constipation

Hi Lindalu, first of all - a big welcome to you!
Read all the posts/threads on constipation, which were a good help to me, however I found that I needed more exercise & a busier schedule which has worked for me, some water, coconut oil, prunes, oranges, kiwi fruit & not dieting. Some dense bread & rolled oats also helped - I had a lot of trouble recently when I went grain free - it caused constipation, where I was reduced to splinting. The WWoman posture found at the bottom of frequently asked questions is helpful for positioning the organs to work more smoothly. I did find that in the early days of this journey, doing my morning stint on the computer sitting in WWPosture did help motions to move down bypassing the rectocele, so if walking is not much of an option for you at this stage (though many of the ladies here say they gradually improve their prolapse as walking in WWPosture tightens all the muscles like closing a lift door)
I hope you find this helpful as this forum has been wonderful for me.
(((hugs)))
Aussie SSister

I'm relatively new to dealing with prolapse but am working on it. I've had constipation nearly all my life & have been having to resort to splinting, once I found out there was such a thing, whenever my stool is too hard to move down. I've found a remedy that has worked for me the past couple of years. I know how important what, when & how we eat is to our overall health & well being but sometime that isn't enough for the outcome we need - pun intended. I've found that the all natural herb mixture called Cascara Sagrada 450 mg, found in the vitamin section @ Walmart, taken together with 2 fiber capsules @ night with a full glass of water will work most everytime. Now that I've included Christine's Firebreathing technique, I've found that it works wonderfully to massage the internal organs to stimulate natural movement of stool. I've got a
consultation scheduled this Friday to speak with Christine & hopefully will be better prepared when I speak with my GYN next week. I'm still quite confused about all the details and concerns with having surgery vs not having surgery. I definetly don't want surgery, but....................? My deep appreciation to all the caring women on this forum. I need to only take the time to research more.

This is such a frustrating condition that I'm forced to think about every day. Ever since my first foot surgery (botched) nearly 4 years ago I've been on strong pain medications that led to chronic constipation resulting in my POP. Since slowly making a major overhaul in my diet and adding stool softeners, I haven't experienced anything close to the chronic constipation that I dealt with prior to developing a prolapsed bladder. However, any degree of constipation wreaks havoc with my POP. I cannot tolerate the pain that walking causes after being upright for more than 5 minutes...so, walking and vertical exercising of any kind is totally out for me. Thank you, justbeachy, for the information about Cascara Sagrada 450 mgs. I will likely give this a try to see if it will soften my stool. Although I haven't changed anything in my diet, the last 2 weeks have been more difficult for me as I've frequently had to do some pushing to evacuate. I need to rectify this situation as quickly as I'm able. I've noticed a worsening of my prolapse since this problem has reared its ugly head. Drat! I would greatly appreciate hearing about exercises that can be done while laying down that would be beneficial for relieving constipation. This site is a huge help to me. Thank you all.
FunnyFootGirl

Hi lindalu,
Constipation WAS one of my biggest problems. Eating an apple within about an hour of bedtime will help. When I have no apples available, I take an aloe capsule with about a half cup of water and that also seems to help. One day, maybe about 6 months ago, I put D-Mannose in the search box (to see if anything had been written about it yet), and came up with something someone that went by the name of "colehollow" had written back in 2010. Thank you Colehollow !!!!! The D-Mannose is for urinary track infections and my daughter and I had just cured a cat with it that the vet had not been able to help. Colehollow had also written about Collinsonia (stone root). I did some research on this and found some at the Amish store near me. I am sure this not only helped my hemorroids but my rectocele as well. When my father was 42, he had a "hemorroid operation" that was the most painful thing that he had ever experienced. He died in an accident when he was 47, but his hemorroids had "came back" and for at least a couple of years before he died, he dreaded the thoughts of another operation. If he had known about stone root, I am sure he would have used it in a heartbeat. In any case, there is something else that I have came across in recent months that is an excellent colon cleanser if nothing else and that is Essiac tea. Anyone needs to do their own research on this because there is a lot of misinformation out there and products going by this name that are questionable. It is a combination of 4 herbs, burdock root, slippery elm, sheep sorrel, and rhubarb root. The formula is in the public domain and is published on the Internet. I buy all my ingredients from the local Amish store and only make a pint at a time. It is to be boiled for 10 minutes, let set for 12 hours, then brought to ALMOST a boil before it is let cool and stored. I only drink one ounce of this mixed with two ounces of boiling water shortly before bedtime on an empty stomach. I have grown to like the taste. I have a serious skin condition and am under the care of a doctor but I believe I am beating this. I also eat at least a couple of spears of asparagus every single day (another said cure).

