Which Is Better For Hemorrhoids Miralax Or Metamucil
It is not recommended to take laxatives when you have hemorrhoids. Miralax, an osmotic laxative, could have the potential of worsening hemorrhoid inflammation. Laxatives can induce diarrhea, which can further inflame these sensitive blood vessels.
Those with hemorrhoids are advised to take a bulk-forming fiber supplement, like HemRid Fiber Gummies or HemRid Fiber Supplement. Or, you can try Metamucil. Both the HemRid Fiber Supplement and Metamucil uses psyllium, a fiber source with proven results in shrinking hemorrhoids are relieving hemorrhoid symptoms.
The HemRid Fiber Gummies use Chicory Root which works great as well.
For external or internal hemorrhoids, doctors will often suggest a fiber intake increase to lessen straining during bowel movements. Additional pressure on the lower rectal area can inflame hemorrhoids, but with fiber supplements, stools become softer and more comfortable to pass.
Metamucil is a wise choice for hemorrhoid relief, especially when taken regularly. An appropriate amount of soluble fiber regulates the colon, and with less straining, hemorrhoids go away more quickly.
When taking Metamucil for hemorrhoids, it is essential to ensure you are also drinking lots of water to help pass the fiber through your digestive tract. Take Metamucil with at least 8 ounces of water for optimal results.
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What Other Drugs Could Interact With This Medication
Psyllium fibre may interact with many medications by reducing the amount of other medications that is absorbed. Therefore it is recommended that other medications not be taken 2 hours before or after taking this medication.
Tell your doctor or prescriber about all prescription, over-the-counter , and herbal medications that you are taking. Also tell them about any supplements you take. Since caffeine, alcohol, the nicotine from cigarettes, or street drugs can affect the action of many medications, you should let your prescriber know if you use them. Depending on your specific circumstances, your doctor may want you to:
- stop taking one of the medications,
- change one of the medications to another,
- change how you are taking one or both of the medications, or
- leave everything as is.
An interaction between two medications does not always mean that you must stop taking one of them. Speak to your doctor about how any drug interactions are being managed or should be managed.
All material copyright MediResource Inc. 1996 2021. Terms and conditions of use. The contents herein are for informational purposes only. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Source: www.medbroadcast.com/drug/getdrug/Metamucil
Side Effects Of Psyllium Fiber
Some people experience gas, abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea or constipation when taking psyllium fiber supplements, according to MedlinePlus. The supplement also may cause headaches, coughing, runny nose, and sinus problems. To prevent side effects, start with a low dose and gradually increase it if necessary. Itâs also important when taking any fiber supplement, to increase your fluids, and drink plenty of water each day.
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Why Psyllium Husk Works
Among recommendations in a Symphony Health Solutions survey 2017 . Diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol that include 7 grams of soluble fiber per day from psyllium husk, as in Metamucil and Meta Daily Heart Health, may reduce the risk of heart disease by lowering cholesterol. One serving of Metamucil has 2.4 grams of this soluble fiber. One serving of Meta Daily Heart Health has 3.6 grams of this soluble fiber. One serving of Metamucil capsules has at least 1.8 grams of this soluble fiber. *These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.Continue reading > >
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Mr Monastyrsky So What Can I Do To Lower My Cholesterol And Reduce My Risk Of Heart Disease
Well, a complete answer to this question will require a season-long mini-series, and, then, some… So lets be practical, and concentrate on the fiber-related aspects of this quagmire:
Again, thank you for watching!
Take good care of yourself!
God bless you and your family!
