TMI DH health question

[silverrr]

DH has...constipation. poor guy has been struggling with it for a few days now. he has been eating oatmeal in the morning, oj, and whole wheat bread, but nothing is helping him get 'unstuck' (sorry to be so graphic). what are some other remedies i can have him try?

[MrsReber]

Prune juice always works wonders for me. I used to have those problems, too. Never been "regular". I find now that I eat more salads, I don't seem to suffer so much. More fiber!

[greysangel]

I find even with more fiber, it still doesn't help me. :o There's soluble fiber and insoluble fiber. I would recommend Citrucel if fibrous foods don't do the trick. I take it twice daily and it's a powder that gets mixed with water...kinda tastes like tang :D

j

[colleency]

If he gets really desperate, there's over-the-counter stool softener for the short term relief.

[JHolcomb]

Does your DH already drink coffee? If not, feed him a cup and see what happens. Probably not the healthiest way to get it done, but in my limited experience w/constipation, that seems to work. But only if he doesn't already consume a lot of caffine already.

[Vicanddi]

Prune juice and plenty of water throughout the day. For meds, Milk of Magnesia (MOM), colace pills (stool softeners), glycerine suppositories. They're all over the counter. (I'm a little too familiar with constipation myself!:D )

[wallycat]

Water, water and ummm...MORE water.

If he has recently started eating a lot of fiber but does not drink enough water, it cannot bulk up and do its job.

WATER will keep most people regular...in addition to a good amnt of fiber in the diet :)

Good Luck.

[Grace]

I am currently experiencing similar problems...:o :rolleyes: :( In addition to all the great advice you've already gotten, may I also add that exercise REALLY helps a lot - have him get out and walk or even jog if he can (jogging really works). Moving all of him will help "move" the insides too! ;) :D But as someone who has never, ever, ever had this problem before (until my surgery last year), I never understood how miserable and painful it can be. I'm so sorry he's dealing with it and I hope it gets better soon.

I also found relief from the stool softeners. I'm only taking one Colace in the morning and at night and it helped immensely (as did drinking lots of water).

[Molli526]

I second the water. The body needs water to work with the fiber. Water! Water! Water!

[clairea]

I'll third the recommendation for more water. If he is adding more fiber without enough water he could just be making the problem worse. When I had "issues" after a c-section the nurse told me to take milk of magnesia and drink a cup of warm prune juice before bed. It's not as bad as it sounds, and it did help!

Claire

[m4star]

And once your DH has drank double his body weight in water (yes, water does wonders) he should also consider a mild laxative if needed. I do not promote them for regular use, but if the poor guy really is suffering than one at night should clear him up the next morning.

As for staying that way, I have to recommend Kashi Go Lean. There's definately something in the name! ;)

[SamanthaD]

He could also do a warm Fleets;)
Sam

[vbak]

Or sauerkraut juice:)

[SusanL]

Konsil, it works wonders as well as warm water with lemon juice. I second the coffee and exercise! Good Luck!

[MrsReber]

My DH had a colonoscopy recently and had to drink the phospho soda stuff. It sure worked, but be prepared! If he goes that route, he should plan to be at home for a bit. Hope he's feeling better!

[yorkshirepud]

I usually find a big bowl of Bran Flakes sprinkled with raisins work for me. I also sometimes throw a sliced banana in there.

Like others have said, coffee is another one that seems to work.

Hope he's feeling better.

[DocAgocs]

Is this a regular thing (no pun intended) or rare for him? If it's regular then there are a lot of things that he can and needs to do, but if it's unusual for him he could try an herb with GREAT stool softening properties. The herb is Cascara (Rhamnus purshiana). He would want to take the EQUIVALENT of about 1- 1.25 grams (that's raw herb, not extract, so a typical extract would be 4:1 or so, which he'd need only a few hundred miligrams of) before bed, then be ready to run to the bathroom when he wakes up in the morning.

