Severe Fatigue after Bowel Movement

[angelasunshine]

I am hoping someone else out there has heard of this and can give me some guidance. I get severe fatigue after a bowel movement, and when it happens, the severe fatigue lasts all day (I am destroyed and can't do anything, almost like a severe hang over). It does not happen all the time- it will happen every day for a week or two, then it will disappear for months with no symptoms. The severe fatigue only occurs right after a bowel movement. I can wake up just fine and function normally for a hour or so before my bowel movement, then I'm completely wiped out for the rest of the day once I go. There is nothing special about my poop- it is not particularly hard or soft, it is not liquidy, there is a normal amount coming out (not too much, not too little), it is normal poop color. My bowel movements are not painful and, I can't stress this enough, I AM NOT straining to go or pushing too hard. I have no idea why it happens or why it goes away- I am not doing or eating anything different. My gastro-intestinal doctor doesn't have a clue what's wrong, and he said he's never heard of this symptom before. I have a camera look at my stomach (not during an episode, however) and it appears normal. Does anyone out there have this problem or can give me a guidance on where I should look for answers?

[LazyLizard]

Angela!
I got exactly the same issue!
Today I had enough and decided to google it.
I went to the loo after feeling great in the morning and suddenly I get a massive bout of fatigue. I even went to sleep. By mid afternoon I was better though.
Well, what on earth causes this?
Must admit I am a veteran fatigue sufferer with 8 years CFS/ME (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome after infection). But **** I was going to have a good day today and it is such a sudden change.
Like you it doesnt happen everytime but quite often to some degree. So I am always alert.
Today was the most shocking episode.
It felt a little like my bowels were massively exhausted and were drawing all blood and energy I had in me. The only way i can describe it. I just looked up something about the vagus nerve on wikipedia. Is it to do with that? Or a gastro thing?
I'd love some answers.

[Toast]

Me too. My energy is zapped immediately after a bowel movement. This morning I was awake and active for three hours before my first bowel movement. About 2 minutes after my first bowel movement, my energy started draining from my muscles. After about 10 minutes, I had to sit down and preferably lie down. You know, being so exhausted that sitting in a chair without arms is extremely draining and you have to find a lower position in the chair where you are practically lying down anyway. I am having a hard time sitting upright to type this right now.

I DO NOT strain on the toilet. I am not depressed. I have never had chronic fatigue syndrome. My bowel movements that triggered this yesterday were quite normal, soft (not hard and not with liquid), and fairy quick--pretty much the gold standard of easy bowel movements, but afterward, I am so tired it is a large chore to go up a set of stairs or walk across a room. For me, I can have this type of fatigue reaction for a few days in a row (restarting fatigue after a bowel movement on a given day) and then not have it happen again for weeks or months. Then it returns for some number of days or a week or two. This fatigue would keep me from doing even office work in a chair, so worker productivity is deeply affected by this condition. Is this some kind of temporary bowel condition? How are muscle cells affected in just a few minutes, if they are?

Let me use yesterday's bowel movement and subsequent fatigue as an example. I was up and around for about 2 hours by 8:30 with normal, good physical energy before my bowel movement. Right after the bowel movement I started getting steadily more tired over about 10 minutes until I felt I had to slump in my chair (no one was around to look, so I did not have to be presentable). I was physically exhausted. My muscles felt weak--especially my legs, but other muscles, too. After feeling fatigue Two large cups of coffee over a relatively short time did not help (I started getting a little jittery, but without energy to go into action). Then, a full chocolate bar did not help (but I'm willing to try that again). Eating a pasta casserole with some cheese and plenty of salt did not help. After a couple more hours of hours of fatigue yesterday, maybe 4 hours after the offending bowel movement, I drank a 20 ounce bottle of Gatorade, wondering if my electrolytes are somehow thrown way off by these bowel movements. It seemed to give back about a third of my normal energy back yesterday for an hour or so. Maybe that effect was the water or the electrolytes or some coincidence or the placebo effect. I also ate some Triscuits for some carb energy and salt, to no effect as far as I could tell. In the afternoon, at about 2:00, I ate a banana, hoping the potassium would straighten out the problem. I'm not sure if that helped. By late afternoon, though, I started feeling more energy, but I was not back to normal. I did no work yesterday and took it easy, but did not nap. By late evening, I had perhaps 75% of my normal energy back, but my mental crispness was waning because it was late. Last night I got about 7 hours of sleep. This morning, I awoke with less energy than yesterday morning, but had more energy than the night before. A lingering feeling in my muscles had me guessing that I was still feeling the effects of the bowel movement about 22 hours before. At 9:00 this morning, I had another easy bowel movement, and by 10 minutes later, I have been left with little energy. I am now going to lie down.

