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Natural Laxatives: Part 4 of 9 on ELIMINATION


Robyn Openshaw - Jul 21, 2008 - This Post May Contain Affiliate Links


It’s important that we keep the colon and lower intestine clean and powerfully peristaltic.   The answer isn’t to gag down some chemically reduced Metamucil stirred into water, while eating the Atkins Diet, like my friend Michelle does.   When I occasionally go out on a limb and express concern about her long-term Atkins lifestyle, I mention the importance of plant fiber, and she says, “Oh, I’m covered.   I drink Metamucil like crazy.”

Jensen says 95% of the millions of dollars spent annually on laxatives are only stimulating the bowel by irritating and harming it.   If you want to use a very effective natural laxative that will stimulate without causing diarrhea or irritate the colon, have the herb Cascara Sagrada on hand.

Laxatives do one or more of three things:

  1. increase the amount of liquid retained in the feces,
  2. act as a lubricant, or
  3. irritate, poison, and/or chemically stimulate muscle walls to cause abnormal contractions.

If you have diarrhea, it’s for one or more of these four reasons:

  1. excessive use of laxatives,
  2. stress,
  3. infection in the GI tract/colon, or
  4. toxins in the bowel.

These chemicals are absorbed through lymph and blood vessels and end up in various parts of the body.   They damage the normal ability of the bowel to eliminate on its own, tiring out muscles by keeping them constantly stimulated.

The way to heal the bowel is through diet that promotes excellent nerve and muscle tone, with clean, pink, highly peristaltic tissues. And what’s that diet? Lots of clean water, and lots of bulky greens, vegetables, and fruits, legumes and whole grains, nuts and seeds. The GreenSmoothieGirl diet prevents ulcerations, diverticulitis, spastic bowel, IBS, strictures, adhesions, and colitis, and gas/flatulence that are affecting increasing numbers of people in the Western world.

Additionally, you can do a very simple thing do get off laxatives and become more regular.   Wake up your digestive system every morning as you wake up, before you get out of bed.   Massage your ascending, transverse, and descending colon with your hands or a tennis ball.   Massage deeply starting in the lower  right of your pelvis, work straight upwards, then massage  right to left across your belly button, and straight down on the left [corrected from my original post].   Then get up and start your day with two glasses of water.   These are very effective natural laxatives.   And of course, most people know that prunes are  good natural laxatives, too.

Here are all the posts in this series on elimination:
Part 1: Green Feces
Part 2: Foods That Cause Constipation
Part 3: Relieving Constipation
Part 4: Natural Laxatives
Part 5: Relief For Intestinal Gas And Bloating
Part 6: Chronic Constipation
Part 7: Best Colon Cleanse
Part 8: Body Cleansing
Part 9: More Experts On Colon Cleansing

Posted in: Detox, Relationships, Tools & Products

7 thoughts on “Natural Laxatives: Part 4 of 9 on ELIMINATION”

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  1. Lindy says:

    I think I need a vocabulary lesson to completely understand this. What is peristaltic, enema, and diverticulitis?

  2. Elaine says:

    Robyn,

    I think you have the colon massage backwards—I have always been taught to start on the right hand side at the appendix and move up, over and then down in a clockwise direction as confirmed on all the web pages I found when I Googled “colon massage” here is one quote l found…”You also need to make sure that you massage in a clock-wise position otherwise you’ll be pushing the fecal matter in the wrong direction”. Counter clock wise is beneficial if one is suffering from sustained diaherria.

    Elaine

  3. Robyn says:

    Elaine is right. As I was actually doing this (correctly), this morning, I realized, “Oh, I described it incorrectly in my blog! I better go revise it!” And then the thought, “But before I do, someone else will point it out.” Thanks, Elaine.

    Peristalsis is the muscular contraction of the bowel that moves waste through and out. Enema is when you put water into the colon (using a syringe for a baby or something more sophisticated like an irrigation tube with an enema tip for someone older), to help flush it out. Diverticulitis is a disease of the colon: a part of the lower digestive tract gets stuff trapped in it, and it sags and pouches and loses its muscle/nerve tone, sometimes dies/rots.

  4. Robyn says:

    And I should say, about diverticulitis (which I believe I define in a blog later in this series), that over 50 percent of Americans over the age of 60 get it! Please avoid it with a GSG diet for life–not just a temporary “health kick.” The bulging sacs, sections of bowel, in diverticulitis often rupture and/or get infected. Bad news.

  5. Anonymous says:

    Dh has a section in his stomach that feels (to him) like a hard knot. It’s almost constant. Could that be a sign of diverticulitis? He also has a constant lump in his throat. He has been scoped and they only ever say he has acid reflux and prescribe those awful purple pills or variation thereof. The dr told him our insurance required him to try every single drug and then if none of them work, they’ll do surgery. What a bad option!

    DH has tried prevacid, but it didn’t help (surprise!), and he’s tried apple cider vinegar, tried going off sugar for 2 weeks, drinking only bottled water for 2 weeks, and so far nothing helps. He is going to try going gluten free (dd is gf). I keep telling him to try taking lots of yogurt/kefir and raw foods, but that’s hard for him to do. Hasn’t tried the Betaine HcL but maybe he will before he goes GF. Got any good ideas?

    My neighbor kept having incidents where he couldn’t digest anything for a few days, and the drs couldn’t find anything wrong, so he’d go back home, drink liquids and wait till his digestive system started working again. He finally ended up in the ER (yet again), and this time they did surgery on him, and found that a section of his colon was all twisted up in a way they’d not seen before, and the colonoscopy didn’t find. They cut the section out and fixed him up, and apparently he’s “fine” now…

  6. Anonymous says:

    I know this post is two years old, but I am a massage therapist and it is a good idea to massage your abdomen in the same direction as mentioned but start on the other side, then you can push matter down on the left side before you move to the horizantal part and then the right. The thought is, if you start on the right and go across that you will get some benefit but will also be compacting the fecal matter making it more challenging to move. 🙂

  7. Stephanie Sframeli says:

    I was wondering how can my dad heal his gut. He has diverticulitis, so he can’t do seeds. I bought him a nutri bullet hoping he’d make green smoothies. He hasn’t yet. If I really worked on him, would the 26 day detox help? He also is diabetic.

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