How to Ease Constipation with Nutrition, Lifestyle and Exercise
“Constipation is common and it affects people of all ages. You can usually treat it at home with simple changes to your diet and lifestyle.”
What Causes Constipation?
- Many digestive disturbances, including constipation are often caused from:
- Not eating enough fruit, vegetables and cereals.
- Not drinking enough fluids
- Not exercising or general inactivity
- Ignoring the urge to poo
- Limited access to toilet facilities e.g. toilet passes in schools, or closure of many public toilet
- facilities in certain areas.
- Stress, anxiety, depression or other mental health issues.
- A result of certain medications e.g. codeine pain relief
- Antibiotics destroying the natural flora and fauna of the gut
- Sometimes in Pregnancy
- Occasionally linked to certain medical conditions
In my recent post on Nutrition, I highlighted some of the benefits of flaxseeds but appreciate they are not suitable for everyone, especially those suffering with an inflammatory bowel disease as the seeds can sometimes aggravate symptoms. In my homoeopathic clinic, I often see children suffering with constipation, especially those ‘fussy’ eaters who only eat a very limited number of foods, drinks and don’t like ‘bits’ when fibre is introduced to their diet.
A Simple Recipe to Relieve Constipation
This recipe, using flaxseeds, is wonderful as there are no ‘bits’, little taste and odor, in fact it rather like clear ‘gloop’! This ‘gloop’ can then be added to drinks, foods, disguised but hopefully resulting in regular, softer consistency and ease of bowel movements for those that are constipated. It’s certainly worth a try and has successfully helped many cases of constipation in adults and children.
Linseed Tea Recipe [www.gaialifestyle.com]
Ingredients:
1 teaspoon linseeds
1 litre of water
Method
In a suitable pan add the linseeds to the water.
Bring tea to just under the boil and simmer for 20 minutes.
Cover pan and leave linseed to soak for 12 hours or overnight.
To drink sieve seeds and serve warm (you can add hot water to warm it up).
Note
This tea can be thinned down with hot water to your desired consistency.
Yoga Practices to help Ease Constipation
Yoga postures especially spinal twists help to massage the internal organs of the body and often encourage ‘Peristalsis’ – a series of muscular, wave-like contractions, occurring primarily in the digestive tract, to move food through the oesophagus and intestines.
Yoga also focuses on deep breathing, relaxation, whereby yoga practitioners are encouraged to ‘release, ‘let-go’, ‘slow-down’, ‘relax’, which helps the body’s gastric-juices to flow, resulting in more effective and efficient digestion and elimination.
The process of digestion takes a lot of energy. When individuals are stressed, angry, hurried, upset they often suffer from digestive disturbances as their nervous system is in ‘fight or flight mode’, where their energy is focused on increased heart-rate, circulation and muscles of the body to escape a threatening encounter.
One of the things I love to hear in my yoga classes is the ‘relaxation response’, where the digestive system of some students become quite audible with various gurgling, bubbling, churning sounds coming from their gut, usually kicking in during relaxation when they are lying in ‘Shavasana’ – corpse or relaxation pose.
Constipation symptoms
Signs and symptoms of constipation, listed on the National Health Service website – [www.nhs.org.uk]
- “you or your child haven’t had a poo at least 3 times in a week
- the poo is often difficult to push out and larger than usual
- the poo is often dry, hard or lumpy
However, it’s not unusual for a breastfeeding baby to go a week without having a poo.
You may also have a stomach ache and feel bloated or sick.
Things to look out for in babies and toddlers include:
- a lack of energy
- being irritable, angry or unhappy or soiling their clothes.”
Also Constipation results in congestion and a build-up of toxins in the body that can lead to other medical conditions. According to Dr Anthony Bassler, a consultant gastroenterologist in New York, who carried out a 25 year study into intestinal toxaemia, on 5,000 cases “Every physician should realize that intestinal toxaemias are the most important primary and contributing causes of many disorders and diseases of the human body.”
Constipation and other digestive disturbances can often impact our mood and feeling of wellbeing. The gut is often referred to as our ‘second brain’. Apparently the gut is responsible for 95% of the serotonin present in the body.
“Serotonin is an important chemical and neurotransmitter in the human body. It is believed to help regulate mood and social behavior, appetite and digestion, sleep, memory and sexual desire and function. There may be a link between serotonin and depression.”
[www.medicalnewstoday.com]
Conclusion
Please don’t suffer in silence, take action today, perhaps consult your GP or pharmacist, or implement some of the above suggestions. Of course I also offer Homoeopathy treatment for acute and chronic treatment of a variety of symptoms, including those related to constipation.
