Coffee!!!!!

Look at #2 in this article.

http://io9.com/5861402/10-reasons-coffee-is-both-the-best-and-the-worst-beverage-ever-invented

It was interesting reading how coffee can create bowel urges before even reaching the colon. I've always wondered about that! But I still love the darn stuff!!

I miss coffee more than anything! (Even beer!) I gave it up after my diagnosis in November, and I had a wicked headache that lasted 4 or 5 days. I wanted to murder everyone.

I could probably try it again, but I don't want to go through the withdrawal if I have to give it up again.

Getting my gut to the point that it could handle some coffee was a big event for me. Previously it hated even caffeine-free coffee (except for Newman Own caff-free) so it wasn't the caffeine per se. Perhaps as the article stated there is a different element in coffee causing problems.

I do a half-caff/half-decaf blend in the morning, full caff is in the future but half-caff is just fine.

i bought coffee last month to try for my constipation problems but then i heard it can raise cortisol levels quite a bit. mine are already SKY HIGH so thought it was a bad idea to try it. not sure why it does it but i figure when i'm off prednisone, i will have a cup.

i used to drink it black with a few splendas!!

any stimulant, conveniently coffee, helps me get my 2 or 3 morning bm done with so i can leave the house sooner.

i am not sure why anyone would be surprised that stimulants promote GI activity

I didn't drink coffee in the hospital, and I stayed away from it for a couple of months afterwards. I didn't notice anything when I started back up, and it doesn't seem to do anything now. I have a cup at home and a cup at work.

I'd say only give it up if you know it causes you problems.

I do swap out my cup at work for water on infusion days. I really hate multiple IV sticks.

I love my morning coffee, never had to give it up .

Just bought a one cup Keurig brewer so I can make coffee at 400 AM.
That's my waking hour on Prednoisine.

Sometimes smelling coffee is enough to make me need to go in the morning! I love it and allow myself to drink coffee on weekends, 1/2 caff/1/2 decaf shot of espresso in almond milk, during the week I drink green tea.

Pluot said...
People seem to forget that the colon is attached to the rest of your body and in particular the rest of the GI tract. Lots of things affect your colon's behavior as soon as they enter your mouth (where digestion begins). I believe many here have experienced diarrhea that is triggered by the first bite of food! Surely it's obvious it isn't because that bite is traveling ~22 ft to your colon in ~5 seconds.

Some pretend like it does travel that fast, like when a topical agent is ingested and (deep colon) relief in minutes is claimed.

But otherwise, yes, some spasm response might get directly propagated along the gi tract as a function of adjacent muscles. Other response might take a secondary route, in that it causes secretion/absorption/release (i.e., blood) of something higher up, and then in some systemic fashion (i.e., blood stream, spinal nerves) a lower-GI response is triggered. Most of these types of lower-gi responses will be motility related (i.e., not ulcer/inflamatin) just because of how the signal traveled. This will be more IBS than IBD, yet many seem to get some IBS secondary to IBD.

I think there are also pathways involving the CNS. Some nausea response (either because the substance evokes nausea from delicate tissue, or because the individual has been conditioned to experience nausea after eating) would not be just spinal cord nerves (i.e., refelx-like) but signals would go to the brain (because it is brains that get nauseous) and from the brain all kinds of nerve, hormone, and other chemical signals can go out to cause a fair number of "seeming immediate" responses.

Coffee is much more likely a caffeine-->blood-->colon tissue stimulus pathway. But there could also be causal action for warm beverage, and/or for beverage, and/or for fear/placebo effect of coffee/beverage. Heck there could be some sort of histamine response, which travels through blood from stomach to colon.

It is good to keep in mind that the blood does not travel mouth to butt in 20 minutes (except under extreme-dysentery like conditions). It is also useful to think about how any response might be happening: is it topical, muscle spasm, through blood stream, how often/likely the brain is involved?

I love coffee (real coffee ground from beans and made into espresso, no milk). And I've been through periods of abstinence (months at a time). Now, I'm in a compromise of one espresso in the morning per day only. I figure life's just too short to go without- and it does keep my mind at peak levels of concentration. Still, when off it, I've found tea to be just as enthralling at times.. real tea that is.

There's no doubt though, that it does promote BM's and also affects sleep patterns.

I like it occasionally, but yes it does make me poop and fast!