Need Help Desperate: Need To Force Bowel Movement. Serious Constipation

[mayweatherking]

i just ate oysters and coke and my temp has boosted up like no other. i'm so confused.. like always. lol.

what if it is possible... that nothing is going where it needs to go without thyroid... and only when i take thyroid.. is only when anything works.

 

[mayweatherking]

i dont know what to do at this point. it's pretty clear 3 things are happening and i dont know how to fix it. my estrogen is out of control, my fungus is out of control, and my prolactin is out of control. so i am taking thyroid, it's "helping", but not enough, it's just making my hair fall out a lot more. ray peat says thyroid and aspirin lower estrogen, but it is not really doing it, maybe i need more.

my nipples are huge right now.

people say the milk is bad, okay.. so i tried going no dairy, and wound up with a prolactin level that was close to 26. i tried using coke as a carb source for that week or two, and it did clear my fungus, but then i shed so horribly that i think i lost the majority of my hair in that week. i tried using potatoes as a carb source, then it made my fungus get even more out of control. i jumped back on dairy, and my fungus is still bad.

i dont know if there is anything else left besides bumping my thyroid up to a grain a day and seeing what happens. i dont really have anything else to lose at this point.. except more hair.. but it's all ready almost all gone, so its either i can try it and it works, or else i' mscrewed. i need more blood flow to my stomach to kill the bacteria or something i dk.

im taking 10k/Day of vitamin D, taking like 30mg of K2, like 50k of vitamin A. half a grain of thyroid. t3 microdose with each meal.

 

[mayweatherking]

jesus christ man. how the hell do i drop my estrogen? i think there is literally no solution to this? lol.

ive tried vitamin A up to 100k, yes i eat liver once a week, yes i eat oysters, yes i eat salt, yes i eat oxtails........ yes my vitamin D is in the 50s.

no i dont react amazing to liquid,,, but once i go to the bathroom my temp goes up again.

eat something else you say? okay what do you suggest? potatoes? no my fungus gets out of control. no dairy? ok, then my prolactin will sky rocket. just eat other stuff that is the general discussion.

has no one gone throug hthis with losing hair besides me? danny roddy tells me he ate oysters, fruit, beef, and fish when he couldnt handle dairy, me i try it i get prolactin of over 25 while taking egg shell calcium. im donnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee dude.. my scalp is so visible now it is almsot my time. well that was a fun time trying to live a normal life !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! crap !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i basically need a miracle about now lol. have u ever failed so much as this anyone? lol

my nipples are basically stinging right now. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! jlksa;djflaksdjfl;kajdsfl;kajdl;kajds;lkajsdl;fkajsdl;fkjaslkdjflaksjdflk;ajsdflkasdf

@haidut what else can i try do you think? i just took a HCL tablet with my food, and my eyes could actually tear a little bit, usually i cant feel any emotions, maybe i have low stomach acid

@haidut , what do you think the implications of not having 5ar2 would be? maybe no bile flow? i drink coffee though, so maybe that is makin the bile work, i dont know what else? i think low stomach acid is possible

there is a real solution here, somewhere. it is not just be calm and it will figure itself out in 5 years. when i did high zinc, it did clear my fungus, but it also skyrocketed my prolactin, that wouldnt have happened if there wasnt a solution, obviously the stress was there no matter what, and to be honest, i am not really that stressed. i mean, i am, but i dont physically feel it, i am very very calm in my day to day life and not freaking out like i think people think, i mean obviously i am panicking, but my body is really zenned out.

 

[CarbAppreciator]

Do you eat fiber? I think most people's digestive tracts are adapted to need fiber. The colonic bacteria depend on fiber for their food. They use it to make SCFA and those fats provide energy for the colon wall cells. Lots of people take psyllium, that's a soluble fiber. I've never heard of psyllium causing constipation. Not saying that psyllium is necessary. I find 1 or 2 whole apples is all the soluble fiber I need to maintain peristalsis. I think it's been shown that pectin can bind and remove heavy metals, and I've heard people say that some fibers bind and remove estrogen... IDK if that's true but I think fiber is good for everyone except people with crohn's/diarrhea. BTW, Ray does recommend whole fruit.

