Hi! My name is Heather Caruso. I am a Homeopath from Guelph Ontario, Canada and author of "Your Drug-Free Guide to Digestive Health". I wanted to talk to you a little bit about constipation. According to statistics, 3.1 million Americans are suffering with constipation. They are really full of it. It's not any better anywhere else in the world. Our bowels are our holding tank for waste. Not only are they helping us to eliminate the foods and drinks that we consume, they also help us release manufactured toxins, such as hormones, cholesterol, acids and alcohols that our body makes. We are a holding tank for toxins.
We should have more than three bowel movements per week. Some people, that I see, say they only go once a week and that just creates more problems. Some of the diseases that constipation can cause are hemorrhoids, diverticulitis; they cause gas, cramps, candida overgrowth. Headaches happen when you are constipated for a long period of time. Even insomnia can be related to constipation and indigestion. It's best if you go at least once a day, everyone is different, but at least once a day is a good start.
Some causes of constipation can be things like low fiber diet, low water intake, not enough exercise if you are sedentary, your bowels don't move as frequently. Also if you have an overgrowth of candida or parasites, you do tend to have more constipation. So you can rule that out by getting a stool test done through your doctor's office or your alternative health practitioner's office. Some people abuse laxatives and enemas and their bowels become sluggish. And if you have poor liver in gall bladder function, you might not make enough bile and bile helps lubricate the stools, it helps you breakdown fat as well. So that helps with constipation.
If you are taking certain medications like pain killers, aspirin and those kinds of things, often they do cause constipation in people. So ask your doctor or pharmacist, if your medications are causing your constipation and try and cut back on the necessary medications. If you have a low thyroid too, people with hypothyroidism tend to have more constipation. Things that you can do for yourself naturally to combat constipation of course is to drink 8-10 glasses of water a day. You can keep hydrated that helps bring water into the bowels. You can eat higher fiber foods, fruit, vegetables.
Also things like prunes, dry fruits, they tend to be higher in fiber. Whole grains are very good for cleaning out the bowels. Cereals like All Bran, Bran buds, those kinds of things help with bowel movements. A lot of new cereals have cilium in them. Cilium is excellent for cleaning the bowel. Oatmeal, oat bran those types of things are very good for fiber. Also beans, legumes are high fiber, so they are a great add on to your diet. So try to get more fiber, more fruits, vegetables and a lot of water. See if that helps. If not, there are other natural remedies you can try for constipation. Aloe vera juice is a natural remedy that helps with constipation and you can follow the directions on the package.
If you are taking any medication or have any underlying disorder, it's best to check with your doctor or check with your homeopath, to see if there are any contraindications between your medication and your particular illness. Aloe vera is a very good remedy. Take it as directed on the package. It acts as a laxative, and it's also very healing for the lining of the stomach and intestinal tract. Magnesium is a mineral that is very good and it works as a laxative as well. You could start with a low dose of magnesium. I wouldn't probably go over 600 mgs a day, and as well with any of these please check with your doctor or your pharmacist, natural practitioner about side effects.
Probiotics are an excellent supplement for any digestive disorder. There are always good and bad bacteria in your system. Probiotics bring up the beneficial flora which helps to displace the bad bacteria. So if you take probiotics, it increases your good flora and displaces the bad, which can in turn help you with your digestion. Often time when people who are constipated as I mentioned earlier, constipation holds toxins in your body and when those toxins and bacteria sit for a long time, you can get more fermentation and gas.
So these probiotics help to displace that bad bacteria. If you do have excessive gas, fennel tea is very good for that. It helps to relieve a little bit of the gas from constipation. And of course, there are many laxative things like cascara sagrada and senna, they are habit forming, I don't usually recommend them. I usually recommend some. There are many homeopathic remedies for constipation. Most often, homeopathic remedies are match to your symptoms, so not every remedy is suited to each person.
Common homeopathic remedies for constipation are Calcarea carb, collard greena, bryonia, alumina. It just depends on your case. If you'd like more information on how to treat yourself, you can go online to find the copy of my book called, "Your Drug Free Guide To Digestive Health". It explains more about, what diet is good? What homeopathic remedies are for it? How to prescribe them to yourself, and as well things about natural supplements. Just go to www.carusohomeopathy.com , the link will follow. Also for a limited time, I am offering three free e-books on health.
The first one is 'How to Live to be a 100', the second is, 'How to Treat Your Naturally for First Aid Conditions and the third is 'Natural Remedies for Common Childhood disorders'. These are completely free and I am only offering them for a limited amount of time, because of the time it takes to email eBooks back and forth. So please go online if you'd like those and the Drug-Free Guide. As well, you can also sign for a free email newsletter. It's a monthly health newsletter with different topics, month to month which will be sent to your inbox.
And lastly, in my clinic if you are from the Guelph, Ontario area, I have a free health pass that I give to people and it's a complementary gift. It's valued at $25. It entitles you to a risk free organ assessment. And what it does, it just helps find any blockages that you might have to health, and as well, if you have any questions about natural health, you can sit down and talk about them, see if natural health is free of --- anyway, I will post the links for you to follow and I look forward to hearing from you.
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