Back to the constipation; there are things out there that will work. The search box on this site and the Internet has a wealth of information. If one thing doesn't work for you, try something else but listen to what your body and what your instincts tells you.
Little Bit

I am so grateful for this forum & all the knowledge posted. I agree with Little Bit about listening to your body & tuning into what your instincts are telling you.
I was watching the Dr Oz TV program a while back & his guests that day were 2 of my favorite people - Dr Weil & Deepak Chopra also an M.D. I remember Deepak Chopra saying "the body likes nothing better than a good bowel movement". His recommendation for that was 2 glasses of warm water first thing each morning. I did that for several months & still do occasionally (when I remember to:). It works.
Add firebreathing to get a good organ massage & you've got 2 things going for you in no time. I still have to take my Cascara Sagrada & fiber most days but I'm not having to strain & I do go everyday. I have to agree with Dr. Chopra that every body loves a good BM.

I believe that cascara is a very old fashioned, but harsh laxative, that you can get addicted to. Maybe just use it occasionally when nothing else will clean you out. Just be careful of the dictum that 'just because it is natural doesn't necessarily make it better than unnatural'. But that might just be something dreamt up by a company that wants people to be scared of natural remedies. do your research well.

This materials data safety sheet doesn't seem to think it is too bad, http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9923330 .

Here is a page about it with reference to using it regularly not being good. http://www.livestrong.com/article/92193-cascara-sagrada-dangers/

Thanks for the important ref. for Cascara. I gave some to my daughter-in-law along with the fiber last year & she later told me she couldn't take the Cascara Sagrada because it made her stomach cramp but had found that just using the fiber caps has been working for her along with plenty of water. I can't take the Cascara alone because my stool is too loose - thus 2 fiber always go down with the Cascara. I personally don't consider it a laxative just as I don't consider corn or spinach to be laxatives even though they all produce the same outcome for me. I've always been afraid of getting addicted to laxatives persey & do try to eat a good diet. I spoke to Christine in a phone consultation yesterday (YEA!!) & she mentioned CALM - a magnesium citrate that comes in a tube, taken @ night 1/4 to 1 tsp. that can help with this also. I've got to get to a healthfood store & purchase this product along with some raw vinegar - more good stuff!!

hi ladies, a little secret that I know is to cook some beets and eat them for supper you should have a bowel movement the next day . the red coloring in them stimulates your lower intestine and get things moving .Use raw beets not canned. They work best.They are delicious with a little salt ,pepper, butter,or cooled and sliced up on a salad. I've found other recipes to keep them in my diet. Even found one for hummous with beets in it. Any how check it out .......hope it helps.

There is also a lovely Iranian salad based on cold beetroot and yoghurt. For those of you who like baked vegetables, beetroot is yummy, basted with olive oil and baked alongside a roast. When you cook them, pull off the leaves and stems for use as a green vegetable separately and leave the roots on them. Wash them to remove all soil, then cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer. They can take up to an hour to cook. don't pierce them to test them. Give them a bit of a squeeze with tongs. Cool them in the cooking water. When they are cold the outer skin just rubs off. Cooking them this way preserves more of that lovely deep colour, and of course the nutrients stay in the beet.

my kids make it into some kind of test: let's see how long it takes us to see the beets again. Then they know how fast they digest :)

What a fun and educational game for the littlies. But only for the few i.e. those who are unable to metabolise betacyanin, the red pigment, a harmless compound that simply passes through the digestive system.

Can anyone say why beet makes you go? Is it the betacyanin in those who can’t metabolize it, the high potassium or do you eat a lot and therefore it's down to the fiber?

Cheers Fab

I don't know .....I don't see the point of trying to get too technical about it when it works and its healthy .all I know is the natural doctor said to do it and that the red dye stimulates the lower intestine . it works for me might work for someone else ,and if not then there are plenty of other natural healthy suggestions on this website that people can try . this is just 1 and it certainly can't hurt you to eat beets .

Well, if it is supposed to take about eight hours for a feed to go through your guts, the following morning is quite logical. I imagine Alemama's kids would not have sluggish guts. Does it happen faster than this sometimes?

As the red is a water soluble compound, and there is a fair amount of churning around that goes on in the stomach and intestines, perhaps some of the water gets ahead of the solids? Or perhaps it travels around in our bloodstream and organs, and ends up back in our poo?

It is only a vegetable. One of the reasons I go on about eat lots of fruit and veg is that it really does make soft, speedy poos. If you don't eat a lot of these foods your normal poos can take an awfully long time to traverse the gut. This is partly why as western people we have so many gut diseases, one of which is constipation, the enemy of POP management. The food is simply not supposed to stay inside us for that long! You have to get it moving with foods that will speed it up, and without too much of the foods that slow it down.

