One young woman in her early twenties, Ms. S, came in complaining of lifelong severe stomach cramps and diarrhea. I diagnosed IBS and gave her my "fiber talk." I started her on Citrucel, and her bowels promptly shut down. Within a week or so, she went from severe diarrhea to moderate constipation. After finding MiraLax an improvement over Milk of Magnesia, she sent me a card saying, "This is the best my health has been that I can ever remember."  She now only takes the MiraLax if she gets into trouble, usually on one of her long road trips, and she is still following the fiber program.

I used to think that young folks would adapt fairly quickly once they embraced the program. In Ms. S's case it took several months before she began to note major improvements, even though she was following my instructions to a T. But because she was on almost weekly major road trips, her travel schedule may have offset what we were trying to achieve in the bathroom. I urged her to slow her travel schedule down and to be proactive-reminding her to step up on the laxatives before she got into the car or else shortly after she arrived at her destination. "Don't wait and let everything shut down," I reminded her.