Why having healthy bowel movement is important?
Many people nowadays pay a lot of attention to the quality of the food that enters their body, but much less attention is paid to the quality of it when it leaves your body. It’s a shame as it’s equally important!
Bowel diseases are becoming more and more common such as constipation, diarrohea, irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis.
It is very important to keep your bowel healthy and learn how to recognise symptoms early to prevent more serious problems.
So why keeping your bowel movements regular is so important?
The bowel is the lower part of your digestive tract (which includes the small intestine, large intestine and rectum).
The functions of the bowel are to absorb nutrients and water from digested food, and to help the body form and excrete waste products in the form of stools.
Your stools contain lots of toxins that need to be cleared regularly, otherwise the bowel will be the first part of your body to be affected.
Stools that stay in the bowel too long tend to become more dry and harder to pass.
Incomplete or sluggish bowel movements also leave behind toxins that may cause damage to both the bowel and the body over time.
What is an unhealthy bowel movement?
- Bowel movements with very hard, loose, smelly or sticky stools
- Bowel movements with abdominal pain
- Infrequent (less than daily) or irregular bowel movements
- Sluggish bowel movements that are difficult to pass and don’t feel complete afterwards
- Abdominal bloating and passing lots of smelly wind
When too much toxins build up in the bowel, this can affect the whole body and cause other symptoms.
Body symptoms from an unhealthy bowel
- Tired, heavy and puffy body
- Headache
- Insomnia, vivid dreams
- Lower back pain
- Skin rash
- Bad breath
- Weight gain
Natural ways to improve your bowel movements
- Eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.
- Drink a glass of warm water first thing in the morning
- Avoid sitting for long periods of time
- Don’t rush and give yourself a regular time of the day to pass your bowel movements
Acupuncture can help with all the symptoms above. Get in touch to discuss a course of treatment to suit your needs.
