My gastrointestinal doctor put me on Phillips Fiber Gummies. I had tried EVERY over the counter remedy for 40 years. Finally, this worked.
I also got a sqatty potty. The little step stool while you sit on the toilet.
Amazing. I bring my kindle in the bathroom and for the first time in my life… regular bms. What a relief!!

I have just tried Metamucil and it seems to be working. I take one shy tablespoon mixed with 8 ounces of water in the morning and the same dose early evening. Also, drink a lot of water. The fiber needs lots of fluid so you don’t get a bowel obstruction.

Disclaimer: This is only my experience. I choose going natural. I have used organic, integrative, functional, holistic Naturopathic doctor's advice along with my MD’s since the early 1980's.
Good luck. I have tried laxatives and they are not consistent and have side effects like bloating, etc. And all say for occasional use. They disrupt the system if take continuously. I liked a response from a co-redundant colon person: “It’s physical” so regular constipation suggestions may not work.
Last Dec the doc had me do non sedated colonoscopy. He could get through the colon as I watched on TV. I had had a baby years ago (natural and could stand pain) so figured I could stand it – it was no big deal. Most people in world don't get put out. Very interesting and it helped allow the scope to get through because I relaxed. Look up Osmotic gradients and Migrating motor complex and consider your electrolyte balance. OptiMag and K2+ Potassium are great supps and be sure to include prunes, squash, sweet potatoes, rhubarb etc in your diet. I like to soak ground 2T chia and 2 T flax seeds in prune juice overnight, then take half in the morning and half at night. Throw sugar out, processed and refined foods and drink lot of water starting with a quart of hot water in the morning - boyscouts. Coffee and Smooth Move are my back ups. I don't like coffee but it usually works. Thankfully I only need coffee a few times a month.

Helpful research of biological processes that take place in our gut:
- Migrating Motor complex which is the electroactivity in the GI tract during meals and fasting
- Osmotic gradient. If too much water is pulled into the colon, diarrhea results. If not enough water is pulled into the colon constipation results. Balance of minerals is important. Magnesium, potassium and sodium brings water into the colon. I have found balancing these help prevent constipated. I have to watch my calcium intake because it tends to encourage constipation. Calcium carbonate seems to be the most constipating. I depend on blood work from time to time to make sure my minerals are balanced.
Good luck, @farmersmith

You can eat papaya and pineapple, Magnesium Citrate 1000 mg a day. I never took prescription pills as your body get used to it and then you have to take them for ever. Messaging from right side of belly to left, pushing poo out helps as well. Do it in a circle. Start from bottom right and push on your belly gently, move your hand to top and then down on left. It pushes a lot of poo down to left and out. This is good for when you feel you have to poo, and won't come out.

Hi. I am 67 years old and am dealing more now with chronic constipation than any other time in my life. It doesn't help being 7 weeks post op from an L4-5 laminectomy from severe spinal stenosis. Everything I try either cramps me up, makes my upper chest and throat feel full, and just an overall feeling of yuck. Incomplete poops are the standard,if at all. I have bloat daily, some days looking more pregnant than I was 30 years ago! I have been very active all my life and this has put me through the ringer. My dog sorely misses our long walks.
Anyhow, this is my story.....

I accidentally didn’t take my daily Miralax on Saturday. However, I had several BMs on Sunday and today (Monday) due to what I believe was my special treat food! I didn’t take any Miralax yesterday either.

I normally eat a super regimented healthy diet. But, on Sunday I went off the rails, so to speak. I ate a small serving of fried shrimp, french fries and cole slaw. Something about it made me go big time. That happened to me once before last summer when on vacation, I had a piece of fried fish. I normally don’t eat fish or seafood cooked that way. Still, I’d like to recapture the secret of the cause. I can’t adopt fried dishes into my diet. I focus on healthy and nutritious foods. But, I would like to create the effects. Any input would be appreciated.

I have IBS M (Mixed) and have had it for about 8 years. I tried the diet they recommend but it was much too difficult for me. I know what some of the food offenders are, but not always. I fluctuate between having constipation (impactions) and terrible diarrhea -- on the same day.
Yesterday, I felt like I had to have a BM (not an emergency) and could NOT believe how I had totally soiled myself; one of the worst messes in my life (in my 90's now). UNREAL. So I was very careful with food all day and ate very little -- toast, one scrambled egg, one very weak coffee (instant) which I sometimes take when I NEED to have a BM. That was yesterday.
Today (30 minutes ago) I felt as if I had to have an BM (again, no emergency) and was SHOCKED to see that the toilet bowl was full of diarrhea/pieces of stool -- all sizes/shapes. I went online to see if possibly they had found some medication for this terrible syndrome and saw they had a new one Public Citizen in August 2000 petitioned the FDA to remove the drug because of evidence that it caused ischemic colitis, a life-threatening condition in which bowel tissue dies as a result of a lack of blood flow to the colon. Many patients were hospitalized and suffered permanent injuries shortly after the "new" drug was introduced. Many patients had severe reactions and a few died! SO MUCH FOR MEDICATION.

