Anyone else have a Redundant / Tortuous Colon?

I have success with what upartist is doing - a cooked diet, high liquids, limited meats. More fluid through the "pipes" cuz they are extra long and curvy. Think of it like household plumbing. So try dumping the raw food, that is for normal guts. And I and others have shared our myriad ways of dealing with constipation, though a more liquidly, cooked diet will help your gut process your food. I sip water between meals, take magnesium and one Colace at night, and take some slippery elm inner bark powder with almost every meal. I also have a rhubarb-kiwi compote at night as it is has a stimulant effect. Experiment with what everyone uses.

I think not being able to lose weight could be something else. To lose weight, get your resting metabolic rate measured. Once you know how many calories you burn "doing nothing," you can figure out how many calories to eat and how much exercise to do to be in deficit mode and lose your weight. It's calories in and calories expended that works as a focus.

Australian black licorice is actually candy- warning though, be careful if you have high blood pressure. It’s so much easier to find now, thanks to the internet. In the “old day” I would purchase once a year when I visited Cape Cod which has a great candy shop that carried it.
I can’t speak to whether it affects gerd, since I don’t have it. Good luck if you decide to try

Hello Loconner. I am posting for the first time in this group, because your post caught my attention. I have a tortuous colon (likely congenital) with increasing diverticulum and two recent infections, combined with a biliary and stomach backup and bile reflux with stomach damage, likely resulting from the back-pressure of tortuous colon. My blood sugar levels and my post gall bladder situation (long since gone) are players. It puts my pancreas and liver at risk. This has made it difficult to keep my weight down despite low carb diet and exercise. While my weight is good now (lost 15 pound) and holding, it is because I have been so nauseated. So my PCP has me carry ondansetron. This helps me followthrough with a cooked diet, high liquids, limited meat, etc. All this was not enough. So my PCP has me taking miralax 2/day. Combined with the ondansetron and diet, this was a game changer for my pain levels and bowel motility. Now I have just started adding Metamucil capsules to address the diverticulum. I dont want to lose my bowel or develop cancer. The future is yet unknown. Keep your head up. Its a circular process, and will take time for inflamed areas to reduce, and for the gut microbiome to recover. You have to avoid obstruction and diabetes! Good luck with this complex issue. Hopefully this post has helped. Keep conversations going.

In 2024 I was diagnosed with EPI and am now taking Creon. I am still working thru this diagnosis which also lead to a Chronic Pancreatitis diagnosis.

Most of you are mentioning weight loss associated with tortuous colon. I was informed that I have the condition after my third routine colonoscopy-- this time, the doctor said that everything was fine other than "the tortuous colon which you're aware of". Well.....NOPE! I had never been told I had a toruous colon, and had no idea what that even meant! So, about 20 years and 2 colonoscopies later, I'm finally told about my condition (grrrrrr!). I am always constipated and have many of the symptoms many of you have described-- except I am not losing weight- I'm having an extremely hard time getting the scale to budge. This is very disheartening because I've begun exercising regularly and eating much healthier (mainly raw diet), and since I began this regimen nearly a month ago, I have not lost an ounce. I haven't had a BM in nearly a week this time, but really having no other symptoms other than mild discomfort. But the lack of weight loss is depressing to say the least. I'm at a healthy weight (according to the BMI chart) but I would like to lose about 10 pounds to be at the weight where I feel my best. I'm 63 years old. If this is what aging is like, I don't like it one bit!!!! Has anyone else had the weight gain or weight plateau issue? I feel pretty desperate at this point. A number on the scale is instant gratification for all of my hard work- I need that little boost!

The only way to stop bowel muscles from atrophying and stop working is to exercise them with fiber. A high percentage of soluable fiber foods (not insoluable ) at every single meal I found is key, and those that contain cooled resistant starch (not digested by small intestine and makes it to the colon) best. Examples of high soluable fiber foods are oatmeal, hard crunchy fresh apple flesh, root vegetables etc. Overcooking will destroy the fiber. Insoluable is husks, skins, roughage which can irritate an already irritated colon. Both types are needed in the diet but meals that have high percentage of soluable fiber I have found as a key. Chew food to soft pulp with no hard dry pieces. Some oil/fat at each meal also keeps things moving. I wrote more extensively on `Tortuous colon diagnosis and diarrhea`. Mayo posts. Same problem whether diarrhea or constipation it seems. Drinking and moving all day. Sitting a lot seems to stop things from working.

I had the same concerns about capsules getting stuck. It has happened a few times which I found out by an X-ray before having an mri for unrelated issues. Once, my dr had me take a bowel prep which resolved the problem but no one wants to go through that f it isn’t absolutely necessary. Most recently I took Phillip’s milk of magnesia when a X-ray showed 4 trapped capsules. Two or 3 nights on that resolved my problem. I have been on vibrant ever since it was approved by the FDA. With a few glitches, it has worked very well. I never thought I would have thought I would have normal bowel movements.
Adrienne

I have considered the Vibrant pill, but given the tortuosity issue, I'm scared that it will get stuck in a bend/loop. Is this an unfounded concern in your experience or your GI's expertise? Thank you!

ps. If you do go Gluten Free, stay away form US grown rice products that happens to be in a lot of things. Pretty much all US grown rice is high in arsenic as Consumer Reports pointed out and now governments are trying to pass bills to regulate it. Arsenic was used in pesticides years ago and since rice grows in wet soil it absorbs a lot of it. Rice from India or Pakistan is fine since they never used arsenic in pesticides.

Unfortunately the bowel, like all muscles atrophy as you age, so many seniors have bowel problems without all these other complicating issues. The only way to work the bowel muscles is through fiber (high soluable fiber foods best) which stretches the bowel and then it has to push it...like resistant training exercises at the gym lol. But I also found not sitting for very long, daily walks/stretch, loose clothing on abdomen, deep breathing/gentle pressure for pain, chew food completely to pulp (no hard pieces) etc etc helps. Also you may have developed different food intolerances due to bowel misfunction. I have been off dairy and gluten for over 30 years. I had actually developed a milk protein allergy at 30 yrs old. Allergist was stunned.