As you may know, I'm a women's health nurse practitioner so I do well woman exams everyday. During a physical exam I always ask my patients "how are your bowel movements?" or "do you have a bowel movement everyday?" Some look at me like I'm a crazy person, others have to think about it for a minute before they respond. I'd say that at least half my patients report bowel troubles and of those who admit it, most say they struggle with constipation. Listen up people, having a BM once a week is NOT okay!
You should be pooping everyday if not twice a day! This is one of the main ways your body detoxes and rids itself of what you do not need. Think about it, your body works hard to metabolize your food, draw out the nutrients it needs, and send waste product to your bowel to be excreted. Does it make sense to allow all that toxic waste to just sit in your gut for days on end? NO!
Ladies, did you know that we excrete estrogen in our poop? Estrogen gets metabolized through our liver and then gets bound up by a protein that will carry it through the gut and out of our system via a good bowel movement. When there is a mismatch of good gut bacteria vs bad bacteria aka gut dysbiosis, this process gets thrown off. The bad bacteria produce an enzyme called beta glucoronidase that is able to break the bond between estrogen and its carrier protein. When this happens estrogen is sent back into circulation. If estrogen is not properly excreted you begin to see signs of estrogen excess like heavy, painful periods, breast tenderness, abdominal weight gain, and moodiness. Estrogen dominance is linked to breast and endometrial cancer, endometriosis, and infertility.
Multiple studies have demonstrated that a diet high in fiber and moderate in fat can double estrogen excretion. Blood estrogen levels in omnivores tend to be 2-3x greater than those of vegetarians. This is because vegetarians take in significantly more fiber, thereby increasing fecal excretion. Fiber helps bulk up your poop and bind up estrogen before it can be sent back into circulation. Another important finding is that vegetarians tend to have lower levels of beta glucoronidase, indicating that they have a more balanced gut.
Once again, it all starts with the gut! When patient's come in, complaining of heavy periods, breast tenderness and moodiness I ALWAYS start by talking about diet and bowel movements.
So here are my tips for becoming a pro pooper:
Drink more water than you think you need In all honesty I struggle with this one immensely, but I do notice a huge difference when I actually meet my daily quota. You should be drinking your body weight in ounces, sorta. If you weight 150lbs you should be drinking 150oz of water daily. More water running through your system means more water in your stool, and therefore softer poops.
Bring on the veggies! I don't care how you do it but find a way to put veggies in everything you eat! Every morning I make a smoothie and add a cup of frozen spinach to it. Veggies are easy to hide in soups and sauces, so get creative and put them in everything! This will help increase your fiber intake as well as provide a quality sources of vitamins and minerals.
Reach for the C Ever heard of the vitamin C challenge? The idea is that most of us need pretty hefty doses of vitamin C to reach saturation, and because its a water soluble vitamin, it's excrete it really quickly. To do the challenge you take 500mg every 2-4 hours until you have a loose stool, then reduce by 1 dose and you'll have the total mg that your body needs daily. I highly recommend using buffered C so its not too tough on your tummy. If you need quick constipation relief, grab the C!
Add some Mag Most of us are completely depleted of magnesium because of our high sugar diets. Magnesium is an excellent bowel stimulator and has many other health benefits. I recommend starting with 400mg before bed and going up to 800mg as needed. Bonus: it'll also help you sleep!
Enjoy A cup of Joe Anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge coffee snob, and for good reason. You need to be picky about the coffee you choose to drink. Conventionally grown beans are doused with pesticides, which become ultra concentrated during processing. Sorry but I work hard to minimize toxins in my environment, I'm not willing to sacrifice that for a cup of coffee. Anyway, coffee is excellent for getting the bowel moving but 1-2 cups a day is all you need. It's a fairly strong diuretic so you'll want to replace with 2 cups of water for every cup of coffee you drink.
Oil up I use doTERRA Lemon, wild orange, Digestzen essential oils as part of my detox routine. I add wild orange or lemon to my drinking water everyday and not only does it make plain water taste great, it aids in liver detoxification and stimulates the bowel. Digestzen digestive blend is a combination of oils like fennel peppermint, and taragon, all of which aid in digestion and bowel function. It can be used for everything from constipation to heart burn. You can take a couple drops orally or rub 3-5 drops right over you gut. I'm currently using GX assist, an oil capsule that helps to rid the gut of bad bacteria. I'll follow this with some high quality probiotics and reestablish a balanced gut.
Clean up you diet! By far my favorite "diet" is The Virgin Diet. Many of us have digestive issues as a result of food intolerance's. This diet helps you tailor your diet to your specific needs.
Sources:
PUBMED
NEJM
