Hi I am Joe Graedon, I am pharmacologist. I write in the People’s Pharmacy newspaper column and host the People’s Pharmacy radioshow.

You might find this surprising, but one of the reasons people coming into pharmacy most frequently is constipation and the answer—fiber, fiber, lots of fluid too. Look for Psyllium. Not only will it control your constipation woes, but it will also get your cholesterol down.

Now, if you do not like the powder stuff, you can look for the wafers and that is another way in solving the problem. But if fiber does not do the trick, we have some heavy duty solutions.

If you need something heavier duty, you might want to try Colace. It is a stool softener or you can try the house brand, but very safe and quite effective. Even more powerful—magnesium, you can get it as a dietary supplement or you can turn to that the familiar old blue bottle—Phillips Milk of Magnesia. You can also get it as a house brand, ex-lax—they make some. But magnesium is very effective as stimulating-appropriate-activity of the digestive tract.

Finally, we got some very interesting ways to deal with this problem. A home remedy involves a cup of Whey Bran, a cup of apple sauce, and about three quarters of cup of prune juice. Mix with up, a tablespoon in a lot of fluid, especially water. This will work almost every time.

And finally, sugarless chewing gum its taste pretty good, or a sugarless jellybeans. The sugarless component will stimulate your digestive tract. Watch out though, too much can cause diarrhea.