1- one piece of fresh fruit or 1/2 cup of raisins
2-one small bowl of popcorn (for fibre)
3-LOTS OF WATER!
Especially #3
This, too, shall pass…
We have met the enemy, and He is Us.–Walt Kelly
zyada:
I’ve found that they can help less than 10% of the time, whether the problem be common, simple and acute or rare, complex and chronic. That “90%” right off makes me think you caught it from an MD. Their idea of mathematics is “90% this” and “90% that.” They generally don’t care to try to figure out what causes anything or what could logically help to ameliorate or cure it; they just ramble on about how long they spent in school (mostly doing things other than studying physiology) and mention the last drug sample a pharmaceutical salesman left off – never caring to find out what the possible side effects of it could be.
jdv:
Is this coming from an MD?
cher3:
This isn’t what you bring up with your doctor; this is the rubbish that your doctor is likely to throw back at you – with his/her medieval “disease” view of the physical world or accusative view of your mind! This term, of course, means absolutely nothing and is totally functionless in all attempts to solve an intestinal problem. Do you actually feel your money is usefully spent in getting this silly label – equal to ‘riled-up gut’ – either as a diagnosis or confirmation of such?
One measure of the ignorance and stupidity of American physicians, of things useful, is that this term and essentially all the fixes mentioned in this thread that are espoused by physicians are stated as a result of complaints of either constipation or loose bowels. Think about it! One guy says my car runs too slow, that next that his runs too fast. The mechanics diagnoses both as ‘disagreeable gas-gulpers’? You wouldn’t stand for that. Don’t sit down for MDs.
I’ve never had constipation as an adult (now 68) and very little as a kid, but have had some recurrent problem with gas and loose bowels now and then. You get all this same crap (you decide whether pun intended) out of GI MDs, for that direction of bowel problem. All these remedies can’t make that stuff go both ways, except in the fantasy minds of MDs. I’ve had an MD claim the existence of diverticula in my case; don’t know if it was legitimate accusation or not, but I don’t believe diverticula correlate particularly to constipation or colon cancer. Occasionally some gas will make something at the very top end of the sigmoid hang up on something. Once got an x-ray after pinpointing the spot in 3 dimensions within 1/4". The x-ray came back too out-of-focus to tell anything. Two weeks later the MD retired. (OK, that was at a VA facility, but they’re all defective punks.) And you can spend your life fooling with allergists. They just like to enroll all-life suckers.
Stoidela:
Doesn’t that go, “Let me know how it ‘all works out’ for you?”
Ray (Call a plumber.)
Way WAY back when Johnny Carson still hosted The Tonight Show, he did a Karnak the Great sketch where he held an envelope up to his head and divined the answer to the contained question as “Here’s Boomer, and Breaking Away.” (Here’s Boomer was an NBC TV series that ripped off Benji. Breaking Away was an NBC TV series based on the movie of the same name.)
The question that corresponded to this answer? “What are two very bad names for a laxative.”
Ba-doom, kssssh! I’ll be here all week! Tip your waitstaff!
Nanobyte, your anti-MD ranting is literally full of shit.
The cause and effect link between constipation and diverticuli is more solid than the link between smoking and lung cancer. Or, since it’s MDs who make that link, do you disbelieve that, too?
The reason why the same recommended diet can help remedy both constipation and diarrhea is becuase it’s a healthy diet which creates a healthy bowel movement. Just becuase two possible symptoms of an irritable bowel seem like ‘opposites’ doesn’t mean there has to be two opposite cures.
MDs make a lot more sense than the anti-intellectual trash you just tried passing off on us.
I just came across a lovely young ladies website who has a technique that would help you out alot!
Resist urge to link an image, resist, resist…
Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a non existant affliction favored by hypochondriacs. For every doctor who believes in it, there are 5 who don’t. You definately need to seek some medical advice, and your diet is most likely the culprit. The advice given is quite thorough, follow it, and consider ignoring that diet for a while and see if this doesn’t sort itself out. Constipation is a common sign of an eating disorder, so be cautious with this dieting. IIRC caffine and nicotine are laxitives and a sudden decrease in their use my cause constipation.
Okay, everyone’s chimed in, so I guess I will, too.
Sauerkraut juice, Sycorax. At least four ounces after every meal. Best of luck.
Let me drink a single Budweiser, and I could shit through a keyhole at 50 yards!
I don’t know what it is about that brand of beer!
Enright3
Enright, don’t confuse the work with the artist! You obviously haven’t considered that you’ve just been blessed with raw talent!
Apparently not.
>^,^<
KITTEN
Coarse and violent nudity. Occasional language.
This hasn’t been mentioned yet, so you might try it. It works! (And yes, go to a doctor. My father died of colon cancer. It is very risky, scary stuff.)
