I have. It's senna and a few other herbs. Not sure if it really worked, but I have such trouble with C, for most of my life, that I'm not a good measure of it's effectiveness.

It is a continual experiment to see what helps. Right now, I take psyllium, the stuff that is in Metamucil but without the sugar or additives. I buy it by itself and make a drink with Stevita. You can also take Citrucel or Benefiber, that have different forms of fiber. I also take butyrate, which is supposed to be good for colon health, and since my dear Mom died of colon cancer, I figured that was good. I started taking aloe jelly too, as that is known to be good for the bowels. You'd think that with all the water we drink, C would not be an issue, but it has definitely been worse for me. I also added the digestive enzymes in the past month, so that may be helping. I get them at the health food store - the spectrazyne is too expensive. I'm taking the Omega 3 capsules from the clinic, but I don't like burping up the fish taste, so when they are gone, I'm switching to chia seeds - they have lots of Omega 3's.

Since going on Phase 3 and starting up my walks everyday, it seems to be improving, but miss one day of psyllium and I pay for it.

Dulcolax is a stimulant laxative, not a stool softener. Colace is both an irritant and a surfactant, and won't pull water into the bowel to soften a stool (like an osmotic laxative will). It requires that you consume sufficient liquid, but will keep more liquid in the stool.

Milk of Magnesia (along with the mag citrate that has been recommended here) is an osmotic laxative, and will pull water from the rest of your body if you haven't consumed enough.

You also want to carefully watch your consumption of mag citrate. The upper tolerable limit for mag supplementation is around 350mg of elemental magnesium per day. The 2000mg of mag citrate pills recommended here is about 320, which is tolerable, if you have no other sources of magnesium supplmentation. 500mg of magnesium oxide would also fall right around the 250mg limit. A single 10oz "dose" of an OTC mag citrate laxative has more than 2 grams of elemental magnesium in it (almost 8 times your max daily dose). The regular presence excess magnesium in your intestines can decrease tone, which is going to cause more constipation.

My GI really like miralax, and has told me that as long as I don't have one of the (very rare) allergic reactions to it, it's safe to take "as needed" for the rest of my life, without concern for building up a tolerance. My biggest complaint is that it slightly changes the viscosity of the liquid I mix it with, and I perceive them as "less refreshing".

(Sorry, I'm not on IP, but I have had rather a lot of discussions with my GI about every laxative product on the market. And have been told quite firmly that he'd rather I didn't take stimulants, magnesium products or surfactants on a regular (daily/weekly) basis. YMMV, always follow your doctor's advice, etc.)

Hi you'll.. im a newbie on day 7 of IP. had weigh in yesterday lost 9lbs..Excited.. about 100 to go.. So far a very doable diet.. and this is from a drive thru queen for the last 8 years! they did not measure me after again..but instead of clothes being snugged..they hung like suppose to. somewhat disappointed after reading some of your comments of your coach.. guess like mine is in for the money...1st weigh in mine takes my weight n ask how many boxes i want...maybe was a bad day for her.. she did look tired.. I have been blessed..no problems so far... so happy found this site. for all those who have bowel problems.. try massaging your tummy in a CLOCKWISE (only)motion..being a Licensed Massage Therapist i know this does wonders for the bowels... i usually start off by putting my hands on each side with fingers pointing towards middle of tummy then give gentle pushes inwards..doing this from rib cage to hips..then start the CLOCKWISE circular motion..make it large over the entire ab area... DO NOT GO COUNTERCLOCKWISE.. otherwise you will back up!!!! OH my weight is not posted due to i threw my scale out years ago when i hit 200.. i told my coach i dont want to know my weight just how much i lost n how clothes fit. Im 5.5 so i guess goal weigh is about 135.. coach never talked about it.. also.. i read some of u got bars, etc.... she tells me that will be weeks away...

The first time around a coach recommended Magnesium Citrate. I didn't think it really worked.

This time (different office), they recommended the Novi-lax. The first time I took just 1 pill, it really worked. The second time it took a couple days of 1-2 pills to work.

Thanks for the massaging tips! Sorry your coach is not as helpful as she could be. Maybe in time you two will develop a better relationship, but in the meantime, the folks on here are real gems! Never found a better message board than this one.

Good luck and keep up the great work!

I too have had issues with the big C the last two weeks. My coach mentioned the Smooth Move tea so I tried it. First I made the mistake of drinking it in the evening before I went to work and a few hours later I had horrible cramps! not much other results. A few days later I decided to give it another try before bed and the next day again had bad cramps but it did clean me out that time.Not sure the cramps are worth it so now I have an entire box just sitting there. Maybe I will bring it to my coach to see if anyone else might want it. After my two bad weeks my coach has me eating only chicken and turkey this week and no restricteds. I hope this works since I am getting depressed and cranky. This is mentally tough for me. I am not hungry but really want to eat all the time. I too am tired of lettuce so have not been eating enough. I need to just make myself do it!

I use 2 Dulcolax (drug store or grocery store), once or twice a week. Before IP I would use psyllium but on this diet I'm not. Others use magnesium citrate (drug store).

I also drink almost 1 gallon of water a day in addition to coffee, etc.

I have this issue off and on. I have tried the Smooth Move teas as well, they work alright. My coach gave me a few Aloe supplements, I just took 2 and by the next afternoon I had plenty of GO going. It worked pretty well.

My coach said to avoid the mag-citrate in liquid form, since it has (either sugar or aspartame, now I can't remember which) but I can't seem to find any other form. Anyone have an opinion on whether this is 'worth the "cheat"'? I'm getting desperate!

I got a bottle of psyllium husk caplets at Walmart for $3. The directions said to take 5 with lots of water, which I did. The next morning had great results. I highly recommend!

Organic Senna Tea

They work for me. You may have to figure out when the best time to take it. For me, its at night before bed...by morning its on.

I drink it at night three times a week. It works beautifully!

I have used this twice and it works for me. I have not had the cramping others have described. I don't love the taste but I get it down !!

I went thru a horrid phase with constipation. HORRID! Jodio, I now know, that I was literally nearing an impacted colon.

I tried everything out there and nothing at all worked. I tried various teas, pills, solutions ... I honestly can't think of something that I didn't try. I'm actually embarrassed to say how long I was constipated.

On the recommendation of someone here on the board, I went to CVS and got the magnesium citrate for a couple dollars and it worked like a charm. It didn't interrupt my weight loss at all. If you're suffering very badly from constipation, it's worth using it. Afterall, it's not as though it's something you'd be drinking everyday or anything like that - you'd just be using it for a one time solution.