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Constipation

By Dr. Laara Van Bryce | December 1, 2018

Your Definitative Guide to Constipation

If you often struggle to go poop, you're not alone. Chronic constipation is one of the most common digestive issues.
Although constipation is pretty easy to detect, it can be caused by many different underlying conditions, so it may not be as easy to treat.

So let’s look at some of the most common causes and treatments for constipation.

Most Common Causes of Constipation

A Fiber Shortage– Dietary fiber isn’t digested by your body, but instead travels relatively intact through your stomach and intestines. As fiber travels down your intestinal tract, it absorbs water which ultimately adds bulk to your stool and assists in the movement of waste products through your intestines. A shortage of fiber in your diet can be directly related to your difficulty going to the bathroom.

Dehydration– As you can see with adequate amounts of fiber in your diet, you will need to add water for that fiber to work.

Food Sensitivities– Constipation can be a common symptom of digestive disturbances related to food sensitivities + food sensitivities can cause inflammation. Inflammation disrupts your body’s ability to digest and eliminate inflammatory foods. Although food sensitivity can be caused by a wide range of foods, gluten and dairy are the most common culprits.

Disruption of the Gut Flora– Your digestive system is home to a wealth of different types of good bacteria that help break down and absorb food and then eliminate waste. Many factors such as taking antibiotics or oral contraceptives, stress, or inflammation can disrupt the natural gut flora leading to yeast overgrowth, SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) and leaky gut, all of which can cause constipation.

Bowel Obstruction– A more acute cause of constipation can be an obstruction in the small or large intestine that prevents your stool from moving through. Common causes of intestinal obstructions are scar tissue or adhesions caused by abdominal surgery, hernias, tumors, Crohn’s disease (which can narrow or twist the intestine) or even cancer.

Hypothyroidism– An underactive thyroid, slows down many of the body’s systems, including elimination. For your body to eliminate waste, your colon must contract, and slow or weak colon contractions can be a symptom of hypothyroidism. It’s estimated that 25 million American have an underactive thyroid and most have no idea that they do.

Autoimmune Disease– Autoimmune diseases are triggered when your body is working hard to defend itself against something potentially dangerous, such as an allergen, a toxin, an infection, or even a food, and it fails to successfully differentiate between the intruder or toxin and parts of your own body. This causes your immune system to attack your own organs. Autoimmune diseases can affect many different systems in your body; they include neurological conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis or Parkinson’s Disease, thyroid diseases such as Hashimoto’s, and multiple-system conditions such as Lupus. All of these diseases can cause constipation.

There are, of course, many other potential causes for constipation, such a not getting enough exercise, excessive stress, or regular painkillers use, so it is best to take a comprehensive view of your health and what factors might be contributing to your constipation. Once you understand what is causing your constipation you can properly treat it.

Our digestive system is built to remove toxins and wastes from our body. When we don’t eliminate properly and regularly, these toxins build up in our intestines, and then can be absorbed into our bloodstream. When the waste sits stagnant in our intestines, it produces bacteria that can disrupt the balance of healthy flora in our gut and can lead to inflammation.

Many people believe that the easiest and perhaps only way to relieve their constipation is to resort to laxatives, but these can be harsh on the body and are ultimately a short-term solution since they don’t address the true underlying cause of constipation.

To truly cure constipation, it’s key to identify the root cause and treat that along with the symptoms.

Solutions for Treating and Preventing Constipation

Drink Plenty of Water– To keep your intestines moving, make sure you drink enough water throughout the day. A good rule of thumb is to drink half of your body weight in ounces of water a day. This is especially important if you drink diuretics such as coffee or alcohol.

Consume Enough Dietary Fiber– Eating foods rich in dietary fiber is a staple for regularity, so be sure to reach for a large variety of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Avoid Inflammatory Foods – While you’re reaching for high-fiber foods, stay away from foods that are inflammatory, particularly gluten, dairy, corn, soy, and sugar. Since food sensitivity and inflammation triggers are unique to each individual, I recommend you begin an elimination diet to identify your own food sensitivities.

Start Taking Probiotics– If your gut balance has been disrupted, it’s key to restore the beneficial bacteria that keeps your gut in check. Taking probiotic supplements will ensure that you have plenty of the good bacteria needed for regular bowel movements.

