A Student Drank 2 Liters Fiber Supplement
For Dinner. This Is What Happened To His Intestines. CJ is a 22 year old man, presenting to the
emergency room, with nausea, vomiting, and constipation. He tells the admitting nurse that it was only
a matter of time before he would take the biggest dump of his life. He had been building up, since he hadn’t
had a bowel movement for at least the last 3 weeks. You see, CJ was a student who was obsessed
with health. He was studying nutrition and after reading
articles on the internet, he was convinced. All of his health problems like allergies,
headaches, and insomnia were because his colon needed to be cleansed. He read online that humans should get 25 to
30 grams of fiber in their diet daily, but Americans only average about 15 grams daily. He thought about every single day of his life
where he was behind on his fiber intake. He liked cereals and grains and fruit, and
those have some fiber, but it’s not enough, he thought. He remembered all those times in his life,
when his bowel movements were inconsistent— both in timing and in feeling, on the way
out. If there’s skid marks in the toilet, then
it must be skidding in my colon too and causing all of my health problems, he thought. CJ eventually came to his own conclusion that
for every day of his life he didn’t get 30 grams of fiber, he needed to make up for
it. He went to the pharmacy and bought large tubs
of psyllium husk fiber supplement. At first, he tried a few spoonfuls mixed in
water and for a few days, and felt great. His movements were regular and consistent. He could feel the cleanse happening. One day, he told himself he was ready. He prepped his body and mixed at least 30
scoops of psyllium husk fiber with 2 liters of water. He watched it congeal in to a thick jelly
before putting it down. Immediately after finishing 2 liters of fiber
supplement, CJ could feel his stomach expand. He had trouble drinking it because the fiber
had a consistency of jello and so he had to chew it to swallow it. As the hours passed, CJ’s stomach kept expanding. He felt full and didn’t need to eat dinner. But then he realized the fiber supplement
tasted like orange jelly, and thought to make peanut butter and fiber supplement jelly sandwiches
for a midnight snack and have the cleanest colon possible. Only then can my body absorb the best and
healthiest nutrients during the day. But the feeling wasn’t good. At first he felt a little burning at the top
of his abdomen. If the fiber jelly can be diluted with some
extra water, then time to drink an extra glass he thought as he went to bed, on an ever expanding
stomach. In the morning, CJ still could feel the fiber
sitting in his belly. But from everything he gathered in his online
readings— that’s how it’s supposed to be. It needs time to scrub out years worth of
skid marks. Eating breakfast then lunch, and then having
more fiber for dinner would undoubtedly push it all down to wash in to his intestines. But as the days passed, he noticed he was
eating less and less. He felt more and more bloated, and nauseous
after eating. He realized that it had been days since he
had a bowel movement. He tried convincing himself that it was the
fiber doing a deep clean of his colon. Until 10 days later. CJ couldn’t eat anymore. He couldn’t drink anymore. All he could feel was his abdomen burning. To cope with the pain he kept saying it needed
time to clean. But finally the hurt became too strong. He could feel a giant lump in his abdomen
with his hands, and when he pushed just a little bit on it, a sour taste would flood
in to his mouth from under his tongue, and he could feel his stomach cramp and shake. He would sit on the toilet until he could
feel pins and needles pricking his feet, and nothing would move. He could feel a burning at the base of his
neck. The pain became too unbearable and he realized
something was happening as he calls for 911, and he’s brought to the emergency room,
where we are now. At examination, doctors found that CJ was
agitated. He’s breathing, he’s conscious and responsive
so no problem there. His stomach was swollen. When doctors asked CJ if he had eaten anything,
his eyes lit up and he told them that he had been cleansing his colon. He told them about some laxatives that he
took when he noticed that he stopped having bowel movements. But then they asked him if he knew why he
stopped having those bowel movements. He told them about the 2 liters of fiber supplement
he drank but actually chewed and peanut butter and psyllium husk jelly sandwiches he ate
for dinner. And this gives doctors some clues as to what
could be happening. Psyllium is made from the husks of plant seeds. It’s made of hemicellulose, which is fiber
that in humans, isn’t digestible. Actually, cellulose found in plants is long
chains of glucose sugar. Vegetable fibers generally don’t taste sweet
to us, because we don’t break them down to sugar, but in certain animal stomachs,
cellulose can be digested that way. Instead in humans, this becomes what we know
as fiber, which is needed to bulk up your stool, and helps things more easily pass through
the intestines, so causing the regularity you know about when it comes to eating enough
fiber, which brings us to how psyllium works. In this small science experiment, I put psyllium
husk supplement in a glass of water. The more psyllium I put in, the thicker the
water gets. It expands by absorbing water in. Human intestines absorb nutrients from food. You chew the food to crush it up. Your stomach mashes it up a little more before
sending it to the small intestines where nutrients are absorbed in to your liver for processing. The further down the food goes along the intestines,
