Chronic Constipation

[Smile9]

I am only 20 years old & have experienced chronic constipation for the past 4 years of my life. I eat well (have given up dairy as I once thought that was the problem), exercize regularly, drink plenty of water, etc. Still, I only produce a normal bowel flow easily about every 2 weeks. Besides that it is extremely hard to make anything come out of me. I am not sure what to do anymore. I eat plenty of fiber & whole wheat products and recently read about some people eating too much fiber.I recently tried a diet of only fruits & raw nuts but still I have trouble. Does anyone else have these problems? I am thinking about taking metamucil... any suggestions at all would be so helpful.

[ccctalks]

I've tried metamucil in the past and found it awful and didn't do a thing for me.  What does help though, is strawberies.  I buy the frozen ones and eat about half the package every day, and not a problem afterwards.  It may take a little while for your system to adjust to being normal again, but I've found that to work for me like a charm..........

[everyman833]

There is a new drug coming on the market any day now, called Zelnorm. It is for use by women with constipation pre-dominant IBS, among other disorders. Sounds like it might be just what you need. Ask your doctor about it. The drug was just approved by the FDA this past week, and should be available soon.

[Ozzie]

Hi there,
if you back track a little in the posts to this forum - back to 21 July I think, there is a post title "What's wrong with me?".  
I suffer with a similar complaint to you, have done for years and years.  I have IBS - and a naturopath also said I was gluten intolerant.  So I swore off all products that had gluten, tried to eat a healthy diet, and yet it didn't help.  
The responses to the post I just mentioned above have helped me so much, maybe they might help you too. Go and read them, especially the one that talks about soluble fibre.  I followed the advice, and have soluble fibre (eg rice bran, guar gum - but only a little bit of that - I was also using psyillium husks but the lady at the health food shop suggested not to use them because they aren't as gentle as rice bran) before I eat anything - I was so pleased about the difference (only my husband understands my happiness!).  I am also taking some tablets called Panazyme "digestive enzymes to aid digestions in the small instestine")which I got from the health food store.  It's been a real maze - finally I've found something that really helps.
Good luck!