Integrative Wellness Center Intestinal Health Reading

Shelley’s Note:

I am surprised by the overwhelming interest in colonics and how people seem so relieved to have someone to talk to about their bowel movmeents and/or digestive problems. Most conversations lead to the appearance of poop and in this article I will give a brief explanation to the color and texture of this often embarrassing end result of a normal function of our body. Our stool may be as useful at assessing our health as taking our temperature or blood pressure.

“People can tell a measure of their health by their bowel movement,” says Ted Loftness, M.D., an internist in Litchfield, MN. “Nothing is so overrated as sex and so underrated as a good bowel movement.”

Have you wondered….

Have you ever wondered what poop actually is? About 75% is water, which is absorbed out of the fecal material as it passes through the large intestine. So the longer you take to “go,” the drier your poop will be.

The remaining 25% is comprised of dead bacteria that helps us digest our food, living and dead bacteria, protein, undigested food residue (also known as fiber), waste material from food, cellular linings, fats, cholesterol, salts, protein, and secretions released from the liver and the intestines (such as bile and mucus).

What Makes a Healthy Stool?

Your feces is a clear indicator of the health of your gastrointestinal tract. Dr. Mehmet Oz says, “At the end of the day you can analyze your body really effectively by looking at what comes out of your body.”
So what should you look for? A healthy poop will be:
Golden brown, which is due to pigments formed by the bacteria in the gut and bile from the liver. The color tells you a lot about what’s going on in your gastrointestinal tract (more on color below).
Formed into one long shape. Dr. Michael Levitt, an Australian colorectal surgeon who has written a book called The Bowel Book, says that the healthy human stool resembles the shape and consistency (although not the same color) of an unripe banana. Dr. Oz says “You don’t want [pieces].” Some experts disagree, saying they don’t have to be well-formed. Patrick Donovan, N.D., a naturopath in Seattle, WA says “Stools don’t have to be well-formed logs. They can disperse in the toilet water; they can break down.”
Nearly odorless.
About 1 to 2 inches in diameter and 18 inches long.

Black: Drinking wine the night before may result in dark brown poop. This could also be the result of eating too much salt, or not enough vegetables. Feces can be black if dried blood is present in it from internal bleeding in the upper digestive tract. See a doctor if this is the case.

Yellow: One condition that can cause yellow poop is an infection known as Giardia, an infection that can spread to others. Another cause of yellow poop may be a condition known as Gilbert’s syndrome. See your doctor if you are consistently seeing yellow poop.

Green: Babies often have green poop when they are given food for the first time. Children may have green or blue poop from certain illnesses or from ingesting food colorings. Adults may also have green poop if they eat large amounts of green, leafy vegetables with not enough grains and salts, or if they eat large amounts of foods with green food coloring. Light green poop may indicate excessive sugar in the diet. Green feces can also occur with diarrhea if bile salts pass through the intestine unchanged. Again, see a doctor if you are concerned!

White/pale: Feces can appear white or pale after drinking barium sulfate, which is often given to patients getting an X-ray of the digestive tract. A white or pale stool may also be an indication of problems with the gallbladder or liver.

Red: A magenta color may result from eating foods with red food coloring, or red foods such as beets. Bright red in the feces may be indicative of active bleeding, possibly the result of hemorrhoids.

Pencil-thin and ribbon like: a polyp, growth or fecal impactation that narrows the passage for the stool.

Large and floating, with greasy film on toilet water: Malabsorption—your digestive system is not getting the full nutritional value from your food.

Loose, watery, sometimes with undigested foodstuffs: Diarrhea. Possible causes are food poisoning, lactose intolerance, antibiotics, antacids, dietary changes, travel, anxiety, stress, inflammatory bowel disease, or IBS.

Small, hard, round pellets: Constipation—even if you’re defecating frequently. Possible causes are eating too much dry food, including protein, and not enough vegetables and raw foods, laxative abuse. Worries or irritable bowel syndrome.

Really Bad Smelling: An imbalance of intestinal bacteria or eating too much animal protein, which can putrefy in your digestive tract.

Experts disagree on how often a person should poop. The National Institute for Diabetes, Kidney, and Digestive Diseases says three times a week is normal and healthy for some people.

According to Ayurveda, an ancient Indian healing system, once a day is ideal. Other experts advocate once or twice a day, while still others say a person should have a bowel movement within two to three hours of a major meal- -or two to three times a day. So you can see that it really depends on who you talk to.

My personal opinion is that you above all want to be regular in your pooping schedule, and that one-to-two healthy poops a day is ideal.

When someone poops four times a day or more and the poop has a liquid consistency, this is referred to as diarrhea. When someone poops less than daily and the poop is hard, dry, and difficult to pass, this is known as constipation.

If you feel like you are not pooping enough, or pooping too much it may be time for internal cleansing and balancing. This can be done with in a variety of ways: colonics, sweating (far infrared sauna), reflexology, and herbal cleansing kits (we recommend our organic deep cleanse).

Most people I know have experienced it and they ask why it is that when you eat corn, the next time you poop there it is again! There are a couple of reasons for this. One is that most of us do not thoroughly chew our food. Another interesting tidbit is that there is an outer coating on corn that is made up of indigestible cellulose. This outer coating slips off the inner kernel and, since it’s indigestible, passes through the gut intact. It then emerges looking like a whole kernel, even though it’s just the outer skin. The inside of the kernel is starchy and digestible, and that is the part that we succeed in chewing and digesting. We also need to take into consideration that most corn today is genetically modified and choose whether we want to make it part of our diet at all.