 

[mayweatherking]

Do you eat fiber? I think most people's digestive tracts are adapted to need fiber. The colonic bacteria depend on fiber for their food. They use it to make SCFA and those fats provide energy for the colon wall cells. Lots of people take psyllium, that's a soluble fiber. I've never heard of psyllium causing constipation. Not saying that psyllium is necessary. I find 1 or 2 whole apples is all the soluble fiber I need to maintain peristalsis. I think it's been shown that pectin can bind and remove heavy metals, and I've heard people say that some fibers bind and remove estrogen... IDK if that's true but I think fiber is good for everyone except people with crohn's/diarrhea. BTW, Ray does recommend whole fruit.

i just drink unpasteruized orange juice. i thought ray said fiber was a myth to help bowel movements, like water is.

i just bought some magnesium and took 600mg of it. i felt for sure the effects of it. i felt my body go calm and i just had a huge bowel movement. maybe i hvae been low in magniesum this whole time? i was doing the spray kind and it was messing me up, kept giving me the scalp itch and i never felt right from it, i thought it was a bad reaction to magnesium, maybe i just needed the pill format? i'm not sure.

 

[tara]

you know.. this all has me thinking, maybe i really am just messed up from finasteride and this is my problem. maybe it is some permanent thing.

i've been trying to do this for 9 months now, taking all the advices, but just falling flat.

How many days in the last month have you eaten at least 3000 cals?

If you eat ~ 2000 cals/day, you are probably not providing enough energy to grow hair as well as maintain and run all your other systems. Your gut may be holding on to the food to make sure it squeezes as much nourishment as possible out of it before it lets it go. If you supplement thyroid without eating more, you probably increase the energy used to run other systems, and may make less available for growing your hair (or rebuilding other depleted organs). If you eat enough, you may increase your natural thyroid production, and it may be in better balance with your energy needs and resources.

I know our bodies have many ways to adapt that a mechanical system doesn't have. But still, consider the analogy:
If I put my foot down to increase the rate at which fuel is burned, I will run out of fuel faster.
Supplementing thyroid is like putting the foot down on the accelerator. Increased performance in the short term; run out of fuel faster if not topped up regularly.
In a car, when I run out of fuel the car stops. In my body, when I run out of food fuel, my body starts burning itself up to provide fuel and also turns down the thyroid function to reduce the rate of fuel use.

 

[tara]

I'm not discounting the problems associated with constipation - when severe, it can be very uncomfortable or even painful, and it can incresase the amount of endotoxin in the gut, and therefore potentially the endotoxin that leaks into the system to create burden on other systems.

However, for people with long-term undereating habits, there are also particular risks associated with over-use of laxatives to hasten transit. They can be used to even further deepen an energy deficit, and this can increase the already significant danger from chronic under-eating. One of the typical adaptations to chronic food deficiency is gastroparesis and slowed GI perstalsis. It may be experienced as unpleasant constipation, but it is a pro-survival adaptation in famine conditions, because it allows a little more energy and nutrients to be extracted from the meagre incoming food.

Overriding this adaptation while the famine continues runs the risk of further reducing the energy input - ie worsening the famine.
This is one of the key reasons why I think eating enough should be considered as an important part of dealing with constipation safely for people with habits of chronic undereating. I think this should be given a good chance to see if it is enough before getting too attached to taking various substances to speed transit.

That said, I expect that supplying adequate magnesium, and attending to gut inflammation are probably useful things to address too, as well as, not instead of, food sufficiency.

 

[xiaohua]

^ Good post, Tara.

I have battled constipation (I have noticed that progesterone actually seems to cause it, for me - whenever I have used progesterone cream or Progest-E in the past, I have suddenly gotten constipated). Rehydrated dried figs work wonders in my case, I would recommend trying those. Also, I'm not sure anyone has suggested it in the thread yet, but have you tried elevating your feet by putting them on a box or stool or something, so that you're sitting in more of a squatting position? This is a much more natural and healthy way to 'go'.

 

[tara]

Rehydrated dried figs work wonders in my case, I would recommend trying those.

I can imagine the figs working. I think they may have highish serotonin content in common with prunes and kiwifruit?

Also, I'm not sure anyone has suggested it in the thread yet, but have you tried elevating your feet by putting them on a box or stool or something, so that you're sitting in more of a squatting position? This is a much more natural and healthy way to 'go'.

Good idea. It's been mentioned on other threads, but maybe not on this one.

 

[Giraffe]

Also, I'm not sure anyone has suggested it in the thread yet, but have you tried elevating your feet by putting them on a box or stool or something, so that you're sitting in more of a squatting position? This is a much more natural and healthy way to 'go'.

There is a picture here.

