DIFFERENT TYPES OF CONSTIPATION

Before we look at treatments for constipation, it is important to first identify which kind of constipation you have. Through the course of my research, consultations with clients, feedback from readers, and my own struggle with constipation; I have come to identify two different types of constipation. Since I have not come across any labels for these in the medical literature (or perhaps I just didn’t read widely enough), I have made up my own labels to distinguish between these two different types of constipation. I call them peristalitic constipation and stenosis constipation. Of course, while most people seem to suffer from one or the other, there are people who suffer from a combination of the two.

1. Peristaltic Constipation

This type of constipation can consist of many different symptoms or factors, but the defining elements are as follows:

*You just don’t often (or rarely, never) feel the urge to have a bowel movement. You can have stool building up in your colon for days, but no urge or urgency to poo.

*If you’ve been constipated for a long time, this build up of stool may not even be uncomfortable anymore.

*When you do have a bowel movement, your stool is large and fairly wide. Even if it is in hard balls, the diameter is larger than half an inch.

2. Stenosis Constipation

I came up with the name for this one based on the medical label of anal stenosis (narrowing, tightness or stricture of the anal canal). Stenosis constipation means that:

* You often feel the urge to defecate. In some cases, the urge can be frequent or continual. You may even feel the stool pushing against your anus, but when you try to poo, it is very difficult to pass stool and sometimes nothing comes out.

*If you’ve had this type of constipation for a long time, then your urge to defecate may have greatly lessened, if not disappeared (remember the bowel is easily trained), however, passing stool is still extremely difficult and your anus/rectum can spasm and be very tight, small.

*When you do manage to pass stool, the stool is very narrow. Sometimes only the width of a flattened pencil. You strain and push mightily and it may feel like you’re passing a huge stool, but when you look in the toilet there’s only a very narrow or small amount of stool. Stool can be soft, hard, balls, or cylinders, but rarely larger than 1/4 inch – 1/3 inch in diameter and the maximum diameter is 1/2 inch.

MAGNESIUM & POTASSIUM

Another quick and easy short-term remedy you may have heard of for constipation is to increase your vitamin C in ascorbic acid form (up to 10,000 mg/day). However, I find that ascorbic acid vitamin C, when taken in a high enough dose to have a laxative effect, results in what I call “acid poo” and some mild cramping. And I don’t like it. You can try it if you wish, since lots of vitamin C certainly does benefit the immune system.

What I find works much better is to take magnesium – which has a laxative effect, but is also a muscle relaxant. If you have stenosis constipation, then you should combine the magnesium with potassium – which is another muscle relaxant. See below for detailed dosage recommendations, depending on whether you suffer from primarily peristaltic constipation, or stenosis constipation.

When you first administer this therapy, be prepared for a "clear out" of stool, with multiple bowel movements. Keep going with supplementation and facilitate this clear out until you are passing very mushy or watery stool. Then, cut back the dosage to reach a more comfortable, normal level. Always take magnesium with food to avoid gastrointestinal discomfort and facilitate absorption.

This protocol alone should be enough to get your bowels moving. However, it is a short-term, symptomatic remedy and does not address the root cause of constipation. Remember that for long-term permanent resolution of constipation, you need to ingest a full spectrum of probiotics and normalize your bacterial flora, along with adjusting your diet and lifestyle.

Another easy way to ingest the magnesium (and potassium) needed, plus some good fat (which improves stool texture/density) and get a blast of top quality nutrients, is to put your supplements in this easy shake in place of breakfast, or some other meal:

Jini’s Raw Nutrient Shake

* 1 cup raw milk (from pasture-fed cows only), or homemade yoghurt
* 2 tsp – 1 tbsp. Udo’s Oil (adjust according to taste, the more the better)
maple syrup to taste
* 250 mg magnesium citrate (get in capsule form, so you can just empty the capsule contents into the shake)
* 2 raw organic egg yolks
* 1 raw organic whole egg

Optional: 1 banana
100 mg potassium citrate (in capsule form)

1. Blend together on LOW speed for 5-10 seconds.

2. If adding banana, then blend milk and banana first, until liquid. Then add the other ingredients and blend on low for 5-10 seconds.

