You may not be a stranger to this topic but stay with me… I promise it’s worth the reminder and hopefully you'll learn some new stuff.
Having regular bowel movements is KEY for proper natural detoxification, hormonal balance, healthy skin and hair amongst other things.
Let’s for example take the hormone estrogen... Did you know that your gut (your liver and your intestines) plays a critical role in detoxifying and excreting excess estrogen?
So, constipation amongst other things can lead to reabsorption of estrogen back into your bloodstream. This can lead to estrogen dominance and hormonal imbalances that affect everything from your mood to your menstrual cycle.
And you may say: “but my estrogen levels are normal on my blood test so why should I worry?”
Well yes perhaps… but remember your blood test just shows the amount of estrogen that is circulating in your blood at the time of the blood draw, but you also store estrogen in other tissues such as your breasts, bones, liver and of course your fatty tissue. So, just because your blood labs show estrogen levels are within normal limits, it doesn’t mean your overall whole-body estrogen levels are balanced.
Back to the topic at hand… I define regular healthy bowel movements as at least one complete bowel movement per day without straining and without the aid of coffee or laxatives (natural or over the counter).
Are you thinking but this is not me?! I hear you and here are a few simple, low cost and practical solutions to help you regulate your bowels:
Hydration - this one is HUGE!!! How do you start your day? With a black cup of coffee that dehydrates you even further?? Please don’t do that! Instead wake your system up first thing in the morning with a big cup of warm water, freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice and a dash of salt or a good quality electrolyte powder and see how things begin to shift beyond even just your bowel movements.
Abdominal rubs - Gentle clockwise belly rubs can be magical. You always want to move in the direction of the bowels, which means from the right lower corner of your abdomen and up and to the left and then down to the left lower corner. Remember you want this to be gentle, this is not supposed to be a deep tissue massage. You’re just providing a sense of warmth, relaxation and safety to your body and gently waking it up.
Nervous system relaxation - you may be one of the many people who can not have a bowel movement on mornings that you feel rushed and stressed. Remember you’re not wired to poop if you’re in a sympathetic state and ready to run from the metaphorical tiger or stand and fight it. So, to get yourself in more of a parasympathetic state you need to plan better! Give yourself enough time to wake up without stress.
And here are some additional measures that you can take: don’t look at your phone or emails as soon as you wake up, sip on the morning concoction we just talked about, sit outside and expose your eyes and skin to natural light and take a few slow and intentional breaths while you gently rub your belly.
And no this does not have to be a 2-hour process, you can do all of it in less than 10 minutes and I know it because I do it every day myself. And remember you can combine these things, meaning you can sip on your warm drink while you are getting sunlight and while you're gently rubbing your belly.
The beauty of this is that the benefits go wayyyy beyond regular and healthy bowel movements.