Constipation is one of the most common bowel problems in the western world, impacting 20% of the US population. If not treated, chronic constipation can lead to many additional digestion disorders and serious health complications. Digestion issues are even more common with over 60 million Americans that not only suffer from digestion issues, but actually affected by various digestive diseases.
One of the biggest problems with constipation and digestion issues is that they create a huge burden on your body, making it work very hard digesting and eliminating foods and related toxins. Working harder means that the body has less energy and available resources to perform the daily tasks required to maintain good health and a strong immune system. Such tasks include tissue repair, organs regeneration, reducing inflammation and others.
How Chronic Constipation & Digestion Issues Evolve Into a Weak Immune System & Poor Health
Constipation and digestion issues typically lead to fermented and undigested food particles that stay in your body much longer than they should. These food particles can’t be digested effectively by the body and they usually feed various pathogens and harmful organisms such as candida, yeast and other intestinal parasites. When this happens, you often get common digestion issues such as gas, bloating, abdominal pain as well candida and yeast overgrowth symptoms.
At this point, there is a “backlog” ; it takes your body more time digest the foods you consume which further contributes to these foods feeding various harmful organisms. In addition, the body has to spend a lot of energy trying to handle and eliminate the toxins released by the growing candida and other parasites. These toxins circulate in the body longer, often causing high toxicity symptoms such as brain fog, mental confusion, headaches and many others. This creates a problematic environment in the body where even healthy foods that are consumed can’t always be digested properly, get fermented and making the existing constipation and digestion issues become worse.
Overtime, this evolves into a weak immune system function and even to more serious health issues.
Treating Constipation & Digestion Issues Naturally
It is important to find out the root cause of your constipation and digestion issues, whether it is your diet, eating habits, lifestyle choices, or due to medications or supplements.In many cases, it may be a combination of all of them. Understanding the causes of your constipation and digestion issues is the key, and usually takes some time, as you need to investigate how your body reacts to different foods or choices you make. Yes ! It may requires some work on your part, but it is one of the best investments you can make that can dramatically improve the quality of your life and boost your health.
Your Diet
One of the first things to look into is your diet as the foods you eat (or don’t eat) may be the root cause of your constipation or digestion issues. Ideally, everyone should be eating a well balanced diet that is tailored to the individual body and current lifestyle, and that provides sufficient amount of calories, vitamins, minerals, fiber and other nutrients. We said ideally, because most people don’t have the knowledge or the time to make their diet ideal. The other side of the coin, is the diet choices that we all know very well we should watch for – especially poor food choices such as processed foods or beverages. But there are many scenarios where many people are not aware how devastating they can be – eating foods you are sensitive to, foods that are hard to digest, or bad food combinations that many health conscious people are making in an attempt to create well balanced meals!
Another reason that cause many people to get in trouble is extreme dieting. For example, lets look into low-carbs diets that are so popular. Usually, these diets involve eating a lot of animal proteins, nuts, seeds and other fats, especially “dry” nature foods. Giving up hydrating foods that are naturally high in liquids such as juicy fruits and replace them with drier foods without adjusting your water intake to compensate, is likely to lead to dehydration.
The next things that usually follow this type of dehydration are hard stools and constipation. This btw, is one of the top questions we get from people who follow the classic low-carbs diet for candida and yeast issues.
Lifestyle & Habits
Often overlooked, lifestyle related factors can cause constipation and digestion issues much more than commonly known. If you experience high level of stress, don’t sleep enough, over use stimulants or eating while working you may want to look into these, as they are likely to cause digestion issues and constipation.
Bad eating habits such as eating too fast, overeating, emotional eating or eating while drinking usually make it hard for the body to digest the foods effectively. Since these are “habits” and occur on an ongoing basis, they can turn into a bigger problem that may be the root cause of digestion issues and constipation. Other causes might be lack of activity (yes, it can cause constipation), tendency to “hold it” for a long time, or not dedicating enough time when nature calls.
Supplements & Medications
Certain supplements and medications are known to cause digestion issues and constipation. Always read the label and educate yourself as much as possible, so you will know what to expect. It is always a good idea to consult with your doctor or health provider before you take a new product, and share what you read, your concerns or questions that you may have.
A great example is actually chia seeds. Chia seeds are natural whole food, also used as a supplement and are known for their large fiber content, which is believed to promote good digestion.
However, many people are surprised to learn that chia seeds actually cause them digestion issues and constipation! (We get a lot of questions and feedback from people who have had issues with chia seeds). Whether the reason is individual sensitivity, consuming too much chia seeds or introducing them to the diet too soon, this goes back to the “one man’s meat is another man’s poison”. Listening to your body, learning to read what it is telling you are the keys to optimal health. We see too many people that follow religiously diet plans and agendas believing that that’s the key to perfect health. Education is definitely the key, but you have to choose wisely which doors to open using these keys, and which ones not to…
Why Laxatives are NOT the Answer
We can’t talk about constipation without mentioning laxatives, or more accurately, long term use of laxatives. The evidence is very clear – long term use of laxatives can cause dependency, so when you stop taking them, your entire digestion will become sluggish and slow. From that point on, the road to constipation is right on the corner, and that leads to a painful vicious cycle of:
Is there something better? Yes there is. Keep reading…
How to Cleanse your Colon the RIGHT Way
Before we talk about colon cleansing, a few words about enemas…If you suffer from occasional constipation, and are familiar with enemas, they may be helpful for removing waste trapped in the lowest part of the colon. It is in fact one of the oldest remedies for occasional constipation.
For cases of chronic constipation and ongoing digestion issues, enemas may not be a good choice since they do not clean the entire colon.
One of the most effective and safe natural ways that can cleanse your entire colon is an oxygen colon cleanse. As its name suggests, it uses oxygen in your entire digestive tract to clean your colon and flush all the toxic buildup out of your body. Once this huge burden is released, the body has much more energy to perform other tasks, and that burst of energy is usually very apparent and easily noticeable. Cleansing your colon with oxygen also creates an environment that can encourage friendly bacteria growth hence can make probiotic, digestive enzymes and other supplements work much more effectively.
If you suffer from chronic constipation or digestion issues and have never done an oxygen based colon cleanse before, chances are having one can make a big difference in the way you feel; most people do not know the feeling of having a clean colon and are often surprised to notice how better they feel.
Over the years we have included oxygen colon cleansing as the first step in all our detox and cleansing protocols with excellent results.