My Current Constipation Regimen

[SwanRonson]

You can look at my post history and see that chronic constipation has been a problem for me my whole life, even before I got sick. But getting sick put it off the chart. That being said, I really have gotten relief the last few months. Here's what I'm doing:

6:30 am:
1. Brush teeth immediately upon waking. I mean get out of the bed and walk straight to the toothbrush.
2. Drink 10 ounces of Gerolsteiner mineral water.
3. Drink a cup of decaf coffee with heavy cream while I sit on the toilet reading the news.
4. Poop.

7:45 am:
1. Eat a light breakfast (2 slices of bacon, or a plaintain pancake with butter, or 2 eggs). Usually just one from that list.
2. Another cup of decaf with heavy cream and about 1/2 tablespoon of coconut oil mixed in.

12 pm:
1. Drink 10 ounces of Gerolsteiner mineral water.
2. Lunch. Heavy on the veggies and fruit. Light on meat. I try to eat sweet potato chips or regular potato chips fried in coconut oil as many times a week as I can for lunch. I fry them myself since everything at the store is fried in PUFA's.
3. Another cup of decaf with heavy cream.

6 pm:
1. Drink 10 ounces of Gerolsteiner mineral water.
2. Dinner. Again heavy on the veggies and fruit, but a little more meat than lunch.

9 pm:
1. Take 1 capsule of 400mg Magnesium Oxide. Chase it down with a mandarin orange or a cara cara orange.

10 pm:
1. Usually eat a small bowl of berries in cream, or some ice cream. The late carbs helps with sleep.
​

I know this all sounds pretty un-magical, but I've been regular for about 3 months now doing this. At first I was having to take Miralax about once every 10 days or so to get things moving again. If I missed even a single morning poop I would skip breakfast and take the miralax between coffees.

For the last month I haven't needed the miralax. Things have been moving on their own reliably.

Lots of people take a lot more magnesium than that with mixed results, so my theory is it's the mineral water plus the magnesium oxide doing it. The Gerolsteiner water is really high in Bicarbonate, so I believe it's had an alkalizing effect on my bowel over time, leading to a change in gut bacteria makeup.

The most recent stool culture I did indeed showed a change in bacteria profile. I had always had a large strep component until this last culture. The strep dropped way down this time, which is good.

I think my transit is still slow, but the MagOx is keeping things soft so things don't get hard and dry from the slow movement. The magnesium oxide is a lot gentler on my upper GI than mag citrate. I'm already getting a lot of magnesium from the mineral water, so the low absorption of mag oxide is fine. Just means it stays in the colon and acts as a softener.

I also think it's important to drink the mineral water at least 15 minutes before you eat, so it can travel further down the GI tract before full absorption.

If you want to try this I think the most important thing is that when you start, be sure things are moving with miralax first. Nothing works when you're impacted, so take 3 or 4 caps of Miralax over a day or two and get some diarrhea going. Then start doing this regimen every day and see what happens. If you have to strain hard or you miss a morning going, hit a cap of miralax and just do the coffee for breakfast without food. Do this each morning until things start moving again. Then stop the miralax.

Also keep the fruit/veggie and non-PUFA fat intake high. Especially oranges, mandarins, sweet potatoes and coconut oil. I eat sometimes 4 or 5 mandarins per day.

Everybody's constipation is different, so this might not work at all for you. This is the first thing that has ever worked for me on a long term basis (except hyperthyroid, but that's not a good solution ), so I thought I'd share.

 

[rosie26]

@SwanRonson I have noticed cream is good for constipation. I seem to have a slow transit these days. I'm not used to this and have yet to get my diet worked properly. Glad you are finding a system that is helping.

 

[kangaSue]

Cayenne pepper capsules along with some form of magnesium (citrate seems to be best) can be a powerful combination. Magnesium as an osmotic laxative draws water into the bowel and cayenne pepper stimulates bowel motility.

 

[helen1]

@SwanRonson Your protocol is very interesting. I'm always working on this problem too so will look into some of your ideas. Thanks.

@kangaSue Cayenne pepper and other hot spices increase intestinal permeability though, so if leaky gut is suspected, it's not a good idea.

 

[SwanRonson]

A follow-up on this.

I'm still going every day, but things did change. For some reason I got loose stool and had to back off on the magnesium oxide to every other day. That seems a bit too low though. I'm trying to find that happy medium right now since I'm oscillating between almost constipated and loose depending on how much MagOx I take.

How much I eat also seems to play a big role. Eating less appears to produce more reliable BM than eating more. I've started skipping breakfast meal and just stirring some coconut oil into my coffee for the calories and good ketogenic effects. Coconut oil makes my brain feel good.

 

[rippe]

haven't you tried potassium? as far as I know constipation is often because of potassium deficiency. I mean magnesium does help but it's not the cause.
do you take much vitamin D? I once became very low in potassium from high calcium.

 

[SwanRonson]

haven't you tried potassium? as far as I know constipation is often because of potassium deficiency. I mean magnesium does help but it's not the cause.
do you take much vitamin D? I once became very low in potassium from high calcium.

Potassium has never made a difference for me with constipation if I supplement it. Eating high potassium foods makes me feel better though. That's why I eat a lot of plantains and potatoes and such.