Cascara is not a real easy herb on the GI tract, so it should only be used occasionally when you need action. A lot of people get dependent on laxatives because that's the only way they can have a BM, when there are underlying problems that should be addressed. So, give that a shot, but if he deals with this fairly regularly, he needs to do a lot of the other things people mentioned.

In my clinical experience, chronic constipation typically boils down to poor motility of the GI tract muscles and poor liver and gallbladder function. I've successfully dealt with both in patients who've had lifelong problems with constipation using a nutritional supplement made from beets and chamomile (not the tea, but the high bisabolol type grown in Europe specifically for therapeutic purposes). Works great!

[jmarie]

Uncle Sam Cereal with flaxseed. Works wonders!

[silverrr]

WOW! i haven't checked the messages and you guys are GREAT. thanks for all the advice. we'll have DH 'moving' in no time. thanks for the no flames approach too. i appreciate it.

[CompassRose]

Re DocAgoc's post -- he is NOT KIDDING when he says that Cascara, on its own at any rate, is not easy on the tract! This is a last-resort measure, if anything.

This problem is, uh, chronic for me, and has been for some time (sadly, I have found that if I eat under 1800 calories per day -- no matter what the calories consist of -- I do not "move". How my bowels are counting, I do not know.)

Things that help: natural fibre. Fibre supplements are worse than useless for me; even with litres of water as recommended, they only make me bloat. However, making a large pot of something with beans, and eating the leftovers for three days, will almost make me as regular as the next girl. Cabbage likewise, and, oddly, beets. Add spices, whether East Indian or Mex-ish, to the mix, and woo!

Whoever mentioned sauerkraut, I second that. Korean kimchi pickle works even better, though.

Occasionally, for some bizarre reason, a tablespoon or so of molasses will get things going.

There is an East Indian herbal blend called Triphala which I have found useful in the longer term. It's some sort of tannic fruit (three different varieties of basically the same thing in the blend) which seems to act as a tonic. If I am really slow, I take one or two caps a day. The Triphala caps I use are from Solaray, a US company.

Milk of Magnesia is hit or miss with me. Like fibre supplements, if it doesn't work, the bloating is terribly uncomfortable.

Cascara worked, the one time I took it, but was not worth it! I learned the true meaning of "griping pains"... However, there's a cascara-containing blend I do take, if I've been stopped for, you know, too long, and the other things in it seem to moderate the effect. I still like to stay fairly close to the loo if I've taken it, but at least I'm not doubled over in pain! It's a Canadian product from Wild Rose called Lower Bowel Tonic 3 (http://www.wrc.net/store/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=429) but perhaps it would be available in the US, or you could get something similar.

Good luck! It's a hideously uncomfortable thing, and only those who haven't suffered it will joke!

[DocAgocs]

CompassRose, some thoughts:

Re DocAgoc's post -- he is NOT KIDDING when he says that Cascara, on its own at any rate, is not easy on the tract! This is a last-resort measure, if anything.
As with any herb, the formula makes a big difference. The one I use with patients on rare occasions is a complex of Cascara, Dandelion, Yellow dock, Dill seed ad Chamomile. It's pretty mild. Pure cascara extracts can get pretty harsh.

Whoever mentioned sauerkraut, I second that. Korean kimchi pickle works even better, though.
Fermented foods feed the god bacteria in your GI tract very nicely. American diet it pretty low in good fermented foods, which is part of the reason so many Americans have bowel problems like this.

As stated, chronic constipation that doesn't occur for any particular reason (i.e. your MD says your "healthy") is a three-fold problem involving your neuromusculoskeletal system, autonomic control of the GI tract, and the bacterial ecology of your bowel as well as overall digestive tract function. The cool thing about properly used supplements and herbal products is that you can address all of these things at once whereas that is typically not possible with medications. Any time there is a chronic, idiopathic constipation problem, consider the following:

1) Digestion. Is there a proper level of hydrochloric acid being produced by the stomach, first of all? If you take a lot of antacids you definitely are not producing enough (yes, NOT too much, rather not enough) stomach acid, which means that food will sit in your stomach too long, produce organic acids (pain, ulcers) and gas as well as mechanical irritation of the stomach lining, and hamper proper digestion further in your system. Also important for this is the amount of enzymes your body is producing. In particular, if your pancreas is not producing enzymes properly digestion of proteins and carbohydrates will be hampered.

