# Psyllium causes IBS?



## oceannir (Mar 6, 2012)

This is pretty radical, but I look back at my problems and it seems to be when they started. I understand i'm a bit fixated on this, but im very frustrated with doctors for not giving basic warnings with this product.When I was younger constipation was common for me, but it wasn't massive IBS mode. I remember after one typical bout I went to the doctor and he gave me psyllium. I saw a few doctors following this and they all recommended it. So I started taking it, I was only younger and the doctor said with constipation higher doses are often more effective. I'd take 2 doses per day and would often take 2 teaspoons at night and sometimes 2 in the morning. This was basically all they gave me to control it with. Now this was all fine, I assumed it was always helping because 'the doctors said so' I continued to battle with irregularity and constipation. But I figure this was helping.A few years following this it got really bad for me for no obvious reason, one day my bowels just seemed to shut down and its been horrific ever since. But in heinsight (mostly through these boards and the internet as a whole) i've learnt that psyllium can actually cause constipation. I asked my GI doctor about it and he said in extreme cases it can cause an obstruction if you have a narrowed digestive tract, but he's never heard of it worsening constipation. But there seems to be evidence out there of this.Now I may be putting 2 and 2 together and getting 19, but it has made me wonder if taking psyllium for years when I was younger was actually predisposing me to the constipation, and exasperating it rather then helping it. Although I must admit, this is ignoring all the evidence that it can 'help'.Is the whole psylium can worsen constipation fears legitimate? Or are they just an example of the internets voice speaking louder for a few individual cases. Its just I hear this drug widely recommended for constipation, its sold in practically every supermarket and seems to be getting more and more entrenched in normal cereals. The doctors all pass it off as this little thing that has no negative effects, but if it could be counter to the very thing its promoted for that is quite relevant imo. I was never warned or told that if you take this it can lead to worsened constipation, and im sure today millions of people around the world are eating it thinking there is no risk of worsening constipation.Thoughts on this?


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## rhonalomey (Aug 15, 2005)

Psyllium is a plant not a drug, it cant cause constipation as it softens stools and helps to get things moving. I have taken it for years and dont know how I would have managed without it.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

I don't think there is anywhere near the kind of data to show that psyllium causes constipation.After all people who are likely to have constipation get worse as time goes on will likely have taken psyllium. I'd bet most of them would have taken it. However, so have lots of people who take psyllium very regularly and never have the constipation get worse.However, we like to look for causes, and even when something is an effect we will try to turn it into the cause.If fiber caused constipation then everyone in poor countries with very high fiber diets would be in real trouble, the entire population, and most of them are very regular and never have any constipation problems.


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## oceannir (Mar 6, 2012)

Kathleen M. said:


> I don't think there is anywhere near the kind of data to show that psyllium causes constipation.After all people who are likely to have constipation get worse as time goes on will likely have taken psyllium. I'd bet most of them would have taken it. However, so have lots of people who take psyllium very regularly and never have the constipation get worse.However, we like to look for causes, and even when something is an effect we will try to turn it into the cause.If fiber caused constipation then everyone in poor countries with very high fiber diets would be in real trouble, the entire population, and most of them are very regular and never have any constipation problems.


You probably are right, its just now that i've actually looked into it it has 'worsening constipation' as one of the possible reactions if you don't stay hydrated enough. And I don't remember even been warned of that as a kid when every doctor and his uncle was recommending I take it. Now its a bit too late to do any sort of study if i'd be better off the psyllium


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

But I don't think that is permanent and unending for every more to only get worse and worse if you but one time forget to drink enough water.Hard dry stool is hard to pass no matter what size. Making it a little larger by taking fiber and not drinking any water isn't going to make the constipation better and may make that stool harder than usual to get out, but it isn't likely to cause permanent unending damage forever. I would think it would be more of a in the moment.We don't really know why some people have such issues with constipation but the studies comparing those who tried something with those who just suffered without doing anything at all seems to indicate nothing people do to ease symptoms causes it to get worse if it wasn't going to get worse anyway.I don't know that beating yourself up for taking something even as benign as a fiber supplement is really helpful.


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## oceannir (Mar 6, 2012)

Kathleen M. said:


> But I don't think that is permanent and unending for every more to only get worse and worse if you but one time forget to drink enough water.Hard dry stool is hard to pass no matter what size. Making it a little larger by taking fiber and not drinking any water isn't going to make the constipation better and may make that stool harder than usual to get out, but it isn't likely to cause permanent unending damage forever. I would think it would be more of a in the moment.We don't really know why some people have such issues with constipation but the studies comparing those who tried something with those who just suffered without doing anything at all seems to indicate nothing people do to ease symptoms causes it to get worse if it wasn't going to get worse anyway.I don't know that beating yourself up for taking something even as benign as a fiber supplement is really helpful.


Oh i'm not worried that the fiber supplement done damage itself, i'm concerned about the fact that the fiber supplement could have been _causing _the constipation. If it was helping I don't begrudge it at all. But I never thought to go off it to see if it made any difference because I always assumed it was completely harmless, couldn't make things worse and provided a small amount of assistance. But now I hear that they can actually provoke constipation, when every single doctor feels that they improve it and thats all. I've yet to read any studies of the fiber supplements provoking it, and maybe they were helping me, I don't really know and I never will know. But I think it seems like a reasonable assumption that there is a possibility it may have been provoking a condition I would have been OK with, or no worse, without taking them. As an adult you typically look at if this is helping, has it made things better. As a kid you tend to just take whatever you are given, and hope that it will work.And yes, there is alot of beating myself up about it going on, but its horrific to think that the medication they gave you to help, could have actually gone some way to causing the problems I still suffer from.


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