Constipation is one of the worse symptoms of PD for me, and the only one that sometime is so bad I think it could kill me.

Like Bob I find an improvement in my PD symptoms after defecation.

Back in February, 2011 there were discussions about constipation in the thread "Faecal transplant eases symptoms of Parkinson's"
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...ghlight=faecal

I proposed (post #21) the following hypothesis:
"rather than Parkinson's causing constipation (as I'd always assumed), it is rather the case, that with the wrong bugs in the gut, Parkinson's and constipation reinforce one another: Parkinson's slows the transit time, leaving longer for toxins to build up, leading to a worsening of the Parkinson's, and so on."

I presented (post #29) the following data:
"Since my diagnosis in 2005 I've collected PD relevant data, including between 2006 and 2009 defecation data. ( I gave up collecting defecation data because I was worried about becoming anally retentive [!!!].) Things are complicated by changes in medication, both directly for constipation and for PD. So, I've chosen a period between January and August 2006 when I was on neither.

"The frequencies of the length of time in days between defecations are:
[0,1) 23
[1,2) 45
[2,3) 16
[3,4) 24
[4,5) 3
[5,6) 3

The data above is from 7 years ago. I dream of having the same results now. As I reported then, I no longer collect this data, but my estimate in percentage terms of my defecation interval times now are:
[0,1) 10
[1,2) 10
[2,3) 10
[3,4) 10
[4,5) 20
[5,6) 20
[6,7) 20

For me Movicol with prune juice is the most effective treatment to keep the faeces relatively soft. If this for some reason does not work and the faeces harden, I find drinking a litre of hot orange juice over a period of about a hour helps as a laxative.

I suppose that if it gets worse, i.e. over a week without defecation, I'll try an enema. Has anyone got any experience of this?

Finally, although I can't compete with Bob and municipal warnings, I find that blocking the toilet is a problem. If you can, you want to break up the faeces before you flush. If I flush and the faeces block up the system where I can't reach them, I flush a few times to see if this gets rid of the blockage. If there's no luck and the toilet is only draining slowly, I find the best way to unblock it is to flush the toilet then put a football ( = soccer ball in US English) in the water and force it up and down, raising and lowering the water level, eventually it should clear.

John