Chronic constipation ruining my life

Agree, she needs to get rid of what’s in there first and then start afresh, if I’m constipated I usually take double the recommended dose of senecot ( 8 tabs) and that clears everything out in 10-12 hours, ( I rarely have to do this though), then I start afresh, I have found drinking Keifir good, but you also need to stay very hydrated and exercise if you want to avoid constipation

Yes!! Hypermobility impacts gut transit, gastroparesis is a common symptom of hypermobility.

I was a chronic sufferer for a long time. I now go at least once a day, sometimes twice. (TMI, I know).

Add seeds to your diet - a mix of golden linseed, chia, pumpkin, sunflower and unhulled sesame. Add beans and pulses (tinned beans are fine, and I add soaked red lentils to most savoury dishes). Add some fruit. Kiwis, figs, berries are all good. Up your fibre gradually, and as you are already doing, drink plenty of water. Execise can help a lot. The book Gut, by Guilia Enders is well worth a read as it explains a lot about how your gut works and suggests a load of different solutions to problems like yours. She recommends the 'squat' thing.

If none of this works, go back to your doctor and insist on further tests. A friend of mine who had an ongoing problem but was told all the time that there was nothing wrong turned out to have an abnormally long gut. There wasn't a lot they could do, but knowing helped a lot, and it meant she could also use the things that would work for her.

But try the things people have suggested on here first.

I haven't read all the messages so maybe somebody has already suggested this. But the bowel consultant at my local hospital said to go to the loo every day at the same time even if you don't feel like it (preferably after breakfast). Then do exercises to try to promote going. Breath in and push out with your lower stomach as if you are trying to 'work the poop down through your intestines'. I am sure there are better explained exercises on the internet. I was very dubious but it does work.

What lentils do you use?

You’re only treating the symptoms you need to find out why you have it, I would get my gut bacteria tested and go to a holistic doctor.

Hi op, try increasing your healthy oil intake- extra virgin olive oil in salads or if you can stomach drinking a table spoon or 2. Also MCT oil works for me but I’ve had to do this gradually, start with a small splash in coffee, works for me.

Also there is a lot of research out there which shows improvement in gut heaths through fermented foods helps.

Figs are horrible. Try blueberries instead.

Do you mean your never eaten a fig before OP or you are sick for another reason?

I have chronic constipation caused by medication.
I managed it by diet most of the time with occasional dulcoease and regular magnesium citrate. Dulcoease is gentle and won't clear a backlog but as a daily dose it works for me.
Looking at your diet I would suggest -
Massively increase your fruit intake.
All bran for breakfast, oats and chia just don't do it for me.
More prune juice, a good half pint.
Two litres of water over and above tea and coffee.
When you say tons of water how much do you actually drink?

I'd advocate a lot of exercise, particularly walking. I have IBS with a leaning towards constipation and have learnt that even what I think of as a regular bowel habit is actually low grade constipation. I also have a very slow gut. You can test yours easily, once you are having frequent bowel movements, by eating sweetcorn and waiting to see how long before you see bits of them in your stool.

Anyway, I've already changed my diet in the ways suggested above. Breakfast for me is predominantly fruit and yoghurt with chia seeds, lunch is either salad with nuts sprinkled on top or vegetable soups with more fruit, dinner always contains at least 2, often a lot more, veg. I am mindful of drinking enough water, and consume as few UPF as possible.

I have often been told the only thing I can improve on is my exercise regime. One of my hobbies is hiking and I have definitely noticed that after (sometimes during! 😧) a hike, the urge for a bowel movement can be very strong.

Unfortunately chronic long term constipation is likely to take time. Food doesn't usually have such a dramatic effect. Keep going with it.

Try the step/equivalent for the loo - especially if you are not 'average man' height as many loo seats are too high for many women to sit even with feet flat comfortably on the ground (older loos are worse I think). You should find it makes a difference.

Also, since there are no obvious reasons and if diet doesn't help, I would wonder if you have any hypermobility? A friend of mine also gets this crazy bloating after certain foods - looks about 7 months pregnant! Basically her gut is so flexible that it allows it to stretch that far (or something like that) but it shouldn't. It means that her digestion is regularly 'off' as it's all a bit too wiggly in there (yes, I know, clearly missed my vocation as a doctor!😁). The point is, it took her years to get a diagnosis and nothing else really affected her so she was taking all different things, but the problem was more of a physical thing, so no amount of drugs or fibre was helping.

Your update is good for future poos, but it isn't going to help the hard ones. You need movicol/laxido to soften it and break it down.

🤪 was wondering.

I’d be chronically constipated if I ate this every day too.

So a typical day for me:
breakfast - porridge oats with honey and two cups of coffee Porridge is not too bad, maybe try less actual oats and replace with some milled linseed, perhaps a couple of dried dates, cranberries, and/or mixed nuts & seeds.

lunch - peanut butter sandwhich with a packet of crisps (I know!) Your lunch is the worst meal of the day, sandwich & crisps are proper gut cloggers, add some salad/veg in to it, ditch the crisps and replace with ‘crudites’ like cucumber & celery, nuts or fruit, opt for berries, pears, apples, or plums rather than bananas or citrus.

dinner - meat and veg (broccoli, carrots, sprouts etc)
carrots are starchy, swap them for green beans, cauliflower, courgette, spinach, roasted peppers

300g magnesium citrate
one ferrous fumerate (every other day) iron supplements are often linked with constipation, make sure you’re taking a gut friendly one, the basic NHS ones are not the best

Tons of sparkling water
One glass of Prune juice

you mention ‘rabbit poo’; small hard stools are a sign of slow gut transit, you can drink as much water as you like but if your food moves through your bowel very slowly all the water is absorbed out and the result is small rocks. You need to encourage peristalsis, to move your food through your gut more efficiently, it’s an old remedy but senna is a gut stimulant, and may help you whilst you wait for the dietary changes to take effect. If you make these changes and it still doesn’t help ask your GP for a food transit test, either a barium meal, or where you swallow a capsule that contains markers that show up on X-rays.

I'm told a whole kiwi on a morning works wonders!

Raspberries have 4x more fibre than kiwi!

OP not sure if this has been piinted out as too tired to read all but it's the Ferrous tablets!!! Any iron tablets causes massive constipation! Can you not let them go and take natural iron syrups from Holland and barret or up your meat intake ? I refuse iron tablets now as it blocks you up and feels awful !! Leave them and watch things moving ! If not - laxatives are the only way ....