Aug 2nd

Healthy Bowel Movements

[<a href="http://fabulesslyfrugal.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/toiletpaper.jpg">image source</a>]
Eliminating waste and toxins is crucial for our well being. The fact of the matter is that our bowels show a lot more about our current health status than we are aware. Maintaining good bowel health is necessary for us to make energy and maintain vitality and critical for us to fight off infections and illness. A properly functioning digestive system is needed for absorption of vitamins, minerals and water as well as removal of toxins we gather from modern living.

Despite this, our bowels are rarely the topic of discussion in our 'civilized' society. Many of our clients have gone through the first 20 or 30 years of life without knowing how often one should be eliminating, nor what a healthy bowel movement should look like.  We've met people who were eliminating only once every 3 weeks!

Though it many be very uncomfortable, if you feel like your bowels are less than ideal (refer to list below), consider seeking help to reestablish one of the most fundamental functions of our digestive system. 

Frequency

A daily bowel movement is the minimum frequency that you should be experiencing. If you're eating more than once a day, you should definitely be eliminating more than once a day. It is possible that a single bowel movement be containing all the waste from your last 3 meals, but why wait that long?  The longer your waste products sit in the colon, the more time there is contact between the walls of your colon and waste products which can easily be absorbed into your bloodstream. We like our clients to have at least 2 bowel movements a day.

(Note: On the flipside, if you have to run to the bathroom after every meal, that's definitely a problem. Your body needs time to break down, absorb and assimilate nutrients from your meals, about 4-6 hours.)

Appearance&Signs

Healthy Signs:
  • A clear (but not sudden) urge telling us when ready for elimination
  • Slips out easily - should only take a few minutes
  • Needs no coaxing
  • Is well formed - should look like a brown banana with a point at one end or take the shape of an ‘S’,
  • Should be thick - ideally the girth of your opened mouth. Opening your mouth while eliminating can help as opening the mouth opens the rectum.
  • Is well hydrated - if it looks like little balls wadded together it has been in the colon too long
Unhealthy signs:
  • Having no urge or infrequent urges
  • Pain, tearing, blood
  • It takes a long time
  • Is always loose and fast
  • Is stringy
  • Looks like little balls or pieces
  • Presence of mucus
  • Identifiable foods present - shows incomplete breakdown
Tips
  • Drinking lots of water first thing in the morning will help keep your bowels to be hydrated and thus easier to eliminate.
  • Cutting out coffee (dehydrating thus can harden bowels), refined sugars (feeds and breeds bad bacteria) and anti-biotics (kills good bacteria), and processed foods (adds toxic load) will help make your bowel movements healthier and more regular.
  • Many people are low in good bacteria - probiotics - in the small bowels. Consider a high quality probiotic supplement.
  • Low stomach acid and digestive enzymes are the culprits for not only constipation but other digestive signs such as gas, bloating, diarrhea, pain, acid reflux, etc. You may need some assistance with hydrochloric acid and/or enzymes while finding and clearing the root problem.
Even if you don't have any digestive symptoms, if you're always tired or in a bad mood or have foggy thinking, you're probably not getting the nutrients you need nor ridding toxins effectively and thus overloading your immune system and liver. Healthy bowels is a sign of healthy bodies and when our bodies are working well, so are our minds.

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.

You May Also Like

  • Pink Salt Flush
    An Intestinal, Skin and Nervous System Cleanse

    Benefits of the Salt Flush     
    You can think of a Salt Flush as a "25 cent colonic" and more. A Salt Flush cleanses the entire digestive tract, including the stomach, small intestine and colon where as, colonics or enemas only reach the colon or a small part of it.

    In general, most people have suffered considerable damage to the lining of the entire intestinal tract- from mouth to anus. Poor dietary choices, gallstones, lack of bile, overeating, etc. all contribute to the deterioration of this precious “internal skin.” As a result of this “tissue damage syndrome,” cells are challenged by poison, oxygen deprivation, malnutrition or a physical trauma, and they lose potassium, take on sodium and chloride, and swell up with excess water.
  • Coffee Enema
    Over time, toxic wastes can accumulate in the colon and liver, and then circulate throughout the body via the bloodstream. This can lead to allergies, headaches, dull skin, acne, stunted nail and hair growth and myriad other health problems.

    Enemas are use to help release waste from the colon walls to clear toxins from the body. It's a great addition to any cleanse or detoxification protocol.

    Why Coffee?

    Caffeine and the enzymes present in coffee, called palmitates, help the liver to stimulate bile production, open duct dilation and increase in bile flow. Toxins filtered in the liver are carried in the bile to the intestines for removal. The enzymes also have anti-oxidant properties, helping to lessen cell damage by quenching free radicals. Theophylline and theobromine (two other chemicals in coffee) dilate blood vessels and counter inflammation of the gut. The presence of liquid in the bowels stimulates peristalsis (muscle contractions in the intestines – the feeling that “you have to go”) and thus the release of toxic bile from the intestines and out there rectum.
  • Testing Your pH
    Balancing your body pH is one of the most important steps to maintaining good health. The body, through the renal system (kidneys) is constantly seeking to get rid of the excess acids that irritate the tissues and deplete them of minerals. When your body is acidic, it is also low in oxygen, which is the perfect environment that bacteria thrive in.

    You can easily monitor your progress and restore your body’s acid/ alkaline balance using a piece of litmus paper. By testing the degree of acidity of the urine, you can determine whether your body is eliminating a normal, low or high quantity of acids.

    If your urine pH is low (below 6.4), it's an indication that you are low in minerals, have infection and/or eating too many acidic foods. If you urine pH is high (above 7.0), it's a sign that your body is trying to buffer the extreme acidity by producing ammonia or compensating by pulling minerals from your bones.

    Monitor and record your pH for 2 weeks and then take the average. Here's a chart for your convenience.