Health Info : What Your Poop Is Telling You

[KillChillPandey]

As a gastroenterologist, I am somewhat surprised that people don’t pay more attention to their bathroom habits. While it’s not the most pleasant topic, there really is no easier way to discover what’s happening inside your body than seeing what comes out of it.

One of the biggest misconceptions about our bowel movements is the common belief there is an ideal result. A few years ago, a well-known doctor suggested that we should all strive to see a “perfect S” and that anything else could indicate some kind of problem.

After this announcement, my appointment calendar was booked solid for weeks. I explained to worried patients that, in fact, the famous doctor’s blanket statement was incorrect. Everyone’s GI tract operates differently based on a combination of constant and changing factors ─ genetics, hydration, dietary habits, medication use, and ongoing health issues.

Think about it ─ sometimes certain foods just don’t agree with you, and occasionally you don’t drink enough water. Or perhaps you are taking a new medication. These factors can change the consistency and caliber of your stool for a short time but things usually revert back to normal in a few days.

The frequency of bowel movements also varies. Not everyone is wired to have a bowel movement every day. Some people have one every few days while other people go more than once a day. Regardless, both are normal.

Changes in Bowel Habits

What’s important to be aware of is how your GI tract normally functions and what typical bowel activity is for you. If you notice a prolonged change, that’s when you need to closely monitor what’s happening. In addition, if you are feeling pain or other pronounced symptoms, it’s time to call your doctor.

Keep in mind, if your stool changes for a week or longer, it doesn’t necessarily mean the medical issue lies in your GI tract. Recently, I saw a female patient in her mid-forties who was concerned her stools had changed from regular to much looser consistency and the frequency had increased. She was also losing weight.

After running her blood work and conducting other diagnostic tests, we learned she hadhyperthyroidism (an overactive thyroid), a condition where the thyroid gland produces too much of the thyroid hormone, which causes symptoms including accelerated metabolism (causing sudden weight loss), heart rate increase, sweating, and changes in bowel movements.

5 Signs of Bowel Trouble

The body has a way of expressing itself when there is trouble inside by changing your bowel movements. Here are five warning signs you shouldn’t ignore:

1. Blood in your stool.  If you see even a small amount of blood in your feces on a recurring basis, see a doctor. Blood can be a sign of hemorrhoids or **** fissures, pre-cancerous colon polyps, or an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In the worst case scenario, it could be a sign of cancer.
2. Change in stool consistency. Everyone has bouts of diarrhea from time to time. But if you used to have solid bowel movements and now have diarrhea frequently, it could be a sign of ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease, two types of IBD ─ especially if you also have abdominal pain, bleeding, and weight loss.
3. Color change. Bowel movements are generally brown  in color because of bile, which is produced in the liver. If the stool is black, it can be a sign of internal bleeding. Green stool is usually nothing to be concerned about. Stool color also changes depending on the kinds of food you eat.
4. Continual diarrhea. Diarrhea can be sign of infection or food intolerance. Ulcerative colitis and some other microscopic colon disorders can cause changes in frequency of the stool as well. It can also be a result of a change of medications or irritable bowel disease.
5. Constipation. If you have a new onset of constipation, it can be due to lack of proper hydration or side effects from a medication. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) may also be a consideration. If your symptoms don’t improve in a few days after an increase in fluids, see your doctor.

Better Lifestyle, Better Bowels

People who deal with chronic bathroom issues should be evaluated by a doctor. Most conditions can be treated with medication and lifestyle changes. Irritable bowel disease is one of the most common conditions affecting the large intestine (colon). It causes cramping, abdominal pain, bloating, gas, diarrhea, and constipation. It is a chronic condition that you will need to manage for the long-term with diet, exercise, stress management, and medication.

Most gastrointestinal problems can be resolved by making simple changes to your diet and lifestyle. For less severe cases, the following nutrition and exercise changes may prove helpful:

• Eat unprocessed, natural foods including fiber-rich vegetables.
• Avoid artificial sweeteners, fructose, chemical additives, MSG, excessive caffeine.
• Boost your intestinal flora by adding naturally fermented foods to your diet ─ sauerkraut, pickles, and kefir, for example.
• Add a probiotic supplement if you’re not getting enough good bacteria from your diet.
• Strive to drink two quarts of water daily.
• Exercise regularly.
• If you use medication every day, ask your prescribing doctor if it could be affecting your bowel movements.
• Take action to minimize chronic stress.

Be sure to talk to your doctor before making any changes to your healthcare routine. Pay attention to your bowel movements the same way you watch your weight, get your blood pressure monitored, and have your heart rate evaluated. Your bathroom habits can offer warning signs that something may not be quite right, and that you need to be checked out by a medical professional.

[kedharinath]

come n see my poop also no..