I am a 48 year old married man with two children. As such, I've never been pregnant. I'm about 20 pounds over my ideal weight right now, but was only about 10 pounds over ideal weight until the last several months. I'm 6 feet tall, and am not in extremely bad shape. I've experienced this kind of exhaustion on and off for three or four years now. I work at a desk part-time from home. I was going to go for a 2-hour bike ride yesterday morning, but I didn't have the energy to even start. The same goes for today. I'm trying to get back into regular exercise, but I can't with this condition.

Anyone else out there with these symptoms? Please drop a note so we can undestand how common this is and encourage the medical field to look into it.

[96Delta]

I struggle with this too and along with the extreme fatigue I sometimes experience anxiety.

From my own inquiries I have come to believe that this is due to adrenal fatigue. A bowel movement is very stressful to the body, so much so that it is not unheard of to see people suffer a heart attack when having their morning BM. (sounds odd, i know, but I've seen this with some frequency during my 25-year career as a police officer).

Learning about adrenal fatigue and how to restore the function of the adrenal glands (our body's stress-shock absorber) would be a good beginning.

Dave

[Unregistered]

Dave,
I'll ask my doctor about adrenal fatigue. I recently told my general practitioner about the fatigue after bowel movements and she said it was an unusual complaint/symptom. She mentioned hypothyroidism as one potential reason for fatigue, and noted that the BM part is curious and doesn't line up well with hypothyroidism. I don't have the blood results yet, but I suppose she can look for something in them that might point to adrenal fatigue. I write now to report something else.

One thing that I changed several months ago--approximately when the bouts of weakness started--was my coffee sweetener, from Splenda to Nutrasweet/Equal/aspartame. Five days ago I switched back to Splenda (sucralose) and began avoiding diet soft drinks with aspartame, which I also would drink (Diet Coke or Diet Mt. Dew). For the last few days I've had milder bouts of weakness and on most days none at all.

Some people report that muscle weakness/fatigue and headaches eased up after stopping use of aspartame. I may be one more, and I'll determine that over the next few months. I'll report relevant blood test results if there's an apparent correlation. If I don't post anything, then there was no known correlation with blood results.

--Toast

[Unregistered]

I am hoping someone else out there has heard of this and can give me some guidance. I get severe fatigue after a bowel movement, and when it happens, the severe fatigue lasts all day (I am destroyed and can't do anything, almost like a severe hang over). It does not happen all the time- it will happen every day for a week or two, then it will disappear for months with no symptoms. The severe fatigue only occurs right after a bowel movement. I can wake up just fine and function normally for a hour or so before my bowel movement, then I'm completely wiped out for the rest of the day once I go. There is nothing special about my poop- it is not particularly hard or soft, it is not liquidy, there is a normal amount coming out (not too much, not too little), it is normal poop color. My bowel movements are not painful and, I can't stress this enough, I AM NOT straining to go or pushing too hard. I have no idea why it happens or why it goes away- I am not doing or eating anything different. My gastro-intestinal doctor doesn't have a clue what's wrong, and he said he's never heard of this symptom before. I have a camera look at my stomach (not during an episode, however) and it appears normal. Does anyone out there have this problem or can give me a guidance on where I should look for answers?

Hi there ... I would suggest looking into parasites as the problem ... along with too much wheat, processed foods, and sugar in your diet. Good luck.