Well, hopefully you now know a little more about this important topic.

The information in this article is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Let’s Talk About Bowel Movements!

by Lindsey Duncan, N.D., C.N. As seen in World Health News

Talking about “going to the bathroom”, especially in western society, has always been an embarrassing and taboo topic. As an adult, I find it ironic that the foundation of my successful practice has been built upon addressing and educating my clients on proper bowel management and internal cleansing, with emphasis on the body’s 5 channels of elimination… the bowel, kidneys, lungs, skin and lymphatic system. I discovered the benefits of internal cleansing in my early twenties, and the effect it had on my life at the time was “earth-shattering”! I was so amazed at the positive changes and rejuvenation it brought about in my body that internal detoxification became a passionate part of my life, as well as a main component in my nutritional practice. Many experts claim that the intestinal system and bowel is the true center and hub of the human body. They also claim that toxic build-up in the bowel is a precursor to various types of degenerative, disease.

My teacher and mentor, Dr. Bernard Jensen, nutritionist, lecturer and author of over 30 books on natural health care, states: “Every cell and tissue in the body is fed by the bloodstream, which is supplied by the bowel. When the bowel is dirty, the blood is dirty and so are the organs and tissues. It is the bowel that must be cared for first before any effective healing can take place”.

Proper bowel function entails having 2 to 3 good bowel movements per day! THAT’S RIGHT… I SAID 2 TO 3 BOWEL MOVEMENTS PER DAY! Most people are not aware of this, and go through their daily lives eliminating once a day, once every other day, or less. I ask clients this question on a daily basis: If we eat 3 full meals a day and only eliminate once a day, once every other day, or twice a week, what happens to all the un-eliminated waste matter? Where are all the other meals hiding? I always find humor in their stunned reactions. I often validate the importance of eliminating 2 to 3 times per day by using an infant as an example. Ask any new mother for further proof – a baby will eat and immediately eliminate. Their fresh, new ‘digestive systems have not had time to develop malabsorption problems caused by improper diet, environmental toxins, stress, and pollutants in our water and food. Faulty digestion and elimination develop in our bodies over time, through years of improper lifestyle and dietary habits, along with negative environmental,factors, which we will cover in a minute.

Unexpelled waste spells trouble! When we are not eliminating properly, wastes may not be expelled for days, weeks, months, or years. When we don’t eliminate our waste, toxins back up in the colon, which can cause auto-intoxication, or self-poisoning. This occurs when the actual bowel walls become impacted with uneliminated fecal matter, hampering the absorption of vital nutrients and providing a breeding ground for unhealthy bacteria,

My answer is quite simple… I can honestly state that after consulting with over 5,000 individuals, I have never worked with an individual that did not directly benefit from detoxifying his or her body. In this day and age, we ALL need to cleanse! In a world where dietary choices or poor environmental pollution is heavy, stress levels are high, and exercise is often a last priority, internal cleansing is more important than ever for optimum health.

The body is a living, breathing machine. Like an automobile engine, it burns fuel for energy (our food), and expels the by-products of that fuel as waste. Over time, all engines need “steam-cleaning”, tune-ups and periodic maintenance. The pipes become clogged, the spark plugs become congested, oil, grit and grime build up around the engine block. Without preventative maintenance, our cars begin to perform poorly, eventually breaking down. And so it is with the human body. Internal cleansing and detoxification is maintenance and insurance all rolled into one! We must keep our “pipes” cleaned out and in good shape to experience good health.

“The Doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patient in the care of the (human) frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.” – Thomas A. Edison

Proper Positioning for Bowel Elimination

Yes folks. There is proper position to poop. One common complaint of people with digestive issues is the feeling of not having a “full” or “complete” elimination. An easy and simple solution is to squat as our ancestors have done for thousands of years. Now we know some you are not real excited about pooping in the woods or tottering with both feet on the toilet bowl. Instead we suggest a

Simple, profound solution for achieving complete elimination.

Benefits of using the HealthStep for elimination:

1. Reduces stool transit time, minimizing the risk of toxic build-up Eliminates stressing and straining by opening the pelvic floor

2. Helps constipation, bloating and hemorrhoids by lessoning pressure in the anal and rectal veins

3. Improves ease and efficiency of emptying the bowel

4. SIMPLE Relief for: hemorrhoids, bloating, constipation, obesity, IBS, incontinence, fatigue, prostrate problems, toxic build-up.

Stress on the pelvic floor causes incontinence.

Using a sitting toilet causes the pelvic floor to be pushed downwards each time one strains to evacuate. Based on a conservative estimate that the average person strains four times for each daily evacuation, by the age of 50 the unsupported pelvic floor has been stretched 73,000 times. An unnatural maneuver repeated so many times inevitably causes a “repetitive stress injury.” The pudendal nerve is the main casualty of this unintentional abuse, which renders incontinent over 50 percent of elderly Americans. Consider these statistics: 1 in 4 women age 30-59 have experienced an episode of incontinence. $16.4 Billion is spent every year on incontinence-related care. The Healthstep is available online.

“Every tissue is fed by the blood, which is supplied by the intestinal system. When the intestines are dirty, the blood is dirty, and so are the organs and tissues. It is the intestinal system that has to be cared for first before any effective healing can take place.” – Bernard Jensen, PhD

Email us at info@iwcwellness.com if you are interested in learning more about this procedure.