Wendy Leung: Do you suffer from IBS-C for constipation?
Watch this video to learn how to get things moving again.
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If you're so congested because you're rarely able to go the the bathroom by the end of
this video, you'll know that there's hope out there for you to have good poos.
I'm Wendy Leung: Holistic Health & Happiness Coach, Licensed Acupuncturist, and
Powerhouse IBS Conqueror, and I had IBS-C too.
I teach my clients how to get their guts in order.
And now I'm sharing with you too.
Poo talk alert: Today we're talking all about IBS constipation.
Poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo.
Constipation is a broad term.
It can mean that you're able to go but that it's difficult, or that only small amounts
come out at a time and you don't feel like you're done going even though you're gone
multiple times during the day.
Or, worse case, that you're not able to go for days at a time.
Or maybe even longer.
Are those the kinds of constipation that you have.
Let me know by dropping a yes or no in the comments below.
None of these are fun.
And being chronically constipated means that you're congested, compacted, and stagnated
inside your digestive tract.
It's like that way a garbage truck compacts waste, except it's stuck inside your body
and it won't come out.
So this is obviously now healthy because you feel so heavy, bloated, gassy, and painful
that you don't want to eat because you have no idea where there food is going to fit.
One of the problems that can happen with chronic constipation is that you might start relying
on external medicines to help you go.
There's a bunch you can take with water and tablets that you can insert, that you can
force flush.
But none of these things fix the actual problem, and a lot of times they can cause long-term
dependencies, compounding the issue.
From a Western medical standpoint, these external medicines focus on two problem areas.
Water absorption issues, i.e. your body isn't handling fluids properly inside your colon.
Or colon motility issues, i.e. your body isn't creating the movement needed to push your
poo through and out.
When I had IBS-C my gastral specialist told me just to eat more bran in order to bulk
up my stool to push it out.
So that turned out to be the worst advice ever, because it just caused by bloating and
my gas pains to flare up even more intensely when things still didn't move.
And the meds they gave me to induce colonic spasms, well, it sounds exactly as painful
as it was.
And still no poos.
From a traditional Chinese medicine perspective, or TCM for short, there are ten different
diagnoses for chronic constipation.
Ten.
Which stands to reason that there's no one size fits all medicine that will help everyone.
We can get an idea of which one is happening to you based on your description of your poo,
although really your full health history is need to know for sure.
Pellet poo, for example, is an indicator of Liver Qi stagnation, i.e. stress in passing
the digestive system.
Stress causes your body to clamp down so it creates pellets going through the intestine
instead of a smooth log.
Pencil poo usually shows an exhaustion of the body.
There's not enough force to push out a full size poo.
So what are your options if you don't want to keep depending on laxatives and suppositories?
One is to get a handle on your stress.
You'll hear me say time and time again that in TCM, IBS combination of mental/emotional
stress and an already weak digestive system.
In order to restore your body's natural function, you need to relax the body from the inside
out and the outside in.
I know from experience that this is way easier said than done, especially when your IBS stresses
you out even more, which is why my IBS program actually has an entire section on long-term
stress and anxiety reduction.
The second thing to do is to remember to breathe.
When you are stressed and anxious, your body tends to clamp down and hold and then you
often forget to breathe properly.
But there's a really strong connection between the lung and the large intestine organ system
in TCM.
And so taking care of your lungs will help your gut too.
The third thing, to keep moving.
It can be super painful to exercise when you're feeling bloated and congested.
But one of the best ways to open up your body is to promote flow by moving around.
And I'm not talking about high impact cardio here.
That's just going to exhaust you and make you feel worse.
But going for daily walks and taking in fresh air, especially in calming area like parks,
or really getting out of the city, is going to help get your circulation going.
Stretching can also really be helpful for blood flow.
And there's even yoga moves that you can do specifically for constipation, too.
Lastly, you want to make sure you're eating the right food.
Some foods, like dairy, sugary, or greasy, and cold foods put out the digestive fire
and cause sluggishness all the way through the digestive system.
So make sure that you're always following the TCM golden rule of thumb: warm, simple,
cooked meals.
So that you're not eating the wrong foods that will make your constipation worse.
So to recap, here are the four things that you can do to get your constipation moving.
Number one: stress management.
Number two: Remember to breathe.
Number three: Regular low impact exercise.
And number four: Eating right, warm, simple, cooked food.
Oh, and number five: Patience.
Remember that all these things are going to take time to resolve your constipation.
Don't expect immediate results, like those over-the-counter meds that you've been taking.
But do expect long-term healing because that's the ultimate goal, right?
Okay.
So if you're ready to start moving your poo right away, subscribe to my newsletter in
the description box below and I will send you my constipation SOS tips, where I will
also give you a bunch of freebies to help you get started along the way.
Also, come join the tribe of women just like you in my Facebook community of powerful women
conquering IBS, where I share even more tips on how to kickstart your IBS journey to health.
If you like this video, let me know my liking it below and comment with the word poo and
what your biggest takeaway was for this video.
And, also, share this video with anyone that you know that has IBS constipation because
we want to make sure that everyone is aware that IBS is not a forever thing.
And so I can help you guys beat this together.
I have so much more to share with you, including more talk about poo, and more ways for you
to kick your IBS to the curb.
So make sure that you subscribe to my channel and that you hit the bell so that you are
notified every single Friday when a new video is posted.
Poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo, poo.