[KillChillPandey]

[timmy]

[KillChillPandey]

The Importance of Regular Elimination

According to ayurveda, it is important to evacuate the bowels every morning. That's simple enough, or so it sounds. But why is it so important? What happens if you skip a morning, or wait until later? No big deal, you might think. On the contrary, not emptying your bowels in the morning impacts both your physical and psychological well being. Being regular and following nature's, and your own body's, rhythm makes a huge difference in how you feel during the day.

Empty the bowels every morning

The body's clock always tries to follow the cycles of nature. During nighttime,Soma, or lunar energy, is more predominant, so our body focuses on lubrication, cooling and nurturing. In the morning, when the sun rises, our body goes into absorption phase when Agni, the active, burning and transforming solar energy dominates. If, during the day, you carry around the waste material you created at night, you may absorb some of that waste material into your system.

The toxins your body is trying to get rid of will be released into your system again, and weaken your immune system. You are also carrying some extra weight in the lower abdomen, the seat of Apana Vata which, in addition to elimination, governs the sexual functions and the menstrual cycle. If you don't support your body's natural intelligence to evacuate its waste material, you may feel fatigued, drowsy and irritable during the day.

According to ayurvedic principles, one should evacuate the bowels every morning, and feel that the colon is clean and light. Feeling energetic and relaxed are signs of proper evacuation. Twice a day is normal, but at least once a day is essential. Don't ignore your urges and don't wait.

Drink a glass of water to help elimination

If you don't have a bowel movement every day on a regular basis, you are probably constipated. Constipation can be a result of several diet or lifestyle factors such as lack of enzymes and beneficial bacteria in the gastrointestinal system, not eating enough fiber, dehydration, stress and ignoring one's natural urges.

Support the digestive system

Proper elimination doesn't start in the colon. The entire digestive system has to work in balance. For proper absorption we need friendly bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract. Chemicals and pesticides in food, as well as antibiotics, destroy these probiotics. We therefore need to support their existence. The best way to do this is to drink lassi or ayurvedic buttermilk with lunch. To increase natural, water-soluble fiber in your diet, consume whole grains such as quinoa, and different kinds of squash and fruits.

To enhance the secretion of enzymes and enhance digestion use the following spice mix:

• 1 part turmeric
• 2 parts cumin
• 3 parts coriander
• 4 parts fennel

1. Sauté the spices in ghee; then add the spiced ghee to your vegetables, grains, or dahl.
2. Drink at least two quarts of water a day. Get an herbal water recommendation from an ayurvedic expert if you can.
3. Eat three main meals a day. Have your biggest meal at noon when agni is strongest. Eat according to your body type or imbalance, and don't skip meals. Your dinner should be light and eaten before 7:00 p.m.
4. Relax when you start eating. Don't eat in a hurry, while talking on the phone, riding in a car, watching TV, or when you are upset. Chew well and focus on eating. Eat in a nice, settled environment, in a good atmosphere with friends or family.

Emotional balance is important too

Our experiences show that emotions can directly influence bowel movement. Diarrhea can be induced by fear, while constipation can result from worry. ApanaVata, which governs elimination, has a direct link to Prana Vata, the subdosha governing our thoughts. This connection explains why we feel relaxed after elimination. Bowel movement is not just a physical function. If anything disturbs Prana Vata — for example mental or emotional stress — our elimination will suffer too. More tips to aid regular elimination:

• Don't read while evacuating the bowels. Any mental activity will occupy Prana Vata, disconnecting it from Apana Vata. Keep your mind free so that Prana Vata can aid elimination.
• Take a walk after dinner to unclog the channels of Apana Vata and to improve digestion. Regular exercise also helps reduce stress.
• To relax the mind and body, and to reduce the harmful effects of stress, practice the Transcendental Meditation® technique.

Help your elimination naturally

First, try to follow a regular diet rich in organic, fresh foods. Avoid canned, frozen and "fast" food, and leftovers. If your elimination is still not regular, cook some prunes or figs with apples and eat the mixture in the morning. If that does not bring results, take some Maharishi Ayurveda supplements such as Organic Digest Tone or Herbal Cleanse.

Since bowel movement affects your entire physiology, you cannot neglect or ignore it. With a few changes in your diet and routine, you can get in tune with your body's internal clock and make regular elimination a part of your daily routine.

These articles provide a great resource from The Council of Maharishi Ayurveda Physicians on the knowledge, practices, products, and applications of Maharishi Ayurveda.