My 6 year old daughter also loves this shake and sometimes I will have one for breakfast. If you leave out the magnesium/potassium (when it is not needed), it is just a healthy shake that you can drink at any time.

See my video where I show you how to make this shake at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6Gt6BmXgnc

If you can’t get raw cow’s milk, you can also use raw goat’s milk. Or just use water with a scoop of whey protein isolate – doesn’t taste as good as the raw milk though. Do not use rice milk as rice is constipating. And don’t use soy milk as soy inhibits mineral absorption, blocks thyroid function and contains very high levels of estrogen. You can use homemade almond milk – or if you can find an organic commercial version of almond milk without carrageenan, that would be okay too. To find raw cow or goat milk in your country/city, go to: http://www.realmilk.com


Peristaltic Constipation

So, for persistaltic constipation, start with 250 mg magnesium citrate after a good-sized breakfast or lunch. Or, depending on when you like to have your bowel movement, it may work better for you to take it after dinner. You’ll have to experiment and see what timing works best.

You also need to experiment with dosage, to see which dosage threshold your body needs. So start at 250 mg (once per day, after a good-sized meal) and increase by 125 mg or 250 mg increments, up to 1000 mg per day. Don’t take magnesium on an empty stomach or only after a snack or it may result in some mild nausea and spasming. Take it as I have directed and it should be fine.

If your constipation is really stubborn, you may get better results from using magnesium oxide. The dosage recommendation is the same, but magnesium oxide has a stronger laxative effect.

Stenosis Constipation

Start with 250 mg magnesium citrate and 100 mg postassium citrate after a good-sized breakfast or lunch. Or, depending on when you like to have your bowel movement, it may work better for you to take it after dinner. You’ll have to experiment and see what timing works best. Magnesium and potassium are both nature’s muscle relaxants, so they work very well to relax a tight, rigid internal anal sphincter muscle.

You also need to experiment with dosage, to see which dosage threshold your body needs. So start at 250 mg magnesium (once per day, after a good-sized meal) and increase by 125 mg or 250 mg increments, up to 1000 mg per day. Don’t take magnesium on an empty stomach or only after a snack or it may result in some mild nausea and spasming. Take it as I have directed and it should be fine. You can increase the potassium, if needed, up to 250 mg per day. Technically, you could go higher with potassium, but since I don’t know what your sodium intake or levels are, we don’t want to risk throwing your electrolytes out of balance.

If your constipation is really stubborn, you may get better results from using magnesium oxide. The dosage recommendation is the same, but magnesium oxide has a stronger laxative effect.

Do Not Use High-Dose Magnesium Long-Term

If you use this symptomatic magnesium remedy long-term (without addressing the root cause of your constipation), you may end up with malabsorption of nutrients due to an increased transit time of food through your gastrointestinal tract – also known as "gastrointestinal hurry". This will then result in vitamin and mineral deficiencies, which can cause a host of other problems. This is the same reason it's not a good idea to use drug or herbal laxatives regularly, or long-term.

It's good to take a well-absorbed magnesium supplement every day (in angstrom-sized or transdermal form), but if you're taking just a regular magnesium supplement (citrate, oxide, glycinate, taurate, aspartate, etc.) then absorption ranges from only 4 – 10% and the rest can cause "gastrointestinal hurry" and a laxative effect.

You can check your gastrointestinal transit time by eating a food like corn. From the time you eat the corn kernels, to the time the corn appears in your stool, should be between 12 to 24 hours. If the transit time is less than 12 hours, then you are experiencing "gastrointestinal hurry" and so for long-term usage, should either reduce your magnesium dosage, or switch to a bioavailable form (like angstrom-sized magnesium, or topical, transdermal magnesium). Magnesium is an essential mineral that most of us are deficient in, so don't just stop taking it! Instead, take the time to find the right dosage for your body, or take it in an easily absorbed form.

But, for our purposes here, we are using magnesium in larger doses for the short-term to stimulate bowel movements, until you can get your bacterial flora balanced, address the stressors in your life, and adjust your diet, so that the large doses are no longer needed.