I’ve heard people say, “if you’re constipated, you need more fiber in your diet.” and I’ve also heard people say, “if you’re having diarrhea, you need more fiber in your diet.” does fiber really help with both? and if so, how? I would think that fiber would help with diarrhea but make constipation worse. (TMI) >!but multiple times, eating fiber-heavy foods like flax seeds has caused diarrhea for me.!<
TLDR: how does fiber work to influence your bowel movements??
In: Biology
Aside from what’s been stated already, there is a specific type of diarrhea that can occur simultaneously with constipation. Presumably (and this is not proven by any stretch), this is the result of overactivity of the bowels to try to move a constipated section, but this causes excessive watery stools to leak around that area.
So at least in SOME cases, diarrhea can be the result of constipation, and fiber and/or stool softeners can be used (and this is pretty common in hospital settings where people are not able to be active). Unfortunately, not ALL cases of diarrhea are, and doing so can certainly make those cases worse.
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