Hey guys,
I have had stomach problems all my life (my doc told me I have a long colon, which is common, but slows things down). Over the past few years it has been getting worse. Mostly it just dealing with constapation, but lately it has changed.

A lot of the time now my BMs are not any shape. It' just comes out like unformed matter. I hope I m making sense. All my doctors just check for blood in my BMs and makes sure I am going ok. They say nothing else really. I have had colon x-rays & the scope down my throat and evrything inside seems ok (I do have some erosion from GERD). So is long is there is not blood, is everything ok? I have been have stressed and dealing with depression. I know that can affect things too. I have also developed GERD over the last 3 years.

Any ideas? Can you think of anything that will help? I am young, will it get worse? Thanks!

Hi, there. Have you tried adding more fiber to your diet? - which will in turn "bulk" up your stools. If you think your stools are a serious issue, go see your doctor for answers/relief.

Good luck,
Katie G

I do take fiber daily and I have seen many docs about this problem. None seem to think it's a problem.

I am just curious what type fiber are you taking and How offen???
Also, what are you doing for GERD--- do they think you have Barrett's syndrome?

Harry

My doc has said nothing about barrett's. I think I just have scratch like mark near my stomach that cause me problems. I take Metamucil twice a day.

mikess,
I am a big believer in taking psyllium husk fiber. I like Equate from Wal Mart a little better ---it seems a little more course.
As you know it's a stool forming /bulking agent and it's safe to take daily. If my stools were not formed ---I think I would increase the dose until they are more formed. Mine became too formed the past several weeks when i began eating cheese daily. So--your stool is also controlled by what you eat.

God Bless---Harry

Hey I understand how you feel and it seems as if your whole world is topsy-turvy when you are constipated. Things that I try that have helped me in the past are:

1. Prune juice (nasty but works) for quick relief but I had to learn to do things consistently so that I wouldn't need to drink prune juice as a quick fix. I knew that I needed to be regular.

2. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables (make sure you eat your green veggies and plenty of it. Or atleast as much as you can)

3. Staying away from rice, pastas, breads and junk foods (they only made things worse for me). I still eat them, just not as much as I used to.

4. Drinking water, water and more water. I used to get so tired of drinking water because I was a soft drink girl, but now I find myself drinking it all the time even when I go out to restaurants because now I don't feel right if I don't drink loads of it. You know that they normally recommend 8-8oz. glasses a day. I know that it sounds like alot but if it will help.... DRINK IT.

5. Learning to be consistent with eating fruits, vegetables, grains, etc. What I used to do is eat or drink just enough of the good stuff to get myself going again and then fall back into the same rut of eating a bunch of mess. I had to learn to be CONSISTENT because being constipated is no joke.

6. Adding fiber supplements if/when necessary. I usually take a fiber supplement daily because it's just that FIBER. It's not a laxative and you shouldn't form a dependency. It just helps to have that extra fiber...it certainly can't hurt.

7. When I do need that extra umph...I usually take a herbal laxative, cascara sagrada and that works as well. It's very, very mild and gets the job done.

8. You may want to try going to a health food store and get something to cleanse yourself. Start from scratch and then keep a monitor of what you put into your system.

9. I also try to keep a daily log of what I eat including snacks because I don't always know what it is that triggers me being constipated. That way I can back track figure out what I ate around the time it started to happen and try to weed whatever it is out of my diet.

10. You may want to try and stay away from those soft drinks but if you find that you can't try to double in water what you drink as far as soft drinks and that may help to balance things out a little. If you drink 8 oz. of a soft drink make yourself drink atleast 16 oz of water. This is just something that I make myself do so that I can keep myself on track.

11. Try to exercise as much as you can because that helps to keep things moving. I used to think that folks just said that, but it really works.

12. Try drinking green tea and you may want to try getting it from one of the asian health stores or somewhere like that because the others that you buy from the regular supermarket is just not the same.

13. Don't sleep on your vitamins. Take your vitamins DAILY. I take a multivitamin daily and it gives me what I may be missing out on when I haven't eaten enough of the good stuff. But it's not a substitution.

13. Buy apples, prunes, raisins and whatever has helped you in the past and keep them in your home and if you can keep some at work too!

14. Try to find out about everything that's high in fiber and go for it!

15. STAY AWAY FROM CHEESE...PLEASE!!!!!!

Those are things that have helped me and I hope that they can help you as well because as I said before being constipated can mess up your whole world. If I think of anything else I'll let you know. Take care and good luck to you.

[This message has been edited by Boogieslady (edited 08-30-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Boogieslady (edited 08-30-2002).]