Prolapse and Straining

there is no doubt in my mind that chronic constipation may cause and will certainly worsen prolapse.
try introducing pears and prunes into your diet as well as lots of fibre.
have you ever considered that you may have a food intolerance, as this can cause havoc with your bowels? many people can have irritable bowels, including constipation with coeliac.
it is also possible that you may just have a lazy bowel. my eldest daughter has quite a lazy bowel. she had chronic constipation as a baby, to the point where our gp thought she had hirschsprungs disease. a few months away from dairy worked wonders for her. i think its worth considering if there is an underlying undiagnosed cause for chronic constipation.
most women here are used to difficulties from rectocele. those are different, because the stool basically gets stuck in a pouch, kind of like a blind alley. if you have always had these difficulties then it is unlikely to be from a rectocele (though that is not to say that you may not have acquired one of those through straining and delivery injuries.
anyway, its crucial that you find ways of evacuating without straining. some women find it useful to raise their feet on a stool when emptying their bowels, as it helps straighten any kink in the bowel, and leads to better evacuation.
if you are ordering the book, try and get the second edition, provided postage is not prohibitive, as the first edition does not contain the firebreathing stuff.
regards
babs

does putting your feet up on a stool put more pressure on the pelvic region? i know they recommend it to help things flow, but i also know christine talks about lifting up to avoid pressure on the pelvis...
?????

thanks

just know that when my rectocele was symptomatic that putting my fet up on an upturned baby bath or tile grout tub helped me evacuate properly without any other interventions.
i think it is about using intra abdominal pressures to push the kink of rectum back to where it should be to allow the stool to pass freely and not get caught in the kink.
maybe some of the more physiologically clued in ladies can help. (or maybe others can confirm it helps without being able to describe the exact mechanics of how it helps.
babs

I think that feet up on a stool is probably not the best position for prolapses. that said, try it and see for yourself. after spending time learning all about your 'celes, you are the expert. try it and see if you feel pressure or if the bulges get bigger or anything like that. I think if you try it once and its not good, stop and you won't suffer long term damage.
some women find squatting on the toilet helps straighten out the kinks, others prefer leaning forward, raising up off the seat a bit. you've got to find what works for you.

and I'd definitely tell the dr that you've had a long history of trouble with bm's. why not? it might all be related...

I'm careful about what I eat and everything goes like clockwork every morning even with the rectocele. I try to drink 3 glasses of soy milk and 5 cups of green tea a day, and in the evening I take two fish oil and omega 3 supplement caps with some other vitamins.

White flour is a detriment to the bowel; white bread has been targeted as a possible cancer causing agent because it clings to the bowel and acts like a plugger instead of a plunger which bread is supposed to do. This includes anything made with exclusively white flour.

For bakers, there is a pastry whole wheat flour out there by Red Mill that is a great substitute for white flour.

The best bread is sourdough which is actually a bandaid for the intestine. It's easy to make if anyone is interested.

Try eating an apple three times a day, celery, raisins and lots of dark green lettuce. See if that doesn't help.

Clonmacnoise, would you care to post your sourdough recipe/method? I for one am interested.

Cheers

Louise

Louiseds,

Sourdough begins with growing a starter. It's easy. Mix 1/2 flour and 1/2 cup water in a shallow bowl and sit out for 2-3 days. When you notice bubbles, you've caught your yeast. This is how ancient peoples made bread. Put bubbling starter in a large pickle jar with a loose fitting lid and add 2 cups flour and 2 cups water. Feed the yeast every 2-3 days by adding a cup of flour and a cup of water (or double it for faster yield. This grows best at room temp. It becomes kind of a kitchen pet. Stir starter vigorously, and each time you see bubbles, you know your pet is alive and well.

In less than a week, you'll have enough starter to make the bread. Keep enough of the starter back when you make the bread to start growing for another loaf. Keep feeding the starter and you can keep it alive for years. Mine is about a year old. You need this sour smelling yeast for the taste. If you don't make the bread, that's OK, you can pour out too much and begin again.

Your starter will have a ring of yellowish liquid on the top if you don't stir it every day. Don't throw that away - it's the thing that makes it sourdough! Just stir it up. It smells like beer.

Every time you want to make the bread, take a tablespoon of dry store bought yeast and mix it with 1/2 cup of baby bath warm water. Let this come to a foam - about 10 minutes.

Mix the store bought yeast with 4-5 cups of your starter, salt to taste, a little sugar for the yeast, and enough flour (good place for the whole wheat pastry flour or 2 cups white to 1 cup wheat) to make into a firm dough and shape it into something that looks like a prolapse! Let rise once in a warm oven - maybe and hour or even out in the sun. When the dough doubles, bake at 350 degrees until the bread is brown on bottom and sounds hollow to the knock.

Once you do this two or three times, you can go from starter to oven in about 15 minutes. I use a big mixer with a hook, but I've done it for class with my hands and either way it's not hard.

What sourdough does for you that white bread does not is it pulls all the impurities out of your small intestine and then clean sweeps the large intestine. It's like the tidybowl man.

Good luck with it.

Hi Closnmacnoise

Thankyou so much. I have never seen the full instructions before. It sounds so easy once you have the starter. Sourdough is so yummy.

Yes, my Kenwood and doughhook made fantastic bread manually for years, but it does tie you down a bit. This may sound crazy but we live in a touristy historic town in rural Western Australia, and do you think you can buy good bread here? Nah, it is all squishy, gutless and mainly white, and doesn't smell right. I like bread with balls!

My husband purchased a Panasonic breadmaker several years ago and has become the breadmaker of our family. He has won prizes for it at the local Ag Show and has developed his own recipes (none of that pre-mix stuff for us!) It is so good. Hopefully I will be able to get the sourdough making perfected then see if we can do it in the breadmaker. Then I can delegate another piece of kitchen wizardry to him and plump him up with compliments about his wonderful sourdough bread. It has to get me somewhere ;-)

Cheers

Louise

ps I do like your description of the loaf, but I am not sure that the family is ready for a Prolapse Loaf yet. My 22 yo daughter just chucked a tantrum at me the other day when I told her that I fertilise the lime tree and potplants with diluted urine. Not impressed. Bad Mummy.