Constipation Woes
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Okay so some background. I work an extremely stressful job (residential install plumber and job lead so I’m in charge of a crew), I also have two toddlers. My life is absolute unending chaos and stress. I try to eat Peaty and implement as many bioenergetic principles I can muster to at the very least offset the stress. I recently had a bacterial infection in my mouth in which I was prescribed Amoxicillin (1500mg a day, 3x 500mg doses). I also quit nicotine because I think it wasn’t helping my oral health.
With all this said I eat Peaty, low starch (potatoes and rice), lots of fruit, dairy (I have my own cow), meat, oysters, shrimp, coffee gelatin.
With that said I cannot poop. It will be every other day and it’s usually a battle to get out and it’s the little rabbit drops and poorly formed. My transit time is awful.
Does anyone have a recommendation to help solve this issue?
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@Lothric
Carrot salad
It makes as difference for me. -
@happyhanneke it generally does for me but I’ve had several and it’s not helping. I don’t know if it was the antibiotics or the quitting nicotine that has contributed to it but it’s driving me insane.
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@Lothric You may consider bile production and liver health. Amoxicillin can add load to my liver and seems to reduce ability to produce and excrete bile.
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@INTPeatler is there a way to increase bile production?
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@Lothric I try to aid the liver. Redlight, caffeine, butter, gelatin, orange peel tea, sparkling water, salt, cascara
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For stress and constipation, Magnesium is one of your missing links.
I didn't have major problems with stress or bowel movements years back but Mag-hydroxide in the form of milk of magnesia and Mag-sulfate in the form of epsom salt USP did assist with both.
Mag-hydroxide has a typical dose of 15ml but that's for bowel emptying, a person could easily start with 5ml etc for stool softening. It has a modest calming effect for me too, nothing drastic.
Mag-Sulfate has a typical dose of 2-3 level tablespoons in 8oz of water for bowel emptying. But for general stool softening it's much much less. In my case i'm down to just a small pinch in my coffees and drinks. It has a stronger calming effect for me also. Caution with dose as this one is powerful. It also puts your kidneys to work so I recommend keeping the daily dose somewhat low if long term or simply alternate it regularly with other types. You'll need to play with your dose initially till you see/feel results. Loose stool is no harm and a sign to dial your dose back a bit.
In my case i was dealing with mostly Mag retention issues, hence my microdosing throughout the day. It's brought other obvious benefits and i was able to significantly lower my doses after many months, the improvements remained.
I don't have personal experience but others have used Mag-glycinate but am not sure of the proper dose for stool softening and maintenence. Both the Magnesium and Glycine components should assist with calming. Glycine can also assist with digestion and intestinal repair.
B1, intestinal repair, energy production and much more.
Taurine and or Tudca, digestion, bile production, calming for some, and more.
Vitamin C, but only fruit based like Camu Camu, Acerola cherry powders or Quali-C capsules (Amazon etc). The rest is contaminated and allergenic Chinese product, stay away. Vit-C also has stool softening properties and will work together with Magnesium, a multi-approach.
In taking these nutrientss there's a chance you may have to boost others, maybe Calcium or Potassium, etc. I use Potassium Chloride salt substitute, but only as a nutrient, we still need our salt. I've read quite a bit at the RayPeat forum, here, and a few websites but this is the only one that comes to mind at the moment: https://www.gutsense.org/
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@BioEclectic thank you for all this it was very informative. I take Mag Glycinate but it has not gastric effects so I will try the other forms of Mag you mentioned. I do have Epsom Salt I could microdose.
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Temporal thinking is the faculty that’s
engaged by an enriched environment, but it’s
wrong to call it “thinking,” because it’s simply
the way organisms exist... - Ray Peat Nov 2017 Newsletter -
High carb low fat has worked wonders for my digestion. I do eat a good amount of starch for what it’s worth.
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@yerrag
I knew there was a recent one i had missed, along with important info. A must read. -
@BioEclectic Glad you found it helpful.
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@Lothric separating liquid foods with solids makes a huge difference (you don't want to dilute stomach acid)
The less water you drink the more acid you will have. (since doing this I tolerated more apples)
Milk for me decreases stomach acid production. I believe it's because it's too alkaline.
Too much fat decreases acid productionAs a peater said above, low fat, more carbs, separate solids/liquids and maybe limit milk.
Since doing this I got always pink tongue
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Use a product called Beet Flow.
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So an update. After trying multiple things. Carrot Salad, high dose Taurine, Cascara Sagrada (this helped a little bit) I stumbled upon high dose Thiamine. Tried 500mg and almost immediately found success. This might be my solution. Possible Thiamine deficiency.
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@Androsclerozat If one was eating a lot of full fat milk and liquids would lemon water with apple cidar vinegar still keep stomach acid flowing?
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@PrinceTrebata said in Constipation Woes:
@Androsclerozat If one was eating a lot of full fat milk and liquids would lemon water with apple cidar vinegar still keep stomach acid flowing?
Probably, but be careful with that much acid, it can irritate your stomach as it happens to me with phosphoric acid (coke) or citrus fruits in the morning.
This can be a short term solution. It's hard to keep it up for years. Better look for the cause of it. For me, it's fat and water. Also coke, but I don't know the reason behind. Maybe coke creates an overflow of acid and then the rebound effect makes me constipated? -
@Lothric
Good news and thank you for the update. -
@Lothric Just logged in to post suggesting B1. Great to see you've already tried it and found benefits. Only thing that worked for me long term. Genuinely life changing when I realised I had been B1 deficient
https://bioenergetic.forum/topic/1583/b1-cured-my-digestive-issues?_=1721663774704
