Daily bowel movements should not be a luxury only the lucky few enjoy. Daily elimination is essential to remove toxins from the body – toxin build-up can lead to skin issues, weight gain and chronic inflammation. Ideally, you should have 1-4 well formed bowel movements per day (Type 3-4 on the Bristol scale, see below).
Medical practitioners for centuries have known the ill effects constipation can have on the body. In the late 1700’s, physicians were blaming the decrease in daily BM’s on the “modern” lifestyle – less movement, poor diet and more stress. By the 1850’s, a popular American health manual warned, “daily evacuation of the bowels is of the utmost importance to the maintenance of health”; without the daily movement, “the entire system will become deranged and corrupted.”
So what can you DO to ensure healthy elimination daily?
🌟Drink more water – dehydration is one of the main causes of constipation. Water secretion aids in intestinal motility by lubricating stool during contractions for the easy movement of waste into and out of the colon. It also ensures electrolyte balance for easy passage. You should be drinking atleast half your body weight in oz of water per day. You may need closer to 3/4 your body weight during the summer. You also need more if you drink diuretics like coffee or tea.
🌟Eat more fiber – fiber is essential for motility of the stool. It is also necessary to keep the good bugs in your gut happy – many of these bugs rely on fiber as their primary food source and they will not stick around if they are not being fed. These “probiotic” bugs such as Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria produce a “pro-motility” like effect on the intestines. When doing stool tests on our patients, the number one issue we often see is lack of good bacteria in the colon. Taking a probiotic supplement is often very helpful but eating diverse types of fiber is your best course of action. You need 25g minimum per day to keep your gut happy. Often, when I have my patients track their diets for a few days, we discover they average less than 15g per day.
🌟Consider an elimination diet – certain foods may be leading to less frequent BMs. Some of the most common include dairy (number one by far at our office), gluten, corn, soy and high fodmap foods. You can schedule an appointment with my nutritionist, Sheila, if you need help with an elimination diet. The Real Food Rebuild is an elimination diet designed to improve digestion, blood sugar, energy levels and inflammation. It consists of online modules, meal plans, shopping guides and supplement suggestions and is a great way to improve all around health from the comfort of your own home.
🌟Improve digestion – If fiber rich foods do not help with your constipation or tend to make you more constipated, poor digestion and low stomach acid are likely to blame. Try taking digestive enzymes at the beginning of each meal. I like this one. Eating animal foods at the beginning of the meal can also help with digestion as can drinking the majority of water away from your meals. You also want to pay attention to your meal timing and eat the majority of your food earlier in the day. Try to stick to a routine of eating no food three hours before bedtime.
🌟Retrain your bowels – Circadian rhythm is very important for bowel movements. Getting into a regular habit of sitting on the potty at the same time every day for 10 minutes can help reset that rhythm. It is best to do this about 30 minutes after breakfast. I also suggest purchasing a squatty potty to help move the muscles of the lower bowel into the proper position for healthy elimination. If you do not go within that 10 minute window, do not strain or stress over the lack of elimination. Just get up and resume “training” again the same time the next day.
🌟Experiment with supplements – Magnesium is a common deficiency in the American diet. Magnesium relaxes the muscles and can promote a bowel movement. You can try anywhere from 300mg to 4g (!) of magnesium to move the bowels. The main side effect of too much magnesium is loose stools or diarrhea. You do not want to take super high doses of magnesium long term because it can deplete other nutrients, but it is fine in the short term (low doses of magnesium can be taken daily). This is a good one. If magnesium has not helped you with regular elimination, you can try a supplement that targets motility. Bowel Mover from Cellcore is one of my favorites. It contains botanicals such as aloe and wormwood to nourish the gut microbiome and promote motility. You must have a code to purchase this product – dMkxRJr0. Other examples include releasezyme from Transformation Enzymes and Colon RX from Designs for Health. You should not start any new supplements without talking to your health care provider first.
Purchase the Real Food Rebuild to learn the optimal diet for healthy bowel movements and overall health.
Sources for this article
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1119264/
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