Constipation Symptom of Metabolic Disorders? (Continued from part 3)
4) Metabolic disorders can cause constipation. In our way of thinking, we say that is a Vata, Pitta, or Kapha imbalance. If you have extremes of any of the Doshas, it can cause constipation. If there is any big distortion in the balance between the tridosha, one of the symptoms is constipation. The way it is referred to in traditional Vedic literature is “anything that effects the healthy function of the machine and which interferes with the vitality and luster of the skin is to be evidence of a dosha imbalance.” What does that have to do with your gut? Once you understand the way that the prana works and the energy works from the point of view of doshas, the inside of your gut is the same as the outside of your skin.
From a Vedic point of view we are nothing but a big donut. We have an opening at the top and an opening at the bottom. It is hollow all the way through, then it turns inside out and now the skin becomes the inside and the inside becomes the skin on the outside. From the point of view of Ayurveda, that is why there is a lot of connection between looking at the skin and diagnosing internal issues. For instance, is the skin dry? Is it lacking luster and natural shine? Is the skin not acid enough and is the inside of the digestive tract or tissue too acid?
5) Polyps, tumors, or any kind of chronic and or obstructive bowel disease can cause constipation. Why would I want to give you a laxative when I haven’t done at least some little assessment to determine if you might have bowel obstruction?
Vaginitis can be associated with constipation, especially if it is caused by Candida albicans infection. Chronic constipation can be one of the symptoms of candidiasis. No, I wouldn’t give you a laxative to treat your candidiasis; I would treat your candidiasis directly. That goes to our treatment protocols for fungal infections and infections in general, which I am not going to cover now.
6) Exposure to toxic substances like heavy metals, pesticides, and radiation can cause constipation. I wouldn’t give you a laxative if the reason why you are constipated is because you have been exposed to pesticides or heavy metals or radiation.
7) Too much calcium can interfere with the absorption metabolism. I can’t imagine a single reason why you would be taking a calcium supplement. Calcium metabolism is so critical and is subject to causing problems when out of balance. For example, I hope you know that this whole thing about taking calcium supplements to treat osteoporosis is a complete bunk and myth and hype. You cannot take a calcium supplement and think that any of it goes to the bones. It is not possible, because it goes through a dozen other metabolic processes ahead of time that are much more demanding of the calcium. In fact, if you take a calcium supplement over time it may actually end up being the cause of osteoporosis. Taking antacids, especially. People who take Tums, Rolaids, or any kind of heartburn supplements long-term will likely be diagnosed with bone deficiencies and osteoporosis. The excess calcium in the gut actually triggers the body to think that there is a deficit of calcium in the body and the blood and it actually pulls calcium out of the bones to drive it towards what it thinks is a deficiency. Just so you know!
8) Poor liver function can cause constipation. That is where coffee enemas may come in. The only reason I would use a coffee enema is not to treat the constipation, but if I tested you for liver function and you were having stress in the liver, the coffee goes through the hepatic vein in the duodenum of the rectum directly to the liver and it has a stimulatory effect on production on enzymes in the liver. When you do coffee enemas for that purpose, you must always take pancreatic enzymes, digestive enzymes and human intestinal flora at the same time. You never do a coffee enema for that purpose by itself. We do some variation of that if the person has heartburn, which is another conversation entirely about balancing the liver and liver detoxification.
9) The pancreas may be producing insufficient digestive enzymes. The liver and pancreas are, ‘same, same but different,’ and we need those enzymes. You might have a deficit in the pancreatic function for a number of reasons. Maybe you’ve had your pancreas removed, I don’t know! People have their pancreas, gallbladder, and other organs just cut out and all the enzymes that those body part produce are no longer being produced. The liver can produce some of the enzymes that the pancreas is supposed to be in charge of, but the liver is mostly supposed to produce bile. If you are deficient in the digestion and the liver is not up to the task, there is a domino effect. If the liver is toxic than the pancreas will be affected. There is a harmonic between them, they are a bit yin and yang to each other in the body and that is why we need the pancreatic enzymes.
10) Watch out for allergies and food allergies. Your constipation can be caused by allergies to the foods you are eating and you may need to do a survey of your allergies to see if you have them. Before I recommend laxatives, I definitely want to test you for allergies. I want to do a questionnaire with some assessment on allergies. It could also indicate endocrine and hypothyroidism or low thyroid function. I also might want to look at you to see how your thyroid is functioning.
11) You may have low acid in the stomach. We need hydrochloric acid and pepsin for digestion. If you are eating an alkalizing diet because you have acidosis, that is good. But if you are so good at your diet that you actually alkalize the stomach contents to where you don’t have sufficient hydrochloric acid for digestion, then you may have to take a supplement. It is really interesting; why would I have to take an acid supplement when I’m trying to fight acidosis? Trust me, it works out. For example, the skin is supposed to be acid. The interior of the muscle tissue is alkaline. The interior of stomach is acid. We are two acids and one alkaline, as far as the state of the tissues. Some of our tissues have to be acid or they don’t work and they become subject to disease. To alkalize the surface of your skin by bathing in alkaline water is the worst thing you can do! You will get molds, fungus, bacteria, you will have infections that don’t heal, and you will have sunburn that doesn’t heal because the skin is alkaline. You always want to acidify the skin. You want to have an acidic PH on the skin. Internal tissue and interstitial fluid, is alkaline. Muscle tissue is alkaline. Stomach contents contain hydrochloric acid. The urine especially should be acidic and if too alkaline it would be a definite sign of a metabolic imbalance or infection. There is no generic rule that everything has to be alkaline! “If we’re all acid we’re all bad,” is not true.
