Tag Archives: sluggish bowel

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It's A Little Bit Embarrassing, But Are You Prone To A Sluggish Bowel?

It’s certainly not the usual topic of discussion around the dinner table but if you suffer from a sluggish bowel (a fairly common digestive complaint amongst shift workers), then you’re not alone.

A lot of shift workers are prone to this gastrointestinal complaint because of the 24/7 lifestyle – working erratic hours resulting in chronic fatigue leading to poor dietary choices. Drinking excessive amounts of coffee or tea and not enough water, a bad diet, insufficient exercise and consuming foods low in essential vitamins and minerals are all potential contributors of constipation.

Eating when you’re not hungry or not eating altogether – a common trait amongst shift workers due to irregular start and/or finish times, (along with a lack of regular meal breaks), can also lead to a sluggish bowel.

So despite your crazy 24/7 lifestyle, you mind find the tips below helpful in overcoming this rather embarrassing complaint.

4 Handy Tips To Help With A Sluggish Bowel

1. Epsom Salts – mix 1/2 – 1 teaspoon into juice or water. Epsom salts work by pulling water into the colon making the stools easier to pass. The magnesium found in Epsom salts assists with muscle contractions making it easier for the colon to contract and eliminate the stool.

2. Drink more water – at least 2 litres per day. If your body is dehydrated the large intestine in your digestive tract soaks up the water from your food waste. This results in hard stools that are difficult to pass. Drinking plenty of water consistently throughout the day can help prevent and alleviate constipation by aiding the flow of food though the intestines.

3. Exercise – inactivity is a major risk factor for constipation and essential for regular bowel movements. Moving your body helps in the relief of constipation by decreasing the time it takes for food to move through the large intestine, thus limiting the amount of water absorbed from the stool into the body.

4. Linseed is extremely useful in difficult cases of constipation – 1 teaspoon of linseed swallowed with water before each meal provides both roughage and lubrication to the digestive tract.

It’s important to realise that a sluggish bowel is often blamed for many diseases because waste products are retained in the body allowing toxins to be absorbed back into your system.

The accumulation of faeces in the colon can also inhibit material from passing through naturally leading to the onset of hernias, diverticulitis and heemorrhoids. It can also destroy the good bacteria in our colon which can lead to infection and disease (80% of our immune system is located in our digestive system).

So just like our 24/7 lifestyle, we need to keep things moving in our digestive tract 24/7 as well!

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Struggling From A Tired Body? Learn Why A Sluggish Bowel Creates A Sluggish Body!

Do you have days when your whole body is just aching with tiredness? You feel so weak and exhausted that you can barely drag your tired body out of bed when the alarm goes off? Then you need to take a good look at what’s coming out the other end, because a sluggish bowel creates a sluggish body.

Now as you sit here and read this article you’re probably thinking “I really don’t want to know what’s coming out the other end of my body” – but you should. Because even though bowel movements are probably not your usual topic of conversation (especially at the dinner table), they are a good representation of your inner health and why you’re prone to having a tired body.

You see, by having a “complete and satisfying” bowel movement in the morning – it will actually help you achieve a higher level of energy. Whereas if your bowel is over-burdened and blocked up, then it’s actually preventing your body from being able to absorb essential vitamins and minerals from the food that you’re eating.

In fact this is also one of the reasons why so many people get sick. Their bodies are so clogged up from all of the processed and toxic food that they’ve eaten over the years – that they’re depleted of nutrition, or more simply – severely malnourished.

Unbelievable given that we live in a world that has an abundant supply of fresh food.

But the real problem is that we’re choosing to eat all of the wrong foods which have very little fibre and very little nutritional value – plus we’re eating way too much of these types of foods.

You see, the fibre in food is an important bulking agent to the stool, because it aids in the elimination of waste materials from the colon. We actually need between 30-50g of fibre every day, and to put this in to perspective; three cups of steamed vegetables contains 10g of fibre.

So if you want to transform yourself from having a tired body into one that feels more energetic and radiant, then you need to look after your bowels.

Make sure that you’re having a high-fibre diet; drinking at least 1.5 – 2 litres of water a day; consuming sufficient essential fatty acids (EFAs) for lubrication (yikes, sorry to get so specific here); and incorporate regular, brisk exercise as a part of your daily lifestyle.

Oh, and another way to boost your bowels into action is by having a glass of warm water with lemon juice first thing in the morning. This aids the digestive system and makes the process of eliminating the waste products from your body so much easier.

I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling a heck of a lot less tired just thinking about that!!