 

[aliciahere]

K, I know that I'm not an expert. I don't contribute to this forum much. But I was worried about you all night after reading this thread. Sounds like you may have your initial constipation dealt with, but you have a lot of other things going on. It sounds like you are really confused and frustrated and unsure of what to do. It also sounds like you are fixating on things, and posting multiple times per day. Your gut isn't working properly, and that's probably cascading into so many other things (it reminds me of when I was on my gluten challenge, the lowest point in my life). Here is my suggestion, you probably won't take it, but here it goes:

Stop, breath.

Stop any and all supplements/medications unless dr prescribed. Maybe not cold turkey, but wean off of them over the course of a week. You need a better baseline.

Stop eating a "diet". Have normal meals with a Ray Peat slant. Eat breakfast, lunch, supper. Make sure every meal has 1/3 protein, 1/3 veggies, 1/3 carbs with some starch. 12 oz of milk or OJ with meal - no more! Have a snack between meals but no more than 12 oz of milk or OJ per snack. Plug your meal into chronometer to make sure you meat your targets every day, eat until you are full, but make sure your calories are high enough. If a regular person looked at your meal, they should not think it's a special "diet". Have some coffee, eat some prunes - nothing to excess.

Stop looking at your head. Shave your hair and keep it shaved. I know, I know, this is a big one. You are fixating on it and it's causing more stress. It's just hair.

Stop any exercising you are doing and just start walking - walking outside would be best.

Stop going on the Internet. Take a break. I know I said to use cronometer and that's online, but if you only use it for the first week or so to make sure your eating your markers, then stop. This is a really tough one. We can so easily become addicted to searching and researching and posting, etc...

Breath, and start.

Find a good chiropractor - they can help with a crazy amount of things including digestive motility. I didn't think a chiropractor could help with anything but bone structure issues, but I found an awesome one who was able to help me with chronic neck muscle pain - amazing.

Find a hobby that brings you joy and do it. Use all the time that you aren't on the Internet to dedicate to that hobby.

This suggestion is a bit out there, but it helped with my mental health. Read: The life changing magic of tiding up. It can help with so many other parts of life than just your house. If you follow it, it can be life changing. It's also a quick and easy read.

Finally, my last suggestion. I may get a bit of flac here from Ray Peat diehards but this suggestion is my own. After starting eating ray peatish, I had a bit of mild constipation, some bloating, some indigestion, even though I felt better other ways. I went back to having a pro-biotic every day. This is the brand I use. Started working immediately. Bloating gone, indigestion gone, regular BM. I know Ray is not a fan, but it totally worked for me.

UltraFlora® Balance

Try this for a month, then get bloodwork done to see what your baseline is without supplements. Slowly add vitamins back ONE AT A TIME, and see how you feel.

 

[xiaohua]

There is a picture here.

Good one!

 

[xiaohua]

I can imagine the figs working. I think they may have highish serotonin content in common with prunes and kiwifruit?

Yeah quite possibly, and full of seeds as well. Nonetheless, I feel the positives outweigh the negatives, and they're not something to base your diet on, just a reliable & effective fallback plan to treat a really unpleasant issue. Hope the OP is doing better now....

 

[tara]

Nonetheless, I feel the positives outweigh the negatives, and they're not something to base your diet on, just a reliable & effective fallback plan to treat a really unpleasant issue.

Yeah, that's about how I feel about kiwifruit and prunes and figs too. Worth it when I've needed it, but probably not great as a daily staple.

 

[mayweatherking]

How many days in the last month have you eaten at least 3000 cals?

If you eat ~ 2000 cals/day, you are probably not providing enough energy to grow hair as well as maintain and run all your other systems. Your gut may be holding on to the food to make sure it squeezes as much nourishment as possible out of it before it lets it go. If you supplement thyroid without eating more, you probably increase the energy used to run other systems, and may make less available for growing your hair (or rebuilding other depleted organs). If you eat enough, you may increase your natural thyroid production, and it may be in better balance with your energy needs and resources.

I know our bodies have many ways to adapt that a mechanical system doesn't have. But still, consider the analogy:
If I put my foot down to increase the rate at which fuel is burned, I will run out of fuel faster.
Supplementing thyroid is like putting the foot down on the accelerator. Increased performance in the short term; run out of fuel faster if not topped up regularly.
In a car, when I run out of fuel the car stops. In my body, when I run out of food fuel, my body starts burning itself up to provide fuel and also turns down the thyroid function to reduce the rate of fuel use.

