How to Find a Doctor to Help you get to the Root Cause of Constipation
Constipation can be caused by many things from his diet, to birth defects like Megacolon, Hirschsprung’s, Celiac disease, food intolerance or Low Tone. It is very time-consuming to get to the Root Cause of Constipation. It can be a struggle to get your standard doctor or Gastroenterologist to work on finding the root cause.
Until you figure out why they are constipated, you will not be able to find a long-term solution to the constipation. It could be one issue or it could be multiple, all contributing to constipation. If you are dairy intolerant or have celiac and keep consuming diary or gluten, all of the Magnesium in the world won’t solve your constipation issues long-term even if it works short-term. And if you are dealing with low tone, dietary changes may not help as much as much as a trampoline and a swing! Doctors often recommend a laxative like Miralax because it is easy to give dosing based on age and weight and they can pretty much guarantee your compliance in taking it or giving it to your child because it is tasteless and easy. Miralax is just a band-aid and doesn’t actually solve the constipation, it just covers it up.
For more information on why I do not recommend Miralax please read this article:
Functional Medicine doctors, Integrative Medicine doctors, holistic doctors or Naturopaths will help you get to the root cause of your constipation. They are trained differently than standard medical doctors. Their training is specifically geared towards getting to the WHY of the issue instead of a pharmaceutical quick fix.
There are some Functional Medicine doctors, Integrative Medicine doctors, holistic doctors and Naturopaths that take health insurance but most do not because they spend an hour with you at your appointments, spend hours going through your medical records and patient histories and try to get to the root cause of the issue instead of seeing 4 patients an hour, running a couple of blood tests and prescribing medicine.
My family’s physician doesn’t take insurance. But our medical costs have gone down exponentially since we started to see him even though it is $450 for the initial appointment and $300 for each follow-up appointment. Our doctor doesn’t just throw drugs at us that make us sicker. He figures out why something is happening and makes recommendations that actually help my husband and son, from diet, to herbs to Restore to prescription meds to other treatment protocols like acupuncture to recommending a lifestyle and diet changes. Our doctor is a functional medicine doctor but he is also a triple board certified physician who is highly trained in standard medical care as well as practicing holistic medicine.
There was a point a number of years ago, when we were still seeing traditional doctors who were covered by insurance, that my husband, who has IBD/Crohn’s, had surgery. The surgery, which was supposed to be relatively routine, went horribly wrong and my husband almost died. My husband ended up in the hospital for 6 weeks and couldn’t eat for 6 months.
During that same period of time, my son was on Miralax and was spinning in circles and lining up all of his toys, had tics, anxiety, panic attacks and night terrors plus he was bent over in pain before he had a bowel movement. My son was being treated at Children’s Hospital and undergoing numerous costly tests and evaluations by his pediatrician, a neurologist, a Pediatric Gastroenterologist, an Occupational Therapist and a Psychologist, all of which said that Miralax wasn’t causing his problems. (It was)
Our family hit the maximum out-of-pocket three times in less than 12 months! My husband’s surgery was at the end of one calendar year and he was still in bad shape and on TPN nutrition for the next 6 months, then was let go from his job of 16 years the day his FMLA leave ran out and he got a new job 6 months after his surgery with another out-of-pocket, while he was still recovering from the surgery and still undergoing testing!
Over a period of 12 months we had out-of-pocket insurance costs of $11,500. And we had good insurance that cost $1,200-$1,400 a month for our family! This was financially devastating on top of being emotionally difficult.
My husband’s Crohn’s is now in remission, although he still has issues from his past surgeries that will never go away. My son is thriving, no longer constipated or in pain and most of the issues that Miralax caused are much improved or even gone. And our medical costs are so much lower than they were when we were constantly at doctors and on lots of pharmaceutical drugs. So while it felt overwhelming to think about paying out-of-pocket for a doctor when we were paying so much for our insurance, it turned out to be the absolute best decision we made that year.
Seeing a Functional Medicine doctor, Integrative Medicine doctor, holistic doctor or Naturopath is an investment that will pay off down the road. We have found it so worth the cost of the appointments because this type of doctor will help you get well and heal instead of making you a patient for life.
You might also luck out and be able to find a Functional Medicine doctor, Integrative Medicine doctor, holistic doctor or Naturopath that takes insurance in your area.
The following links are resources that contain search functions for finding a doctor in your area who will help you get to the root cause of why you are constipated. I suggest that you search each one and see, not only who is close, but which doctor has a philosophy that matches your own.
Click on each link and input your information to find a Functional Medicine doctor, Integrative Medicine doctor, holistic doctor or Naturopath near you
The Institute for Functional Medicine
American Association of Naturopathic Physicians
American Academy of Environmental Medicine
International College of Integrative Medicine
Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine
American College for the Advancement In Medicine
It can take time to get an appointment with a Functional Medicine doctor, Integrative Medicine doctor, holistic doctor or Naturopath. They often have long wait lists for new patients. While you are waiting for your appointment, please read my article Finding the Root Cause of Constipation. It will help you to narrow down what could be causing constipation issues so you can work with your doctor to get to the root cause. For more information on testing that can help you get to the root cause of your constipation please read my post Recommended Lab Testing for Chronic Constipation
I highly recommend gathering all of your medical records from all of your previous doctors before your first appointment with your Functional Medicine doctor, Integrative Medicine doctor, holistic doctor or Naturopath doctor. Spend a few hours going through your records. See if there is anything that stands out to you as something that was a trigger for their constipation. Gather tests that have been run with all of the results so your physician can look through them quickly. This upfront time investment will make your appointment with your new doctor more effective and help you find a solution to your constipation quicker.
If you can’t get to a Functional Medicine doctor, Integrative Medicine doctor, holistic doctor or Naturopath doctor in your area, there is an option to order testing on your own without a doctor. You can then take your test results to your family doctor and have them help you go through the results. I have partnered with a lab that is Direct-to the-Patient so you can decide which tests you feel would be most helpful for your child or yourself and order them yourself.
One test that is very helpful for gut issues is the Organic Acid Test/OAT test. You can also order your own blood test for
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*DISCLAIMER, I AM NOT A DOCTOR OR MEDICAL HEALTH PROFESSIONAL. ALL IDEAS DISCUSSED AND DESCRIBED IN THIS POST ARE MY OWN AND ARE NOT MEANT TO TREAT OR DIAGNOSE. IF YOU HAVE A MEDICAL CONDITION PLEASE SPEAK WITH YOUR DOCTOR.