Get Your Thyroid Tested– If you and your doctor suspect your constipation is caused by hypothyroidism, you should have your thyroid levels tested (including T3, Free T3, and Reverse T3). If your T3 levels are low, you will want to adopt a thyroid protocol including a high-quality multivitamin, a gluten-free diet, and potentially taking a prescription thyroid medication.

Get Tested for Autoimmune Disease – Get a blood test for ANA (antinuclear antibodies), which are the antibodies that typically attack your tissues instead of foreign invaders, as well as more specific types of antibodies, such as thyroid antibodies. This will help you uncover any underlying autoimmune conditions and armed with this knowledge, you can halt or even reverse your symptoms. By eliminating toxic foods, introducing restorative ingredients, and identifying environmental toxins, autoimmune symptoms and antibodies can be reversed.

Intestinal Scope– If you experience severe and constant belly pain with your constipation, you could be suffering from an intestinal obstruction and you should see a Gastrointestinal MD immediately. Your physician will perform a scope to identify the obstruction to determine next steps.

While you are treating the root cause of your constipation, you can relieve your immediate symptoms with a magnesium citrate supplement, which plays a vital role in metabolic functions and aids bowel movements by attracting water into your intestines.

In my office, after ruling out all of the above causes of constipation I recommend my patients try Magnesium Citrate. Magnesium Citrate helps relax bowel spasms and is an osmotic laxative. Magnesium citrate is non addictive and gentle.

To determine the level of magnesium you need I recommend starting with one 100mg pill at night and increase by one pill a day up to a maximum of 1000 mg or 1 gram a day. Stay at the current dosage when you are having one to three firm but not hard bowel movements. If you have loose stool back down to the level where you had firm bowel movements.

You don’t need to suffer through or simply accept constipation as a regular part of life. If you continue to deal with constipation, take an in-depth look at your diet, your environment, your microbiome and your habits to uncover the real cause of your constipation and discover the right solution to get regular!

If you want to learn more about your own health case please check out our free health evaluation. We offer in person as well as phone and webcam consultations for people across the country and around the world.

NEED SOME DIRECTION?

Posted in Blog, Resources

Suspect you have an autoimmune condition?

By Dr. Laara Van Bryce | November 6, 2018

Underlying Factors That Contribute To Autoimmune Conditions

When your gut and your digestion are working properly, your body will automatically be able to boost and support your health, which will improve your immunity to infections.

Did you know that 60-80% of your immune system is located in your gut? Improving your digestive function is a good first step towards reducing the symptoms of inflammation that underlie an autoimmune condition.

But how do you improve your digestive function?

Lifestyle and environment are an important factor here. A relaxing lifestyle promotes good digestion and a stressful lifestyle with a stressful environment promotes non-digestion. So first, we want to improve the function of the part of your nervous system that supports relaxation, this is called your Parasympathetic Nervous System. (I don’t mean to scare you with large, scientific names, so let’s look at it another way).

Activities like yoga, meditation or a slow, enjoyable walk, are parasympathetic oriented and nurturing to your body, (mind and spirit too). They let your body know that it is safe, and it can now allow blood to flow to your internal organs where food digestion takes place.

On the other hand, if your nervous system is experiencing a lot of stress or anxiety, either from the outside world or from your thinking mind, your body knows it might need to run, fight or hide. This is no time to send blood to your internal organs, this is a time when your outer body and extremities need the blood flow to support and protect you while you run, fight or hide. This would be an example of stimulation to your Sympathetic Nervous System, and when it takes over, digestion is no longer a priority, in fact, it could be a detriment to your survival.

So, you can see that relaxation becomes imperative for good digestion and gut function.

And if you’re truly relaxed, you would automatically find that you would chew your food more slowly and completely. This ultimately prepares your food for improved digestion which begins in your mouth and your stomach. From here, if your mouth and stomach process food correctly, the rest of your digestive tract will receive the proper messages that will automatically trigger the rest of your digestion to function properly.

When this doesn’t happen, you get stomach aches and improper or poor digestion. So although this probably won’t fix your digestive problem, if you already have an autoimmune condition, it is an important place to start, as lifestyle and environment make a huge difference in our overall health and well-being.

