The right kind of fiber for me to end constipation issues | Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Digestive Health Support Forum
I've been dealing with terrible constipation issues for over a decade of my life, right about the time I got type 2 diabetes and had a massive toe infection which led to lots of antibiotics. Before that time I had no problems with constipation at all.
It is my guess that the antibiotics killed off my good bacteria and damaged my digestive system causing the constipation. I have tried so many things over the years, many of them worked at first then later stopped working for me.
I have finally solved the problem for me, by myself, without any doctor's help or guidance. Keep in mind what works for me, might not work for you, etc. But this combination of fiber supplements seems to be working for me for now a full year without a single day of constipation.
Why supplements instead of natural foods? It would take so much eating and chewing of fiberous foods that I would spend most of my time eating and gain huge amounts of weight to get the amount of fiber needed to keep my system flowing properly.
Surprisingly the fibers which work for me are not the ones that most people use. For example-- wheat bran, psyllium, fruits and vegetables (in normal amounts) don't work on me.
For me, what works is soluble fermentable fiber-- the types of fiber found in fruits and veggies, but in very small amounts. These fibers resist digestion in the stomach and small intestines and make it to the large intestines virtually unchanged, where they are then fermented by various bacteria which produce gas (farts) and easy (but controllable) stools. As an added bonus, these good bacteria produce things like butyrate which help heal the colon and may even help reduce the chances of getting certain cancers.
Interestingly, just adding probiotic supplements and foods was not enough to solve my problem, but I think they help when taken with the soluble fermentable fibers. The one probiotic supplement which seemed to help the most was Clostridium butyricum. The probiotic food which helped the most was kefir.
Now on to my list of fiber supplements which helps me the most in descending order:
2. Short Chain FOS (Nutraflora FOS)
3. Raw unmodified potato starch mixed into cold water
4. Raw acacia powder mixed into cottage cheese (just to make it easier to eat) and followed with a glass of water
5. Soluble Corn Fiber (Fibersol-2 Digestion Resistant Maltodextrin)
7. Hydrolyzed Guar Gum (Sunfiber)
8. Broken cell wall chlorella
9. Raw Cacao Nibs
I take all ten in very small amounts each day for maintenance, now that my problem has been solved, and I am never constipated anymore. It will take some experimenting to find out if any of them work for you, and how much to solve your problems, and then how much to just maintain equilibrium. If you can only afford to take one, I suggest inulin. It is the most important one of them all. And in that case, I suggest the powder form that you mix into water and drink it down. There are several different forms of it-- from chicory roots, from blue agave roots, and from jerusalem artichoke roots. I personally found the powder made from jerusalem artichoke roots to work the best for me. In theory you could eat jerusalem artichoke roots and get all the natural inulin you needed, but they're expensive in raw format at Whole Foods grocery stores, and it's difficult to be precise and find out just how much you need each day to stay regular but not too much so you can avoid diarrhea. You want your stools to be easy to pass but not uncontrollable.
There is also a great deal of research about these fibers, especially inulin, which seems to indicate that it may have far reaching health benefits, other than just constipation relief. It seems to reduce fatty liver disease and the associated complications from it, for example.
Another fiber on that list, soluble corn fiber, may help reduce the chances of getting certain cancers, for example.
Good luck! I hope it works for you, too!
Always nice to hear of someone who solved their IBS-C problems. Congratulations!
Interesting. As far as soluble/fermentable is concerned, isn't Benefiber powder equivalent to Inulin? Perhaps it has something to do with Benefiber being wheat dextrin.
sjw596 Mar 7, 2018