Constipation is an often uncomfortable and extremely prevalent condition affecting close to 80 million people. And while constipation might be common, it is definitely not normal and it can have disastrous consequences. Having healthy digestion and eliminating waste every day (ideally twice or three times a day!) is critical to your overall health. Your liver flushes out toxins and dumps them into your intestines. However, if your digestive system isn’t working optimally, then all those toxins and waste can get reabsorbed into your body. So, it makes sense that constipation has been linked to multiple diseases, including cancer and even Parkinson’s disease, plus it actually makes you feel like crap!
In this episode, Dr. Hyman sits down with Dr. George Papaicolaou to discuss the importance of getting to the root cause of constipation. They share information on the most common drivers of constipation including diet, chronic stress, antibiotic overuse, and a wide range of many other issues.
George Papanicolaou is a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and is Board Certified in Family Medicine from Abington Memorial Hospital. He is also an Institute for Functional Medicine Practitioner. Upon graduation from his residency he joined the Indian Health Service. He worked on the Navajo reservation for 4 years at the Chinle Comprehensive Medical Facility where he served as the Outpatient Department Coordinator. In 2000, he founded Cornerstone Family Practice in Rowley, MA. He practiced with a philosophy centered on personal relationships and treating the whole person, not just not the disease. He called that philosophy “Whole Life Wellness”. Over time as the healthcare system made it harder for patients to receive this kind of personal care Dr. Papanicolaou decided a change was needed. He began training in Functional Medicine through the Institute of Functional Medicine. In 2015, he established Cornerstone Personal Health – a practice dedicated entirely to Functional Medicine. Dr. Papanicolaou joined The UltraWellness Center in 2017.
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What about individuals who have had their gall bladder removal ..lack of bile causes cronic constipation!!??
BileX has helped me greatly
@K King thanks …can u plz send me the link for bilex..I live in UK
@K King do u take it only with big meals or with all meals ?
@Valerie Assar i have no idea if they ship to the UK ~ but search for BILE and something should come up… https://www.swansonvitamins.com/douglas-laboratories-bilex-90-tabs
@Valerie Assar I take it with my FAT Vitamins like D3, A, E, ect… Bile is for absorbing FAT soluble vitm, and to dissolve things. It’s made in your liver, and mine has never worked right. If it works to well, I will skip a day. Magnesium helped me years ago, but not so much now.
What about a child born with constipation? His stools were firm from day one, and he was breastfed. I don’t recall him passing meconium unless he did it in the hospital nursery. He was tested for hirschsprung , and celiac, nothing wrong there. Dairy and refined carbs makes him worse but even when we eliminate them completely he doesn’t get better. He’s 8 now and lives on laxatives. This is not any way to live for a child.
Give him probiotics and you will see a huge improvement
What helped me was Bile~! My Liver didn’t make enough bile. Not sure they make child size doses???
High vitamin C, magnesium glycinate, minerals, vitamin D3, zinc, copper, iodine.
This is so important! I needed to detox in order to regain health after having recurring UTIs but I had to stop consuming what I had been consuming before and juice fast – and wait until I could poop again before adding the activated charcoal into the detox because it can cause constipation. But the poop just wouldn’t happen for 3 days (because I later realized my bowels had formed a dependency on coffee in order to poop) – I got it all figured out and I’m back in balance now though 🙂 Understanding my poop patterns has been such a helpful part of maintaining that balance. Great episode!
1) How are your bowels ?
2) Do you go once per day, once per week or once per month ? (Permissive question)
3) Do you strain to start or finish ?
Three patterns of straining (into the neck, into the body, into the pelvis) injure autonomic nerves around the body to cause chronic NCDs.
Best frequency is once or twice per day (rapid oroanal transit times). NO STRAINING !!
I tried L-Gluthamin twice to do something good for my leaky gut and each time my gut started bleeding after two days. I got head ache and had bone pains… What can I do?
You have to have been in OB for a few decades to recognise different patterns of unsuccessful straining ! Different shapes of pelvis will result in nulliparous vulval pain, nulliparous uterine pain (endo) or nulliparous IBS !
WA Lane called it chronic intestinal stasis in 1923 ! DP Burkitt nearly got to it with his “dietary fibre” hypothesis in 1973. Most recent is “Autonomic denervation and Western diseases” Am J Med 2014;127:3-4 !! It is the precursor of. Many OBGYN conditions and many extrapelvic conditions. This is THE primary justification for lifestyle medicine !
Autonomic symptoms like headache migraine, etc may be viscera-visceral reflexes from lower autonomic injuries. Viscerovisceral connections include cardiorenal, hepatorenal, utero renal, lienorenal etc
Mine was caused by gluten for 46 years..
Hey! Love this video. I’d like to ask you something. I went to a gastro a few years ago because my constipation was horrible. It would get so bad I’d wake up in the middle of the night with the worst cramps. I got a colonoscopy done and was told I had IBS and I needed to take a medicine. I was not happy because I didn’t feel like we got down to the root cause. My question for you is where can I go or what kind of doctor should I seek out to really figure out what’s going on in my body? Find out if I have any food allergies, bacteria, leaky gut? I just can’t find doctors in my area that seem to care to help me figure out what’s really going on and how to solve this naturally.
For IBS you should do a carnivore diet for a while.
A functional medical Dr would be my recommendation. BileX has helped me more than any thing a Dr has recommended for 65 years.
Constipation tells me that I need to switch to a different brand of motor oil.
BileX has helped me Greatly
Thank you for your podcasts. They are wonderfully helpful!
I really appreciate your podcasts.
I love your content, I learn so much from watching every episode you do.
Just some constructive feedback: I notice you have a tendency to cutoff your guests and often over talk them before they finish making their point.
I found After 65 years that my problem was NO Bile~! Dr’s told me eat more fiber, drink more water~ Nothing worked until I discovered BileX~!!!!!
I used to have really normal and healthy bowel movements I mostly follow a paleo diet but suddenly out of nowhere began experiencing chronic constipation for like a month ?then it suddenly went away then it came back briefly? had no changes to my diet or lifestyle i exercise regularly so it was super weird … any idea what could cause that ?! I’m young so I’m not sure why , maybe stress ?