I get a lot of e-mails and questions on how to overcome constipation. It’s no surprise that many of us struggle with bowel issues — IBS, gas, bloating, constipation — and if you read my post on Maya Abdominal Massage, you understand what starts to happen physically that can set this up. From my work with Donna Gates on the Body Ecology Diet, I’ve also learned that our adrenals and thyroid get stressed in any addiction or high stress situation. Low thyroid could be a reason for constipation because we need our thyroid to create the energy for a bowel movement.
I recently signed up for a newsletter from Dr. Ben Kim, who is a doctor of chiropractic and writes articles about natural health. I have liked a lot of what he’s had to say and wanted to learn more. Today, Dr. Kim sent a newsletter with 9 tips to have a comfortable bowel movement. After reading his article, I really agreed with a lot of what he said. Although I’d also like to add some of my own tips.
Additional Tips For Overcoming Constipation
Keep in mind that eating disorders are both dehydrating and hurt your adrenals and thyroid. Your adrenals and thyroid are responsible for energy — the energy you need to get through the day and energy you need for a bowel movement. Fatigued adrenals could also be the root cause of hyperactivity, anxiety and difficulty sleeping. On top of that, they play a role in regulating your hydration, so no matter how much water you drink, you could still be dehydrated.
Nourish Your Body With Minerals
To care for your adrenals, they need minerals — so Dr. Kim’s suggestion to eat water-rich foods is a great one, since vegetables are full of vitamins, minerals and water. The more minerals you can supply to your body, the better. You can make a soup that is slow cooked, with a ton of organic vegetables — cook it for about 3 hours on low and discard the veggies. Use the water to sip throughout the day. This is healing and provides you with a lot of minerals. Gatorade and other sports drinks won’t have the same effect because they are full of sugar or sugar-substitutues that rob your body of minerals. If you are on the go and don’t have time to make the soup — but have the budget for supplements — consider Body Ecology’s Vitality Boost and Energy Boost liquid minerals. I put these in water and sip them throuout the day.
Between Meal Minerals
Sometimes, when you have what feels like emotional hunger between meals, it could also be your body calling not for food, but for water and/or minerals. Sipping the soup (you can chill it too) or the Vitality Boost and Energy Boost in water has always solved this issue for me — creating a sense of satisfaction. Some herbal teas are also mineral rich. My new favorite is Jungle Juice, from Rainforest Remedies. These herbs are from the Belize rainforest — organic and very delicious. I add stevia and it makes a great punch-like drink. My other favorite is Blood Tonic tea from Rainforest Remedies – this one tastes deep and rich, making it a great coffee substitute — and it’s very energizing.
Vitamin & Mineral Pill Supplements
What I’m learning about pill supplements is that if they are not made from the whole food, you never know what effect it will have on your body. I’ve been working to stop taking all of the supplements I used to take and rely more on fixing my digestion so that my body will have all the vitamins and minerals it needs from food sources. I can tell it’s getting better based on some metabolic tests I’ve had done. I’ve started taking only whole food supplements (way less than ever, thankfully), like those from Body Ecology — along with healing herbs in addition to a nutrient rich diet. That has helped a lot.
Other Tips for Your Thyroid
Ocean vegetables — yes, seaweed — are tremendous mineral-rich foods for your thyroid. Try some wakame, hijiki, arame — or my favorite — toasted nori. I’m not crazy about the taste myself, but I learned a tip from a Body Ecology chef — add pumpkin seed oil after cooking and it makes them taste fabulous!! If you’re averse to ocean veggies like me, a great whole food supplement that Body Ecology makes is Ocean Plant Extract – which is a special type of ocean vegetable from Russia that helps heal your thyroid and bring important minerals and B vitamins to your body.
Your Inner Ecosystem – The Real Key
If you work to heal your digestive system, it will help with constipation. This can be a challenge if you are actively engaged in an eating disorder. Your digestive system has it’s own ecosystem, just like the earth. If you work to heal it, it will start to do all the work for you — creating vitamins and minerals that your body needs by changing one nutrient you don’t need to another that you need. This is all possible because your gut is populated by good, friendly bacteria that act like little magicians and house cleaners — they clean you up and create what you need to be healthy. Many of us were either born with a compromised inner ecosystem or lost our healthy inner ecosystem through antibiotics or lifestyle (stress, poor eating habits, etc.). Pathogens will then move in and take up residence — yeast or candida albicans is one of them. Another is the little bugger I have right now that causes gut dysbiosis (Citrobacter Freundii). H. pylori is another that can create havoc in your system, including ulcers. Doctors are just beginning to recognize what these good and bad bacteria do — with H. pylori being a bit more well understood because of all the ulcers people are getting (doctors used to think the symptoms were all in the patient’s heads until they found H. pylori).
Probiotics
You can build your inner ecosystem through a healthy, vitamin and mineral rich diet — but if you have a compromised inner ecosystem, you can help by eating fermented foods (live, cultured vegetables, for example). You can also take probiotic supplements — the best are those that are made from whole food sources and have a range of healthy bacteria. I really like Primal Defense. Body Ecology makes a bunch of great starters for cultured veggies and fermented beverages. One of them that I am trying for the first time, Essential Duo, has Bifidobacterium BB536, which has been shown to end constipation. I’ll let you know how it goes!
Letting Go
I firmly believe that it takes alignment in mind, body and spirit to overcome issues that we are struggling with and it’s no different for constipation. I have a sense that constipation is like holding on — and that there are probably things in our lives that would be best served if we just let go and released. Whenever I look back at my life before recovery, I recall how tense and locked up I was. My body was always rigid, tensed up — I put way more physical effort into things than I needed to. The energy I expended by tensing up my internal organs and my muscles must have been tremendous. It certainly locked up my abdomen, making it hard for anything to flow properly. If I felt physical pain, you can be sure it was in my abdomen — even though I was never sick — I was always sick to my stomach in some way.
Gut Feelings
Since then, I’ve learned that my abdomen is where a lot of the “feelings” that lead to my intuition are. I can imagine that as a child, I must not have understood that — and maybe was afraid to follow my intuition, so I tensed up and blocked that open channel. Now, I am learning to feel confident and comfortable with the feelings that speak to me through my abdomen. I get a lot of messages that help me serve myself and my clients — becuase instead of relying on learned intelligence, I can tap into the universal wisdom through my “gut feelings.” I sometimes wonder if eating disorders are a spiritual illness in highly sensitive people that are very intuitive, but afraid of their intuitive powers. It’s so hard to trust what we can’t see — what others tell us doesn’t exist, is not possible.
This is why healing often comes from getting to know your true self again — trusting those gut feelings that guide you — and no longer armoring against the unseen via your abdomen. If you are not ready or not interested in the nutritional side of healing, consider focusing on the emotional and spiritual side — where you nourish yourself with love and joyful activities throughout the week. See yourself as perfect, whole and complete as you are now. See yourself healed now. Open your mind to the tremendous healing powers that you already have.
Fabulous article!!! There is abook by Louise Hay You Can HEal Your Body and what the affirmation says about Bulimia ia “I am loved and suppoted by the process of Life itself.”. I am safe.” I like what you wonder about ….being sensitive and intuitive, can be a Blesing in Disguise ..like our eating Disorder…yours brought you to us and ours brought us to you and for that I am very grateful..
Comment by Nancy — September 19, 2006 @ 11:44 pm