So, working as a dietitian now for 10 years,
many people are constipated. Like they don't
go very often and they can't seem to get unstuck.
My job is to talk about things like this. So I'm
going to talk about a few evidence-based ways
that you can follow to get things moving and
these are natural remedies by the way. My name is Joe
I'm a gut health dietitian, myself and my team.
We've helped thousands of people online with
their long-term digestive issues. So this
video is for you, if you’ve been diagnosed with IBS-c
Or you're not really getting any answers
from doctors and stuff and maybe you've tried
low FODMAP diet and you know, you're not really
sure if it worked or anything like that. This
video is going to give you some some protocols
to have a look at. And to think about. If you send
to the end I got a free guide as well that you can
you can use which will look at 10 remedies and
kind of build on what I talk about in this video.
So you have watch the video first. Okay, so let's dive in.
So when I talk about, chronic constipation,
I'm talking about like three days or more constipated
and, and then that occurring for a long period
of time and and IBS-C so IBS, constipation predominant,
that's what that stands for is more difficult
to treat than IBS-d, so diarrhea predominant.
And it usually lasts a long time for a lot of people.
It's most of their lives and it's because of
mechanisms and the potential causes are. There's
a lot of very, very ability between them. And
then, you know, the science is just is just kind
of catching up where we're able to start, to
pinpoint reasons for it better and then therefore
able to treat it quicker. Just to give an example
of what I mean it’s like it could be that your body.
There's like a dysregulation in like how it
takes water into your intestines and to move
things along, you may not be doing that efficiently.
It could be a nerve signaling issue. So the,
you know, the the intestines to move things
along just are not firing as someone else, who
doesn't have the issue, where it's, it's squeezing
in the muscles are working to move things along
and for you, it might be very dull. It could be
a food intolerance or some sort of infection
that you've had anyway, I don't want to talk
about that. It's not very helpful for you, but that's
why it's complicated. And then, as for like
what you can do, it's never like, it's never
just one thing that's also, that's also the problem.
Otherwise, I would just be like, if it was just
like, take this, you know, psyllium, husk supplement,
then take the psyllium husk supplement, you
know, have a good day. You know, think of me when
you're on the toilet kind of thing. Like that's,
it's not that straightforward, it's never
just one thing you can do. So this is some of the
This suggestions that we have. And of course,
it depends on how the person responds digestive
issues that so context-specific. It's so individual.
I wished general advice was all you needed.
And for some people in simple cases, it is. But
if you've, if you've tried a lot on your own,
you're not getting anywhere. I do hope you'll
consider working with a dietitian and doing it.
Probably with guidances doesn’t have to be with me.
It can be with anyone but like I just want you to
know that but anyway, let's jump into a few things
you can try. So, you're going to mix up your fiber
because it's like, hey, you should I be eating
lots of fiber. Some people telling me no fiber.
Like like, there's so much mixed messaging.
This types of fiber soluble and insoluble
for example. I've genuinely seen different
results with different clients. I know that
answer sucks. But we will, we will intentionally
increase fiber and see what happens or decrease
fiber, see what happens, increase type of fiber,
insoluble or decrease it and vice versa and
will often observe large responses. It's just
difficult to say which one it will be that you
can try and do that intentionally, you know,
obviously to be methodical about that. You
need to be tracking what you have and you need
to be able to calculate what your fibers. But
you can do that with apps that you very simple.
If someone tells you what to do and shows you
how to do it. You can try to kiwi fruit per day,
not the not including the skin, just the actual flesh.
There is a particular enzyme in kiwi fruit that
seems to help with motility, and it seems to
be just in kiwi fruit. And it seems like to two per day.
Seems to be a good dose. I don't know how much
of a long-term solution that is because it relies on.
You always having edible kiwi fruit available,
but be curious to try it and see if that helps.
Then there's also a center T, which is, you know,
kind of like a natural laxative. Again, that's
more for helping certain situations where
you feel backed up and you need some help to go. Fiber
supplements and this more circles back to what
I said before about intentionally testing
different fiber intakes and like you can't
just do it for a day. You want to do it for a couple
of weeks say at 30 grams to see what happens but
with fiber supplements, it's a simple way to do
it and you can be very intentional with the with
the type of fiber. So there's not only soluble
and insoluble but has certain fibers themselves
like the source of the fiber, the plant appears
to make as well. Psyllium husk is you know it
has a it has been well studied and it's very inexpensive
so you can look at psyllium husk, guar gum is
another one. Definitely definitely an option
of psyllium husk doesn't seem to benefit you.
There's a new one K fiber, Australian sugar cane
and make it from Australia sugar cane. I don't
think there's any other products on the market
that use that and anecdotally a lot of our clients
report that that's really useful and don't
know that long long term, but these are some
things you can think about as well. Stress, anxiety.
Do you self-identify with those words stress,
anxiety. Do they describe you? Do you feel like
anxiety or stress impact your digestive habits?
If so, this is a big one to consider, this is something
we do for our clients as well. The way you would
resolve that is through, what's called, gut
directed therapy, which is, which is evidence-based way
to help with IBS as well. It's equally
as effective as a low FODMAP diet in fact, so
when you do them both you can typically pinpoint
what's going on and fix the issue. But but yes,
what's happening with with constipation
and anxiety and stress is your body responds
like this. So when you think about something
that makes you anxious or stressed or or not,
you know, not relaxed you tighten up and literally
your your muscles in your digestive tract, get tensed.
And they don't move where someone who responds
with like diarrhea, you know, gets real nervous
and always has to go the toilet. They're like this.
The digestive tract, the intestines. There's
muscles there that are doing this and moving things
along very quickly, when they're not ready
to go along and ends up having to run to the toilet.
Whereas constipation, it’s just like this tense.
So, then you can do all the diet things you want,
but if you're not addressing, actually the
stress and anxiety, and how you your body responds
with that, then you won't get very far. So that's
a, that's a big important one. I want you to consider
as well. There’s some good apps, you can try,
we actually do it with clients. We have we have
an app that we can help them with. We also have
gut directed therapist on the team that we refer
to. And it just depends on the extent of your
issue but but yeah, and the last one is probiotic.
So there's certain strains of probiotics that
can can help. Again, I don't know. They're not
so much a long, long term solution, more of an
interim solution. But I've seen people respond,
well, at least in the first few months. With probiotics
is very strain specific though. So it's it's
best to get advice I believe its Bifidobacterium
animalis that has some good evidence and there
is a couple others as well. I hope this has been
useful for you. I have a guide that looks at 10
proven remedies for IBS-C that you can consider.
So, builds on what I talked about here, if you
would like that guide, just comment below,
“constipation guide”
and I can send that to you for free. If you don't want to
comment and you want to do it privately, you can message
me as well. Direct message me or write just
write “constipation guide” so I can see it in my
inbox and then I can send you that guide. And
if you have any questions, let me know in the
comments again, it is context specific. So
if I hope this was useful but the reality is you're
probably going to need to do several different
things and just be very methodical about your,
your process and you should definitely see results.
If you found this useful, please give us a thumbs
up or a heart and I'll speak to you next time.