7 Natural Ways to Relieve Constipation Fast (and Keep It Gone)

Are you feeling backed up, bloated, sluggish, or just heavy in general lately? You are not alone. If that's the case. Constipation affects millions of people every year. But instead of reaching for harsh laxatives or feeling like you have to eat a ton of fiber, there are simple, science backed natural ways to get you moving again. So today I'm going to dive into my top seven favorite ways to to get you going and we'll discuss why they actually work. If you haven't listened to any of my episodes before, I'm Dr. Ashley. I'm a PhD nutritionist and registered dietitian. I'm the owner and founder of PhD Weight Loss where we have served over 11,600 people and have helped them collectively drop more than 466,000 pounds nationwide. And my goal with this channel is to give you the information you need to create positive change in your own life.

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So let's dive in to the topic of constipation and how to get your body moving. Number one is to hydrate smarter. Most people think that you just need to consume more fiber, but really the first step, well, there's two first steps, but the first first step is to hydrate. Most people think constipation starts with food, right? But it actually starts with optimal hydration and electrolytes. When you are low in water or salt or both, which most people are, your body is going to hold onto every drop of water it can. That's going to pull the moisture from your stool and, and make it really dry, hard and difficult to pass. So what you want to do is make sure that you're aiming for about six to eight glasses of water every day. But the ticket is you don't want to consume just plain water. You need to add electrolytes in to that water, like a pinch of salt or some kind of electrolyte combination to help your body actually absorb and retain that fluid. Now, if you struggle with constipation, hydration is definitely a key to it. And not just water, water and salt. I have a video, an episode that I have done where I talk about hydration and I highly encourage you to listen to it so you can get into the science around it. Because I'm not going to dive deep into hydration and salt and how it all works here. But I will make sure to link this video in the description on YouTube, so definitely check that out. Now you can do just water with a sprinkling of Celtic sea salt or Himalayan sea salt, maybe a squeeze of lemon. That's totally fine to do. You could also try an electrolyte mix. I like lmnt, but it's very, very high in sodium, about one gram of sodium. And not all of us need that much salt. If you sweat a lot, if you are outside and it's hot, if you have adrenal fatigue, then potentially that amount of salt could help out. I also really enjoy my electrolyte mix that I made specifically for people who are going through a weight loss or weight loss maintenance journey. It's called Electrolyte plus mix and I know that includes the most highly absorbable and high quality minerals and vitamins in there to support your body. If that is of interest to you, then you want to check out Drashley Wellness.com and if you are watching this on YouTube, go on into the description and I will include a link and a special discount code for you guys. So check that out and make sure that you're focusing on hydrating, hydrating wisely. Number two might surprise you, but it's to eat more fat, not more fiber for decades and still if you go to your doctor for constipation, they're going to tell you to eat more fiber to stay regular. Maybe some oat bran or something like that. But the truth is is that fiber alone doesn't fix constipation. In fact, for many people, too much fiber can make the bloating and the discomfort even worse. What your gut really needs is lubrication. I want you to picture a slip and slide. This is what we need to create in your gut and what creates the slip and slide? Healthy fats, right? So I want you to think olive oil, avocado oil, grass fed butter tallow, coconut oil, fatty fish MC oil, that stands for medium chain triglycerides. Really Help your body absorb fats and vitamins and minerals more efficiently. Now, if you go the route of adding MCT oil, you need to start small, because you're going to come back and tell me, Dr. Ashley, you made me have terrible gut pain. So go get some MCT oil if you want to try this. And start with like a half of a teaspoon, and you could work up to as much as a tablespoon a day, but you have to start small. All of these healthy fats help to soften stool. It stimulates bile flow coming from your gallbladder, which we need to have or which we helps. I mean, if you don't have your gallbladder, you still can have healthy bowel movements, but it is helpful for sure, and it just triggers the natural movement in the colon. So I want you to think fat over fiber. Fat is truly the first step to a bowel movement. Without enough dietary fat, the digestive system doesn't get the signal to release that bile, which is essential to. To keep things flowing. So before you load up on more fiber, you want to make sure you're eating enough healthy fats to let your system do its job. Now, if you fear dietary fat and you think, oh, my gosh, I'm trying to drop weight, I'm afraid of eating fat, what am I to do? Then you need to come and get help from us at PhD weight loss, because I'm here to tell you that you do not need to fear dietary fat. You need to embrace it. When we eat fat, we don't get fat. When we eat fat, our body actually works the way that it's supposed to, and we can release the excess fat that we have stored on our bodies. So if this sounds like you and you want to embrace fat and eat butter again and maybe some bacon, and not also have to be in a ketogenic diet, because you don't have to do that either. There can be a great balance. Then go to my PhD weight loss.com to learn more. If you are watching this on YouTube, head into the description and we will provide a link there and just click that. Start your journey toward embracing and enjoying delicious healthy fats. Step number three is to move your body every day. Your digestive system relies on movement. Your lymphatic system relies on movement. The only way to get your lymph going is through muscular contraction, through movement. And it's similar with the digestive system. Not just peristalsis, not just the movement of the gut, but it's your body's overall activity level that really matters when it comes to digestive health. It doesn't have to be anything big. It doesn't mean that you have to go to the gym. But a simple walk after meals is one of the best things that you can do for your health. And to get your body moving naturally with your bowels, you could do a gentle rock after eating, you could do some kind of light yoga, you