Why was Alosetron taken off the market?
Public Citizen in August 2000 petitioned the FDA to remove the drug because of evidence that it caused ischemic colitis, a life-threatening condition in which bowel tissue dies as a result of a lack of blood flow to the colon. Many patients were hospitalized and suffered permanent injuries.

What are we supposed to do? I have a great gastroenterologist. He knows his topic but he tells me he cannot help me. I know what I eat and I know what I need to do. I don't.

Good luck to all of you.

The good thing is that IBS doesn't turn into cancer. My insomnia is even worse than my IBS. Today I am on a water diet to "calm" the flare-ups. Maybe I'll mix in a little cranberry juice. Anti-inflammatory.

With all of this technology, someone will probably redesign the body. They now have ROBOTS that give massages. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjMsCWhKcM0 I've never had a massage. Maybe that would help.... HA.

Take care. Phil - exeter

Yes! I was diagnosed with severe pancreatic atrophy. Found on a CT scan. Also just had sludge and stones removed from my gallbladder. I have the exact same symptoms. The gas is horrible and the constipation is too. my bowels are moving very slowly. I had to go 12 days without a bowel movement twice. I just got my diagnosis and I'm trying to figure out what to eat. They started me on Creon which is an enzyme made from pigs that will replace the enzymes I cannot produce. It seems to help but the gas and restrictions are not pleasant. I'm glad I live alone. I hope you get some relief.

as per the above, this is a number of things that I did, to help my chronic constipation, and perhaps SIBO, or diverticulitis/osis, and/or "chrones" disease, pain and such, after long term PPI usage after a nissen fundo, after what looked like vagus nerve stuff, after a hole in my tummy wall that my small bowel poked out, but didn't show up on CT scan, cause I'm laying flat on the table, and what, like five surgeons, five GI docs, 15 ED/ER docs, all deny, six CT scans, one small bowel follow through, one gastric empty study, three endoscopies, one colonscopie, two different ultrasounds, and they all say "CT scan doesn't show it, it doesn't exist, till I find one surgeon "I want to see the images, maybe they don't know what they are looking for," so I get them to her, and then I go thorugh them, and what do I see, what looks like a hole, a breach a break in my tummy, same spot, and she says "an eventraion of a laproscopoic trocar portsite incision.., you blew a stich" and that's what I told all them the origional nissen fundo surgeon, ER/ED docs, it's even in the notes, and if I can see it, WTF can't they? that I don't know, other than the medical scholarly peer reviewed journals, talk about how small ventral hernias are missed all the time, patient laying on his back, hard table, reduces, sucks in, and radiologists, in a little dark room a state away, reading, not knowing what the patient is in for, signs and symptoms and a radiologist even told me this, and "roll the patient over onto his tummy" or "stand him up and rescan" anyway after all this, probiotics and not just that but freeze dried breast milk, human, I would have gotten fresh but couldnt' find any, kinda understandable, but https://naturallyinspirational.biz/ Sara Whitman naturally inspirational, clean, disease free, no cannabis, no nicotine, nuttin...and by god, that alone did more than anything, first gooey, yellow green almost, and now I get regular BMs every day, it's a miracle drug. Add papaya enzyme at first, cause the food needs something to digest it, break it down, there's like 400 different probiotics in breast milk, read up on the UK studies. Goat breast milk, second best, maybe camel, cows last, but RAW, not pasteurized, fresh, also hard to get, maybe a health coop or farmers market is where i found raw goats milk and gotta get there early before it's sold out. Okay, papaya enzymes, helped I think. Electrolytes, also. vitamins, thiamine b complex A C and especially D3 vital for them neurons to get them tummy muscles the signals moving along little doggies. Look up vitamin D and Bs for neural activity and GI, and best of luck, a year later, I basically don't do any of this, except the vitamins and occasional probiotics, no more linzess, no more duralax, no more soft gel caps, well maybe once a month, no more enemas, my life changed a helluva lot better, almost normal...and maybe someday, that surgeon that figured it out will go in and try to fix it, also probablly adhesions, but in the meantime, if I start to get "stuck" I suck my tummy in, right there, or push on it, maybe kinda arch my back, upper left, think of "bow pose" in yoga, or cobra, good for adhesions cause it lengthens the tummy where the adhesions are pulling and pinching the bowels, and it hasn't poked out in a long time, my small bowel, and the surgeon she says possibly that the hole is healing itself slowly, and we may never go back in, just let it be, and I can deal with my new life, just as it is...