Harry-normal transit times

twisten · 10-24-2006, 03:49 AM

Harry sorry for making another post for you to read but I didn't want to hi-jack someone else's thread. I noticed you told another poster that 6 hours is too fast. I'm in a crohns flare again and my food is passing through within about 20 minutes of eating it or was I should say. As of Friday I had some diarrhea with blood but then straight mucous with blood ever since and no stool at all. Today my doc told me to go to the ER to have it checked so I did. Now the ER doc says I'm all plugged up and all that's able to get out is the blood and mucous. How long should a normal transit time be? Also to any other crohns readers of this that go from diarrhea to constipation I
would like to hear from you too to see how common this is. The ER doc told me it is very common for this to happen. He said when the colon goes into overdrive with the diarrhea it's like it needs to shut down for a bit to rest.

Harry · 10-25-2006, 11:16 AM

Twisten,

I was really talking about eating then having a BM-- That is what I think transit time is-- Maybe we are talking about 2 different things. I know Crohn's is very different and when there is a Flare up -- it is worse.

I eat one day -- 3 meals daily--- then have a BM the next day. I never eat and have a BM 6 hours later with what I have eaten.

I don't have Crohn's and I don't have food triggers where I have a loose BM with in 20 minutes or several hours after I eat. If I have that -- it is a Virus and like many others I have them but not very often.

I have had a Bowel Follow Through test and I am slow.

I do think that when food travels too fast through your small intestine there is not enough time to absorb the nutrients needed for optimum health. But, as we both know Crohn's Disease is a very special case of Bowel Disease and when it flares -- there is big problems with vital nutrient absorption.

I don't personally know many people with Crohn's so I really can't speak with any in depth first hand experience. But, I have been reading really bad messages on this board for 7 years. I have come to the conclusion it is an extremely bad disease to live with 24/7.

God Bless You~~~Harry

quincy · 10-25-2006, 12:25 PM

Hi...just need to chime in here as well. Food stays in the stomach for 3 - 4 hours. It would be impossible for it to go through the entire system in 20 minutes. I don't even think 6 hours is possible....but with liquids it would be.

Consider this, when we take a purging medicine before a c-scope...coLyte/Golytely..etc....it takes at least 2 hours for it to start...and that's a purging medicine. The total time it takes for it to clear out the colon is about 6 - 8 hours.

What eating does, however, is trigger the peristalsis....whatever food is in the colon, it will start to move out.

Where is your UC twisten?
What meds are you on?

quincy

twisten · 10-25-2006, 01:15 PM

Thanks for the responses Harry and Quincy. Harry we're not talking about 2 different things. I was wondering what "normal" transit times would be understanding that everybody would be different. I know my times are way too fast when I'm in a flare and things get extremely irritated so I end up on a liquid diet. Quincy, I start getting diarrhea within about 20 minutes after eating when my crohns is active. The areas I usually have it are the ileocecal valve and the left splenic flexure. They suspect right now its possibly active in my stomach and small intestine also. The meds I'm on right now are asacol, prednisone, prevacid, flagyl and ativan.