I'm new here !!!

[Samkav]

Hello everyone, I have had IBS for about twenty years, it started after gastro enteritis...most of the time I have coped with various treatments,medicine and herbal stuff. I am 64 and last year was put on Lercandipine for high blood pressure, it's a calcium channel blocker, since then I have suffered with persistent constipation,no matter what I do, I am lactose and gluten intolerant anyway, so have to watch what I eat, but, at the moment I am feeling really depressed....I went to the loo ok five days ago after taking senna,but have still felt bloated ,have constant wind, and generally feel yucky!!! I took more senna and went to loo this morning,didn't do much ....still feel bloated ,don't feel like eating at all, not in pain but d I discomfort...drinking peppermint tea which helps...I'm sure it's the pills and I can't stop taking them ....I have problems swallowing pills....so is there any help I can try in liquid form ??? Any help advice etc would be appreciated

[Iesgobdafydd]

Hi, welcome and sorry to see nobody's answered you yet, and that you're feeling so rotten. Have you talked with your doctor in case there's a different drug than Lercandipine you can try? I looked Lercandipine up and I don't see constipation on the list of known side effects (although there are plenty of other digestive side-effects listed); so if you're pretty sure it's the Lercandipine causing your constipation then you might want to report it for the sake of other people so it can eventually get onto the known side-effects list (you can do it yourself, doesn't have to be a doctor, see nhs.uk/conditions/medicines...

I'm not 100% clear if you're looking more for help with the constipation or with the blood pressure? My mother-in-law turned down medication for high blood pressure for a long while and dealt with it by changing her diet, she cut out salt totally and watched her fat intake very carefully I remember, not sure what else she did if anything. Her doctor did tell her that was an option in her case I believe - I would definitely not suggest trying any alternative to the Lercandipine without discussing it with your doctor first, in case it's more dangerous for you.

It might make it easier for people to advise you if you can say whether your IBS is the diarrhoea type (IBS-D) or the constipation type (IBS-C) or alternating. My mom's home remedy for constipation used to be molasses tea (1 tsp blackstrap molasses dissolved in warm milk - you could use lactose-free milk or just take the molasses without the milk, I think she only put it in milk to make it more palatable for us.) I looked it up, apparently it's well-known and there are some other alternative ideas here: poopdoc.com/articles/consti... including my grandma's favourite remedy, prune juice. That website suggests a much higher dose of blackstrap than we used to take. Of course you might have tried all these type of remedies already.

I'm currently trying Atrantil for my IBS, which is a fairly new herbal product that is supposed to help with all kinds of IBS (helped about 80% of patients in their own study). Too early to be sure if it's helping or not yet in my case - and it's not cheap. I'll have to post the results in this forum once I'm sure, because I've mentioned it a couple of times. One of the active ingredients is peppermint oil to soothe your system, the other two are aimed at dealing with bacterial overgrowth. Have you had the hydrogen and methane breath tests for SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) or not? (Many doctors in the USA think that a lot of people diagnosed with IBS actually have SIBO, but in the UK doctors have been much more reluctant to believe SIBO is a real condition and affects more than a tiny number of people.)

Best of luck with your health

[Hidden]

Hi there Samkav, I didn't see your post yesterday as I was out all day and most of the evening. I also suffer with constipation and I take a rounded dessertspoonful of Linseeds and soak them in around a 3rd of a cup of water and leave for around an hour. If you leave the seeds longer then they go more like a paste but some people crush the seeds into a powder (I don't have a pestle and mortar). I have been doing this for around 3 to 4 months and it certainly works for me.

Very best of luck