I read about this in a book (forget the title) about the Rock Bottom Remainders. (This is NOT a cheap joke!) It’s the rock band of authors, including Stephen King, Amy Tan, Barbara Kinsolver and Dave Barry. Anyway, Tabitha King used her nurses training to help the group when the long days on the bus got them badly constipated.
Basically it’s a cross bowel massage. Lay on you back, with you knees bent. With the heel of your hand, knead firmly but gently from your left hip bone to your right. Do this quite a few times. Then with the the heel of your hand, knead straight down the center of your stomach, from your navel on down.
It helps if you stay relaxed. It’s a sort of exterior massage that helps move the load on down through the pipes.
And you may want to examine your strict low fat regimen. There’s a reason your fond mamma dosed you with a tablespoon of olive oil or cod liver oil. Helps lubricate the works, so to speak.
But by all means DO get a medical checkup. You, like me, are in the high risk group because colon cancer does run in families. It is as virulent a killer as melanoma. The tests aren’t fun, but they’re more fun than colostomies, chemotherapy, radiation and dying.
Best of luck!
Thanks everyone - what a surprise - I thought my topic had run its course. I must repond to some of the replies – re Nanobytes rant about MD’s - I don’t think they’re quite that bad, but, no, Idon’t have a lot of faith in doctors – especially male doctors dealing with women patients – I think they are apt to think women’s problems are emotional and tend to brush them off. I HAVE talked to my doctor about this - same advice as some of you have given- diet, fiber, fruit, water, blah, blah - I’ve done it all. Also had a barium enema about 20 years ago that showed no problems. I eat healthy, I happen to prefer water over other drinks; I drink it all afternoon and have to pee about 5 times every afternoon too. I exercise. As for caffiene and nictotine being helpful - well I do drink at least two cups of coffee in the a.m., and yes I’m a smoker. As for Milk of Magnesia–YUK! I was constipated as a child and my mother made me take Milk of Magnesia and I can’t stand the stuff now. No way. Budweiser,someone suggested. That’s a thought, but I don’t like Bud - I’m a Miller Lite person. (Actually,I prefer vodka.) Now the sauerkraut juice I haven’t tried. I may do that. Thanks again everyone.
Moriah – a very proper name for all this wind in the region of the rear orifice.
I just put ’ +diverticuli +colon-cancer ’ into AltaVista search engine and got only 31 hits. I went to most of these pages and found absolutely nothing mentioning both items in any kind of relationship; the two were simply discussed in separate sections on the same page.
On this page:
http://www.eirmc.org/docs/davidj.htm
, additionally it was pointed out that IBS “never” results in cancer. The page has a very long discussion of IBS, and since the page is by an MD, he has to not damn this notion, but all that he presents on it certainly makes clear the idiocy of trying to use the term in any kind of intelligent approach to improving health. It is clearly an historic term built on mystique, after which people then ask, well what causes it. Well, what causes gargoyles? Or unicorns? This business of pulling mystical conceptualizations out of the air and then deciding they really are something that should have some kind of unitary existence, developmental process and consistent causal conditions – and building up treatment practices on the basis of them – is one phony MD trip that the moriahs of the world blow around everywhere until the “teeming millions” (of unthinking people) are afraid to shout that the emperors of flatulence have nothing over their bones to cover their tailpipes.
Moriah calls my post “anti-intellectual trash”. Does he feel that the public’s interest in medicine should be in its intellectuality? Shouldn’t the damn stuff work? To work it should make logical sense. It just plain doesn’t. . .and it doesn’t work – except to fill the pockets of you know who at the expense of you know who.
Ray (of light pierces the gale)
Nano - I agree wholeheartedly with you on the IBS issue – it’s b.s. IBS is a symptom - so what causes it? When the oh-so superior physicians can’t come up with a cure, they give it some bullshit name, tell you to improve your diet, exercise, and throw pills at you, and pretend they know what the hell they’re doing. I’ve decided I’m just going to have to live with this - I have all my life - and use Fiberall, which doesn’t do a great job, but helps, and a pill laxative with senna (which is natural). I enjoyed your rants - I don’t think much of doctors either, but I go once a year because I DO want the blood work, pap smear and the mammogram, and also I’m a smoker. So, if something’s going on there, I want to catch it early. Thanks for the input.
I’ll tell you what works for me: Excruciatingly hot Singapore curry chicken and noodles with spinach and mushrooms. I guarantee that, early the following morning, you will come to fully understand the words “imperative” and “imminent.”
It’s the capsaicin (sp?) I’m sure. But eating a bunch of Thai chilis by themselves wouldn’t taste nearly so great.
Be a Pepper. Drink Dr. Pepper.
(Seriously. It contains prune juice.)
This web site may help:
http://haltonhills.com/body/const.htm
It’s funny: some of the foods mentioned by others to help cure constipation are listed on this page as “foods to avoid”! Hope it helps anyway.
So how are you now?
Sycorax, meet Farmer…
http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/004739.html