How else can I improve my digestion?

Drink plenty of water... in between meals, not a lot during your meal. I don’t mean any water during your meal, I just mean, not a lot. I used to drink a lot of water with my meals and ended up with a stomach ache. I discovered I was diluting my stomach HCL (hydrochloric acid) too much and maybe my digestive enzymes, and it was giving me a stomach ache. So when I stopped drinking so much water with my meals, my stomach pain subsided. (This took me a long time to learn, so trust me on this one).

Drinking water when thirsty in between meals will promote a healthy transit time for your food from your mouth to the toilet, and it will help clear out your colon (large intestine).

How do I evaluate my transit time? Is it to Fast or to Slow?

If you are having loose/unformed stools, particularly with undigested food in them, your transit time is likely too fast.

If you are not having 1-3 bowel movements daily and experience a hard stool, then your transit time is likely too slow.

And, of course, your diet makes a difference!

Inflammatory or toxic foods will irritate your digestive system and feed the bad bugs that reside in your gut, these are the ones we don’t want to feed. These bad bugs can make your food’s transit time too fast or too slow. A diet low in fiber or pre and probiotics will also do the same thing, so making sure you get the good bugs from probiotics and fermented foods are important too.

However, if you have SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) you will need to approach this in a specific manner as you have bugs in your small intestine that are normally only found in your large intestine or colon, and feeding them will create more gas, bloating and pain in your small intestine.

So, What are the Signs & Symptoms of Disrupted Digestion?

Belching - Bloating - Gas - Gurgling sounds – Stomach pain -Diarrhea - Constipation – Foul-smelling stools and basically, any elimination other than “ideal.”

Unfortunately, once your symptoms of poor digestion become obvious, your microbiome (the healthy bacteria and bugs in your gut) have probably become disturbed or “out of balance”. So adding in some herbs to reduce the bad bacteria and bugs and then later adding-in, or re-seeding with some good bugs (pre and probiotics) becomes imperative to regaining your healthy gut function.

Many times in an autoimmune condition improving your digestion, gut health and function are the first places to start. Additionally, improving your digestion and gut health are a way to avoid triggering the future development of an autoimmune condition.

If you want to learn more about your own health case please check out our free health evaluation. We offer in person as well as phone and webcam consultations for people across the country and around the world.

NEED SOME DIRECTION?

Posted in Blog, Resources and tagged autoimmune

Your Definitive Guide to Poor Digestion

By Dr. Laara Van Bryce | October 26, 2018

relaxed man thinking and contemplating on a bench

Your Definitive Guide to Poor Digestion

If your body can’t properly digest and absorb the food in your small intestine, you can experience a multitude of unpleasant symptoms – gas, bloating and poor digestion. What’s more, the small intestine is the place where nutrients get absorbed and power up the processes in your body. Issues with absorption there may lead to the development of nutrient deficiencies or dysbiosis – an imbalance in the bacteria and flora in your intestinal tract.

At any time, your gut contains a carefully maintained balance of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ bacteria. As undigested food travels down the digestive system, it feeds the ‘bad’ bacteria and starves the ‘good’ ones. When the improperly digested food reaches the large intestine, it will also impact the balance of good and bad bacteria in the colon. Eventually, these imbalances lead to gut inflammation which, if left untreated, can cause a multitude of health complaints and diseases.

What’s contributing to your poor digestion?

Poor digestion is often caused by low hydrochloric acid (HCL), also known as stomach acid. Its role is to maintain the acidic environment inside your stomach. When the combination of the HCL and the contents of your stomach get released into the small intestine, the acidity triggers the release of pancreatic enzymes, which are responsible for digestion inside the small intestine. The pancreas secretes important enzymes that buffer and neutralize the acid coming from your stomach, and that digest the fats, peptides and starches inside your small intestine. If there’s a deficiency or lack of these digestive enzymes, indigestion occurs.

One of the most common culprits is Leaky Gut – a medical condition that’s still shrouded in mystery. Leaky gut is characterized by the destruction of the brush border of your small intestine and can contribute to indigestion problems. If you’re sensitive to a food group or exposed to toxins, you may also experience inflammation which decreases the enzymatic production. The enzymes in your digestive tract are also particularly susceptible to stress, the effects of aging, as well as genetics.

