Help for Constipation
At the start of the diet many people who were suffering with constipation find that SCD™ will relieve it. For some other people their constipation may worsen for a short period. This may be due in part to the toxins that the starving microbes are releasing as they die. If there is a large amount of toxin release (from a large overgrowth of harmful microbes) and/or if the body has trouble detoxifying, constipation may occur or worsen. Additional things that have been reported by SCDers to help with constipation: * The Constipation Protocol (below) * Epsom salt baths and/or activated charcoal. These will help remove toxins from the body. Link for Epsom salt baths and activated charcoal instructions * Increased fluids. This will help flush toxins out of the body.
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Beets: Homemade beet juice can be mixed with other legal juices or just diluted with water. Cooked beets or beets cooked into foods have helped some. For example beet brownies:
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Constipation and Yeast We have received a lot of reports that link constipation with yeast overgrowth. For some people SCD™ alone will take care of their yeast overgrowth and consequently their constipation. Others have to take extra steps to get their yeast under control, which then relieves constipation. This can involve legal antifungals, reducing honey etc. Please read the following webpages:Information about yeast
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Constipation Protocol Elaine writes:"Yes, the diet has reversed severe constipation. It is of no use to tell us what happened when you were not on SCD™. It is SCD™ that counts. I will send you an article I wrote on just this problem. The whole fiber story about helping severely constipated people is a story which just does not work and can cause other problems. I have had a good deal of experience with this problem. Not only have adults been helped by the following information but the SCD™ has saved a few babies from horrible surgery as these babies were given the diagnosis of Hirschprung's disease which makes it impossible for them to move their bowels. The result of this operation is a horror story. One Mother brought her baby on a TV interview with me in Canada and I can remember her saying to all of Canada (cross-Canada program): "You do not know what it is like to change a baby's daiper day after day which has only urine!" She was told to pry feces out with a rectal thermometer. In the meantime, the baby was doubled up with pain screaming night and day. One young child was getting prolapses of the rectum from straining. In both these cases, the children (including the baby) recovered in short time. The baby was put on the infant formula in the book and the child on a regular diet. The first step is to get up one hour earlier in the morning if you usually have to go to work. The morning is the normal time for people to have a bowel movement - right after breakfast and the regimen I am giving you is based on this principle. Start this regimen on the weekend when you do not have to go out as it may cause urgency. Get on the introductory diet for two days. Then introduce the muffins, one per day, along with COOKED AND PEELED vegetables and fruits. Raw fruit and vegetables (with the exception of the ripe banana) can aggravate both diarrhea and constipation. When you are adjusted to the diet, we can then start the treatment for constipation altho the diet alone may do the trick. Introduce a few stewed prunes with your breakfast - about 3-4 for about one week. See if that helps along with the SCD™. If the diet and stewed prune do not make you go to the bathroom after a week to ten days, do the following: 1) Go to the market and look for PRUNE NECTAR (legal, without sugar). If you cannot find prune nectar, buy prune juice (legal) in a jar. Simmer the contents of the jar to half the volume. In other words, if you start with one quart, simmer it down to one pint. Refrigerate. 2) At breakfast, mix three tablespoons of the prune nectar with 1/2 cup Tropicana or freshly squeeze orange juice. 3) Start your breakfast with this mixture. Then eat your regular specific carbohydrate breakfast but make sure you have a large cup of something hot. Either your coffee or tea. Then go to the washroom and see if anything happens. Read and relax. If this does not work the first day, repeat for two or three days. On the fourth day if this does not work, then insert a glycerin suppository (get in drugstore) while you are sitting on the toilet and hold it in for one minute. If it still doesn't work, do the same thing the next day. It would not hurt on the first day you try the glycerin suppository after breakfast to use another one before going to bed. I am trying to establish a normal pattern of defecation for you and it may take almost a month. However, the children responded in a short time without the suppository. So give it a try. Good luck. " From the LI listserve
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Comments on the Constipation Protocol Marcia writes:"It's often necessary in the beginning to go very easy with fibrous foods, even legal ones--cooking well and peeling and seeding ALL fruits and vegetables. I know that this is contrary to the usual advice you hear on C, but for me it made a big difference when I started avoiding onions and peppers and broccoli, and cooking , peeling, seeding all else. (I can eat a little cooked onion now with no problem, it was just for some months that I had to avoid these things totally.) Swinging between D and C is also not uncommon for IBDers. Did you try any of the standard SCD™ advice for C, such as stewed prunes, or reduced down prune Juice w/legal orange juice after breakfast? Glycerin suppositories? 1 pint warm water +teaspoon salt in an enema? People have also been recently writing in about increasing magnesium intake to help C symptoms. I had all your symptoms except insomnia. In my experience, the low energy and exhaustion after starting the diet lasted about a month. Part of the issue, for me, was learning how to eat correctly on the SCD™. Have your read the recent posts on hypoglycemia/low blood sugar? In the beginning especially, you simply cannot allow yourself to become too hungry. If my blood sugar went too low due to too long between meals, I would indeed feel exhausted, lethargic, irritable. I thought that eating sweet stuff would help--honey sweetened things or nuts and dried fruit--but really I needed to mix that with protein and fat. Now when I start to get hungry I have some cheese, or whole milk SCD™ yoghurt and cooked fruit compote, then prepare a full meal without too much delay. This works for me." From the LI listserve
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