Constipation

[Fenioux]

What supplements/herbs are recommended for constipation please. I have a good diet but still struggling. Thanks

[Marz]

Did you manage to get more than your TSH tested ? Maybe you are not optimally treated yet ...

Have you had B12 - Folate - Ferritin - VitD tested ?

VitC and Magnesium - should help constipation as well as a well treated thyroid.

[NatChap in reply to Marz]

As Marz said, magnesium is great, I use magnesium citrate x

[Naomi8]

I use magnesium bisglycinate.a 500 dose is laxative for me.

I recommend psillium husk & also inulin.I buy psillium husk loose.I buy inulin as"Easyfibre"from Healthspan & take it in kefir first thing.

I cannot eat stewed apricots or prunes due to their highly laxative effect!

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Presumably as you only started Levothyroxine fairly recently, you are still only on 50mcg dose?

Bloods should be retested 6-8 weeks after each dose increase

Recommended on here that all thyroid blood tests should ideally be done as early as possible in morning and fasting. Do not take Levothyroxine dose in the 24 hours prior to test, delay and take immediately after blood draw. This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip, best not mentioned to GP or phlebotomist)

Meanwhile, many on here find magnesium supplements helpful for constipation

Calm vitality magnesium powder is cheap and easy to use. Starting on low dose, increase until you get desired results

Magnesium must be at least 4 hours away from Levo

Have you had coeliac blood test?

Before trying strictly gluten free diet

Many people find Levothyroxine brands are not interchangeable.

Once you find a brand that suits you, best to make sure to only get that one at each prescription. Watch out for brand change when dose is increased or at repeat prescription.

Many patients do NOT get on well with Teva brand of Levothyroxine. Though it is the only one for lactose intolerant patients

[carolen]

Hi, A capsule of digestive enzymes work for me. I don't take them every day but just as needed. I get mine from Amazon.

[fibrolinda]

I just take extra vit c and it works for me. I take 1000 a day and double it if needed

[Angel_of_the_North]

Make sure that you are getting enough fat and water in your diet, too.

[Fruitandnutcase]

I’ve got IBS and I take Fybogel if I need to . I’ve also had stuff called Movicol which you can buy over the counter. It’s vanilla flavoured granules - looks kind of like fine, white cat litter - but it tastes ok. You take a teaspoon of it and swallow it down with water.

[humanbean in reply to Fruitandnutcase]

Fybogel is a very expensive way of taking flavoured psyllium seed husk.

According to this link : medicines.org.uk/emc/produc...

each Fybogel sachet contains 3.5 g ispaghula husk.

According to Wiki isphagula is another name for psyllium seed husk.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psyllium

I used to take psyllium seed husk a lot. I would mix it into blackcurrant squash or elderflower cordial. On its own it made me think of wallpaper paste.

There are various sized bags of the loose powder available from here :

bulkpowders.co.uk/psyllium-...

[HLAB35]

As recommended above, vit C and Magnesium Citrate (if you get the powdered form of each you can adjust the dose) also pantothenic acid (B5) is recommended by some as it reduces stress which can have a detrimental effect on gut health.

herbfacts.co.uk/vitamin-b5/

[milkwoman]

Magnesium citrate is fast and gentle. Here in the US, we can buy in bottles as an oral solution at our local drug store/pharmacy. Comes in flavors like lemon (my personal favorite), grape and orange. I keep a bottle in my fridge and will drink about 1/3 of the bottle (~3 oz) when I feel I’m having an issue. Within a couple hours my system is good to go.

cvs.com/shop/cvs-health-mag...

[jgelliss]

Do you have your latest FT4 FT3 TSH lab results ? Your answer to your problems may be in your thyroid lab results too .