Footnotes
1 Metamucil: Top 10 Reasons to love Metamucil
2 Cholesterol-lowering effects of dietary fiber: a meta-analysis1,2 The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
3 Metamucil: Top 10 Reasons to love Metamucil
4 Food Labeling: Health Claims Soluble Fiber From Whole Oats and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease Food and Drug Administration, HHS
5 Food Labeling: Health Claims Soluble Fiber From Certain Foods and Coronary Heart Disease Food and Drug Administration, HHS
6 Fiber, Lipids, and Coronary Heart Disease A Statement for Healthcare Professionals From the Nutrition Committee, American Heart Association Linda Van Horn, PhD, RD
7 Step I , Step II and TLC Diets American Heart Association
8 Dietary intake and changes in lipoprotein lipids in obese, postmenopausal women placed on an American Heart Association Step 1 diet
9 Problem with American Heart Association “Step 1” diet From the Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients
10 PLOS Medicine: Eight Americas: Investigating Mortality Disparities across Races, Counties, and Race-Counties in the United States September 12, 2006
11 Life Expectancy Drops for Some U.S. Women David Brown Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, April 22, 2008
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Do All Fiber Supplements Lower Cholesterol Levels
Fiber is an important part of any healthy diet. Although fiber is mostly known for improving digestive health, studies have also shown that certain types of fiber can also help lower your cholesterol levels. This can include common brand name fiber supplements like Metamucil and Citrucel.
What Are The Side Effects Of Taking Benefiber
side effectsSide effectsBenefibersymptomsBenefiber
- Best Overall: NOW Psyllium Husk Powder.
- Best Budget: Equate Daily Fiber Powder.
- Best for Diarrhea: Heather’s Tummy Fiber.
- Best for Constipation: Garden of Life RAW Fiber for Constipation Relief.
- Best for High Cholesterol: Benefiber Fiber Supplement.
- Best Gummies: VitaFusion Fiber Well Fit.
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More Things You Can Do To Help Lower Cholesterol And Promote Heart Health
Itâs important to keep HDL levels high and LDL levels low to prevent plaque buildup in the arteries. However, high cholesterol isnât the only risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Along with maintaining healthy levels of cholesterol, you can do more to promote your cardiovascular health.
1. Exercise to Help Lower Cholesterol and Promote Heart Health
Get your muscles moving and blood flowing with exercise. Regular exercise is known to reduce the risk for cardiovascular health. There is a significant amount of evidence demonstrating the benefits of exercise on cardiovascular health.
2. Eat Smart to Help Lower Cholesterol and Promote Heart Health
There is an abundance of evidence that show that eating high levels of unsaturated fats and low levels of saturated fats canlower cholesterollevels and reduce risk of cardiovascular disease. That means incorporate more fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, olive oil, fish, and poultry into your diet, and eat less high-fat dairy products and meat.
3. Maintain a Healthy Weight
Maintaining a healthy weight is much easier said than done for many of us. Consider talking to an expert like a doctor, licensed nutritionist, or dietician if eating smart and exercising regularly are not enough to get to or maintain a healthy weight.
4. Refrain from Smoking to Help Lower Cholesterol and Promote Heart Health
5. Talk to Your Doctor
HOW THE PSYLLIUM FIBER IN METAMUCIL CAN HELP LOWER CHOLESTEROL
Is Metamucil Available In Tablet Form
Metamucil is available in powder form, capsule form, and single serving packet form. Metamucil Fiber Thins are a great fiber snack option.
Ive been taking Metamucil for at least a year, and Ive noticed that I get really bloated in the mornings. Instead of taking Metamucil in the morning Id much rather take it in the evening. So I was wondering is it better to take Metamucil in the morning or at night?. Read more about why should you not take metamucil before bed and let us know what you think.
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How To Know If Psyllium Is Right For You
At your wellness check-up, your doctor orders a blood test to check your cholesterol levels, which is measured in milligrams of cholesterol per deciliter of blood. The ideal LDL cholesterol level is less than 130 mg/dL in patients without heart disease.
If LDL cholesterol comes back at 190 mg/dL or above, our prevention guidelines recommend lifestyle modification before initiating lifelong drug therapy with statin medication,” Dr. Simon says.
Such modifications will likely include recommendations to exercise 20 to 30 minutes five days a week, lose weight if necessary, and eat a healthy diet, such as American Heart Association’s Step 2 diet, to lower cholesterol, Dr. Simon says.
Most people will comply to some degree, Dr. Simon says, but they may be unable to get their LDL down to 130 mg/dL before their follow-up appointment. At that point, many doctors will prescribe statin drugs.
Were now also recommending that patients consider taking psyllium before starting drug therapy, Dr. Simon says. In patients who are making reasonable lifestyle modifications, this natural vegetable product is helpful in lowering cholesterol up to 10 percent possibly even higher in some patients.