[KillChillPandey]

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P8L0r4JVpo

[KillChillPandey]

Constipation Self Test

1. Do you feel fatigued, have low energy or muscles aches? (yes = 1/no = 0) 
2. Do you have a bowel movement fewer than 3x/week on an ongoing basis? (yes = 1/no = 0) 
3. Do you strain to pass stool? (yes = 1/no = 0) 
4. Do you pass dry hard pellets or stool that looks like toothpaste? (yes = 1/no = 0) 
5. Do you have an abundance of foul smelling gas? (yes = 1/no = 0) 
6. Do you eat 25-30 grams of fiber per day? (yes = 1/no = 0) 
7. Are you unable to loss weight even though you eat "healthy"? (yes = 1/no = 0) 
8. Do you take anti-depressants or pain medication? (yes = 1/no = 0) 
9. Do you drink 8 glasses of water per day? (yes = 1/no = 0) 
10. Do you exercise at least 3x/week? (yes = 1/no = 0) 

Total Score______

A score of 4 or higher may indicate that you are suffering from poor colon health. 

 

 

Signs of Good Elimination

1. Color: Stool color should be a walnut brown. Given temporary variations with dark green leafy vegetable or beets.

2. Consistency: Stool should be smooth with the consistency of paste. This shows the bowels are well hydrated. The length of stool should be the length of a banana or longer.

3. Frequency: As discussed above, this depends on the individual, but in the natural health community, one movement per day is good, but two-three per day is healthiest!

4. Gas and Odor: A normal amount of gas is the by-product of digestion. An abundance of foul smelling gas indicates poor colon health.

5. Sink or Float: Healthy stool tends to leave the body easily, is well formed, floats in the water then gently submerges. In some natural medicine beliefs, if the stool floats, this may indicate undigested fat in the colon. 

[KillChillPandey]

Bowel Health: A Conversation Starter for Your Next Party

(Originally published as a newsletter for The Dragontree Holistic Day Spa)

Bowel health is a topic that rarely comes up in everyday conversation. More often we talk about what we should or shouldn’t consume at the other end of the digestive tract. But let us remember the Zen fable of the master who pours tea into the student’s cup until it overflows: we must first empty our cups before we can fill them. In the same way, the food and supplements we consume are just one facet of digestive health. How efficient we are at getting rid of waste is just as important.

Ayurvedic, Chinese, and Western naturopathic medical philosophies all regard healthy elimination as a cornerstone of good health, and they see digestive imbalance as the root of a wide range of diseases. This concept is especially central to Ayurveda (the traditional medical system of India), which views virtually all illness as originating with faulty digestion, and supreme health as emanating from good food that’s digested well. Hence, the treatment of everything from acne to depression often begins with correcting digestion. This isn’t just some wacky alternative idea – even in the medical mainstream, the emerging fields of neurogastroenterology and psychoneuroimmunology are demonstrating the many ways in which gut health affects the mind, emotions, and immune system.

Traditional Chinese medical philosophy explains that the functions of our bodily organs go far beyond their biomedical roles. The large intestine is more than an organ that extracts water from the stool and moves waste out of the body. The expanded concept of the large intestine is that it represents our capacity to recognize and get rid of garbage in all areas of our lives. It encompasses our ability to see what we’re carrying around that perhaps was once good for us but no longer is. When this faculty isn’t working well, we become clogged and cluttered, and our ability to perceive and assimilate what is good for us declines.

Waste products from all body systems make their way to the colon for disposal. The lungs and the skin, in particular, are critically dependent on the colon’s “taking out the trash” in order to function optimally. Acne, dry and scaly skin, brittle hair and nails, dandruff, eczema, psoriasis, asthma, and allergies all tend to benefit from improving bowel health.

Optimal bowel transit time – the time it takes from eating something until it’s eliminated in the stool – is about 18-24 hours. Digestive transit needs to be slow enough for you to extract all the nutrients from your food, yet fast enough so that the toxins in your stool are not kept in the body any longer than necessary. Slow transit time, and thus prolonged exposure to these toxins, plus the holding of a large volume of poop in the colon, is understandably unhealthy. It may contribute to polyps and tumors of the colon and irritation of its lining. Slow transit time may allow the body to draw too much water out of the stool, making it dry and potentially contributing to hemorrhoids, bleeding, and discomfort. You can test your transit time by eating several activated charcoal tablets or some beets. See how long it takes until you see black (charcoal) or red (beets) in your stool. Transit time isn’t the only indicator of bowel health, but it’s an important basic foundation.

Now for some principles of good bowel health which should be part of everyone’s routine:

 

1. Water: Water is essential for moist stool that moves freely. If the stools are dry, dehydration is the first thing to consider. Drink half the number of pounds you weigh as ounces of non-iced water evenly over the course of each day. (For instance, if you weigh 140 pounds, you’ll drink 70 ounces of water a day.)

 

2. Good Fats: These lubricate the bowels to keep us regular. Sesame seeds, almonds, olive oil, avocado, flax seed meal and oil, salmon, fish oil, chia, walnuts, hemp seed, and coconut are good lubricants and healthful foods.

