Part 4 - Your Colon
Your Colon
Your Colon and Irregularity
The best way to assess your digestive process is by paying attention to what goes into your digestive system (what you eat) and how it comes out (your poop).
Your gut and brain are also very connected, and anxiety and depression can trigger digestive symptoms as well. Generally speaking, anxiety and diarrhea are connected, and depression and constipation are connected. However, everyone’s gut is unique, so don’t worry if you’re a constipated anxious person or vice versa.
Diarrhea
Diarrhea is a sign that your body is trying to get rid of something and/or you’re feeling super anxious. Urgency (needing to go NOW!) is a big sign your body doesn’t like something you’ve eaten lately. Although this is a very frustrating and debilitating symptom, it does balance out pretty quickly once you rebalance your gut bacteria and figure out your trigger food(s).
To start, keep a food diary and keep track of your symptoms. Does a pattern emerge? If you notice a pattern of certain food culprits or stress that seem to be triggering your symptoms, try removing them from your diet or alter your lifestyle and continue to keep track of your symptoms. If your symptom lessens or goes away completely, then you’ll know you found the culprit. Success!
Constipation
Constipation is a bit trickier to address than diarrhea, but balance is possible. A lack of fiber often takes the blame as the culprit, but if you’re eating a fair number of veggies, then that’s probably not your issue. Most people I work with are already eating enough fiber, and adding more just makes the problem worse.
From my experience, most constipation issues with healthy eaters (or healthy-ish eaters) stem from dehydration, not eating enough fat, or not having enough of the right bacteria. Rebalancing these elements usually works well.
Another little trick to help with constipation is to elevate your knees when you’re on the toilet. Your body was meant to squat while eliminating, and it’s believed that an important muscle—the puborectalis muscle—doesn’t fully relax when you sit. This muscle contracts around your colon when you’re standing to stop any feces from getting out. It relaxes fully when you squat, allowing for a much easier bowel movement. If you want to know more, check out the instructional videos by the company Squatty Potty on YouTube. If you’d like to try elevating your knees while you’re on the toilet, any step stool works like a charm.
Important Test – The Transit time test:
Your digestion might be sluggish or too fast, and an easy way to know what’s going on is by doing an easy transit time test to determine how long food takes to pass through your digestive system from your mouth to the toilet. Repeat this test every few months to keep an eye on your transit time.
Eat about 1 cup of corn or beets and write down the time and day you ate the food.
Watch for that food to appear in your stool and write down the day and time you see the last of the corn or beets.
Healthy transit time is eighteen to twenty-four hours (but it can be up to forty-eight hours if you’ve dealt with chronic constipation).
What is your poop telling you?
How your poop looks says a lot about what’s going on inside your gut. Use it as a diagnostic tool to interpret how all of the parts of your digestion are doing.
First, let’s look at how it comes out and what it says:
Now, the colour:
Finding Balance
This is a short section because the story of the colon is mostly the story of your microbiome. 90% of the bacteria that lives in and on your body are in your colon. If you’re having colon symptoms, head over to Part 5.
If you’re dealing with diarrhea, pain, or constipation – use slippery elm as your gut healer (mentioned in Part 3 & 5). It’s really effective at creating regularity.
If you have urgency and find yourself running to the toilet often – there’s probably a food your body really doesn’t like. Keep a food diary to find the culprit. Common culprits are: lettuce, corn, gluten, dairy, eggs.
And, balancing your gut bacteria will help your colon immensely, so head over to Part 5!
Got any questions or comments? Comment below, jump to our private Facebook Group, or the Ask Lisa page :).