Dude,
Thanks for your concern. I have had concerns, too. Even when I mentioned to my doctor, they are never concerned. When my twilight zone level of constipation started, I went to a gastroenterologist and had the whole workup. I was actually sent by a pulmonologist who thought my breathing and pulmonary symptoms were from reflux. By the time the gastro did the reflux procedure, the constipation was becoming alarming. The end of the deal was him telling me I had no acid reflux, my colon looked great, nothing wrong with my gallbladder, and “I think you have IBS.” When I asked WHY my digestive system suddenly stopped working right, he just said it was “functional.” He said “try Miralax.”
That was the point at which my eyes were fully
opened and I walked away from any hope of conventional doctors or medicine being able to help what was wrong with me. I then went to a chiro who tried to help people with “functional” issues. She introduced me to Natural Calm magnesium citrate. I’ve been taking it daily ever since, with the exception of a few days (I will explain.). NOTE: I saw on Consumerlab that this supplement had high levels of arsenic. I have still continued to take it, as I have not figured out any better option.
As for doctors, neither my initial Functional MD (whom I no longer see) nor my Lyme doctor have made it their mission to get to the ROOT of WHY I have unnatural and continuous constipation. Therefore, I do what I have to do.
THE EXCEPTION: The only time since all this started that I did not have to take Natural Calm or anything else to move my bowels was after a massive gut expulsion of some kind of pathogenic mess that looked like seaweed (Candida, ropeworm, or something similar). For several days, my bowels moved on there own. I had great gut distress prior to the expulsion and had cleaned up my diet a bit. After the expulsion, I ate very little and pretty clean for a few days as my intestines felt shredded. As the days went by, I started to eat more and less clean and the constipation returned and has not left since.
I cannot say for certain to what degree the stuff that was expelled played a part in the constipation and to what degree the semi-fasting and cleaner diet played. I did do an elimination diet for weeks with that chiro I first saw, but other than a general feeling of being a little less inflamed, it had no effect on any of my symptoms, including the digestive ones. I’m not suggesting that diet doesn’t matter, just that it didn’t solve my problems.
After that first gut expulsion, I had other lesser expulsions and weeks of passing ropeworm after taking Mimosa pudica. Unfortunately, I experienced no remission of constipation with those incidences. I do believe my recalcitrant constipation is multi-factorial: gut pathogens, abnormal ADH/osmolality, hormone imbalance, and ????.
Gut pathogens such as ropeworm are surely a part of it. I believe low ADH/osmolality are as well. That affects your water and consequently your sodium. Your bowels have to have water to function normally. I drank massive amounts of water for years after my Lyme symptoms started because I felt thirsty and had a salty taste in my mouth and tongue. (No doctor has ever given me an explanation for that either.) I rarely get that anymore and drink more normal amounts of water now, although my labs make it appear I am overly hydrated. Even my Lyme doctor doesn’t seem to understand low ADH/osmolality and its effects. She just says eat salt and drink less water.
Hormones are definitely involved in mine. I am a peri menopausal female. At the time my recalcitrant constipation set in, I also stopped having regular periods. That was 3.5 years ago. The drastic hormonal ups and downs got better for a while but seem to be doing something again in the past week or so
. As a result, constipation has greatly increased and so have headaches, stuffy nose, feeling dehydrated and irritability and crying spells. I have also had a lot of mold exposure during the past 2 weeks, so is it hormones or is it mold????
I just put all this out there so others may get some clues that might help them figure out how to deal and clue them in to some possible causes to explore. Hopefully their doctors are smarter or more motivated than mine.
———————
jb,
I have heard that about
mag oxide, too, that it’s not well absorbed. I have read before that the best forms end in “-ate.” Citrate seems to be the form most effective for constipation. I did try mag oxide that Traveler recommended, but it did nothing to move my bowels and was far more expensive than Natural Calm considering how much I would have to take.
———
POST EDIT: I just read something that triggered my memory. Low MSH (a hallmark of CIRS) also contributes to gut dysfunction. The Shoemaker protocol addresses all the identified areas of inflammation and dysfunction and corrects them in sequential order. The final treatment (only for those who need it) is VIP, which should mitigate the problem, at least theoretically.
Post Edited (WalkingbyFaith) : 5/5/2019 7:14:18 AM (GMT-6)