Help! I don't know what to do. My GI system is so messed up and inflamed.

[Hans Noddeboe]

Help

I have had chronic gastritis and chronic constipation after antibiotic use. Now the pain is unbearable and I am constipated. I'm thinking of quiting and just going on a bone broth fast. Everything feels so swollen What should I do ?

 

[GreekDemiGod]

Get some Cascara Sagrada and use it several times per week.

 

[Creative Nature]

I have battled constipation on and off for a few years. Cascara sagrada is a godsend; if necessary, you can take it more than once per day while you work on figuring out the underlying problem. Increasing the amount of saturated fat in my diet helped me as well.

Other remedies that have helped me:
walking;
anything that increases CO2 retention, e.g. bag breathing and baking soda;
sunlight and red light therapy;
vitamin B1 (I have a history of B1 deficiency, which I suspect is the root cause of my constipation).

Good luck. Chronic constipation is awful.

 

[L_C]

Enema is also great.

 

[miquelangeles]

Have you tried ox bile?

 

[FocusedOnHealth]

Help

I have had chronic gastritis and chronic constipation after antibiotic use. Now the pain is unbearable and I am constipated. I'm thinking of quiting and just going on a bone broth fast. Everything feels so swollen What should I do ?

Slippery elm to soothe your stomach lining, bromelain for inflammation and magnesium for the constipation. Like a magnesium with multiple magnesium sources. But if you need something to work fast, magnesium citrate should do the trick.

 

[Ras]

Help

I have had chronic gastritis and chronic constipation after antibiotic use. Now the pain is unbearable and I am constipated. I'm thinking of quiting and just going on a bone broth fast. Everything feels so swollen What should I do ?

You should do nothing. Stop eating. Stop drinking. While you dry fast and heal, plan your new diet.

 

[Cyborg009]

I've suffered with the messed up & inflamed GI for years but fwiw I recently switched over to a more animal based diet (primarily carnivore) and my guts and digestion in general has greatly calmed down & my quality of life has increased. Weirdly bms have diminished to 3-4 times a week but otherwise no real issues there in that regard, the weight loss is merely a bonus to the calmed stomach and digestion.

 

[GreekDemiGod]

I've suffered with the messed up & inflamed GI for years but fwiw I recently switched over to a more animal based diet (primarily carnivore) and my guts and digestion in general has greatly calmed down & my quality of life has increased. Weirdly bms have diminished to 3-4 times a week but otherwise no real issues there in that regard, the weight loss is merely a bonus to the calmed stomach and digestion.

Do you eat dairy? and what kind of meat do you predominantly eat?

 

[Hans]

Help

I have had chronic gastritis and chronic constipation after antibiotic use. Now the pain is unbearable and I am constipated. I'm thinking of quiting and just going on a bone broth fast. Everything feels so swollen What should I do ?

Have you done a stool test? Usually methane producing bacteria cause constipation, you have have to use compounds that lower those bacteria.

In the meantime, kiwi, prune juice, magnesium oxide or citrate and cascara can help a lot.

As a side note, milk can make constipation worse for some people.

 

[sunny]

Have you done a stool test? Usually methane producing bacteria cause constipation, you have have to use compounds that lower those bacteria.

In the meantime, kiwi, prune juice, magnesium oxide or citrate and cascara can help a lot.

As a side note, milk can make constipation worse for some people.

Is that stool test with a medical provider or is there a lab it can be ordered from. What compounds lower the methane producing bacteria?

 

[Hans]

Is that stool test with a medical provider or is there a lab it can be ordered from. What compounds lower the methane producing bacteria?

Perilla frutescens, Undecylenate, Conker Tree extract and Atrantil™ are a few good ones than inhibit methane producers and will help against constipation. The ones I mentioned above will also help a lot.
Two good ones are Microbiomesight and Genova GI effects which you can just order from their site.

 

[GTW]

Don't stop drinking water!
Castor oil is time honored quick fix.
Psyllium husk or seed and other fiber that retains water in the stool works long term.
Cascara Sagrada functions partly as an irritant >(

 

[Green Dot]

'Obviously, in the very swollen, structurally deformed intestine, with almost no lumen, neither a stimulant nor a simple fibrous bulk could restore functioning, because even with stimulation the smooth muscle is unable to contract, and the closed channel won’t admit bulk. Even gas is sometimes unable to pass through the inflamed intestine. Mechanical thinking about the intestine fails when inflammation is involved; now that inflammation is known to play an important role in Alzheimer’s disease and heart disease, it will be more acceptable to consider its role in constipation.

The contractile ability of smooth muscle, that’s impaired by swelling and inflammation, can be restored by antiinflammatory agents, for example aspirin (or other inhibitor of prostaglandin synthesis) or antihistamines. This applies to the muscles of lymphatic vessels (Wu, et al., 2005, 2006; Gosling, 2000), that must function to reduce edema, as well as to the bowel muscles that cause peristalsis.'

'Sometimes doctors recommend that constipated people should drink extra water, "to soften the stool." The colon is where water is removed from the intestinal contents, and when it is inflamed, it removes too much water. Several decades ago, it was recognized (Orr, et al., 1931) that hypertonic saline, given intravenously, would stimulate intestinal peristalsis, and could be used to treat paralytic ileus and intestinal obstruction.

When water is taken orally, it is absorbed high in the intestine, long before it reaches the colon, so the recommendation to drink water for constipation can produce a situation that's the opposite of intravenous hypertonic saline, by diluting the blood. Using a hypertonic salt solution as an enema can have the same beneficial effect on the intestine as the intravenous treatment.'

