Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Maxwin]

Hi, have always had lazy bowel/slow transit, started taking thyroid levothyroxine about 8 years ago and noticed slight improvement.  I am not constipated but just wish I could go more regularly, when I do go I go a lot which then leaves me feeling bit achy inside, piles which I have had forever obviously flare up, it all settles down then you start getting ready for the next time!  Even in hospital once they wouldn't let me go home until I had been it took 3 attempts with various meds/pessaries to work.  I eat well fruit/veg/salad drink water exercise etc.  Hubby gets up every morning and just 'goes' then gets on with the day, I wish!  Mentioned it years ago to doctor they just tell you to do all the things I'm doing. Any tips would be welcome. Thanks

[Dotty]

Hi I'm exactly the same as you.  I saw a consultant about haemorrhoids a few months ago and she said that menopause can slow down the digestive tract.  She advised me to take Movicol or Lactulose every day. x

[jaypo]

Yep,same here😏 my OH EVERY morning & off he goes for the day,me?when I do eventually go,it could be when I'm doing the weekly shop,gets embarrassing leaving your trolley & heading to their loos about 5 times

[Meadowblue]

Same here too and hubby no problem  .  I used to take a sachet of fybogel every day for years but it contains aspartame which I didn't really think was a good idea long term.  Over the last couple of months I've switched to a product called Lepicol which is a powder you mix with fruit juice or water.  It contains the same isphagula husk as fybogel but also the strains of good bacteria your gut needs.  Have to say it is working much better for me than fybogel.  It took some getting used to and they tell you to take it slowly.  I also experienced a little tummy pain initially.  I still only go every 2 or 3 days but well, not to put too fine a point on it  it is so much easier and therefore no problems with piles which I've suffered with for years.  Might be worth a try.

[Maxwin]

Thanks ladies, I tried fybogel years ago it just used to give me cramps and Movicol was used after my hysterectomy which if I remember was helpful then.  Might try Yakult again as well.  Was going swimming today but tummy feels tender/bloated so will stick with a walk. What shall I have for tea? More fibre, maybe its too much fibre hubby certainly doesn't have 5 a day! 

[Kathleen]

Hello ladies

I've mentioned this before on similar threads so apologies for repeating myself.

 My friend had awful constipation  and didn't open her bowels for two weeks. Her gastroenterologist prescribed a drug that is usually given to people preparing for a colonoscopy. Thankfully that did the trick and her consultant told her to include ground flaxseed in her diet from then on.

 My friend always ate lots of vegetables though not much fruit and her problems really started with her menopause.

There are many probiotics on the market but as I've said before homemade Sauerkraut is my favourite. It's cheap  and easy to make and is very potent and highly effective. Some people like me even think it tastes good.

I hope the above is of help ladies.

Take care everyone.

K.

[Wrensong]

Hi Maxwin, it can be a persistent problem and terrible nuisance for we hypothyroid ladies.  Same here with OH who has no probs whatsoever yet eats less fibre than me - Venus & Mars all over again! 

There is a fine balance between enough & too much fibre, as the latter can simply add to the congestion on bad days when a rest with a lighter fibre intake from fruit & veg rather than tough cereals, beans, nuts & seeds, etc, still with plenty of fluid, might help. 

Is your thyroid condition well controlled?  If you are a poor converter, T3 can really help with bowel function. 

I find a combination of a high, varied fibre diet, lots of plain water, daily Movicol, regular exercise & most importantly a low gluten, wheat-free diet, help me manage it best.  Many people find that a squatty potty (mail order from Stressnomore) helps them empty more easily & completely. 

Bifidobacterium BB12 (in Natures Best Acidophilus Extra) & L Plantarum (Quest - stocked by Bodykind) can both help reduce transit time & improve stool form, but not all probiotics suit everyone, so I'd urge caution/vigilance.  Kathleen's suggestion of sauerkraut may also be very helpful, also natural yoghurt.  Kefir can be a bit strong for some people, with unpleasant systemic side effects, but gives good results if you can tolerate it. 

If you want to see a previous thread on the topic try putting Re:poo! into the search box.  That's the title of a thread started by Juju a few weeks ago & has quite a few contributors.

[Maxwin]

Thanks for all the helpful tips and I will read up on past Poo threads!  Wrensong yes I think thyroid is well managed, usual yearly blood test, only take one 50 microgram tablet per day and was told once it was border-line under active but to be honest they never really ask me how I feel just repeat prescription. 