could do body weight training. All of these things stimulate your intestines and promote regularity. Even 10 to 15 minutes of movement after eating can get things going. It's very important. If you are sedentary most of the day, your digestion is going to slow down too. So I want you to think of movement as your reset button. Number four is you could consider magnesium citrate. If someone is with us at PhD and they are dealing with constipation, I will talk to them about these top four things and then adding magnesium citrate. We are in general deficient in magnesium and I've done an entire episode where I talk about the benefits of magnesium, the 300 plus enzymatic processes that it's in charge of in our body. So if you feel like you want to learn more about magnesium, definitely check out that video. I will provide the link in the description on the YouTube video for you. But in general, magnesium is the body's relaxation mineral. It relaxes your muscles of your digestive tract and your muscles all over your body. When it comes to your digestive tract, though, magnesium does something very unique, but specifically the citrate form. So if you want to go this route, make sure you look for magnesium citrate. And what it does is it helps to pull water into your colon and softens the stools. Again, most people are magnesium deficient, especially if they're under stress, if they're eating a lot of processed foods, if they're dropping weight. So you could try a small dose. I like a natural calm. It's a powder that you can add to your water. I usually like to add it to hot water, but I'll also do cold water. Sometimes I'll give it to my daughter. So it's very easy on the body. So I would do that before bed. It's not going to make you go to the restroom right away, but I would encourage you to start with a teaspoon. Again, everyone's different. Check with your doctor. This is not meant to be medical advice, but it can be helpful for your bowels and also helpful to get you to sleep if you struggle. Going to Bed magnesium can be helpful in getting you to relax and hopefully wake up more rested the next day. The fifth thing you could look into is making sure you're supporting your digestion with healthy foods. We know that certain foods can stimulate digestion without irritation. This would be like healthy fats. A spoonful of olive oil. You could try MCT oil if just getting adequate fats throughout the day can help to trigger that bile flow. Ginger also helps to stimulate the colon. Coffee can stimulate the colon naturally as well. The key is moderation to these foods and making sure that you are consistent to get the body used to moving naturally in the way that it's supposed to. Number six is to focus on your gut health. You know that your gut microbiome plays a crucial role when it comes to motility. When your gut bacteria is balanced, digestion moves much more smoothly. And when it's off, it's going to slow down and not work in the way that it's supposed to. So you want to include probiotic rich foods like kefir, yogurt, sauerkraut, raw carrots, raw beets, chia seeds, and basil seeds. I talk a lot about gut health in other episodes and I'll make sure to include a link to one of those in the description here on YouTube so you can check that out if you feel like gut health is something you really want to focus on, you want to make sure that you include two types of food. One are the prebiotics. Prebiotics feed the good bacteria in your gut. So prebiotics come from resistant starch. And this would be chia seeds, Zen basil seeds, raw carrots that you could grate into a salad. Raw beets, plantains, green bananas. These are all things that feed the good gut bacteria. And we call the gut bacteria probiotics. And you get the probiotics from probiotic rich foods like kefir or yogurt or sauerkraut. All of these things help to feed the gut with great food. Now I want to provide a public service announcement. I recently had some issues with my gut and I was struggling with everything just passing straight through. I'll just say that. And I took Saccharomides boulardii, which is a probiotic that is really, really helpful. And in five hours it stopped everything. I had to go on antibiotics for what they thought was appendicitis, but wasn't really. It was very all confusing. All I knew is that I was on antibiotics and I did not feel well. And I took a saccharomites boulardi capsule and it changed my life in five hours. So if you are dealing with diarrhea or travelers stomach issues or you like me, were on antibiotics or are on antibiotics, check out Saccharomites boulardi. It really helped me and I just want to provide that to you so that maybe you can find some relief or take with you when you travel next. All right. And last but not least is to make sure that you are relaxing and resetting every day if you can. I know life is stressful, but stress can literally shut down your gut. When your body is in this fight or flight scenario, it stops digestion. Your body, I want you to think, doesn't have the time or the focus to be able to digest in the way that it wants to. Everything gets tight and stuck. So I know it sounds simple, but if you can do some deep breathing, some box breathing, if you don't know what box breathing is, it means you breathe in for four counts, you hold for four counts, you breathe out for four counts and you hold for four counts and you kind of create this box like image in your mind as you're breathing. You could breathe in for five counts, hold for seven, release for eight. Oh my gosh. There are endless ways to do some deep breathing. You can stretch, you can massage your stomach, you can take five minutes of quiet after meals. This can really make a big difference to just slow down and then make sure that you have consistent bathroom routines. I know again, this seems really simple, but in this day and age where we are rushing and so busy, we might not be consistent and give our body time, we might not listen to our body signals and it might tell us we need to use the rest restroom and then we don't pay attention to it and then it stops talking to us because it's mad. So make sure that you keep listening to your body and be consistent and patient with it. If you have any questions at all on this really fun topic of constipation, I'm here for you. So please be open and drop your comments here in the comment section on YouTube. If you are watching this on YouTube, make sure to subscribe. And I am here for you. If you are listening to this on a podcast platform, please leave a review. It really does matter and allows us the potential of impacting more people in a positive way. All right, remember, you guys have to step up to make the change. Lead with your heart, train your mind and do not negotiate with your body. I'll see you next time.