Modify Your Eating Habits
A great way to lower your cholesterol naturally is to start by replacing unhealthy fats with healthy fats .
This means becoming a food label reader, says Dr. Cho. Its important to limit your saturated fat intake. There should be no more than 2 grams of fat per serving and it should account for less than 7% of your daily calorie intake.
Saturated fats are most often found in palm oil and coconut oil, along with animal products like beef, pork, chicken skin, hot dogs and regular cheese.
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Fiber Supplement Equivalent To Doubling The Dose Of Statin
byJeff Minerd, Contributing Writer, MedPage Today November 10, 2004
Soluble fiber is recommended to lower cholesterol, particularly LDL cholesterol. Psyllium husk, the active ingredient in psyllium and other fiber supplements and some cereals, is a rich source of soluble fiber. To determine the effectiveness of psyllium husk in lowering LDL, Abel E. Moreyra, professor of Medicine at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and colleagues added psyllium to the diets of patients already taking statin drugs.
Action Points
- Consider soluble fiber supplements, such as psyllium , as an alternative for patients on statins who need further LDL reduction but are concerned about the side effects of increasing dosage.
- Advise patients of the importance of a diet high in natural fiber in lowering cholesterol and preventing heart disease.
The placebo-controlled, randomized study followed 68 patients with baseline LDL cholesterol levels between 161 and 186 mg/dL for 8 weeks. After 4 weeks off all lipid-lowering therapy, patients were randomized to simvastatin 20 mg/day plus placebo , simvastatin 10 mg/day plus placebo, or simvastatin 10 mg/day plus 5 g psyllium three times per day, taken in at least 8 ounces of water.
-
Jeff Minerd is a freelance medical and science writer based in Rochester, NY.
Primary Source
abstract presented at American Heart Association 2
Laxatives Enemas And Bowel Cleansers
These drugs are commonly used to evacuate the large bowel and the main pathological indications are constipation and obstipation.
LAXATIVE THERAPY
A number of groups of laxative drugs exist, including bulk-forming laxatives, emollient laxatives, lubricant laxatives, hyperosmotic laxatives and stimulant laxatives.
Bulk-forming laxatives
Most of the available agents in this group are dietary fiber supplements which contain poorly digestible polysaccharides and celluloses. These are mainly derived from cereal grains, wheat bran and psyllium. This group of agents can either be given in a purpose-formulated prescription diet or as a preparation added to the existing diet. Examples include psyllium and sterculia . Dietary fiber supplements are usually well tolerated, more effective and more physiological than the other groups of laxatives.
Psyllium
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Benefits Of Psyllium Fibre
- Laxative Effect: Increasing colonic bulk stimulates propulsion . Psyllium husk provides the bulk that gives your colon something to grip on to and strengthen against like a resistance band. It increases stool weight, while toning the smooth muscle that is the colon and promotes laxation by increasing the moisture content of our poop.
- Anti-Carcinogenic Effect: The structure of psyllium fibre is like a magnet to toxic waste in the digestive system it grabs on for dear life and removes it from our bodies. In short, it helps remove waste efficiently.
- Intestinal Health: The colon of the human gastrointestinal tract contains a large population of resident bacteria. In fact, 55% of the solids in poo is microbial biomass. Psyllium is awesome at maintaining the bacterial balance in our colon, which then strengthens immune function.
- The Great Sponge: Psyllium can absorb a huge mass of water and other stuff. It has the ability to absorb excess bile, cholesterol and hormones like estrogen from the colon. If these arent removed efficiently, they get reabsorbed but this doesnt mean the body stops producing them. The body will still produce cholesterol and so cholesterol levels go up. The body will still produce estrogen and so estrogen levels go up. And do we all know what high estrogen levels mean? Weepy tantrums during PMS and greater breast cancer risk to name two.
How Do I Get Enough Magnesium
Magnesium is not hard to come by. It is available through natural food sources and supplements. Most women past the age of 50 need to ingest a lot more calcium to prevent low bone density as they age and ward off osteoporosis youd need to drink a lot of milk, and eat so much cheese youd get fat to get enough calcium, but many calcium supplements also contain magnesium. Usually, 2 cal/mag tablets contain almost all the necessary magnesium for the day. Magnesium supplements can cause soft stools, so its best to purchase the chelated versions and up your magnesium levels without upsetting other parts of your body. How much is enough? Up to the age of 30, males need 420 mg and females require 320 mg of magnesium. Once youre over 30, that amount lowers a tiny bit, barely worth mentioning.
