Natural Constipation Remedies for Women 45+

If you're over 40 and constantly bloated, sluggish or skipping days without a bowel movement, it's not just getting older. Constipation is one of the most overlooked symptoms of menopause. And today we're breaking down exactly what's causing it, how to fix it naturally, and why your gut health matters more now than ever. By the way, I'm Dr. Tabitha, your Christian physician, and I am here to bring you the truth. I'm a triple board certified OB gyn. So I know what conventional medicine does and I know what functional medicine, integrative medicine does when it comes to menopause. What happens to our digestion during menopause that leads to constipation? Well, a few things are going on, but first I want to clarify what constipation is, because a lot of people think constipation is if you just don't have a bowel movement for multiple days. But it really is if you are not evacuating your stool completely to feel like you have emptied out and you had a nice bowel movement. So you should be having a bowel movement every day or a couple times a day. Eating can stimulate a bowel movement and just waking up in the morning can stimulate a bowel movement. But your stools should be soft formed, easy to pass. They should not be mushy and falling apart. They should not be hard and pebbly. If they are hard and pebbly, or they're only coming out in little amounts at a time and you feel like you're not fully evacuating, that is constipation. And constipation is way more prevalen women. And it gets worse in menopause. So let's break down the reasons why this happens. So number one, your hormones change the gut motility. Things start to slow down. We also start to slow down. The majority of Americans over 40 are now living sedentary lives. And sedentary living is actually the new cancer causing agent. We used to blame cigarettes and now sitting all day is just as deadly. So when we don't sit and we don't move our bodies, our bowels don't move either. We have decreased blood supply to our bowels and decreased endorphins and all the chemical processes that are needed to stimulate that movement. The other thing I see with women is they get on the fasting bandwagon and they stop eating all of the time, which I am a proponent of. If you've watched my videos. I talk about this a lot, but unfortunately a lot of women get stuck in this one meal a day mentality, and they are really undernourishing their bodies and hardly eating at all. And they come to me complaining, why am I gaining weight? Why am I so puffy? Why am I constipated and inflamed? Well, when you don't eat for long periods of time, your digestive tract does shut down and slow down. You stop making as much stomach acid, you stop making your digestive enzymes. And so it really slows things down. It's important that we have a healthy relationship with food and with fasting and that we do cycling of our food, meaning we are eating more of it during certain times and less of it at others. You don't want to always be just doing one or two meals a day. In the same time frame, you will plateau and your gut will not be happy for it. And as I mentioned, when you are going through the menopausal transition, your gut microbiome, biome starts to change as well. There are certain bacteria that are known to produce an enzyme called beta glucuronidase. And this enzyme actually causes you to reabsorb the estrogen that your body was trying to eliminate. So when you're done using your estrogen that you made or took as a hormone replacement, it goes to the liver, it gets broken down or called metabolism, or we call it being metabolized. Then it has this garbage tag put on it. It gets sent to the urine and stool for removal. The beta glucuronidase enzyme sees that garbage tag and it will cut it off and it will cause your body to reabsorb the estrogen that you were just trying to get rid of. And part of the reason it does that is because we have such innate intelligence in our body. If you're in menopause, you want to conserve and recycle all the estrogen you can because there isn't much around. And your body is trying really hard to keep it around for your bone health and your cardiovascular health and your brain health. So it makes those bacteria replicate so that you can reabsorb more estrogen. However, if you're not fully menopausal or if you're on hormone replacement therapy and you don't need to reabsorb that estrogen, then that becomes a bad thing. And so it's important to really pay attention to your gut and how your gut is functioning. And a big warning sign is constipation or bloating after you eat. I want you to understand that our Systems are not in silos. The hormones don't just take care of your ovaries and your uterus and your breast. Your gut doesn't just digest food. Your thyroid doesn't just handle your metabolism. They're all working together or they're all dysfunctional together. So you want to make sure that they are working together to get you through this menopausal transition in the best way possible. In a second, I'm going to give you some practical tips to keep your digestive system moving naturally. But before I get into that, I've created a simple daily gut reset routine that helps women over 40 reduce bloat, boost digestion and eliminate naturally. It's called Digestive Lift. Click the link in the description and get started. Today I have four things that really keep your bowels regular that I love to recommend to my patients. Number one, Move your body. If you don't have a regular exercise routine, you have to find one. Figure it out. Do Pilates, go for a nice long relaxing walk. Number two, take magnesium at bedtime. The majority of us are actually deficient in magnesium because it's so depleted in our soils and we're just not getting it through the food that we need to. And we're burning through a lot of magnesium dealing with the toxins in our environment. So taking two mag lift before you go to bed can be a game changer to keep you regular. Number three, drink a quarter to a half a teaspoon of organic apple cider vinegar and in some warm water each morning. That helps set your stomach acid for the day, stimulate your digestive enzymes and feed and nourish your good bacteria so that you can be more regular. And number four, use Digestive Lift with your meals if you are having bloating with eating, feeling tired immediately after eating, or seeing undigested food in your stool, that might be the game changer that you need. Now that you've learned how to get your digestive system moving, let's talk about another midlife life mystery, low stomach acid and why it might be behind your bloat, fatigue and cravings. Click here to watch that next video.