What Do You Recommend for IBS With Chronic Constipation?

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What do you recommend for IBS with chronic constipation? This is JJ Virgin, four time New.

York Times bestselling author, celebrity nutrition expert.

And Fitness hall of Famer. I've been on a lifelong quest for answers to the toughest health questions and now I'm sharing what I found with you. Welcome to Ask the health expert. Patty McGinnis from Facebook asks, what do you recommend for IBS with chronic constipation? You know, I feel like IBS is kind of named correctly because it's sort of like kind of this catch all sort of BS phrase for your gut's irritated.

We don't know why.

So we're gonna unpack this after the break, but I definitely have some things to weigh in on here.

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All right, ibs, Irritable bowel syndrome. And then, of course, chronic constipation. Not a great combo. And I think you'll all agree when your gut's not feeling great, nothing's going great. I mean, it just impacts all parts of your life. So first of all, we gotta figure out, why is your gut so irritated? Now, this is where I would say go visit your functional medicine doctor, do some stool testing and take a look, see as to what could be going on. Do you have any issues with parasites, bacteria, funguses, undigested fibers? What the heck is going on? Do you have issues with digestion? But while you're waiting on that, because here's the thing, got to get to the doctor, get the test. That takes time. Here's what I want you to do. In the interim, let's rule out the obvious. Let's make sure first that you've pulled out any hidden food intolerances that could be aggravating your gut. And so first thing there is to follow the virgin diet. I walk you through how to do that in the book. It's super simple, easy to do. Next thing is for constipation, a couple things you're always going to want to look at. There are, first off, you got to clear out for thyroid issues, because low thyroid equals constipation. So if you've got any issues with your thyroid, you want to fix your thyroid to fix the constipation. But then what can help you be more regular? One of the things that can help are probiotics. So probiotics can help balance your gut bacteria. Number two, fiber can have a really good impact here. Now, I want you to increase this over time, not overnight, because if you just bump things up initially, you could make yourself worse initially. So you don't want to just go, boom, I'm eating 5 to 14 grams of fiber a day. I'm going to 50. No, let's do that over time. And you want to make sure you got a good blend of fibers and you're getting both soluble and insoluble fiber. Next up, calcium and iron can be constipating. Magnesium and vitamin C can be. Can be deconstipating. I don't what would be the opposite of that could cause the runs. So one of the things that can work well here is an Epsom salts bath at night and then taking either magnesium oxide and vitamin C or a blend called magnesium citrate or magnesium ascorbate. And basically you take that and you titrate it up each night. You increase it a little bit each night until things start going smoothly. You don't want to go too fast or too much right off the. Because you might end up with what my pal, Dr. Sarah Gottfried calls disaster pants. All right, next thing, things that can really help your gut microbiome here, which can make a big difference. So there are things that help soothe your gut microbiome. That's things like green bananas, freshly ground flaxseed meal, chia seeds, fish, both from the protein and the healthy fats in there that help reduce inflammation. Green tea. Green tea. Gosh, you know, I'm just. I fall more in love with green tea every single day. It's like every time I read something, it's like, oh, and green tea helps there. So drinking green tea can actually help your gut microbiome. Fermented foods can. Can help here, but you need to be careful. If you've got histamine issues, those can be problematic, but they can help. So just, just see how you're feeling as you're adding them in. And again, I like to do like, I like to do things over time, not overnight. And again, we would be really working on removing the dirty processed foods, things that have got damaged fats, artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, processed flours and sugars, and obviously any artificial sweeteners. I said that once. I'll say it again. Okay, then enzymes can be super important here because one of the challenges can be if you're over the age of 35 or under any kind of stress, you have lower stomach acid, you don't break down your protein as well. That can be problematic. And then finally, here's what's super important. Connect the dots. Connect the dots between what you're eating and how your gut feels. So what I want you to look at is, is doing journaling every time you eat and drink to see how you feel and reduce the fluids during meals. Focus on drinking the majority of your fluids in between meals. So start with all that, because then you really have gotten yourself a little bit closer before you do all the testing. Also do things to start beyond the microbiome. The things to help balance your microbiome, the probiotics, prebiotics. Look at also things that can help with healing your leaky gut. Again, the virgin diet helps there, but things like glutamine and N acetylglucosamine, msm, mucin, marshmallow, cat's claw, quercetin. All these things can be very healing too. And let me know how it goes and that you're going again. All right, This is JJ with Ask the Health Expert. I do this five times a week, so make sure you never miss a show by going to subscribetojay.com.

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