Too Many Bowel Movements

[Radha]

does anyone know how soon after eating is it NOT normal to have a normal bowel movement, no diarrhea? it seems i have a large bowel movement very

soon, about 4 hours after eating, and eating so little but so much comes out! so is that too soon? can everything be digested that fast? sorry to be gross!

and then sometimes i have 2 movements a day and i eat so

so little! so i dont have slow gastric movement, it seems to be too fast! and does that mean i am not absorbing any nutrients from what little i eat? could this

be a symptoms of something else because i get bad cramps when i eat so little too and i know i have bad blood pooling and get very hyper when i eat, adrenaline rush i think.......and going to the bathroom sometimes makes the cramps even

worse, never better which i thought it would......any input would be very much appreciated, thanks

Radha

[Broken_Shell]

Hi Radha,

I have a similar situation. After years of severe constipation, a year ago I began having these surges of increased bowel frequency, cramping, and nausea. I get extreme light-headedness, sweating, disorientation, etc. and other autonomic symptoms related to these episodes. I have had about 15 in the past year, lasting from 3 days to 3 weeks in length, and I have no idea what causes them. Like you, I do not have liquid stools, but pass large amounts of stool several times a day after eating that trigger in increase in my autonomic instability. I have tried taking a tiny dose of Immodium to slow down my GI motility, and this seems to help. I bought the liquid Immodium and only take 1/8 of a teaspoon, so it is a very tiny dose that slows things down without swinging me back to severe constipation. I also find that eating plain brown rice, apples, bananas, and egg whites during these surges helps to slow down motility as well. In addition to various autonomic symptoms, I experience increased blood sugar fluctuations and hypoglycemia episodes with these changes in bowel motility as well. I recently underwent a colonoscopy and endoscopy and a full GI work-up to evaluate this change in bowel habits, but everything so far as come back as normal. I wish you luck!

~ Broken_Shell

[Radha]

you sound exactly like me, thanks for your reply, i guess its just another problem that has no simple answer.....

Radha

[Maxine]

Maybe with autonomic dysfunction you having a swing of you ANS over the the parasympathetic a little too much which is causing you bowels to work a little too good.

There are days I wish I had that problem, but I wouldn't want it to continue. It's almost odd for me to "go". I always have trouble with not going, but I had some times earlier---maybe late 20s when I would go right after eating. Now I'm lucky if it's twice a week, but do have occasions when things work a bit better.

I think with NAs dysfunction we can have wild swings in our ANS, and it can affect out digestion in different ways. When the sympathetic nervous is too active digestion slows, and the opposite if the parasympathetic is overactive. We just need things to balance out-----wouldn't that be nice?

Maxine :0)

[futurehope]

Some thoughts that I've learned when having the problem of too may BM's per day:

Make sure you are not HYPERthyroid - overactive thyroid

Some foods set me off, like whole wheat (though I'm fine with white flour), "health food' whole grains, anything with caffeine

Some medications or medication changes could do this

Small intestine bacterial overgrowth - do you take probiotics L. acidophilus, to keep your intestinal bacteria in check?

Fiber - too much or too little in your diet can cause this problem

Us POTsies can get our intestines into overdrive by overdoing, or pushing, or being vertical too long

Make sure you do not have a bladder infection - it can stimulate the intestines

I hope you figure this out.

[Sophia3]

sometimes, in some cases, bowel frequency or diarrhea can be nipped in the bud with a tums or Rolaids..one or two. a friend learned this tip from dr. Robertson at Vandy and it helped her. Helps me sometimes too.

It's for days when we have too much adrenalin (don't we always??) churning out excess stomach acid. Somehow, eating just a couple of tums or something (I usually NEVER take that stuff as it kills digestive enzymes we NEED) can help me.

Just a little tidbit. Use before eating a meal on empty stomach if you can but after a meal is ok, too.

By slowing acid in stomach you can sometimes slow down the peristalsis movement with this tip.

Maybe somebody else can try it to see if it helps.

[yogini]

Eating triggers bowel movements by waking up the digestive system. I think this is maybe called peristalsis - I've forgotten the name. The waste that is coming out is probably not what you just ate, but something from an earlier meal.

[morgan617]

I can poop on demand, I swear. I have up to ten BM's a day. Not diarrhea or constipation. I think my bowel is just not sensitive to stool being in there until it's way low in the GI tract. Like atonic bowel. it just doesn't feel the oomph to go until my rectum is full and then I just go enough to empty that. Then a half hour later I've got to go again.

My son said he wanted to cut his head off to get rid of his migraines and I said I wanted to shoot my bowel out to get rid of those problems. Somedays, a Lot of days actually, I think I'd prefer a colostomy than the gut I've got.

(hubs said he wanted to cut his feet off to get rid of his plantar fasciitis. I said, we would never be able able to go anywhere together, jake with no head, me with no gut and Dave with no feet)

[ana_22]

you should get a complete blood count and test your serum vitamins if you re worried about malabsorbtion.