2) Autonomic control of the peristaltic (wavelike muscular contractions of the GI tract) motion of the bowel is frequently a reflex-like phenomenon in which the muscular contractions lose coordination. Breaking that reflex will return this motion to normal and allow food to be pushed through the GI tract properly. The best thing for this without a doubt is Chamomile, but teas won't cut it. A sepcific class of chemicals called bisabolols are probably responsible for the therapeutic benefits of chamomile. They are quite bitter (which means they also stimulate the vagus nerve via reflex action, which will also improve digestion in and of itself) and teas made of high-bisabolol chamomile are pretty undrinkable. But, a high quality high-bisabolol chamomile product will re-coordinate peristalsis in the GI tract quite nicely.

3) Bowel ecology. Long term problems with the balance of bowel bacteria and yeasts will cause poor digestion in general and will definitely result in either constipation, diarrhea, or alternating both. The strategy here is twofold: first, make the bowel as inhospitable as possible to bad bacteria, bad yeasts (you're always going to have both, but you need to minimize their presence) and parasites, if they're part of the problem. Second, make the bowel as friendly as possible to good bacteria, then load the bowel with these good bacteria. The GI tract should be acidic. Because of diet or other factors a lot of people lose the optimal pH of the GI tract and it becomes a great place for the bad guys to hang out. If the bowel is overpopulated with bad guys, I generally use a bowel antiseptic like Golden Seal, Garlic, etc. If parasites are a problem (difficult to determine, but a fairly common problem, even in our clean lifestyle) a cource of treatment with Wormwood is indicated. I also use a bowel acidifier like Lactic Acid Yeast which has three actions: 1) probiotic (good guys), 2) GI tract acidifier, 3) Contains nutrition that helps the good guys grow and multiply. Finally, using a true probiotic like lactobacillus acidophilus will reporpulate the GI tract when used properly.

4) Neuromusculoskeletal control of the GI tract. This seems more appropriate for constipation than diarrhea, but it is very common for patients to report relief from constipation after having their low back or pelvis adjusted. The theory behind why this works is that subluxations of the spine will alter the nerve signals in the spinal nerves in the subluxated areas. The result is poor function of the organs supplied by those nerves. The lumbar spinal nerves go to the GI tract, so if there is a subluxation in the low back that is resulting in constipation via spinal nerve inhibition, it needs to be corrected, too.

So, there you have my approach. It sounds complicated, but really all of these things can be addressed at the same time with simple, affordable supplements. Oh, I forgot a fifth factor and that is liver/gallbladder function. Sometimes that alone is the problem. If the liver is slow with making bile and the bile ducts are sluggish, or there are gallstones or the gallbladder is sluggish emptying the too-thick bile the liver is making a very simple supplement made from beet greens works wonders. It enhances bile production by the liver and thins it, making it easier to be ejected by the gallbladder. One of the main factors in bowel movement quality is bile production/liver function/gall bladder function. And, if you like beets, simply steam some beets everyday and use the green tops on a salad. The supplement I use is awesome. It produces the same red color in the BM as actual beets do, which makes sense because the supplement is just concentrated beets!

Sorry this is so long, but I wanted to illustrate that there are a LOT of things that can be done to deal with this problem. When your MD says "gee, that's just the way you are" politely thank him/her for their time and take matters into your own hands or find a doctor who will address how your body functions, not just if there is or is not disease or pathology there. The great majority of sick people don't have "diseases" but rather have improper function, which standard medicine is not really well equipped to deal with at this time.