A lazy bowel: gentle cleansing without laxatives

WHY LAXATIVES ARE A TRAP
Taking laxatives regularly makes the bowel lazy: it forgets how to work on its own and demands more and more "help". That road runs one way only. Our task is the opposite — to give the bowel back its own strength. There are simple supports for that.

Five gentle supports

• Warm water in the morning. A glass of warm water straight after getting up is the most natural way to start the bowel (more on this in the article about water).
• Vegetables with every meal, raw and stewed. Fibre is the bowel's broom; without it there is simply nothing for it to work with.
• Prunes. In the evening soak 5–6 of them; in the morning eat them and drink the water they stood in.
• Flaxseed. One tablespoon of ground seed a day, always washed down with water — without liquid, fibre has the opposite effect.
• Walking, at least half an hour a day. The movement of the abdominal wall massages the bowel better than any medicine.

Teach the bowel a routine

Try to empty the bowel at the same time each morning, without hurrying. And never put off the urge "until a convenient moment" — every such delay teaches the bowel to keep quiet.

About deep cleanses

Bowel irrigations and other deep procedures I describe in detail in my books — with the preparation, the order of steps and the contraindications. Do not do them in a hurry from someone else's account on the internet. For the first few weeks the gentle supports in this article are enough — they already change how you feel quite noticeably.

Why the bowel gets "lazy"

The bowel is a muscular organ: it pushes its contents along in waves, and those waves need two things — bulk (fibre) and movement of the body. Refined food without fibre gives the walls nothing to push against, a sedentary life leaves the abdominal wall out of work, and the habit of holding on teaches the nervous system to mute the urge. So over the years the bowel becomes "lazy" — not from old age, but from the conditions we have created for it.

The microflora: your invisible workers

A healthy bowel is home to lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacteria — they keep the environment slightly acidic, hold back putrefaction and mould, take part in producing B vitamins and in immunity. I link the microflora even to clarity of mind and general vitality. Feed it what it loves: vegetables, greens, sauerkraut — and it will repay you with regular, easy bowel work.

The rhythm of the week

The first three days — only water in the morning and vegetables with every meal. From the fourth day add prunes and flaxseed. From the second week, the morning routine: the same time, no rushing, no phone. For most people that is enough for the bowel to come back to life within two or three weeks, without a single pill.

A word of caution

If you have a chronic bowel disease, check any change of diet with your doctor.