I got this article from a www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com newsletter and thought it had some good stuff in it.

They talk about peristalsis, gut flora, and magnesium. Colonics and enemas help to induce peristalsis also (which they don't mention).

I didn't know that gut flora (probiotics) helps to induce perstalsis also, which I do take daily.

Magnesium helps relax the muscles so peristalsis is more likely to occur. Most SAD eaters are very deficient in this important mineral, but a lot of us get plenty in our greens. So, if you are constipated you might want to consider eating more greens and check out the entire article. Enjoy!


Healthy Healing :
Flush Out Your GI Tract -- Naturally
By James B. LaValle Top

Constipation may be more than simply uncomfortable. According to the National Institutes of Health, it may be a symptom of more serious health conditions, including the second-leading cause of cancer death in the U.S.: colon cancer. It's important to take constipation seriously and treat it correctly.

The most common recommendations for constipation are to take laxatives and/or to increase fiber and water intake. Laxatives are for short-term relief only, as long-term use can become habit-forming. Turning to increased fiber and water is preferable, but studies have shown that this is often not effective for alleviating constipation and can sometimes create other problems, such as gas and bloating. So what can you do?

Constipation occurs primarily because of decreased peristalsis, the muscular movement of the intestines that promotes digested food through the GI tract. But what causes decreased peristalsis? Decreased bulk in the stool, for one thing. (That's what fiber and water are supposed to do - increase bulk.) But there are other factors that influence peristalsis.

Beneficial gut flora, also known as probiotics, are the helpful bacteria in human intestines that:
• Help digest foods.
• Manufacture vitamins, like biotin and vitamin K.
• Interfere with disease-promoting bacteria.
• Prevent immune system changes that lead to allergies and auto-immunity.
• Help absorption of nutrients.

They also produce organic acids like lactic acid that in turn help stimulate peristalsis. So making sure you have enough gut flora is crucial for many reasons, but it can also help prevent constipation.

Gut flora can be wiped out in the intestines by a number of factors. Antibiotics, corticosteroids, H2 blockers, and oral contraceptives are known to deplete them. So do some lifestyle factors like high stress, increased intake of refined sugars and excessive alcohol intake. So, to keep a good supply we have to get them in adequate quantities through diet or supplements.

Yogurt contains beneficial flora in low amounts, but usually they are not human strains so they may or may not live in human intestines. Supplementing with a good human-strain probiotic product is far better to ensure you are getting enough. We need billions of these bacteria, so I recommend capsules or powders with at least a 15 billion bacteria count per daily dose.

Magnesium is also extremely important. It helps relax the smooth muscle tissue in intestines that is responsible for peristalsis, so it is absolutely critical for keeping bowels moving regularly. The best-absorbed forms are magnesium taurate, citrate, malate and bisglycinate. I recommend supplementing dietary intake with 400 to 800 mg per day.

A good protocol for constipation is to start by taking probiotics and magnesium. Probiotics can help with digestion of dietary fiber and so help people to tolerate it better. And magnesium starts to relax the intestinal muscles. Together with the increased fiber and water, we almost never need to turn to laxatives.

[Ed. Note: Jim LaValle is an educator, clinician and industry consultant in the field of integrative healthcare. He is a licensed pharmacist, board certified clinical nutritionist and doctor of naturopathic medicine with more than 20 years clinical practice experience in the field of natural therapeutics and functional medicine. Named one of the "50 Most Influential Druggists" by American Druggist for his work in natural medicine, LaValle has authored 13 books, including his latest, Cracking the Metabolic Code. For more information, click here.]

karen, you always post such interesting topics. thanks for sharing.

Thanks!

I guess I get too many health newsletters. ;-)

Thanks Karennd.I take epson salt and water sometimes and it helps me a lot.Also,fermented foods like raw nut cheeses are excelent. I'll have more magnesium and probiotics because I am not as regular as I'd like to be.Thanks again.

I just recently bought some atchara - fermented papaya from [www.tropicaltraditions.com] and I'm going to try it soon. Fermented foods are a good source of probiotics, thanks for reminding me.

You're welcome.

i had no idea people even ate fermented foods. interesting. thanks for sharing guys!

It is very simple too, any nuts (almond per exemple)
1 C almonds
1/2 C water
Blend it and pour in a cheese cloth inside of a container that has holes on it (could be the plastic containers that you buy blueberries)
Put a plate underneath because you have to leave overnight and the water of it will go away leaving only the almond cheese that is a fermented cheese. Delicious !!

or yogurt
1 C Almonds
1 C water
Blend it and leave it to rest for 3 hours.That is it !! Simple ! You can have it with agave,and any fruit that you like.

Ah! in the cheese I cut some onions,garlic,parsley and any herb that I have and put in it and eat with flax crackers.

Sounds yummy, cy! But it's hard to get raw almonds nowadays, right?

Camille, yes, lots of ancient cultures eat fermented foods and they provide probiotics. But some raw foodist do not believe in eating fermented foods. It might be a good transitional food for some until their gut flora has adapted.

Karennd,I made a raw cream cheese with cashew nuts. Amazing! 1 C cashew and 1/2 C water and let drain overnight with the cheesecloth. Now I'm going to mix it with raisins and mapple syrup in a flax cracker.It's going to be my breakfast tomorrow.

Also,I make sunflower cheese,same procedure.Very yummy.

Definitely yummy!

Drinking pleanty of alkaline water and eating lots of alkaline food helps!

Regards, Mel

Very true and a raw food diet definitely helps with that.

When ever I eat anything fermented I suffer with bad trapped wind, I suffer from yeast intollerance, any advice well appreciated on that one, I have just started take good probiotic & prebiotic again, would love to get this this naturally through foods!

Ju

Ju, are you doing okay with the probiotic supplement? The reason I ask is that I heard that too much probiotics can also cause trapped gas. If you are doing okay with the probiotics, my thought is to continue with that for now and then maybe eventually try fermented foods again.

Maybe a liver detox would help you?

make a 10-day-cleanse with raw vegetables, green smoothies and alkalizing soups...

Alkaline Food / Green Food Chart With pH Scale