IBS

[tracyanne]

I have IBS. Havent moved my bowels in 3 days. I eat a high fiber diet. I am stressed. Should I take some laxatives? I eat all bran buds for breakfast every morning. I have lazy bowels. I eat apples, oranges, plums. I dont know what i am doing wrong. I am in alot of pain right now, being backed up with feces. Please help me!!

[patient915]

This is incorrect advice.  In most cases of constipation, fiber is helpful.  It works by adding bulk to the stool which makes the stool easier to pass.  A stimulant laxative works by causing contractions which moves the stool along.  After taking stimulant laxatives for a long period of time, the colon then forgets how to contract on its own.  Fiber does not work in this way at all.

A google search of "fiber myth" will lead you to a bunch of random websites that are not trustworthy.  Tourist6, if you have any websites of peer-reviewed scientific studies confirming your opinion, I would love to see them.  However, most of these websites are just backing up their claims with observational studies or experiments that were not randomized and double-blind.

In some cases fiber is not helpful.  When someone has a motility disorder where the colon is "sluggish", adding more fiber to the diet just creates more stool that needs to be moved through the colon, which someone with a motility disorder has trouble doing.  I have conditions (gastroparesis, chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction, and colonic inertia) that cause me to not be able to tolerate any fiber and I am also tube-fed due to these conditions.  I also have a rectocele too, which I assume is what you mean by "recticel".  Just because fiber didn't help you and made you worse, does not mean that is won't be helpful to most people.

[Tourist6]

The role of fiber is now being reviewed by doctors and some say it can be addictive, in the sense that the pressure and irritation that fiber creates , which leads to evacuation, may result in a stretched out and desensitized colon. So you need more fiber and more fiber. Or so the conventional recommendation goes. But in fact, what you need to do is reduce fiber before your colon is completely wrecked.

I realize that this is new research and you may not know what to think of it. Don't take my word for it; look into it. Use search words like fiber myth, and the like.

I am not a doctor but I am someone who for 15 years struggled with chronic constipation, followed the fiber prescription until I was eating like a goat, but I got worse and worse every year. Finally the internal hemmorhoids were creating a recticel and closing off any hope of evacuation, and on the exterior prolapsing and bleeding profusely, daily.

I sought out a gastro at a major Boston hospital and after one year I am finally getting better. I ditched the vegetarian, high fiber diet, adopted the FODMAP elimination diet and am working to restore the intestinal bacteria that the fiber diet killed off (undigestible foods lead to a very acidic colon).

I hope others will figure out that fiber is no better than stimulant laxatives.It creates a dependency and damages the colon. If you don't catch on while you're young enough, the damage may be permanent.

[Sechmeth]

The important thing with eating much fibre is to drink a lot, too. At least 8 glasses of water a day, when the fibre intake is really high. Laxatives are not the best idea if you are already clogged up. Go to a pharmacy and get a mini-enema. They work under 20 minutes and really help, without the bad side effects of a laxative.