I don't think magnesium is the cause. I think the cause is slow transit (for whatever reason). Magnesium just helps keep it from drying out and impacting.

I took VitD for 2 years at 5000 IU per day. I can't say that it did anything one way or another except raise my blood levels. I know Vitamin D is important, but I've never had any of the wonderful benefits from it that are talked about.

 

[rippe]

I took VitD for 2 years at 5000 IU per day. I can't say that it did anything one way or another except raise my blood levels. I know Vitamin D is important, but I've never had any of the wonderful benefits from it that are talked about.

do you take some Retinol too? I read somewhere that retinol aids the kidneys to not loose potassium. but I have to still research this.
for me just one year with 4000 IU per day was enough to become very high in hormone D and calcium and thereby very low in retinol and potassium, which resulted in constipation and crampings. than I read that potassium deficiency might be a common cause for constipation.

good luck.

 

[rosie26]

I stewed up a big pot of apples a few days ago with the help of someone else and have been adding some to cereal with some of the juice and with yoghurt later in the day. The apples are good.

 

[PatJ]

Organic India Bowel Care Formula has been helpful for me. I think my constipation may come from thyroid disregulation and the common CFS problem of being dehydrated, no matter how much I drink.

 

[SwanRonson]

I've now added 1gram of Glycine before bed to this regimen. It's keeping things moving better now.

 

[PatJ]

Sesame oil is used in Ayurvedic medicine as a constipation aid. In addition to the Organic India product I mentioned previously, I now take a tablespoon of sesame oil each day and both are helping quite well (still somewhat constipated, but not as much.) Avoiding dry foods helps as well (popcorn, corn chips, etc.)

 

[Abhi]

You can look at my post history and see that chronic constipation has been a problem for me my whole life, even before I got sick. But getting sick put it off the chart. That being said, I really have gotten relief the last few months. Here's what I'm doing:

6:30 am:
1. Brush teeth immediately upon waking. I mean get out of the bed and walk straight to the toothbrush.
2. Drink 10 ounces of Gerolsteiner mineral water.
3. Drink a cup of decaf coffee with heavy cream while I sit on the toilet reading the news.
4. Poop.

7:45 am:
1. Eat a light breakfast (2 slices of bacon, or a plaintain pancake with butter, or 2 eggs). Usually just one from that list.
2. Another cup of decaf with heavy cream and about 1/2 tablespoon of coconut oil mixed in.

12 pm:
1. Drink 10 ounces of Gerolsteiner mineral water.
2. Lunch. Heavy on the veggies and fruit. Light on meat. I try to eat sweet potato chips or regular potato chips fried in coconut oil as many times a week as I can for lunch. I fry them myself since everything at the store is fried in PUFA's.
3. Another cup of decaf with heavy cream.

6 pm:
1. Drink 10 ounces of Gerolsteiner mineral water.
2. Dinner. Again heavy on the veggies and fruit, but a little more meat than lunch.

9 pm:
1. Take 1 capsule of 400mg Magnesium Oxide. Chase it down with a mandarin orange or a cara cara orange.

10 pm:
1. Usually eat a small bowl of berries in cream, or some ice cream. The late carbs helps with sleep.
​

I know this all sounds pretty un-magical, but I've been regular for about 3 months now doing this. At first I was having to take Miralax about once every 10 days or so to get things moving again. If I missed even a single morning poop I would skip breakfast and take the miralax between coffees.

For the last month I haven't needed the miralax. Things have been moving on their own reliably.

Lots of people take a lot more magnesium than that with mixed results, so my theory is it's the mineral water plus the magnesium oxide doing it. The Gerolsteiner water is really high in Bicarbonate, so I believe it's had an alkalizing effect on my bowel over time, leading to a change in gut bacteria makeup.

The most recent stool culture I did indeed showed a change in bacteria profile. I had always had a large strep component until this last culture. The strep dropped way down this time, which is good.

I think my transit is still slow, but the MagOx is keeping things soft so things don't get hard and dry from the slow movement. The magnesium oxide is a lot gentler on my upper GI than mag citrate. I'm already getting a lot of magnesium from the mineral water, so the low absorption of mag oxide is fine. Just means it stays in the colon and acts as a softener.

I also think it's important to drink the mineral water at least 15 minutes before you eat, so it can travel further down the GI tract before full absorption.

If you want to try this I think the most important thing is that when you start, be sure things are moving with miralax first. Nothing works when you're impacted, so take 3 or 4 caps of Miralax over a day or two and get some diarrhea going. Then start doing this regimen every day and see what happens. If you have to strain hard or you miss a morning going, hit a cap of miralax and just do the coffee for breakfast without food. Do this each morning until things start moving again. Then stop the miralax.

Also keep the fruit/veggie and non-PUFA fat intake high. Especially oranges, mandarins, sweet potatoes and coconut oil. I eat sometimes 4 or 5 mandarins per day.

Everybody's constipation is different, so this might not work at all for you. This is the first thing that has ever worked for me on a long term basis (except hyperthyroid, but that's not a good solution ), so I thought I'd share.

Get perfectly well soon!!