[Saffy]

Interesting study on fibre and constipation I came across:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3435786/

[CLKD]

Tnx for that.  It's been my long-held belief that 1 can intake too much fibre which the bowel then can't pass.  In the 1970s it was common for the Surgeon for whom I worked to advice 'bran flakes' .......... and for some patients it did work.  This was based on studies done of people in other countries who ate a lot of fibre: i.e. fruits and veg.: in their diets but the cases of bowel and associated cancers were low.  I can't remember what other dietary factors were taken into account, i.e. whether they were vegan, vegetarian, ate meat - how much alcohol/liquids were also in the diets etc..

My Mum swears by H&B Otis fruits and fibre which has figs ........... me, I haven't really found anything that works on my slow transit other than stress or being away from a loo   

[Wrensong]

Hi Saffy - thanks for the study link.  I remember getting excited when I read that or similar some time ago & have experimented with fibre intake but no/low fibre is all wrong for me.  It is possible to have too much though - can really clog the system & then the muscular contractions of peristalsis seem to be inhibited by the bulk they are supposed to push along.

Just as some people have bigger ears or longer legs than others, there's also the phenomenon of tortuous bowel - where some people have a longer than usual colon that's more convoluted than average.  This shows up on barium enema & explains why for some people, slow transit is very difficult to improve upon.  With a longer than average bowel, transit is always going to be slower than optimal, whatever you do to try & manipulate it.

Yes CLKD - in the 70s adding wheat bran was the standard advice for constipation, wasn't it?  But these days they know that for many people that does more harm than good.  I think it's a very individual thing - we each need to experiment to find out what works best for us & that can be a very long, frustrating process.    But sharing tips about something that can be taboo is so helpful.
Wx

[Jeepers]

Hi Wrensong

I definitely don't have problems with transit ( I have other problems! in that department), but I wanted say I totally agree with you about the fact that our colons are all different.  I recently went for a colonoscopy, and it was a bit difficult for the consultant, due to my loopy colon.  It looked like spaghetti junction, not the nice three sides of a square you see in anatomical diagrams.  He even had to rearrange things a bit so that his scope could get round it all.

[CLKD]

  jeepers  the mind boggles 

[Wrensong]

Hi Jeepers - I sympathise, had a colonoscopy without sedation about 30 years ago - not something I'd ever want to repeat  , but they did manage to get all the way around.  However, with a flexi-sigmoidoscpy a few years ago, they couldn't get round as far as they wanted due to what was described on the report as "excessive looping".  My screaming might have been something of a deterrent too!  The lovely nurse afterwards told me she'd also screamed the place down when they did hers, so that made me feel a bit less of a wimp.  Barium studies a few years before that had shown that for a little woman I have lots of guts!  Like a nest of vipers.  Took an age, a funnel with a neck like sandpaper & a damned great jug of barium whitewash, lots of tilting of the table & more radiation than I care to think about, just to get it all on film!  Not my most dignified hour    Tortuous bowel, or redundant colon as it's also called, really is a medical condition.  The Cons told me they sometimes open people up & find in his words, "an extra-long colon, that meanders all over the place".  Technical term that!!  But without imaging or surgery that reveals the condition, those who have it may go their whole lives (but frustratingly not often enough) wondering why on earth doing all the right things for a lazy bowel simply doesn't work for them.  Food simply has further to travel than in most folk, so takes longer to make an appearance at the other end.

Maxwin, with only 1 TFT a year, if you haven't had one recently, might be worth asking them to do one for you in light of your slow tummy.  Appreciate that's not a new state of affairs for you, but some folk need their TSH to be pretty low in order to feel well, so I wonder whether you might need a little more Thyroxine.  Your GP may be one of those who assumes any TSH within the ref range will do.  It will not!  Sorry if you know all this already but I'd hate for your health to suffer needlessly if you don't.  They certainly should ask you how you're feeling & let you have your TFT results, which ideally should include TSH, Free T4 & Free T3, together with the reference ranges for the lab they were done at.  Your dose should be the one that makes you feel your best & not determined solely by blood results.   Some people also don't convert Thyroxine into T3 very efficiently & that can leave them with hypo symptoms for which they also need to take T3. 

If you have any suspicion that you may need more thyroid hormone - other suggestive symptoms, I would go & see your GP.  It's possible for us to miss this, as it can happen gradually.  I was taken by surprise by a way too high TSH a couple of years ago when we were mucking about with my HRT trying to find the right regime.  I knew oestrogen could do that & I'm well aware of what to look out for, having been on thyroid meds for 25 years.  I knew I needed the dose tweaking, but hadn't suspected TSH had gone up that much   

[Maxwin]

Thanks wrensong, blood test due in august so not long too wait.  I can access results on-line so do look and compare year on year but as you say all the figures/numbers can be confusing, I think symptoms are as important so will see what happens this year.