I wonder how friendly water really is to our bowel movements.
There are many types of water to drink. Distilled. Spring/Well Spring. Mineral. Tap. Sports. Filtered.
What water is really best for you?
And really how much? Is a liter enough? 2 L? 3L ? Does it depend on how active you are - type of exercise? Does it depend what other types of liquids you are consuming - alcohol, caffeine, teas? Does it depend on what other foods you eat - soups, fluid fruit (like asian pears, watermelon vs dried fruits), dairy, etc?
It may be great that we talk about how important it is to drink water but we also need to talk about the other things we do that either rob the water we drink or put us over the edge with more moisture than we need in our digestive system that either way, can have a positive or negative effect on our bowel movements - do they come out hard, soft, mushy, firm, watery, burning, don't want to come out, come out with ease, etc.
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what is the best water to drink and why?
and how much?
and when is the ideal time to drink water?
i have some ideas but i wanted to get this topic out in the open since it is really an important topic to discuss to heal our fissures.

Gareth,
You'll have to take anything I say with a grain of salt, naturally.
I'm no hydration expert. Just a guy who likes to read a lot.
I have long suspected (even before my fissure) that drinking 64 oz of water a day may not be correct. What good is excess water if all you do is urinate it right back out. I honestly think our body keeps the water it needs and discards the rest.
Drink juice, and your body pulls the water from the juice and uses that.
Most any water-based fluid will provide you with water.
Now, during the course of a day, you sweat and urinate and water needs to be replaced. But did you sweat and pee out 64 ounces?
An active person needs to replace more water than a sedentary one.
A 98 lb secretary has different water needs (and nutritional needs) than a 240 dock worker.
Certain medical conditions, naturally, will require more or less water intake. But does an Anal Fissure?
My belief is, NO! You still only need the amount of water required to keep your stools moving through your system AND soft.
It's not good advice for me to say so on this board, perhaps, so what I'm about to say comes with a disclaimer: I can't promise that what works for me will work for someone else. That said: I am back on the same "diet" and fluid intake I used to have before my fissure. And guess what. My bowels are just fine. In fact, my stools are more consistant now than they EVER were while I had my fissure, and I can't see how the surgery could affect THAT. I drink coffee twice a day. I drink some water at work but after that, not much.
As for what water is best; Its all the same, basically, once your body begins to use it. Just as long as it wasn't contaminated.
Or it came from Mexico (HA HA, couldn't resist THAT!)
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Interestingly, I read an article just yesterday by some nutritionalist. I think it was MSN, not sure. His thesis was that coffee (and colas) really don't dehydrate you as much as is believed. When you drink a cup of coffee, yes, you'll pee. But the amount is not too different than peeing when you drink water! I wish I could recall more or find the article.
Whether it's true or not, who knows. But that has been my experience...water makes me pee every bit as much as coffee.
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So, to wrap it up, I believe you should drink enough to keep your bowels fit but that you DON'T have to drink 64 oz. You need to drink the amount that Gareth's body is subtly indicating you need. Look back on a point in your life when you were fissure-less and healthy. How much water did you drink then? That's probably how much you need now!
Hugh (not)

well as an experiment, i have been drinking about 1L or less of water instead of 2.
using some macrobiotic principles:
1. it's best to not drink fluids with your meals.
2. drink fluids that are room temperature.
3. only drink when you are thirsty.
4. use water that has minerals. avoid tap or distilled. yet, the water i drink has been distilled water with minerals replaced.
so now i have been actually drinking less water and my bowel movements are now firm yet soft - they are not hard and they are not liquidy. they are actually perfect.
the only other thing, is that i do treat myself to 3 cups of green tea per day. one mid-morning. one mid-day. and one at night. a cup of bancha for the morning. a cup of genmai for midday. and a cup of kikucha for post dinner.
and this has really improved the texture and quality of the bowel movement......
just thought i would share this finding for me.........
could drinking too much cause too much havoc in the intestines and thus on the BM?
just a thought......
:!: :shock:

WOW Gareth sounds like you are healing yourself really well!
I drink appx 2 ltrs per day, i just sip it throughout the day. Always at room temperature too!
MY Stools are usually soft fluffy, sometimes a little lumpy, but not bad at all...

I am forced to drink 2-3L of water daily but my stools seem to be getting harder so that worries me...any thoughts?
Hope everyone has a GREAT day

Your water intake sounds good but of course with the desert conditions I would probably aim toward more toward 3 liters. I drink about 2 liters and I am in the humid southeast.
What is your diet like? What helps me to keep things soft is to take fish and flax seed oil supplements. It helps it slide out rather than scrape out KWIM? Are you allowed to get things like this in the mail over there?
Lecia

Yeah, the desert conditions require more fluid, as you already know. If you're sweating or peeing excessively, then your body will pull water from your stools as you dehydrate. Maybe that is what is happening. You be the judge of how much fluid you're losing.
Are you on a stool softener, which aids in pulling water *to* the colon?
Kim

Sometimes I wonder if water is even helping me! lol.. I've been drinking so much but the BM is still hard initially, although soft after.

SunshineHope,
I have the exact same issue. I drink about 6 liters a day and I usually have a BM that is firm to begin with and then very soft after. I made an appointment to go see a gastroenterologist next week to discuss the issue because this just doesn't make sense to me. I have this issue no matter how I alter my diet too. At one point 95% of my liquids came from Diet Coke, and I never seemed to have this problem. I have some theories though:
1) By drinking too much water the body "carelessly" expels it because it has been conditioned to "know" more water is coming.
2) I am not achieving a full BM each time, thus leaving a small portion inside that is subject to the continual absorption of water by my colon.
I'll share with the board what I find after the appointment.

You have thought this through very well, Chris. I had the exact same problem, and I heard many others describe it the same way...The stool starts hard or firm and then gets mushier and mushier.
The very ODD thing is, after I had surgery, and my fissure began to heal, that all ended, and it hasn't really happened since. The last stool is quite like the first one. And generally, they are all soft and formed; i struggeled so hard to ahieve that while I had the fissure, and now it just happens all the time.
It may even be a side-effect of the stool softeners...