I think I drank around 4 or 5 qts of orange juice today along with the proper protein to counter act it... the problem is not the food i think.. the problem is something is missing to give me the right thing for my body to work.. like i'm making too much estrogen instead of testosterone.. no morning wood, stuff like that, fungus out of control. it's like i'm missing some small piece of the puzzle. like i eat and then i feel my nipples start stinging, that shows me estrogen is going up and my nipples are bigger than normal, but it's not calcium or magnesium I need becuase i get enough of it, it's something else, you know what i mean, maybe vitamin A needs to be more of, i'm not sure.

i think the magnesium and cascara is helping though. it is basically that combo is giving me diahrea everyday but it's also giving me this insane flatulence.. like it blows my stomach up and then i let it all out, but i think it is killing the fungus or something i'm not sure. but it's making me feel ways i didnt feel before, so at least it is a change in some direction and letting stuff out hopefully.

like i just took a B complex and zinc and feel the estrogen symptoms settling.. so it's telling me, i'm not sure what it's telling me, maybe i need more zinc and more liver so more oyster.

something is obviously happening, like i'm missing something that is important is my point overall.

 

[mayweatherking]

K, I know that I'm not an expert. I don't contribute to this forum much. But I was worried about you all night after reading this thread. Sounds like you may have your initial constipation dealt with, but you have a lot of other things going on. It sounds like you are really confused and frustrated and unsure of what to do. It also sounds like you are fixating on things, and posting multiple times per day. Your gut isn't working properly, and that's probably cascading into so many other things (it reminds me of when I was on my gluten challenge, the lowest point in my life). Here is my suggestion, you probably won't take it, but here it goes:

Stop, breath.

Stop any and all supplements/medications unless dr prescribed. Maybe not cold turkey, but wean off of them over the course of a week. You need a better baseline.

Stop eating a "diet". Have normal meals with a Ray Peat slant. Eat breakfast, lunch, supper. Make sure every meal has 1/3 protein, 1/3 veggies, 1/3 carbs with some starch. 12 oz of milk or OJ with meal - no more! Have a snack between meals but no more than 12 oz of milk or OJ per snack. Plug your meal into chronometer to make sure you meat your targets every day, eat until you are full, but make sure your calories are high enough. If a regular person looked at your meal, they should not think it's a special "diet". Have some coffee, eat some prunes - nothing to excess.

Stop looking at your head. Shave your hair and keep it shaved. I know, I know, this is a big one. You are fixating on it and it's causing more stress. It's just hair.

Stop any exercising you are doing and just start walking - walking outside would be best.

Stop going on the Internet. Take a break. I know I said to use cronometer and that's online, but if you only use it for the first week or so to make sure your eating your markers, then stop. This is a really tough one. We can so easily become addicted to searching and researching and posting, etc...

Breath, and start.

Find a good chiropractor - they can help with a crazy amount of things including digestive motility. I didn't think a chiropractor could help with anything but bone structure issues, but I found an awesome one who was able to help me with chronic neck muscle pain - amazing.

Find a hobby that brings you joy and do it. Use all the time that you aren't on the Internet to dedicate to that hobby.

This suggestion is a bit out there, but it helped with my mental health. Read: The life changing magic of tiding up. It can help with so many other parts of life than just your house. If you follow it, it can be life changing. It's also a quick and easy read.

Finally, my last suggestion. I may get a bit of flac here from Ray Peat diehards but this suggestion is my own. After starting eating ray peatish, I had a bit of mild constipation, some bloating, some indigestion, even though I felt better other ways. I went back to having a pro-biotic every day. This is the brand I use. Started working immediately. Bloating gone, indigestion gone, regular BM. I know Ray is not a fan, but it totally worked for me.

UltraFlora® Balance

Try this for a month, then get bloodwork done to see what your baseline is without supplements. Slowly add vitamins back ONE AT A TIME, and see how you feel.

thanks for the drawn out post. yeah, there is a lot of posts like this here and i am posting everyday, this is true. people give really good advice here that's why i do it. unfortunately for me, i don't have time to settle down and just wait it out and get all zenned out. i need this solved yesterday. i've had the problem i've had for close to 8 or 9 years now and i'm 27, soooo... yeah i've been doing the zenned out, go to yoga everyday thing for a while an frankly i'm just going all out now because i literally really have no more time to waste, i've wasted my 20s and i never could feel what it's like to be in love, i dont time to chill out, something is wrong and there is a solution to the problem, i just tried probably every way to not do it, but im getting close now with magnesium,, thyroid, this cascara stuff, i think a couple more tweaks maybe i'm getting smoewhere, i just need this fungus gone.

i have a complicated problem, been to probably 30 or 40 different doctors, spent thousands $$$ on blood work and tried every other diet, lieterally out there.

but yeah, starch i've been down that route, causes me massive fungus, veggies, same it does not agree with me at all.

i think once i get my bowels workign i will be OK. that seems to be my biggest problem. i always feel a sense of relief after each one. i think its endotoxin or something im not sure.

