# Very severe constipation, fiber not helping



## cw4 (Mar 8, 2015)

Hey guys. I'm Chris and I'm 27 years old. About 3 and a half years ago I started experiencing some pretty severe constipation. It came on suddenly and while I did have some periods of relief it never totally went away. Then a few months ago it started getting worse and I started having severe nausea. After a couple of weeks of that I went to the emergency room and when they did a CT scan of my abdomen they found that the entire left side of my large intestine was full. They gave me Miralax, told me to eat more fruits and vegetables and sent me home. Up until then my diet had been mostly meat and starchy foods like potatoes so I figured maybe that was the problem. I changed my diet and took the Miralax but that didn't resolve the issue so I went back and this time they gave me a bottle of magnesium citrate. That cleared me out but gradually the constipation came back after about two weeks. I went back and they gave me another bottle of it but again the constipation came back after about three weeks.

I finally saw my primary care doctor after waiting nearly two months and he gave me a ref to a gastroenterologist who then did a colonoscopy and an endoscopy. He found nothing besides a small colon polyp and mild gastritis so he gave me the same advice. Go home, eat more fiber and drink more water. Well long story short it's not helping. My stools are small, hard and bone dry like rabbit pellets and it feels like knives passing through my left side. Very painful. The only time I really get any relief is when I take Miralax. I posted about this on another board but they pretty much told me the same thing my doctor said. Eat more fiber and drink more water. Honestly though I don't think that's the problem. I feel that I'm meeting the daily recommended amount of fiber every day or at least coming close to it and I drink enough water that I'm hardly ever thirsty and it's not helping. All it's doing is making me go more often but not really fixing the problem.

So what should I do? Should I try seeing another gastro? Maybe try dealing with the issue alone? I'm not even sure if I have IBS but it seems likely at this point.


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## flossy (Dec 8, 2012)

Hi -

About 70% of us on this board who are chronically constipated think more fiber actually makes things worse (if not way worse), so try eating way less fiber and perhaps taking a laxative daily. Prune JUICE helps a lot too, just try different things to help you go.

IBS-C definitely seems to be a condition with no easy answers.

Note: I would avoid eating cheese and drinking regular milk.

Take care and keep us posted!


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## annie7 (Aug 16, 2002)

Hi Chris and welcome to the board.

so sorry for all your problems. suffering from chronic constipation is miserable.

like Flossy said, many of us here have found that fiber is not our friend. sure, it can help some people, if they are not getting enough fiber to begin with and IF fiber helps them go, but for a number of us--especially those of us suffering from colonic inertia (slow transit constipation) , adding fiber just makes constipation worse. dumping fiber into a slow working colon just makes things worse.

and yes-- if your current gastro isn't being proactive enough and helping you, by all means get a better gastro doc. often gastros affiliated with university hospitals or motility centers are more knowledgeable, proactive and up-to-date with treatments and testing than other gastros.

it really does help to get tested to help get to the bottom of things. i've had chronic constipation problems since childhood--over 50 years (i'm old lol).

i originally (back in the 70's) had been given a "spastic colon" diagnosis --what they called ibs-c back then--and yes, doctors gave me the fiber-water mantra too. which only made things worse. much later on, after reading other peoples' posts here on the board and doing my own research online i began to think my problems were a bit more complicated. i went to a good gastro, and asked for a sitz marker test (colonic transit study)which dx'd slow transit and possible pelvic floor dysfunction. . after that i had a defecatory proctogram--dx'd pelvic floor dysfunction and a rectocele, and an anal manometry which confirmed the pfd dx and also dx'd rectal hyposensitivity and megarectum. and a colonoscopy dx'd a long and twisted colon. having all these tests and getting these diagnoses helped my gastros work out a treatment plan for me which, while it certainly isn't perfect by any means, at least it helps make life a bit more livable. with all the problems i have going on down there, it's probably a miracle i can go at all--lol...

and yes, you are right about improving your diet. that can really help. too many starchy foods and/or too many gassy foods can also aggravate constipation. there's a lot of good diet advice both here on this board and also on the diet board.

if miralax helps--and it sounds like it would, since your stools are hard, by all means keep taking it.

don't know if you've treid this already but some people find taking magnesium supplements helps with C. Magnesium relaxes the muscles in the intestines which helps to establish a smoother rhythm and magnesium also helps soften the stool by attracting water to the colon which helps to make stools easier to pass.the amount and which type of mag supplement varies from individual to individual. you have to experiment to see what works for you. there are many different kinds: magnesium citrate, magnesium oxide, magnesium glycinate, chelated magnesium, liquid magnesium citrate (the supplement--not the stuff in the bottles you buy at the drug store) etc. a lot of people like powdered magnesium supplements like natural calm- you mix in water and drink it. we've got a ton of magnesium threads on here too.

there's a lot of good advice here on the board about dealing with chronic constipation so if you haven't already done so, take a look around.









good luck to you. hope you can find some relief.


