Simple Steps for Dealing with Constipation

Hey everyone, welcome back to my weekly house call, your chance to ask me your questions. And this week's question is, I've been dealing with constipation for years now and I'm so tired of it. It's making me feel cranky and bloated, it's messing my appetite up. I feel like I'm doing everything right, but I can't poop. Please help me. Well unfortunately, this is a big and it's a common problem. Having a healthy digestion and getting rid of waste every day, ideally two times a day, is critical to your overall health. You see, constipation has been linked to cancer, even Parkinson's disease. And it makes you feel like you know what? Your liver flushes out toxins, it dumps them into your intestines, and if they don't leave your body, they can't reabsorb, like recirculated. Researchers found that Roughly 12 to 19% of the population, that's about 63 million people, suffer from constipation. Now, that's a lot of people. Constipation is often really uncomfortable and it can lead to a whole variety of symptoms like bloating, irritability, lack of appetite, even like throwing up sometimes. Needless to say, it's important to poop every day, even twice a day. I asked my patients a lot, they say, well, are you regular? And this one patient said, yeah, I'm regular. And I said, well, how often do you go? She said, well, I go once a week. I said, that's not regular. She said, well, it's regular for me. I go every week. Well, other patients thought it's normal to be constipated and go every couple of days or every three days, but after treating them, their whole world turned upside down once they went normally. Now, we now know so much about how to fix your gut. about how to tend your inner garden, about how to reset a system that's been upset by all the ways we eat and live. But really, it's fixable. First, you need to deal with your diet. It's often the thing that drives constipation the most. Stress and overuse of antibiotics also can mess up your gut, but it's a diet that's high in processed foods and sugar that promotes constipation. Eating a whole real food diet Eating foods in their unprocessed forms is the first step, and lots of fiber. You know, as hunter-gatherers, we ate about 100 to 150 grams of fiber a day. And now, most modern humans, well, we're lucky if we get about 8 grams a day. You see, basically fiber comes from plant foods, but there are some super fibers, things like ground flax seeds. You want to add about 2 tablespoons a day to your food, like smoothies or salads. This helps you go. It's really awesome. Veggies, fruit, nuts, seeds, beans, whole grains, they all contain fiber so bulk up. There are also a couple of foods that can be really a big source of constipation. Dairy tops the list and gluten is a close second. So I want you to give up those foods for two weeks or three weeks ideally and see how your digestion and overall health responds. Also, low fat diets can also contribute to constipation. A clinical study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition put 11 men on a high-fat diet for two weeks and compared them to a low-fat diet, another group. And the high-fat diet showed faster gastric emptying, meaning things just moved through your system faster. So eat more wild fatty fish like sardines and salmon, have extra virgin olive oil which lubricates the digestive system, and enjoy avocados. In fact, One of the best laxatives out there is what I call MCT oil. It's what I recommend in my book Eat Fat, Get Thin and it kind of has a laxative effect. It's medium chain triglycerides from coconut oil. You can put it in your coffee, which also helps you go, or you can use it in smoothies and salad dressings. Another big cause of constipation is magnesium deficiency. Now it's one of the most common nutrient deficiencies because most of us don't eat foods with magnesium, things like nuts and beans and greens. And we do a lot of things that make us lose magnesium from our bodies, things like stress, makes you dump magnesium, caffeine, sugar, toxins, all cause magnesium in our body to become depleted. Most of us are going to get great relief from changing our diet and adding magnesium. Now, not all magnesium is the same. What you need is a special form, it's called magnesium Citrate. You'll need about 200 and sometimes up to 1000 milligrams a day. You may even need more at the beginning. Just build up to the dose until you go once or twice a day. And if you take too much, you're going to get loose stools, so just back off. Also, vitamin C is another great poop inducer. You can take about 2000 to 4000 milligrams a day or even more along with the magnesium. The other nutrient we are deficient in is, quote, nutrient, is healthy bugs in our gut, which is why I recommend adding probiotics to your daily regimen of supplements. One other commonly missed cause of constipation is a sluggish thyroid, which affects about one in five women and about one in 10 men. And guess what? Half of those people are not even diagnosed or properly treated. So check out my e-book, the Ultra Thyroid Solution, to figure out if this is a problem for you and exactly what to do about it. Now of course, moving your body helps you also move your bowels. Exercise is an awesome laxative. So get moving if you want to get moving. Of course, don't forget about water because hydration is critical to getting your bowels to move. So drink about six to eight glasses of water a day unless you want to poop rocks. Okay, so if you're not going easily with soft, easy to pass poops, Remember the tricks: Eat a whole foods high fiber diet. Check out the Pegan diet I explain in my book Eat Fat, Get Thin. Add two tablespoons of ground flax seeds to your diet every day. Eat more good fats and try the MCT oil. Supplement with magnesium citrate and vitamin C and probiotics. Drink six to eight glasses of water a day and exercise every day. All right, now I want to hear from you. Are you currently dealing with constipation? Have you overcome constipation? What did you do? What worked for you? Why don't you share your story or your comments below or on my Facebook page? And if you like this video, please share it on your social media and be sure to submit your questions to DrHyman.com and maybe next week I'm going to make a house call to you.