- Do you ever feel constipated or complain of having
kind of a slow stool in your daily bowel movement?
This is Dr. Lam and with me is our coach, Justin,
our metabolic health coach.
And today we are going to talk about this very important
topic because so many people with Adrenal Fatigue
eventually have these symptoms of constipation.
So let's get this ball started.
What is the physiology, Coach Justin,
as far as people with adrenal issues that is more prone
to getting a slow bowel movement?
- Thank you very much Dr. Lam.
Most commonly, when you have Adrenal Fatigue,
when people have Adrenal Fatigue,
their energy drops inside their body.
So, in an effort to conserve energy,
a lot of their systems actually start to slow down
and not withstanding is that your
digestive tract can slow down as well.
And so when your digestive tract slows down,
then things don't move as quickly through your bowels
and so you can get slow bowel movements or
constipation because of that.
- So constipation is, if it is not extreme,
is actually a normal physiological construct
if you are within the Adrenal Fatigue continuum.
And the more advanced that you are,
if the body is in the active mode of slowing down,
then it will be affected.
Then what are some of the symptoms you can get
when you are constipated?
- Well the biggest symptom, obviously,
when you are constipated is that you have
difficulty going to the bathroom.
You really have to push down when
you are trying to go to the bathroom.
Sometimes there may be pain as well.
In which case, you should definitely
go see your primary medical doctor about that.
But also, commonly with that, because when your bowel
slows down, you can get a lot of gas,
you can also get a lot of bloating
that comes along with that as well.
- Yeah, so constipation is a sign.
What you do with it really depends on the situation.
Now how about supplements?
What are supplements that can cause constipation
or what are supplements that can help constipation maybe?
- Yeah, for supplements that can help constipation,
really one of my go to favorites is magnesium.
Magnesium is nature's natural muscle relaxant.
Really helps to relax your bowels,
also helps to relax your mind and
helps to relax the body overall.
So magnesium is a great supplement;
a great element to help you relax your body.
Also with that, vitamin C is really great as well.
Not only for your bowels, but also for your adrenals as well
One of the critical vitamins to help
your adrenals heal and repair.
- Interestingly, vitamin C is that it
does not necessarily work 100% of the time.
In a small number of people, it can actually cause
constipation and these are usually more prevalent among
Adrenal Fatigue sufferers that have paradoxical reactions.
It's all very dose driven.
So not all the vitamin Cs are the same
and not all the forms are the same.
So you have to be careful with that, okay?
Lastly, how about that use of water and fibers
and enemas in this whole process?
- Yeah, one of the most common causes of constipation
is that people are just dehydrated
and so when you're dehydrated and items are
moving through your bowels, they're not getting
enough water and so they become more solid
as a matter of fact.
And so drinking lots of water, making sure you stay hydrated
that's very important with that.
Other things like psyllium husk actually helps to
absorb and pull a lot of water into your bowels
to help keep that flow going as well.
So that's another really good supplement
to help with bowel movements.
- Yeah, one of the things that you need to avoid
is to be jumping too fast into the use of enemas.
Whether it’s a colonic using just water or coffee enemas
because these, especially coffee enemas,
they can be quite stimulating for
people with Adrenal Fatigue.
Even regular enemas, once you get used to it,
is very hard to get off.
So you know these are things that you don't want to
jump too much into it.
And medications are necessary if you are really in a state
that you have pain and you need to see a doctor,
but, if it's just a general bowel slowing along
with a general Adrenal Fatigue situation and the symptoms,
then you have to take a back seat and kind of help
the adrenals become stronger because as the
adrenals become more regularized and stronger,
then usually the GI symptoms, including constipation,
tend to resolve.
So this is a very
important day to day topic
that we have discussed.
I hope you've learned from this video
and I wish you well in your empowering recovery.
This is Coach Justin and I'm Dr. Lam.