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## tummyrumbles (Aug 14, 2005)

Fibre on top of an already inflamed colon will make things worse. Take away the inflammation and fibre won't bother you. This is what I've found, but I have functional IBS, unlike Annie. I've had amazing luck with fibre and meat over the last few days and I used to think that fibre was the enemy as well. Nature would be very cruel to make vegetables and fruits inflammatory. We were designed to eat these. We weren't designed to eat starches (well, not to the extent that we do - dry, concentrated tight balls of the stuff. Which do you think is really going to cause inflammation - something evolution has spent millions of years perfecting, or man-made starch? How many people with inflammation eat starch like rice, bread etc in the belief that low fibre is more soothing to their colon? This is making you sicker! We are very close to finding an organic cause for IBS and it's looking very much like starch is at the root of IBS. Starch and refined sugars feed pathogens, and they affect our immune system, causing inflammation. We keep eating the starch because we feel it's "soothing". The pathogens keep growing, we gradually get worse, IBS becomes SIBO or inflammatory bowel disease and we probably increase our risk of leaky gut as well. It's not vegetables that create toxins. It's starch and sugars. But no you can't just tuck into a huge salad if you're not used to it. You have to gradually work your way up to eating fibre comfortably. And there is no reason at all why you can't start out with mashed potato and pumpkin. Cook it for 2 hours if you have to. It's still way better than bread.


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## cw4 (Mar 8, 2015)

It's definitely nice to find some people who don't tell me to just eat more fiber lol. Tired of hearing that. Well I decided a few days ago that I would try either almond or soy milk since I've heard from some people that dairy milk makes IBS worse. I got a carton of almond milk and I gotta say it's not nasty like I figured it'd be. It's pretty good. Doubt I'll ever go back to cow's milk. Also I decided not to obsess over how much fiber I eat since it really wasn't helping anyway.

Just curious, have any of you been experiencing fatigue since your IBS diagnosis? I've been tired a lot this past month and a half. Sometimes I wake up and after a few hours I just wanna go back to bed.


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## cw4 (Mar 8, 2015)

I'm back. Okay so I have another question here. Since it's obvious that this isn't gonna be a short term problem I guess I'm gonna have to find a laxative to use on a long term basis until this IBS goes away, assuming it ever does. Anyway I've been using the Miralax once every few days and it works but I don't like the idea of putting an artificial chemical in my body on a regular basis like that. I'm guessing a lot of people here regularly use laxatives so do you know any good natural ones? I've heard that stimulant laxatives can permanently damage your colon muscles so I'm guessing I'll want to avoid those.

I haven't bothered to see that gastro again because I doubt he would know how to help me anyway and I definitely don't want to hear about eating more fiber again lol.


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## annie7 (Aug 16, 2002)

as far as natural laxatives are concerned....i've already mentioned magnesium supplements....

and of course, there's prune juice, prunes, any sorbitol containing fruit, some people say fruit-eze (not sure i spelled that right) helps...

some people say molasses helps or drinking hot/warm water in the morning with lemon juice. and then there's aloe vera juice, etc

some people have had success with triphala. it contains a combination of herbs etc.

here's a link to "the great list of remedies" which has a lots of constipation remedies on it, many of which are natural:

http://www.ibsgroup.org/forums/topic/152106-the-great-list-of-remedies/

and yes of course it's best to try all the natural remedies first. that's what i did.

about the stimulant laxatives--the ones currently on the market are considered safe. that's what my gastro docs and colorectal surgeons have told me. and i've read many studies about that as well. the laxatives that were thought to damage the colon were removed from the market years ago--i remember when that happened. of course, it's always best to get a doctor's approval before starting to take them on a regular basis.

good luck! hope you can find some relief.


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## cw4 (Mar 8, 2015)

Have you ever tried a soluble fiber supplement like Heather's Tummy Fiber? I've heard soluble fiber can be really helpful for both kinds of IBS.


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## annie7 (Aug 16, 2002)

oh yes, thanks, tried that and other kind of fiber supplements as well. and yes, i too have read that soluble fiber can be helpful.

after lots of experimentation, i've found that what works for me as far as fiber is concerned is eating a lower fiber diet (because of the colonic inertia and adhesions) and getting my fiber--soluble and insoluble-- from well cooked vegetables, also oatmeal and some fruit. but that's me. everyone is different.


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