If your poor digestion is due to enzyme deficiency, you can target the issue by supplementing. Using a digestive enzyme eases the burden of many of the most common root causes of chronic diseases like leaky gut, Candida or SIBO, as well as chronic inflammation due to a poor diet.

How to treat poor digestive function before it becomes a chronic health condition?

Treating poor digestive function is a complex and multifaceted issue and as such, requires a multifaceted solution. In functional medicine, we tend to use the 4R Approach, which removes, replaces, re-inoculated and repairs the digestive system. The 4R approach relies on several products which complement each other and work synergistically together, so taking them together can be beneficial.

1. Remove: The first step towards healing your gut is removing the factors that negatively impact your digestive tract. These include inflammatory foods such as gluten, dairy, corn, soy, eggs and sugar, and minimizing the impact of infections from parasites, yeast, viruses or bacteria. I also recommend getting rid of irritants such as alcohol, caffeine, and drugs. In some cases, you may already have a severely compromised gut in which case it may be difficult to safely remove the foreign toxins and bacteria. If this is the case, I recommend supplementing with a binder such as the SBI Protect: it will safely eliminate the harmful bi-products or elements through your stool.

2. Replace: Once you have removed the main culprits of poor digestion, you need to replace the digestive enzymes which catalyze (boosts and initiates) the digestive process. The safest and most effective option is going with a digestive enzyme supplement like Digestzyme-V: it will restore and replenish the digestive enzymes, ensuring that your body can properly break down and absorb the nutrients from food. A recent study discovered a link between the health of the gastrointestinal system and the behavioral symptoms in autistic children, both of which showed improvement after supplementing with digestive enzymes.
If you suffer from acid reflux or have low stomach acid levels, you may also want to add an HCL supplement, like Betaine and Pepsin or Ortho Digestzyme. Ortho Digetzyme supports the pancreatic function in addition to the HCL and improves the breakdown of macronutrients like carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.

How to know if your stomach acid level is low? Take a capsule of HCL with some water before a protein meal and see how you feel after 30 minutes. If you experience a burning sensation, it means your stomach acid levels are good so you don’t need to take more supplements. However, if you feel nothing, this is a good sign you might need to add additional HCL supplements.

3. Reinoculate: As we covered earlier, the imbalance between the good and bad bacteria is often the main culprit of poor digestion. To restore the healthy balance, you can reintroduce beneficial bacteria through high- quality, multi-strain, high-potency probiotics like Probiotic 225.

4. Repair: Last but certainly not least, you need to start repairing your gut by providing the necessary nutrients to restore its lining. What I usually recommend to my clients is Glutashield: it’s one of the most powerful weapons against the symptoms of a leaky gut because of its high concentration of L-glutamine – the fuel source for our cells to grow and repair. The glutamine in Glutashield is a key energy source for the gastrointestinal tract. It also maintains the integrity of the gut and enhances the protective mucosal lining. Glutamine is particularly important if you’re dealing with stress as it regulates the intestinal barrier function. It also stimulates the growth of the small intestinal mucosa and enhances ion transport by the gut, which is important to maintain the health of the digestive tract and protect it from atrophy and impairment.

When looking for a gut healing protocol, you should be striving not only for a therapeutic dose of high-quality glutamine but also make sure it contains high potency probiotics, as well as immunoglobulins. The latter is our bodies’ natural defense mechanism against foreign invaders.

Indigestion is certainly unpleasant, but it does it have to be your final health outcome. If you’re overcoming a leaky gut or experiencing digestive issues such as gas, bloating, indigestion, acid reflux, constipation, diarrhea or undigested food in your stool, or if you are transitioning from a diet rich in processed foods; following a comprehensive gut healing protocol may be just what you need.

Indigestion is certainly unpleasant and often embarrassing. In my next blog, we will cover constipation – another problem that’s hard to miss but can be just as challenging to overcome. Stay tuned to read what causes your constipation and how you can get rid of it.

If you want to learn more about your own digestive health, please check out our free gut health evaluation. We offer in person, as well as phone and webcam consultations for people across the country and around the world.

NEED SOME DIRECTION?