Here is a selection of foods that contain 100 mg of natural magnesium:
- halibut, 3 1/2 oz.
- 30 almonds, 24 cashews, or 56 peanuts
- 2/3 cup cooked Swiss chard or spinach
- soybeans, cooked, 2/3 cup
- wheat bran, raw, 1/4 cup, or 1/3 cup wheat germ
- plain, non-fat yogurt, 2-1/4 cups
- 2/3 cup sunflower seeds
- 1-1/4 cups baked beans or cooked brown rice or cooked kale
- cooked black beans, 3/4 cup
- cooked lentils or kidney beans, 1-1/2 cups
- 1-1/2 large avocadoes
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Dietary And Lifestyle Changes
Dietary and lifestyle changes are key to making lasting changes in cholesterol levels.
Although they do not produce results as quickly as medications do, a person may notice their cholesterol levels drop in just a few weeks or months if they stick to a healthful diet and lifestyle plan.
Increase intake of plant foods
Plant foods are rich in vitamins and nutrients, and they lack cholesterol.
Most plant foods also lack saturated fats, which may increase cholesterol in the body.
A review published in noted that people who ate vegetarian diets had significantly lower cholesterol levels compared with omnivores.
The authors also noted that some targeted diets using plant foods might cause stronger effects.
For example, a diet rich in soluble fiber, plant sterols, and vegetable protein sources, such as soy and nuts, reduced LDL cholesterol by an average of 28.6% in just 4 weeks.
These effects continue over the long term. A review in Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases estimated that this type of diet reduces the 10-year risk of coronary heart disease by about 13%.
People who need to reduce their cholesterol quickly can work with a dietitian to create a targeted diet plan.
Increase fiber intake
While adding plant foods to the diet increases fiber intake naturally, it may also be helpful to take a fiber supplement or over-the-counter fiber drink to support the body.
Fiber keeps the digestive system healthy and may help prevent the body from absorbing cholesterol.
Avoid trans fats
Magnesium And Cholesterol An Overlooked Solution
One of the simplest, most effective weapons in the war against high LDL cholesterol levels is a common mineral found in many different foods, including nuts, whole grains, legumes and fish. Its proven to lower bad cholesterol and is widely available through food intake or supplements, but the American diet is deficient in it, at risk to cardio-vascular health, in particular, strokes. It is estimated that 72% of Americans do not ingest enough magnesium in fact, doctors unanimously state that the recommended daily allowance of magnesium, as set by the federal government, is too low.
In America, 1 stroke occurs roughly every 9 minutes some end in abrupt death. Many if not most are preventable. Roughly 80% of strokes are ischemic a blood clot interrupts blood flow to the brain. The rest are hemorrhagic and involve uncontrolled bleeding in the brain. Those at risk for stroke demonstrated such conditions as high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, and often diabetes. Lifestyle choices such as excess alcohol consumption, smoking cigarettes, exposure to lots of stress and being overweight are contributors.
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Benefiber Vs Metamucil: Differences Similarities And Which Is Better For You
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Fiber is a key component of a healthy diet. Fiber helps with bowel regularity and colon health. Fiber adds bulk to the stool and holds water, making stools easier to pass. There are other potential benefits to healthy fiber intake such as lower incidences of heart disease, better control of blood sugar, and healthy weight maintenance.
Fiber is found naturally in foods you may eat every day. There are two types of fiber: soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber can be found in dried beans, oats, oat bran, citrus fruits, and apples, among other foods. Soluble fiber serves to slow digestion and therefore slow the bodys absorption of sugar. Soluble fiber also binds fatty acids and removes it from the body, therefore lowering the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Insoluble fiber helps hydrate and transport waste through the intestinal tract. This promotes bowel regularity and digestive system health. It is ideal to get your fiber from dietary sources because these foods are rich in other nutrients your body needs. However, if your diet does not contain enough fiber, you may need to take a fiber supplement such as Benefiber or Metamucil.