CONSTIPATION ALTERNATING WITH DIARRHEA: TREATMENT
If you think you have irritable bowel syndrome, your doctor will want to make a positive diagnosis with a battery of tests, which may include a GI series, a barium enema, and, in some cases, a colonoscopy to rule out a possible lesion on or polyp of the bowel. If you do have irritable bowel syndrome, you should know that your condition will improve as time goes on. The treatment for irritable bowel syndrome will start with you keeping a record of everything you eat in order to identify any foods that might be causing the problem, such as dairy products and high-fat foods—especially chocolate—and caffeine. You can experiment by limiting these foods to see if your irritable bowel syndrome clears up. Next, your doctor will recommend that you increase your intake of fiber with a product such as Metamucil or Fibercon. This increase in fiber will help regulate the water content of the stool. If the stool is loose, the increase in fiber will help make it more solid, and if your bowel is acting slowly and sluggishly, it will help regulate the transit time of your bowel movements. The amount needed will vary from one person to the next, but a good start is to take one to two tablespoons of Metamucil four times a day—at breakfast, lunch, and dinner and an hour before going to sleep at night. Exercise is also very effective, as it will help reduce your stress and regulate the bowel.
If you have diarrhea, I don’t suggest you treat it with an antidiarrheal medication, since this will cause you to become constipated. Some of my patients have used Kaopectate alternating with Metamucil, which I feel is unhealthy since your intestine never really has a chance to work on its own and creates a chronic condition of constipation alternating with diarrhea.
There are certain prescription medications you can take for irritable bowel syndrome. These include Donnatal, Levsin, and Levsinex in pill or liquid form. Levsin is also available in a sublingual pill that’s placed under the tongue to provide you with immediate relief. For most people, increasing the amount of high-fiber foods they eat as well as the amount of exercise they get, while reducing stress, can be very helpful.
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