the more that has already been absorbed from it. If the large intestines are given enough time
to absorb a lot of water, then the stool becomes dry and hard, causing constipation. But if fiber is present, then it puts more
water in to the stool. Psyllium helps to hold on, not only pumping
water in to the stool, but it also lubricates as it moves things along, for nice smooth
movements out. Moving things faster, reduces the time for
the colon to reabsorb water. So then there is no more dry stool. Fibers also help stimulate gut bacteria growth
which will help with digestion. All of this, giving almost only benefits to
the GI tract but something’s wrong. If psyllium is mixed without enough water,
it becomes a thick jelly like structure. CJ told the doctors that when he took 2 liters
of fiber supplement, he couldn’t actually drink it, but he had to chew it because it
had become like a jello. You see, when psyllium is mixed with some
water, it becomes thick. That’s the way it’s supposed to work,
by putting water in to the stool. But the problem is, when it becomes like a
jelly, adding more water, doesnt actually cause it to dissolve or break down. Even squeezing it with your hands, might not
break it up. And because the GI tract isn’t a rigid solid
like the bones, a block of psyllium can expand in the stomach and in the intestines, and
push up against the sides of the walls, and block all movement through. And because the psyllium expands and doesn’t
dissolve when more water is added, this blockage can cause an impaction. Even if the stomach and the intestines are
big and long muscles, squeezing the psyllium won’t “cut it up.” Adding more water isn’t going to push it
down, because it’s larger than the hole that it’s in, and it keeps expanding. If it stays there, not only will nothing pass
through, but as things keep piling higher, it can stretch the walls of the stomach and
the intestines, and limit the flow of blood. And because the gastrointestinal tract is
a muscle that needs lots of oxygen to function, disrupting blood flow can cause parts of it
to necrose. In the emergency room, doctors do a CT scan
and find that parts of CJ’s intestines were dilated, while others were collapsed. All of this suggesting that a high grade obstruction
was happening inside CJ, as he was sent in for surgery. Surgeons make small cuts and send scopes in
to CJ. They find the part of his intestines that
was swollen and blocked. Because psyllium isn’t hard like a walnut,
or some other kind of rigid solid, they were able to cut up the blockage gently to break
things up, without cutting open his intestines. The manipulation and fragmentation, were enough
to clear the blockage and get things to start moving along, as they sent CJ in to the recovery
room, where he did in fact, have the largest bowel movement hes ever had in his life. A Mild dose of an additional laxative was
given to him by medical staff, to just make sure to move things along as he was moved
to the step down unit. Psyllium fiber is generally regarded as a
safe supplement. It’s been shown in clinical trials and meta
analyses of those clinical trials, to lower cholesterol and help with heart disease risk
in patients with hypercholesterolemia. Hyper meaning high. Cholesterol referring to a waxy fat like substance
that’s needed in your body to survive. And Emia meaning presence in blood. High cholesterol presence in blood. Keep in mind, if you don’t have hypercholesterolemia,
risk of heart disease is a little different than if you do, so taking a small amount of
psyllium as recommended on the label, if you even want to take it at all, is the best way
to do it. So let me be clear. Some psyllium as recommended by your physician
or pharmacist, if you even need it in the first place, is OK so long as you follow the
label. 5 grams, 10 grams a day should be ok. 500
Grams in 2 liters of water, probably not ok. And thinking that you’re cleansing your
colon that way? Probably not ok. I may or may not have blocked my own intestines
a long time ago, so I might be speaking not only on CJ's experience, but my own. It really hurts and if it can fix itself,
it takes a really long time. Mix it with lots of water, before you take
it down. If you don’t, you’re gonna block your
colon at that point and create a need for surgery, that you didn’t need to have, just
like in CJ’s case. If you'd like to see more about how psyllium
husk fiber becomes jelly, check out the video posted to my second channel Heme Review, link
in the description below. After learning a lesson about fiber supplement,
and understanding that allergies, headaches, and insomnia probably couldn’t be fixed
by accidentally blocking his intestines, CJ was able to make a full recovery. Thanks so much for watching. Take care of yourself. And be well.
They had a bad mealtime (videos)
That's gonna be one big loaf.
I've always been curious how someone can have "too much" fiber. Turns out, that's how! This story reminds me of that ancient skeleton that died of Vitamin A poisoning. It's fascinating how common deficiencies are a product of modernity, so much so that we lose any concept of nutrient overconsumption.
Let me just jump in here to recommend psyllium husk (the fibre supplement mentioned in the video) to whose whose digestion is not feeling tiptop. Let me further recommend taking 1 (one) teaspoon of the stuff at a time.
Chubbyemu makes great vids honestly
You do not want to watch this during mealtime :)
NOT APPRIOPRIATE FOR MEALTIME
I take this stuff twice a day. Usually one tablespoon give or take in a large glass of water. I cannot imagine literally eating it as a paste. That just absolutely whack.
I love psyllium husk & take it regularly. I can't fucking imagine eating as much as this dude did & thinks its gonna turn out well.