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Keeping active and busy prevents going to the bathroom?

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 8/17/2015 7:00 AM (GMT 0)
Currently flaring up and I noticed that when I'm out being active such as walking or playing sports, I never get the urgency to use the restroom. (Though occasionally there are urgent scenarios that leave me rushing for a restroom).

Sometimes after work, I'll hang out with some friends and feel no urgency because I'm out doing something. But other times I'll return home from work and have to immediately use the restroom several times.

I also recently went on a 8 hour car ride with the flare up and didn't once have to use the restroom. Whereas just the previous day after returning from work and during work I had to use the restroom several times.

It seems like this disease takes on a life of its own. Like it knows when to act up and knows that in some scenarios it just isn't a good idea for me to have the urgency to use the restroom.
Posted 8/17/2015 8:56 AM (GMT 0)
I sometimes find the same-once my morning and early afternoon urgencies are out of the way, if I've something to do my stomach seems to take a rest! When I go to the gym I generally have urges right up until I get changed, and then I just have stomach 'gurgles' during my workout. Funny how it seems to 'know' when it's just a no-no!
Posted 8/17/2015 9:26 AM (GMT 0)
it's exactly my case!!! if i were busy all the time i practically wouldn't have to go to the bathroom
Posted 8/17/2015 1:10 PM (GMT 0)
Being busy has no effect on my UC. Being too busy to eat on the other hand makes a difference! If I have a busy day ahead then I can get through it by eating in the morning, waiting for the UC to settle, then not eating till I get home.
Posted 8/17/2015 1:13 PM (GMT 0)
To some extent, I have experienced the same thing. At work, I am always on my feet and very active. Even during a bad flare, I could at least wait until I could get to a bathroom. Strange but awesome!
Posted 8/17/2015 1:27 PM (GMT 0)
I have that experience often. I also find that if I head out for a run right after my first poop of the day, it is always my only one.
Posted 8/17/2015 1:31 PM (GMT 0)
Yes, I noticed years ago that playing tennis (now pickleball) makes my UC symptoms get quiet. This is when my left brain (analytical) is turned off and the right brain is in charge. Dunno why but it's truth for me too.
Also noticed when puttering around the house there is rarely urgency but walk into WalMart and it's "where's the bathroom."

In remission it's all quiet unless a trigger food is eaten then :-(
Posted 8/17/2015 4:20 PM (GMT 0)
Never worked that way for me, busy or not, no matter what I'm doing or not doing my gut interrupts regularly...sadly it doesn't work out positively for everyone.
Posted 8/17/2015 4:47 PM (GMT 0)
Busy or not I can have a bowel movement at home , in the car or worst of all in a store I do take Lomotil in the morning an d it helps slow down the bowel activity I am on Entyvio and it is helping but I am not in remission by any means Just went to my GI and she said to give the Entyvio more time I have been on it for 9 months now I will say it has helped me gan weight but these accidents are awful!! turn
Posted 8/17/2015 9:52 PM (GMT 0)
It could have a lot to do with the adrenaline and stress hormones that allows the body to function more in its peak? Push too far, and the body can function in the opposite like in fight/flight mode/

Just guessing...but adrenaline carries us only so far regarding protection of many things. Too much causes an opposite reaction.

When flaring...it's a wide spectrum of functioning. Most wouldn't be able to push too far.

q
Posted 8/18/2015 1:45 PM (GMT 0)
Yes! Totally describes me, too. In fact, when I'm traveling away from home, even before UC, I usually don't have any BMs for the first few days...sometimes it's a lot longer. Japan was tough with that effect plus all that white rice--apparently chronic C is a problem there.

In my current flare, there's a radius from when I get off my subway to my home where it can immediately kick in that I need to go, and same for my office where I spend most of time. But in general it's not a concern if I'm out and about or traveling before, or doing something like exercise, hiking, etc.
Posted 8/19/2015 1:40 AM (GMT 0)
I have the opposite! If I have a slow lazy day at home I poop maybe once, if I've got an action packed day, get up early and start go go going I start poop poop pooping! Lol
Posted 8/19/2015 9:44 AM (GMT 0)
A surgeon once told me that walking and light activity improves IBS symptoms, urgency and also improves gastrointestinal motility & muscles.

Try walking for at least 30 min a day and you will see the improvements in a week.
Posted 8/19/2015 10:07 AM (GMT 0)
I've also always had this. It upsets me a great deal, because it makes me feel like this illness is all in my head, and I just need to try harder.
Posted 8/19/2015 1:26 PM (GMT 0)
Absolutely. I think part of it is mental-as in you simply aren't thinking things like "i should be going in the next blah minutes or blah hours" because your mind is occupied with other things. Also I think my body just naturally adjusts because it knows I can't conveniently go to the bathroom. I've had countless times I've been out of town and am 'past due' but as soon as I'm about five or ten miles from home, the urgency will start building.

I used to notice I would do a lot better on Saturdays when I worked all AM as opposed to being around the house.
Posted 8/19/2015 2:22 PM (GMT 0)
Yep, I've always had it. Even after two operations I have it. Keep telling my parents how often I need to go to the toilet and how I get through a toilet roll in 3 days, then never go once while they're here. I also managed to have driving lessons for a whole year and never needed to go. Not even once.

It didn't make me feel like my illness was in my head (as malaika mentioned), but it did make me feel my disease couldn't be that severe if I didn't need to know the location of every bathroom within a 10-mile radius. I know now it doesn't work that way. You can have severe urgency with mild rectal inflammation and constipation with severe pancolitis. I've always had phlegmatic bowels: the sort of bowels that shrug in the face of extreme stress and go "yeah okay, not interested, wake me up once it's over". Or to put it another way: stress doesn't affect my bowels.
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