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clear search termsThe Surprising and Fascinating World of Bowel Movements
Hi!
I am so excited to share this Facebook Live and THESE POWERFUL PEARLS of functional medicine with you. At SAFM we teach our students to be both confident and highly skilled at “puzzle piecing” and finding the interconnectedness between pieces of each patient’s unique case. In this presentation, I’ll share a few stapled but also some unexpected connections which might surprise you!
Check out this video to get some clinical pearls you can use right away. You’ll learn:
Powerful Pearls about BMs, the Colon, and Motility
- What *actually* drives motility and most often impairs it (hint: it’s not the fiber!)
- Why magnesium is not the end-all-be-all solution
- Microbial solutions for constipation and diarrhea
- Surprising reasons for cramps (it’s not always SIBO)
- When the best solution is NOT in the GI tract
- Why BMs should be the First focus
Thank you very much for joining in the fun and learning!
With warmth, love, and gratitude to you for sharing your gifts with so many –
P.S. If you are passionate about transforming healthcare through the power of functional medicine, we encourage you to learn more about our training program here.
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Hi Tracy, I’m an IIN graduate of 2010, and for the past couple of years I’ve been feeling like I need something ‘more’. Although I fully enjoyed my education, I’m searching to fill in the gaps so to say. This was my first experience with your Facebook teachings and I have to say that I’m very impressed at the depth of information and concentration on solutions. Thank you (deep breath) you’re an inspiration with a refreshing teaching style. I found many take-a-ways from this lesson but I personally resonated with all the amazing clues our bodies give to indicate specific issues, like malabsorbtion. I also liked the reminder to dig a little deeper with our clients. I’m passionate about finding the root cause and without digging, well, we’re just not serving our clients truest needs. I hope I’m not too late to join in the contest for I would love to be part of your community and honor my clients with more of your pearls!
In health & happiness, Michelle
As always, I learn so much. It’s actually pretty addictive to attend your talks. I’m always left in amazement at how you simplify the most complex material. It’s always the simple things for
me. I know dehydration is a cause for constipation but your talk brought it to the forefront some of the symptoms I have. I’ve taken magnesium which was helpful but after hearing some of the other symptoms I think I may be chronically dehydrated and of course in denial. I can’t wait to further investigate.
The webinar today was excellent! I support your passion to share the importance of gut health! One of the most valuable things you said is normal may not be what’s optimal. Being our own investigator and considering the advice of a functional medicine practitioner may help our gut health journey. Thank you!
Thank you for this very important topic! I noticed that some people are shy and do not want to discuss it, and some get really irritated. Great to learn more about it and get food for thoughts. Would be awesome to do the whole semester and learn how to put things together.
One really great tip for me was the connection between serotonin, SSRI and motility. Knowing that majority of serotonin is produced in the gut, I never thought about bowel movement and motility connection.
There were so many tips today, that I need to listen to the recording .
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge.
Hello! Love this topic. So many pearls to implement but the best will be the ‘stink factor’ comments at the beginning because it will help get my husband to actually implement the things his Health Coach wife shares with him! 🙂 I love watching you and cannot wait to start at SAFM!
Thank you for all of the amazing pieces of information. I took Away so many pearls. The first was regarding the thyroid and motility. I feel like this is going to help me answer so many questions. I would absolutely love to take a semester with you. I appreciate how much you share. Learning about seratonin and motility is also a first for me. I have so much to learn but at so grateful for your gift of explaining things so simply.
Thank you again for the wonderful session. There are so many ideas (pearls) that we can take away. Something as simple as remembering the way we ask questions like “are your bowel movements normal”. As a nurse I learned long ago that everyone thinks differently and “normal” to one person is different to another. I had a patient once say they were not on medications but with more questioning learned they were on Insulin for Diabetes. It was something they took all the time and didn’t think of it as a medication. Topic was a great one! thanks again.
Thank you, Tracy, for another fascinating journey filled with “everything poop!” One of the pearls you spoke of was how using fiber to remedy chronic constipation was NOT a good idea. It’s an idea worth investigating more. Also taking magnesium citrate – which I have given my elderly mother for years – is the choice for chronic constipation. Gotta scoot, but again, thank you so much for your overwhelming generosity with your materials, research data, and information..
