Transform Your Digestive Health: The Ultimate Guide to Overcoming Constipation"

Chronic constipation is defined by the National Institute of Health as "fewer than 3 stools per week, stool form that is mostly hard or lumpy and difficult stool passage (need to strain or incomplete evacuation) for more than 6 months".

Why is this an issue?

For several reasons: 

1. Our bowels are one of our major elimination pathways for waste products & toxins that get conjugated in our liver. If our bowels are sluggish, these waste products including excess hormones can get reabsorbed through a connection called enterohepatic (gut & liver) circulation & wreak havoc on our system causing all sorts of unwanted symptoms. 

2. Our microbiome can become dysbiotic as particular bacteria can overfeed on the fibre that's sitting in our gut for an extended period. 

3. It can cause structural complications within out gut such as anal fissures, hemorrhoids & fecal impaction.

Why does it happen? 

• Food intolerances

• Hormonal imbalances

• Nervous system dysregulation (gut-brain axis)

• Microbiome dysbiosis 

• Environmental factors - water, fat, fibre, movement, medications

What can we do about it?

1. The first step is to remove (what we call in the naturopathic world) any "obstacles to cure", which basically means anything you can control which may be contributing to or reducing your body's ability to do what it needs to do. These are those environmental factors above:

   1. Water: 0.35ml/kg of body weight per day. The bowel NEEDS lubrication & the cells need hydration to excrete their waste.

   2. Fat: healthy fats need bile help them breakdown & bile is a natural laxative. If you've had your gall bladder removed, be careful here. 

   3. Fibre: essential to bulk the stool to support its transition through the colon, giving the gut wall ( a muscle) something to push against.

   4. Movement: any type of movement has a positive effect on our bowels as it places pressure, twists & stretches our abdomen to help the natural motility of the gut.

   5. Medications: check the side-effects of any medications you are taking as they, alone can slow the transit time of your gut.

2. Test your gut microbiome with a functional stool analysis to ensure there are no nasty bugs or lack of beneficial bacteria in there causing you grief & havoc. I love using Designs for Health GI Map.

3. Modulate your gut-brain axis. A slow or depressed mind will cause a slow & depressed bowel & vise-versa! We have a nerve in our body called the vagal nerve which runs direct communication from our brain to our gut & back. If the tone of this nerve is frayed, been unused for a period of time (due to a trauma to our nervous system) it may struggle to communicate to the gut that it needs to MOVE. To tone/activate it, you can practice one or all of these vagal nerve exercises: 

   1. Humming 

   2. Gargling

   3. Singing 

   4. Deep belly breathing 

   5. Cold water immersion

4. Test your thyroid! Your thyroid controls your entire metabolism & plays a part in hormone production. A slow metabolism or sluggish thyroid (hypothyroid state) can cause slow bowel!

5. Keep a food & symptom diary to work out if there are any foods that are causing your bowels to slow down. Food intolerances are hard to pick as the immune reaction can happen anywhere up to 72 hours after the consumption of the food, but its still a great awareness tool & may bring to light some interesting information!

If you got this far, chances are you are struggling a lot with constipation so if you need support implementing any of the tips above, click the “book online” button above & book a discovery call so we can navigate the best way forward for you!