 

3. Plant Fiber: Fiber scours the digestive tract, drawing out toxins, old stool, and “bad” cholesterol (LDL), while supporting “good” cholesterol (HDL). Fiber has a huge list of health benefits, including protection against heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Fiber also makes us feel full, helping to prevent overeating. Oats, konjac, prunes, bran, peas and beans, pumpkin seeds, apples, pears, psyllium seed husks, and most vegetables are good sources.

 

4. Exercise That Engages the Abdominal Muscles: The abdominal muscles support intestinal movement, so regular exercise helps keep the bowels regular.

 

5. Good Gut Bugs: The healthy microorganisms or “flora” that live in the bowels are essential for optimal nutrient absorption, they support immune function, protect against harmful microorganisms, fortify the intestinal wall, and synthesize some vitamins. If harmful microorganisms in the gut outnumber the beneficial ones, this leads to production of toxic byproducts which promote disease. It’s important to regularly replenish the helpful critters by eating cultured foods, such as sauerkraut, kefir, miso, and kimchi. We frequently prescribe “probiotics” to seed the gut with healthy bacteria. Not every species is optimal for every person’s body, so if you don’t have a good experience with one brand, try another. (Occasionally, when you begin a new probiotic, you’ll experience some temporary bowel changes, gas, or discomfort while your gut microbiome – the whole community of flora – adjusts.)

 

6. Relaxation: Tension is probably the biggest factor in bowel irregularity. The gut is extremely sensitive to our thoughts and emotions. Stress can speed up or restrict bowel motility. If you’re “holding onto something” this may show up physically as “holding onto” your stool. Sometimes we do this in a subtle, unconscious way. Other times we do it more consciously – like sucking in the abdomen because we don’t like how we look.

 

7. Routine: Having a regular eating and sleeping routine (going to bed and waking up at the same time every day and eating our meals at the same time every day) promotes regularity of our bowel movements.

 

8. Be Mindful of Bowel Disruptors: Some medications, foods, and dietary supplements can disrupt bowel function. Iron and calcium, for instance, can slow motility, as can meat. Large amounts of fiber tend to speed it up (though fiber can also clog us). Big doses of magnesium or vitamin C can cause loose stools. Spicy foods may cause burning as they leave the body.

 

9. Squat: Squatting is a healthful posture. Humans used to squat much more than we do nowadays, and always squatted to move the bowels. Sitting on a toilet is not natural and tends to “crimp” the colon (but it became widespread after the chair-style toilet was popularized by European aristocracy in the 1800s). Try squatting with the thighs against the abdomen on a regular basis – while gardening, watching TV, or writing. If you’re adventurous, squat when you poop. Stand on the toilet seat and go.

 

10. Take Advantage of Natural Rhythms: Chinese medicine says the ideal time for a bowel movement is between 5-7 AM, when the colon is strongest. If you sit on a toilet during this time and wait, the bowels will often move and you can train yourself in this way to go every morning. Sometimes having a glass of hot water can help (adding a little honey may help even more). While sitting, don’t push. You can learn to feel the peristaltic waves (the wringing movement of the intestines) and relax with them to allow them to move the stool along, rather than squeezing and halting this movement.

 

11. Let Go of as Much as You Can. In light of the Chinese view of the colon’s role in helping us to let go of anything that we’re ready to be rid of, try practicing mindfulness while having a bowel movement. If there are things you want to let go of – say, some resentment or sadness – imagine you’re directing it into your bowels and expelling it with the physical waste.

 

I hope this discussion has made you a bit less squeamish about poop and better able to make this act as productive and healthy as possible. All’s well that ends well.

Copyright 2009 by Peter Borten. No unauthorized reproduction in any form without permission.

 

[KillChillPandey]

ltt

[STRAWBERRY]

ltt

 

r u suffering from constipation?? 

[KillChillPandey]

r u suffering from constipation?? 

 

 

[arshad]

ltt

 

 

Endhi ee roju... Topic idhi pettav  

[KillChillPandey]

Endhi ee roju... Topic idhi pettav  

 

diarrhea aindi  .. so research cheste idi dorkindi.. andarki paniki vastadi kada ani..vadkunvallaki vaadkunantha 

[Spartan]

India lo or Asian countries lo..kinda kurchoni veltar ani egataali chestar kaani..

 

now they found the real reason behind that posture....

 

denni kuda marketing sesi dabbul sampadinchukuntar inka eeda...

 

same like Costco lo Turmeric tablets ammutunnad....like anti-biotics ani....LMAO...

[arshad]

diarrhea aindi  .. so research cheste idi dorkindi.. andarki paniki vastadi kada ani..vadkunvallaki vaadkunantha 

 

 

Weekend yaadapyinav... emi tinnav.. :)