Mucus & slow motility

[Penhaligons]

I suffer from slow bowel motility and feel I’m doing and eating the right things. It’s a ritual for me to sit up in bed in the mornings with my legs bent up to encourage a bowel movement and usually this works. When it doesn’t it gets me down. At night the discomfort of having a full bowel wakes me every night and I feel queasy. I also suffer from a lot of gas and usually force it out. I feel my bowel muscles are weak. I take Bioglan probiotic every day, am a very active 60yr old, slim, drink lots of water and try not to take anything unnatural. Does anyone have any luck with Magnesium? I don’t know what to do!!

[Edgar77]

My Doc prescribed lactulose which can be bought over the counter. It usually helps me without any side effects. It softens the stool making it easier to pass. It does not contain lactose.

[Penhaligons in reply to Edgar77]

My stools aren’t hard though, I just don’t get the urge to go because my bowel is lazy. I need a stimulant of some sort, but I don’t want to take laxatives.

[Edgar77 in reply to Penhaligons]

I know what you mean. Ki didn't like the idea too, but I only need it about twice a week and I started on 10mls and am now down to 2.5mls. I heard that caffeine is a stimulant that helps some people. They can go after a morning coffee for example or even a coke. It made me feel awful but does work for some.

[casares8]

Yes i take milk of magnesia sometimes, it does usually work. Or you can buy magnesium tablets

[xjrs]

I used to take Magnesium Oxide on a regular basis when I had to be low fibre due to the pain I was experiencing. It was pretty reliable, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it on a long term basis at the doses needed to trigger a bowel movement. I found that it used to make me a bit dizzy, making my blood pressure drop.

These days I achieve a bowel movement with a very high fibre diet (for instance oat bran and wheat bran plus water microwaved and made into a porridge plus prunes plus chia seeds plus flaxseed plus ground almonds allowing the chia seeds to sit in the porridge for minimum of 15 mins to form a gel). At meals I also eat buckwheat pasta, spelt pasta, quinoa, new potatoes with skins, wholemeal bread sandwiches. Any increases in fibre need to be made on a gradual basis over a period of time to allow your body to get used to it. If you throw all of what I mentioned above at your system straight away, you're going to be in a lot of pain.

I take 30 drops of ginger extract at night in a little water before bedtime which helps get things moving in the morning.

I also took Optifibre for a while, but can now manage the motility with the diet and ginger. Sometimes if your gut microbes are a bit depleted and lets face it most of your BM is made up of microbes, Optifibre acts as a prebiotic feeding them to help the numbers increase. Maybe this is why I eventually didn't need to be on it anymore. Additionally a high fibre diet provides plenty of feed for the microbes too.

The pain you are experiencing at night is likely to be visceral hypersensitivity. I used to suffer from this. My pain is much more controlled now by taking Alflorex probiotic (which has been scientifically studies for IBS) and Linaclotide for IBS-C. Linaclotide helps to calm intestinal nerves and is also meant to help with motility - for me it helps with the pain but I know that for others it also helps with the motility.

[Penhaligons in reply to xjrs]

Thank you very much for your reply, some very interesting suggestions. I’m lucky that I enjoy all food you’ve mentioned, but quite possibly I don’t eat enough of it. I think I’ll try the alflorex as I’ve been on the Bioglan for years now, maybe it’s time for a change, also the ginger extract sounds interesting, do you recommend a specific brand? I’ll give anything a try if it would help.

[xjrs in reply to Penhaligons]

I use Natures Answer Ginger Extract 30ml:

dolphinfitness.co.uk/en/nat...

However, rather than trying new and sometimes expensive supplements (including the ginger), I would increase dietary fibre in the first instance. Everyone is different and increasing the fibre may be perfectly adequate for you, which also saves you money.

[Penhaligons in reply to xjrs]

Thank you for that tip, I’d much rather treat my problem with dietary changes. If I can avoid supplements then that would be my preference. I will be ordering the Alflorex though.

[Hylda2]

Magnesium comes in all varieties. You would need the laxative one

[Luisa22]

Maybe you could try magnesium? I hear magnesium citrate helps with constipation. I don't have constipation, but I have ibs -d . I do know that I have to be super careful how much magnesium I have or it will make me 'go' even more. I have to choose a low magnesium bottled water. The ones that have a lot of it in make me worse. So maybe it might help you?

I hear it can help with sleep quality too. A morning coffee stimulates bowel muscles and gets peristalsis moving.

[Penhaligons in reply to Luisa22]

Thanks Luisa I’ll definitely be giving magnesium a try.

[winfong]

Magnesium citrate is an osmotic - draws water into the colon and encourages a more natural movement. I take another, methylcellulose, which works wonders.