constipation

[Laura]

Hi,

I decided to reply to this post even though I don't suffer from constipation at this time and I wanted to show how we're all so different in what our bodies respond to. Prior to pn I was chronically constipated for four years. I tried miralax, senna, citracel, and sometimes even ducolax. All these products worked sometimes, but not consistently.
Birdlife, prune juice unfortunately never worked for me. I'm the type of person who always trys natural products first. I tried increasing my liquid intake, as I knew I wasn't drinking enough liquids. All it seemed to do was make me urinate more.
My constipation was so frustrating that one time I had some takeout food and it must have been going bad because it gave me diarrhea (thank goodness I was home) My constipation was so frustrating I even joked to my sister, maybe I should eat something bad once and awhile
I'll never know if constipation was one of the factors that led to pn. I do know that I never strained during this time, because a few years before I'd been diagnosed with diverticulosis, and I didn't want to create any more pockets in my intestines by straining.
Now the real weird part of this post is, ever since being diagnosed with pn my body has done a complete turn
around and sometimes I go too many times a day and even though it is nice and loose (not diarrhea) it winds up irratating the nerve, thus more pain.
So, the moral to this post is, we each have to experiment and find out what works for us, and also know to some extent pn affects all of us differently, although I realize we all have some of the same symptoms e.g. pain with sitting, relief on toilet, etc.
I want to also say be careful about taking magnesium citrate. If you have osteoporosis or osteopenia or are a candidate for either I would not mess with magnesium. There is a delicate balance between calcium/magnesium that our body requires. If your body gets too much magnesium it will pull calcium from your bones or teeth to maintain that balance.
I wish you luck with finding an answer to your constipation problem.

[pn_person]

thanks for all of the advice and well wishes!!

participant on this forum are clearly a knowledgeable caring group...great resource

want to get your thoughts on caffeine regarding constipaion

I was never a coffee drinker, but started drinking a few cups a day, and I think it has been of some benefit, though it was not a controlled test since I am concurrently on the stimulant lax..would have to try one at a time to really know if the coffee is working for me

I am very interested in some feedback here because I have read that caffeine can be both helpful and detrimental for constipation

thanks again

[shljk]

Coffee is known to be good for inducing bowel movements. Any hot liquid with a bitter taste will generally stimulate a movement, but the caffeine also acts as a stimulant in the bowel. Doctors used to tell people not to drink too much caffeine because it was a diuretic and could cause dehydration, but now studies have shown that only consuming large amounts of caffeine will have this effect.