You Might Not Know You’re Constipated

by Glen Depke, Traditional Naturopath

Based on statistics from an article from Dr. Mercola “Constipation is more than an aggravating condition; this silent epidemic has led to more than 6 million doctors’ visits and 700,000 emergency room visits, and costs billions of dollars in direct and indirect health care costs.”

And you would think that you know if you are constipated?

Often, not likely…

Defining Health Bowel Movements

When you eat your food until the time this is eliminated, this should occur in 18 hours or less. If it takes longer than this, your protein may begin to putrefy in your colon and cause GI distress for you. Along with this you would begin impacting your colon with this lack of movement.

The goal is to enjoy at least two health bowel movements daily with your primary movement in the morning and your secondary movement in the late afternoon or early evening.

Optimally, you would enjoy a bowel movement after every meal if you can achieve this.

If you are thinking to yourself “I have two bowel movements per day, but they are both in the morning.”

If you have two bowel movements in the morning, this actually counts as one and this is likely the case because you over ate the day before or often this is because you actually have sluggish motility. This means that the smooth muscle that pushes your waste through you digestive tract is slow moving.

And if you have slow motility, this is typically an issue with your brain and not your colon because your brain regulated motility.

Your bowel movements should also be the consistency of soft serve ice cream. If you have lose stools to diarrhea, this is an issue and hard stool or pooping what looks like little balls is also an issue. Along with this, we would like to see your stool sink to the bottom of the toilet. If they float, this could be challenges with your gall bladder and the digestion of your fat.

Most Feel This Is Normal

I have asked my clients for over 16 years if they have good bowel movements and most will quickly say yes.

After years of asking in this way, I changed my questioning to “Do you have two or more bowel movements per day, one per day or less than one per day?”

What I found out by changing the wording of my question is that most people that have one bowel movement per day feel that this is normal.

As you can see by defining healthy bowel movements above, this is not normal.

One bowel movement per day would still be considered constipation. This would be leaving you in the stare of protein putrefaction and leading to other challenges.

Problems Arising From Constipation

Here is a list of challenges that I regularly see occur with clients dealing with constipation.

• Malnourished because of poor digestion
• Depression and anxiety
• Poor motivation and drive
• Weakened immune function
• Poor sleep
• Liver congestion
• Blood sugar issues
• Poor comprehension and memory
• Often leading to gut infections

You Can Change This

There are many steps you can take to increase your bowel movements and achieve health bowel movements again. Here are some of the areas that will help you.

• Take a good quality prebiotic/probiotic formula daily (I take a 40 billion count supplement of this every morning)
• Eat fermented foods that are non-pasteurized
• Use a quality comprehensive digestive enzyme with every meal
• Take a stomach acid supplement if you feel that you do not break down meat well
• Exercise or overall body movement
• Drink enough water (about one quart for every 50 pounds of body weight daily)
• Chew your food thoroughly
• Deep breathe before and during meals to calm your nervous system while eating
• Increase your intake of vegetables
• Seek out a quality chiropractor for a potential issue with your vertebrae
• Check for food sentistivity
• Get yourself into a squatting position while pooping (place your foot on a stool in front of the toilet)
• If you have any gut infections, deal with these appropriately

If you are wondering if you have gut infections (likely if you are dealing with any type of digestive symptom) here is a gut pathogen assessment to help you understand the depth of this for you personally.

Now you have the knowledge to understand the health of your bowel movements and the power to make some changes. Follow these simply steps above and begin creating change for yourself today.

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