[Toast]

Dave,
If I don't post anything, then there was no known correlation with blood results.

--Toast

It's now a couple of weeks later. My blood test results showed normal thyroid function, but positive results for three out of about a dozen autoimmune antibodies. My primary care physician had ordered several of these antibodies as part of that blood test. Fatigue is a common symptom of some autoimmune disorders, where the immune system attacks part of your body that it shouldn't.

After my doc saw the positive antibody results, her recommendation was that I schedule an appointment with a rheumatologist, which I have done. Rheumatologists specialize in immune disorders, and it seems like a logical direction to go after my blood test. Maybe the rheumatologist will have an idea why my greatest fatigue is after a bowel movement. I wonder if he will order even further blood tests to narrow things down a bit more.

FYI, the antibody tests my primary doctor ordered to look into my fatigue symptoms include ANA antibody, JO-1 antibody, Smith antibody, SCL-70 antibody, RNP antibody, SSA antibody, dsDNA antibody, centromere antibody, histone antibody, hep-2 nuclear antige, SSB, basophil percent (this last one at least is not an antibody) and an ENA interpretation. Also included were some muscle-related tests like creatinine and creatine kinase. Not to forget the thyroid test. I was negative for thyroid problems and for most of the autoimmune antibodies, but, again, positive for three in the latter group.

My fatigue has been less severe lately. That's some good news.

Good luck.

[Unregistered]

...try in your daily diet once a day DanActive you get them at any grocery store, my doctor recomended and is helping help inmune system

[TeeTee86]

Hi guys, I have been having the same problem and have been googling around for years trying to find out whats going on. This use to happen to me every day but now only about twice a month. When it happpens i get very tired and cant do much for about 30 minutes or so. I cant really say why it slowed down. The only thing that Ive been doing differently is taking Probiotics and not eating cheese. I read that you need good bacteria in the bowels to keep them healthy. So Im taking the regular probiotics without the laxative in it because i dont need a laxative. Ive also changed my eating habits overall, little to no red meats each week, real juice, little to NO CHEESE, if you think about how hard cheese is when it dries, imagine what the body has to go through to get rid of it. Stetching daily and massaging the problem area really helps me. The only kind of treatment that i heard about was a Chinese treatment. They said this is a vitamin deficiency and prescribed the patient a special diet with some special foods i dont have access to. But good luck to all I hope this information helps and hope eventually this problem goes way for good.

[domodo kragon]

Feeling wiped out after a number 2? Me too! I am a caucasian male, 29 yo, ht/wt proportional, if on the leaner side, BP is like 118 / 80 most days. I do have hypothyroidism (diagnosed Jne 2008) but that's it as far as i know. In the last cpl of months I've been occasionally suffering from the vagus syncope that the rest of you have been going thru.

I do not have strenuous bowel movements. No diarrhea. My diet is adequate. I sleep 6-7 hrs per night. I exercise occasionally.

These episodes begin with me pooping around 10 am (voiding that morning's breakfast and the dinner from the night before) and then I feel mildly wiped out for about 2-4 hours. I've never fainted, or lost power, but I do feel a bit "ugggggh" for this duration. This wipeout improves over time until I feel 100 pct again. WOuld I exercise during these spells? Probably not, but if this is a "blood flow to the brain" issue, then wouldnt a quick jog on the treadmill at work help? Well, I thought about it, and I'm afraid to try when I'm feeling just a smidge liteheaded.

Now I don't feel this way after every bowel movement, and I dont know what to think. There is SO LITTLE information about this phenomenon available on line, and I just happened to stumble across this WD page by accident. Nothing on medhelp.com or anywhere else. I went to a urgent care clinic today and got a quick BP and neuro exam, and got an all-clear but to have a follow up with my gen. prac. doc.

What is the next step? What do I do? What have you guys found out? is this a diet, blood pressure, heart, or nuerological issue? I'm worried about it being related to the last one on that list. Please, let's all compare notes, and send a message to my inbox please!