Constipation is a symptom, not a disease, but sometimes it can happen that your body is experiencing constipation without any underlying illness, or there might be a specific reason for it, and if you address it, your constipation will be resolved. The first thing to consider is the indiscriminate use of painkillers and antibiotics. Energy and sex supplements, painkillers, and antibiotics reduce your stomach acid. When your stomach acid decreases, constipation can occur. To treat constipation, medications are often used, and when you take antibiotics, they not only kill the bad bacteria in your body but also the good bacteria. The good bacteria in your body help ferment fiber-rich carbohydrates and regulate bowel movements. When the good bacteria decrease, constipation can occur.
Causes of Constipation.
1. Consuming too much processed food and sugar. Processed food and sugar deplete vitamin B1 from your body. The enteric nervous system, which connects the gut and the brain and is responsible for peristalsis (the regular, cyclic, clockwise movement of the intestines that helps expel stool), depends on vitamin B1. The same vitamin B1 deficiency can lead to diabetes and is also a concern in children with autism, which is why sugar and carbs are restricted in their diets. Sugar and carbs further reduce vitamin B1 in diabetics, leading to constipation.
2. If you are consuming a lot of fiber but have an imbalance of bad bacteria in your gut (dysbiosis), where bad bacteria outnumber the good bacteria, giving a high-fiber diet to such patients is not recommended. In such cases, the bad bacteria will also feed on the fiber, exacerbating the issue. Instead, intermittent fasting is recommended, and fiber is completely removed from the diet. After a few months, when the bad bacteria start to die off, fiber is reintroduced. Constipation can also occur in such cases if there is an overgrowth of bad bacteria and a high-fiber diet is given.
3. Another cause of constipation is low bile production. Bile is a digestive fluid that helps break down fats in food, emulsifying them into smaller particles, some of which are excreted from the body while others are utilized. Bile also helps remove toxins from the body. If the gallbladder or liver is not functioning properly, or if you are not consuming enough healthy fats, bile production decreases. Bile is secreted from the liver into the small and large intestines, where it lubricates the intestines, ensuring smooth bowel movements and easy passage of stool.
4. Additionally, if you eat too frequently, your digestive system doesn’t get enough time to process the food. It takes about 36 hours for food to pass through your entire system. If you eat too frequently, you are not giving your gut enough time to function properly, leading to constipation.
Constipation treatment.
When it comes to treating constipation, people often recommend increasing fiber intake, but this is not always the solution. Constipation is not a disease; it is always a symptom or sign of an underlying issue. One common cause is low stomach acid. When stomach acid is low, proteins are not properly digested, putting pressure on the small intestine. This can interfere with the secretion of digestive enzymes, leading to constipation. To address low stomach acid, you can use 100% organic raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar to boost stomach acid. Simply increasing fiber intake will not help in this case.
If your bile or digestive enzymes are low, you may need to take digestive enzymes. This is especially important because 90% of digestion occurs in the small intestine. You can identify this issue if you notice undigested food particles in your stool, or if your stool is broken and you feel like there is always some residual stool left in your body. Home remedies for constipation. In such cases, taking digestive enzymes like ginger, turmeric, and senna leaves can help increase digestive enzymes in your body. If bile is low, you can use herbs like ginger powder, turmeric, fennel seeds, cumin powder, and mint powder to increase bile production. Ginger and mint also help increase stomach acid.