Bowels and Slow Polio Bellies
Dr. Bruno’s Original Post: A Coffee House member wrote that he was about to have a colonoscopy to diagnose the cause of chronic constipation. Constipation is very common in polio survivors because of poliovirus damage to the vagus nerve. Polio survivors should rule out causes of constipation that are not related to "slow polio bellies."
Constipated polio survivors should be on a bowel program. A bowel program is the use of a low dose of a gentle laxative, like Miralax, every evening and adding roughage to your diet, like a big iceberg lettuce salad for dinner. You then keep a daily log of the amount of poo (none, small, moderate, big). We always recommend that if you haven't had a moderate bowel movement in two days, you increase the amount of laxative on the evening of the second day to help you have a good bowel movement on day number three.
Check out this article Slow Guts and Polio Survivors.
You can others under the subject of “Bowel/Bladder”, “Muscle Pain/Weakness”, “Diet” in the Index of the ENCYCLOPEDIA of POLIO & PPS