 

[lindsay]

For what it's worth, lowering estrogen was a huge battle for me. I needed thyroid, progesterone, pregnenolone and time. Time is probably the most important thing. It takes years to get into a compromised state and sometimes it takes years to get out of one.

That being said, a huge game-changer for me was eating oranges (the actual fruit) and drinking OJ, especially for bowel movements. Plus, I don't shy away from good SFA, but I don't know if that helps my bowel movements or not.

Oranges are highly anti-estrogenic and they also help to lower endotoxin. I posted a study about this elsewhere on the forum, but I'll have to find it. Here they are:

Orange juice neutralizes the proinflammatory effect of a high-fat, high-carbohydrate meal and prevents endotoxin increase and Toll-like receptor expression

An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie

The second link works, but just shows up weird.

I noticed at some point that eating oranges caused me to have a bowel movement fairly shortly thereafter. Same thing with drinking OJ (which actually can cause diarrhea sometimes, but I never feel bad after drinking OJ. I just think it is beneficial against endotoxin - that being said, I only drink Wholefoods organic OJ. Trader Joe's is also good). I began feeding oranges to my dog and they have a similar effect on him that carrots do. Carrots also cause bowel movements, but I find oranges are a bit more potent. I eat organic oranges and regular when I can't get organic. I think oranges are probably my favorite fruit and I used to hate them. They really do something special. I have yet to experiment with eating the peel (aside from store bought marmalade), but I would really incorporate the whole orange fruit into your diet. That fiber is really potent and in my experience, bowel movements do not happen without fruit fiber. Oranges on the one fruit I always tolerate without stomach pain. I have to cook most others.

Other things that help me with bowel movements (and in my experience, good bowel movements are when take away my estrogen symptoms pretty quickly), Ox Bile and cascara sagrada and a lot of espresso (good magnesium source). And thyroid, but that's a given. I don't have a gallbladder and I found that digesting any protein was difficult without Ox Bile. It definitely stimulates bowel activity too. If I take some with a glass of OJ in the afternoon/evening and then eat a couple of soft boiled eggs with butter, salt and more OJ, I almost always go to the bathroom shortly thereafter. Oranges I eat in the morning.

Sorry for the long rant, but theses were just more thoughts that popped into my head. Cascara sagrada (two capsules = 780 mg) before bed really helps when you really need it. I am the queen of digestion problems - I have suffered from IBS with constipation, lost my gallbladder, had appendicitis and ovarian troubles for a long time. This is what I've found to work for me aside from antibiotics. Those are great, but we can't always rely upon that. Also, when you get regular again, that's when I would introduce the grated carrot salad - grated! With CO and honey and salt is how I like it and it needs to be a good portion size.

One final thought - someone mentioned above about elevating feet when you use the toilet. You can do it with a box or for about $30 you can get a squatty potty. Huge game changer! Cannot use a toilet comfortably without one anymore.

 

[hcastorp]

i wrote you a private message mayweatherking

 

[IWishIWasRich]

I've been stuck with scalp itch and hair loss for years now. My TSH is usually on the 4 ish range, 5 sometimes. Im on 75mcg of t4 currently, I can't do much since no money so I depend on whatever the **** social healthcare decides to treat my symptons like. Getting a dermatology appointment takes half a year, and even after paying a private one, all they do is give you some lame shampoo (i've tried lots and none do nothing) and so on. Nobody will study my case and give me some clear answers. So im basically balding while my scalp itches waiting to die. My youth is done for. My hairline is getting diffused already and im 26. Nothing but pain awaits me.

 

[mayweatherking]

I've been stuck with scalp itch and hair loss for years now. My TSH is usually on the 4 ish range, 5 sometimes. Im on 75mcg of t4 currently, I can't do much since no money so I depend on whatever the **** social healthcare decides to treat my symptons like. Getting a dermatology appointment takes half a year, and even after paying a private one, all they do is give you some lame shampoo (i've tried lots and none do nothing) and so on. Nobody will study my case and give me some clear answers. So im basically balding while my scalp itches waiting to die. My youth is done for. My hairline is getting diffused already and im 26. Nothing but pain awaits me.

when you eat, whats your temperature? it needs to get above 98.6 and stay that way. you need to fill your glycogen stores up.