'Despite the greater prevalence of constipation in women and older people, even specialists in gastroenterology are very unlikely to consider the role of hypothyroidism or other endocrine problems in chronic constipation.'

 

[GTW]

Most of the herbal fiber/remedies are hygroscopic. Entraining water to and through the gut. Psyllium/plantago, marshmallow root, flax seed, Chia seed...
Drinking water in usual amount isn't likely to cause hyponatremia. However drinking alkaseltzer type electrolytes Na, K, citrate, bicarbonate could help the complex of symptoms.

 

[Cyborg009]

Do you eat dairy? and what kind of meat do you predominantly eat?

I haven't cut out dairy completely I partake occasionally I'll use cheese on a hamburger patty or may have a bit of cottage cheese in the morning, I know that some people find they react to dairy and some don't. As far as meats I like em all pretty much, steak, chicken, pork, fish, shellfish, I know that some people strictly eat ruminate animals & they feel their best which is something I may trial in the future for a while. Its been a learning experience but an enjoyable one especially now that my digestion issues have mostly abated on this way of eating and I've only been at it for a few weeks.

 

[moa]

Help

I have had chronic gastritis and chronic constipation after antibiotic use. Now the pain is unbearable and I am constipated. I'm thinking of quiting and just going on a bone broth fast. Everything feels so swollen What should I do ?

i have the same think, and there are solutions to this.

* first, you should eat liquid foods for a few days (orange juice, goyave juice, maybe some milk but calcium constipates) and eggs, yogurt
* you should eat some solid fiber food, not much, in order to help restore flora, fruit maybe (not banana as it constipates)
* maybe one of two carrots or carrot salad cause it retains water more than starch for me.

now this is only general, it won't help your crisis. if you have swollen colon and hard stools you should try not eating any solid food at all and drinking cascara sagrada tea. in my case, cascara is the only thing that will stop pain and reduce swollen colon. it may take 12h for it to reach the transverse colon if you are fasting or liquid foods.

so once you too cascara, use something hot like a hot pillow on the upper part of the colon in order to relax the muscles of the colon and stop the pain to allow you to wait the 12h.

if your guy is full, you must empty it. this is what happens in my case :

the hard stools are not completely pushed to the end when i go to toilet, some remain in the descending colon. not much, only some.

this will then be pushed down the descending colon and it may harden before it reaches the rectum, at the beginning of the sigmoid colon.

it depends on your position, especially if you don't walk all day long and stay in a bad position that put pressure on the sigmoid colon.

once it creates a mass there, it can create a fecal impaction. it happened to me once but in the great majority of cases it still remains not completely hard, but enaught too not push on the rectum.

then because it's not reached the rectum, you don't feel the need to go to toilet, and subsequent poo will pile up behind it in the descending colon.

when the descending colon is full, it starts creating pressure in the upper left part of the colon, witch creates lots of pain in the upper left part near the belly. it's tricky as it can be confused for stomach pain or pancreas.

it's also tricky because the lower left side will not fell any pain at all, so you tend to focus on the epigastric and upper left parts where the pain is.

the solution is to either take a walk and/or massage slowly and carefully the lower left part even if you don't feel any pain there. this will push the hardened parts into the rectum and you will go to toilet very fast and you can easily get rid of all that stool.

then you rest 30 minutes and you can move a bit and massage left side of colon, and you'll have a second bowel movement after 30 minutes with all that poo that was waiting in the upper colon and this way you are sure not to let any hard stool in there from the previous batch.

if you massage the transverse colon it can increase the pain there, so be careful.

once you've defecated, use the hot on your upper left parts to relax and wait 12h for cascara sagrada to make it's way there.

cyproheptadine may help too but not as much as cascara.

in the long term, I've been able to fix IBS-c with zinc and eggs (choline), and maybe some thiamine and B5. take a look at my previous posts where i talk more about long term fixing this.

oh, and if you're going off antibiotics, try using some probiotic too, like maybe ramnossus gg or a mix without yeast. cause the yeast like Boulardii will increase constipation.

be very careful with the lower right part, where the ileon colon valve and appendice are situated. it may push back feces on the ileon. once you empty your left side, the normal peristalsis will take care of normal movement.

 

[moa]

in order to prevent further constipation, besides food, try reduce calcium and increase magnesium food.

if you can tolerate try magnesium bisgycinate supps 200mg or 300mg. it depends if you can tolerate it in supplemental forms.

 

[Jonk]

Haven't used Cascara Sagrada but Chinese rhubarb root with similar properties have been a life saver for me. Not sure about long term use, after about a week I feel like it hinders nutrient absorption too much. Ray has in one of his articles mentioned emodin (one active component in Cascara and Chinese rhubarb) and if used in doses lower than what's causing a laxative effect, can be systemically beneficial. I am myself reading up about PTH, haven't checked yet but might be worth doing.

The parathyroids and the gut - PubMed

This review discusses gastrointestinal manifestations of parathyroid diseases. Parathyroid hormone is the primary regulator of calcium physiology. Hypoparathyroidism can be idiopathic, hereditary, or secondary to surgery in the neck. Hyperparathyroidism is usually from adenomas or hyperplasia...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

"Hyperparathyroidism results in constipation because of reduction in neuromuscular excitability by high calcium levels."
Vitamin D, calcium and magnesium are important for lowering PTH.

 

[moa]

also K2 is important to reduce blood calcium levels. but to much K2 will increase PTH so need to take it with D3 and calcium.

if you take calcium supplements make sure you take enaught magnesium with it. calcium can increase constipation.