Wow. What a lot of great information. My top favorite was the constipation segment — the biggest new pearl was that you can overdo magnesium. I thought a little is good and therefore a lot would be fantastic. Like everything else caution, where appropriate should be exercised. I’d like a bit more information about how to determine how much to take and more about those specialty magnesium(s) that help with other conditions — like blood pressures, twitching of various sort and when you should advise patients to take what type.
I enjoyed learning how serotonin plays a role in gut motility. It was really interesting to find out that SSRI drugs depend on a person’s serotonin level as to whether or not they cause constipation or diarrhea.
Thanks for all the tips and pearls, and your willingness to share!
Thank you Tracy for another wonderful and insightful FB Live webinar. What I learned was that people confusing their hormonal imbalances with IBS symptoms. How does one get mineral readings? Through hair samples?
Tracy you are awesome. This Facebook live I take notes. I pray this clarity about digestive enzyme and bowel movements well aid my clients. Looking forward to next topic constipation I really want to help my hubby. Where do I start? His regular bowel movement is once every 4 days
First of all…’thankyou’ Tracy for another outstanding and wildly informative presentation. I will definitely have to view it several times over to get the most out of it. One thing that I hoped you might talk more about is the influence of prescription drugs on bowel movements. I am a registered psychiatric nurse, and I see time and time again how psychiatric drugs appear to interfere with normal bowel movements. In particular, I often witness patients who, after being constipated for 2-3 days and have been given lactulose and sennosides (in addition to the regular daily doses of Metamucil, lactulose, lax-a-day, fruitlax, etc.), suddenly poop out a bowel movement that is the size of a small fire log (approx. 12 – 14″ in length and 3-4″ in diameter). You would have to see it to believe it! I have one patient, in particular, who’s bowel movements are so large and so solid that we need to get maintenance to remove them from the toilet, because they are too large to flush, and frequently cause the toilet to overflow. Maintenance has also tried sawing these bowel movements up into smaller pieces, but they are so firm and still difficult to flush.… Read more »
Hi Tracy, thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge yet again, and for how much you manage to pack into one webinar – amazing! I found the last pearl that you squeezed in at the end very interesting which was about people with potentially confusing their hormonal imbalance (surge of prostoglandins ) as symptoms of IBS.
I am curious as to your thoughts on using colonic irrigation as a preventative measure for bowel cancer (flushing out toxic build up) and whether you think this is risky in terms of altering intestinal bacteria. Thank you!
Thank you Tracy for spending your time, and sharing so many great pearls!
I love the info on serotonin being a key modulator of motility. Also, connection between microbial overgrowth (especially hydrogen producers), h pylori- ulcers and gastritis.
Thank you so much!
Tracey, you are so much darn fun! I burst out in laughter as you described the the war (for lack of a better word) that goes on in our body. When stress and cortisol is on the rise and it finally escalates to the point that the colon has to dump everything to stay out of danger and preserve resources to survive! This is why are a such a great teacher. You bring it all to life making it easy to remember and marvel at the intelligence of the body. Thank you so much.
So many amazing pearls. I’m so fascinated by the role hormones, specifically serotonin, play in constipation. I had no idea and have been practicing for years, albeit conventional medicine. All so eye opening. Can’t soak up this info fast enough. Thank you!!
Thanks Tracy! I really enjoyed learning about the different colors of poop especially a white stool and what that can mean in regards to someone’s health. How looking at poop can indicate fat malabsorption issues if it is oily . At the end of the video you mentioned if someone has IBS doesn’t mean they have SIBO and that metformin medications causes loose stools.
Lastly, if someone is constipated to not throw out the eat more fiber doesn’t solve the problem and that it can cause more gas and bloating.
Another great video!
Kim Lemberg
Tracy,
Thank you for the seminar. My sister actually was diagnosed with IBS and advised to have bowel reduction. Luckily, she was receptive to my help and together we were able to reverse the condition through initial fasting then elimination style adding of food.
I really admire the dedication to educate.
Chris
Your webinar today gave me a much expanded perspective on GI motility! Thank you! I confess! I’m one of those people who think about fiber… fiber… fiber … especially in the population that I work with which is mostly elderly, I knew that 90%+ of serotonin produced was in the GI tract, but I hadn’t really started connecting that fact with intestinal motility, transit time, and absorption issues. I have a couple of patients on SSRIs with diarrhea and constipation, so it was interesting to hear that one possible modulator of this problem could like with the changes in the amount of serotonin present in the gut. I”m not clear how this works yet and I’d like to learn more.