Dear Ruth

Thanks for your reply.

Sorry if I was sounding smarty pants, trying to get technical, it’s like this. I was guilty of offering a friend red clover tea recently which she duly drunk but wasn’t that keen on, a second cup some hours later and she felt ill. She blamed the tea. Later, I read that red clover tea was not advised for people on blood thinning medication which my friend was.

Now my friend was only mildly ill, a bit off as we say, but no-one wants to do that to anyone; friend or foe. It certainly spoiled our day. So I am trying to be a little wiser and with the aid of the internet which I see as the ‘people’s palace’ this is possible.

In my friend’s case, I should have known better as allergic reactions are common in my family, but I was so keen for my friend to experience the moisturizing benefits of the red clover (she had complained of dryness) and I was ignorant of any possible side-effects for certain people and so blithely carried on. I should have left it at the one cup, but in my blinkered ‘do good’ enthusiasm I gave her a second, and thus compounded my error which in retrospect is a little hard to forgive.

So my query about beets was no reflection on your post at all. Your suggestion of trying beets I feel sure was welcomed by everyone here and accepted in the spirit of generosity with which it was offered.

I have since Googled beets and it is claimed there that it is the soluble fibre that does the trick. So, for strong, healthy people beetroots sound good.

People with diabetes, gout, kidney stones and some forms of arthritis are cautioned about beets and some people will have allergic reactions.

With commercial medications we have access to a leaflet detailing ingredients, known, and possible side effects, cautionary warnings etc, whereas with natural food we assume safety and as in my case may inadvertently harm our friend with killing kindness in the process.

Dear Louise as to elimination times

I think 72 hours is one commonly cited and 48 hours considered reasonably fast. That's why the accelerating laxatives can be a little dramatic to say the least.

Cheers Fab

Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist, Michael F. Picco, M.D. says one meal starts coming out the other end after 24 hours, but might not be completely clear for 72 hours, depending on the makeup of the food consumed.

The authority of all authorities, Dr Oz, from Oprah, says, "It depends on what you're eating. A steak dinner can take you two, maybe three days to get out of your intestine. What that means is the way you digest it is basically to rot it in your intestines. On the other hand, if you eat vegetables and fruits, they're out of your system in less than 12 hours."

I think there is a bit more to digesting meat than rotting in your intestines, but there you go. Meat takes a long time. Veges and fruits don't.

I think the answer to how long the red beet colour takes to come through is a function of the makeup of your diet. If you don't want your food to get stuck and dry out more than it needs to, so it will stay soft all the way through, then meat with pasta or potatoes is not a good way to go.

Are there any vegetarians out there in Member land who get constipation?

Louise

Interesting information. I'm not a vegetarian but I eat lots of vegetation. Love it. I believe what you've written clearly speaks........food is your best medicine.

Dear Louise

Yes, you are right about the meat. Protein is digested in the stomach. This takes 1-3 hours or 4-6 hours according to which authority you prefer. The more food you eat the longer digestion takes. The gastric juices in the stomach churn what you have eaten until all particles of food are less than 2 millimeters, or 0.08”. Nutrients in the small intestine are absorbed through the wall as liquid food passes through in 2-6 hours and waste food is fermented, water and salts removed and stools held until voiding anywhere from 12-48 hours. On these figures, the quickest overall time being 15 hours, the longest 60 hours. Where the 72 hours comes in is that proportion of the population who go every three days or so.

There are no large globs of meat left hanging around the intestine for all of the vivid imaginations. What is however left hanging around the intestines is insoluble fiber, because it is not absorbed, and this according to whom you believe either facilitates digestion/elimination, or gets blocked and does damage to the intestines and causes inflammation amongst other things.

It is important to distinguish between age groups. Very young children with their brand new intestines find digesting insoluble fiber difficult, young adults at their strongest and healthiest can tolerate insoluble fiber and the stretching that it forces, older people whose systems have been worn find shifting fiber harder.

Dear Ruth,

As regards “food being the best medicine”, it depends what ails you.

Cheers Fab

Regarding constipation.....for me, I have found that lots of WATER is the most important thing I can do. I do take psyllium each day...but if I skimp on my 48 to 64 ounces of water I have a little problem the very next day. I keep a notepad so I can track what I am eating, drinking etc. It really helps me stay on track.

I realize this is an old post but wondering what is it about going grain free that causes constipation...?
I started the specific Carbohydrate diet about 8 weeks ago and while I go daily it..it is dry pellets only since starting...
added more water and eating PLENTY of fiber..I'm stumped and very uncomfy...

thanks for any input...xo

Just experiment. Lots of leafy greens, healthy fats, fermented foods, maybe throw in some magnesium citrate to help. - Surviving