How do we treat chronic constipation?
Consider that any program designed to correct, clean, detox or balance the colon needs to address key factors.
They must:
1. Restore health and vitality to the colon and stimulate the natural movement of the colon. This movement or peristalsis moves food and waste through the system. By keeping the food and waste moving through in a timely fashion the amounts of putrifaction and the amount of auto-intoxication both are reduced.
2. The walls of the colon need to be purged of any and all matter which has desiccated and is clinging or held up for whatever reason.
3. Any infection or small wounds to be reduced and or healed completely.
4. Stimulate the liver by helping the hepatic function and stimulating the healthy pancreas.
5. Create a healthier environment for the natural healthy intestinal flora vs. adversarial and pathological invaders such as Candida Albicans.
6. Create a comfortability in the whole elimination process. The bowel is our friend!
Some sort of regular exercise is very important because it will bring more blood, oxygen, and nutrients to the intestines, which helps them to function properly.
Exercise combined with recommended dietary changes and supplements would be the foundation of your wellness program.
Yoga and nutrition are the fundamental building blocks of wellness from the Ayurvedic perspective.
In food we want to emphasize fiber: 25-35 grams per day, or the equivalent to 2-3 tablespoons in divided doses. Fiber in general is needed to add bulk to your stool and bran is the most effective form. I know people do psyllium and all these other things but bran is better because it ferments and produces enzymes. Bran has other healthful benefits. Right up there with bran is rolled Scottish oats. Nothing could be easier to find! If you don’t believe me, take a cupful of organic Scottish oats, put them in a bowl, cover them with water an inch think and let it sit. They will expand! They also produce a gelatinous matter, just like psyllium. Unlike psyllium, oats have vitamins, proteins and enzymes.
Work on more regular eating schedules and avoid constant grazing between meals. It’s important to give your digestive tract enough time between meals to do its thing! The stomach needs to have adequate time to restore its working ph. The entire colon, small and large intestine needs time to extract and assimilate nutrients and it takes a little time simply to move the food matter through. Eating too small amounts very frequently can over burden the whole system and constipation could be a result of this habit alone.
Fiber helps with contractions in the bowel. Be sure to drink eight 8-ounce glasses daily. If you are constipated, here’s a formula to use. Take your body weight, divide it by 2, and that is how many ounces of water you should be drinking if you are constipated. It’s ok to do this daily but it is a recommendation for constipation. Add EFA’s. Eudo’s flaxseed oil is one of the best that I know of but there are actually quite a few. Fatty oils should be kept in amber or dark colored bottles and should be refrigerated. Avoid constipating foods and drinks such as white flour, cheese, fried foods, sweets, salt, beef, pasteurized milk, all junk food, wine, carbonated drinks, and coffee.
If you are constipated, you shouldn’t be drinking alcohol. Don’t drink wine, don’t drink beer, they all exacerbate constipation. Certain berries with a large amount of seeds such as strawberries, huckleberries, raspberries, and blackberries are not the best if you are constipated. Don’t eat a fistful of strawberries when you are constipated, it will not help the constipation even though they might have a really good nutritional value. Avoid any kind of processed foods for sure. Add probiotics and digestive enzymes to your diet. If you think you have any kind of chronic constipation you should be doing a daily nutritional supplement of at least probiotics and digestive enzymes. Add a trace mineral supplement to the diet.
Remember that the first thing I listed is that you may have a chronic mineral deficiency, and so the constipation occurs as a symptom of that. The very best mineral electrolyte supplement you can use is a Fulvic Acid / Humic solution of 100,000ppm such as Z-Factor.
Add high-chlorophyll foods such as super blue-green algae or spirulina to the diet. They have just about everything, some minerals, enzymes, and lots of goodies. It’s hyper-nutrition.
Avoid antibiotics. Avoid allergic substances altogether. If you know you have a milk allergy, stop eating milk foods. If you know you have a wheat allergy, stop eating wheat foods. Please stop eating anything in your diet that you are allergic to. If you don’t know or suspect that you might have an allergy, then at some point you might want to try to work out some strategies to test and see if you do in fact have allergies.
If constipation is in fact chronic, go on a juice fast for a minimum of 3 to 5 days with all of the above to break a constipation cycle. By juice fast, I mean drinking at least 8 glasses of juice per day, not just substituting juice for each of the three meals. In some other programs we recommend that you do 13 glasses of fresh juice per day, one per hour. It’s a bit tedious but it is super-nutrition, which will handle constipation.
Balance the energy! I mentioned the abdominal treatment before with lots of focus, lots of inversions and lots of forward bends. At some point I will show you a manual digestion release technique, which stimulates the colon. Its very safe and its part of our methodology when we have need for such things.
Disclaimer:
All Information is provided for educational purposes only and not intended to be used for any therapeutic purpose, neither is it intended to diagnose, prevent, treat or cure any disease. Please consult a health care professional for diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions. While all attempts have been made to ensure the accuracy of this information. The author and ThaiYogaCenter.Com does not accept any responsibility for any errors or omissions.
Copyright© 2011, Dr. Anthony B. James DM(P), ND, MD(AM), SMOKH All rights reserved under International and Pan American copyright conventions. World rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Inquires should be addressed to: Dr. Anthony B. James DM(P), ND, MD(AM), SMOKH, 4715 Bruton Rd. Plant City, FL 33565 · http://www.ThaiYogaCenter.Com
Thai Yoga Mastery by Anthony B. James 
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