of magnesium a day to remain healthy, that doesn't mean it is safe at all doses for all people. Short term high dose tends to be OK unless your kidneys are really messed up, but not high dose every day. Now for people who have good kidneys it is pretty hard to get to the toxic overload on magnesium, but you don't often know you have kidney problems until they are really bad.Usually what they do for people with slow transit constipation (and you may want to see if they will do the sitz marker test) is lower fiber (as you have more days total in there) with as much osmotic laxative (usually miralax as there really isn't an upper limit) as it takes to keep the stool wet enough to move.Some other things you can try. Add walking or jogging to your exercise routine (or increase those). That tends to stimulate the bowels. If you want to try to make sure the after meals increase in movement is as big as possible stick to 3 meals a day with no snacks in between and make sure you eat some fat with each meal. So you don't want to go extremely low fat, but something more like the Mediterranean diet. If you need to limit fiber use processed grains more than the whole grains it often has to keep fiber limits to where you are comfortable. Some people will do a bathroom visit (10 minutes or so to see if you can go) about an hour after meals to try to help train the colon to move things. Don't sit and strain, but kinda try to get in the mood for a BM and see if the body can pick up on that.Yoga and T'ai Chi or other movement systems that twist the torso can also help move things along. People often fart in those classes because it gets stuff moving.You may want to try abdominal massage. Don't push really hard but start on the lower right and work your way along the colon, so up the right side to the ribs, across the torso and then from the left ribs down the left side. Try doing small circles in each spot then move along to the next one.If you strain a lot even with soft stools (so hard, dry, hard to pass stools usually are kinda of by definition hard to pass
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) you might want to consider getting pelvic floor testing. Some people can't relax to let things out and that can slow the whole thing down (think of a highway where it narrows down to one lane. You get backed up for miles because of one block in the flow).
Where do you go to get pelvic floor help? I've had internal massage and that didn't seem to help. Is there something else available? What does one do to relax the pelvice floor? PS I'm a yoga teacher, I already meditate and relax daily. I'm also well aware of my muscles internally but can't seem to get the spasm to let go. I had a pudendal block earlier this year to no avail.
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What you want is a clinic that does biofeedback for the pelvic floor. Usually I would think check the Gastroenterology department at teaching or other large research hospitals near you. They may be more likely to have this than a small private practice.
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