# Is a heating pad safe to use all night while sleeping? and ...????



## 13604 (Jun 30, 2006)

I would like to sleep with the heating pad on b/c I been in pain, cramps, spasms all day. I had very hard stools this morning. I wasn't able to eat dinner(pain is too much) tonight and I'm planning to take some MOM at bed time. I'm still trying to figure out what is the cause for my hard/dry stool. My stool is always soft and loose. I do get incomplete evacuation, but is never hard/dry stool. Can taking Beano or Slippery elm daily cause this? I also been eating lots of red kidney beans for a while, but not sure if that could be the cause, Do you think? I do eat a high IF breakfast, lots of water, flax seeds and magnesium supplement. Any ideas as to what could be the cause and a way to prevent it??? I would really appreciate your help. Thank you!Blessings,Abi


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

You may have upped the fiber without enough water, but then again occasional constipation isn't unheard of.Be careful with heating pads when sleeping they can be too hot and burn the skin. You might try one of the Thermacare wraps that is designed to be on the skin for 8 hours straight.Typically IBS pain calms down at night because the colon "rests" during the night so you may not need something all night long even if you were in pain all day.K.


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## 13604 (Jun 30, 2006)

Kathleen, Thank you for your reply. Is Slippery Elm like a Fiber Supplement? or Is it different? I been taking b/c I thought it was different. I took Benefiber last year and got chronic C. I don't want to keep taking it if its a fiber supplement. I been having the Slippery Elm for a while, but been increasing the amount a little. HELP!!!I took some MOM last night, but I didn't get the results that I usually get when I take it. Some stool came out, not much, and it wasn't watery like it always is after I take MOM. Could it be that the stool was to hard? Should I try to take more tonight? Any thoughts...why was it less efective this time??? It's been a while since I didn't take it, but it always cleanse me out when I took it before.I also been eating some organic brown rice cakes for a snack daily. Could that make things worst? Maybe I should buy a stool softener like Colace. I never had to take anything like that before b/c my stool is always soft and loose since I eat a high IF diet and lots of water.I hope to hear from you or anybody else that might have some helpful info, advice and suggestions soon. PLEASE !!!!!!!!Thank you ALWAYS !!!Blessings,Abi


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Beans are high in fiber so I'm thinking adding all that. I think the part of slippery elm that helps is fiber like compound. Let me check. http://www.1001herbs.com/slipperyelm/ they use words like mucilage and long chain polysaccharides which at least is fiber like (think guar gum that is in benefiber) I'm not sure how much of that fiberous inner bark (one other site used fiberous) you break down before it gets to the colon so it might count as fiber, but they mostly describe it as a gel, but I'd guess you are getting a lot more fiber from the beans. The stuff in slippery elm is supposed to help things slide along smoothly so it might be OK even if other fiber bothers you, but if you can't have any fiber at all it might not be good for you. But I'd see how it is without the beans.Let me see if I can get a comparison. OK, I can't get a how many mgs of slippery elm that makes a gel (like guar gum does) but most of the pills have like 0.3 grams of the the slippery elme so we are not talking a whole lot you might check the labels of what you are taking.. A 1/2 cup of cooked kidney beans has about 7 grams of fiber. That was where I wondered about maybe adding too much fiber all at once. You said a lot of beans, didn't you?I use www.fitday.com to track my diet (where I checked the kidney beans) it has a lot of foods in there and will tell you how much fiber is in a serving as well as calories and fat and all that and it is a free account to get all that info.Checked on there and a brown rice cake has just under half a gram of fiber. Most foods have to put the fiber grams on the label so you might want to check those if you don't tolerate fiber very well.Whole grains (like brown rice), legumes (like beans and dried peas) are both pretty good sources of fiber in the diet.K.


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