Common Causes of Chronic Constipation and How to Treat It
The Primal Pioneer Podcast teaches you how to improve the environment you live, work, and exercise in so you can achieve optimal health. Heathar’s leading-edge teachings and expert interviews with integrative health professions teach you the most effective, simple yet deeply transformative solutions to overcoming and preventing every chronic disease today. You’ll walk away from this podcast feeling invigorated, inspired, and confident about your body’s incredible and natural ability to heal!
Common Causes of Chronic Constipation and How to Treat It
In episode 38 of the Primal Pioneer, I want to talk about overcoming chronic constipation. If you or someone you know has struggled with this, I hope this episode can help you get to the root causes of your chronic constipation, so you can begin to heal your GI tract and system. I will also be dissolving a few myths we hear surrounding this topic, and what you should do if you’ve attempted all the standard approaches such as eating more fiber and utilizing magnesium supplements.
But before we dive right in, let me introduce myself in case this is your first visit. I am your host, Heathar Shepard and I am incredibly passionate about helping people JUST LIKE YOU find the health and happiness they truly deserve.
Besides being an alternative healer and integrative health coach, I’m also a Traumatic Brain Injury survivor who struggled for 10 years until I discovered the MOST important factor for overall health: the environment we live and work in. And in The Primal Pioneer, I share what 98+% of doctors don’t tell you (or don’t even know!) about true health and wellness. You’ll learn about the importance of sunlight, as well as the foods and eating cycles that heal the root causes of chronic disease. And in an age dominated by technology, you’ll discover how EMF mitigation can drastically improve your life.
Everyone has their healing journey with their unique struggles...but I’m here to give you all the tools you need to make that healing happen!
So if you’re ready to learn more about common causes of chronic constipation and how to treat it, keep on reading! And for even more details, listen to ALL of episode 38 of The Primal Pioneer on your favorite streaming platform.
Causes of Chronic Constipation, Point #1: Dissolving a few common myths surrounding chronic constipation.
Some myths we hear surrounding this topic include if you find yourself experiencing constipation often, you should eat more fiber. If you struggle with chronic constipation, you likely get frustrated when you are told to eat more fiber, fruits, or vegetables because you’re already doing this. When it comes to chronic constipation in relatively healthy people, meaning you don’t eat fast food or a lot of processed foods, this is not the root cause of your constipation. For those who eat a poor diet that isn’t very diverse in what they consume, this is a great place to start.
We also hear that drinking more water helps. You can drink too much water. A lot of people are obsessed with drinking more water today. Of course, you want to get good quality pure spring water into your diet, most people are drinking enough water. However, they still struggle with constipation, and sometimes we drink too much water where we’re running to the bathroom all day and depleting certain minerals in our body. We want to be careful with this simple recommendation to just drink more water because we don’t want people to get into a pathological state around their water drinking. If you’re not thirsty and you are drinking water, you are just going to cover up a symptom. Drinking water is a good thing but we want to make sure we drink healthy amounts of water.
You Might Also Like
Let's deep dive into your health to see what might be holding you back from achieving optimal health
Causes of Chronic Constipation, Point #2: The most obvious causes of constipation that could be overlooked.
If you struggle with chronic constipation, here are some of the most obvious causes of constipation that can be overlooked. The first one being prescription drugs. There’s a lot of prescription drugs that can cause constipation. If you have been on any prescription medication for a long period of time, ask yourself if the constipation occurred before you started the drug or after, this will provide you a lot of insight. If you do realize that constipation began as you took the drug, it may be a good idea to look at the condition you’re taking the prescription for, determine if there are alternatives and if your medical provider will work with you to make healthier choices on how you can approach the condition.
Another obvious cause that could be overlooked is iron supplements. If you are taking any type of iron supplements and you are constipated, this can be correlated. The next obvious cause is water which we discussed a bit earlier. If you are not drinking enough water, try to incorporate more water into your daily routine and see how you feel. Again, make sure you are drinking when you're thirsty. The last most obvious cause of constipation that can be overlooked is movement. If you spend all day sitting down at a computer or on the couch, chances are this is connected to your chronic constipation. I encourage you to simply implement walking into your daily routine. Try walking more and if this doesn’t relieve your constipation, we have to look at the possibility of deeper rooted issues.
Causes of Chronic Constipation, Point #3: The not so known causes of constipation.
Meal timing is one of the not so known causes of chronic constipation. If you have been following me for some time, you know that I talk about the importance of meal timing in regards to hormone health and metabolic health. When it comes to chronic constipation, we want to take a look at the timing of your meals. Are you skipping breakfast? Do you eat small frequent meals? If you are not eating promptly throughout the day, this can contribute to chronic constipation.
Another not so known cause behind chronic constipation is sunlight. Sunlight is a big deal when it comes to chronic constipation. If you are living an indoor life, you are surrounded by artificial light, predominantly in the blue spectrum. This is another cause of chronic constipation that most people are unaware of. The last cause behind chronic constipation that many may not know about is stress. If we are always in a state of fight or flight, then we are either in a state of constipation, diarrhea, or IBS with our bowels. Our dopamine and serotonin are being shot from the levels of stress and our melatonin is not being recycled. We will be flatlining our hormones because we are wearing out our cortisol levels.
Hi, I am Heathar
With over 12 years experience as an alternative healer, integrative health coach and one who has been through severe physical injury trying every remedy under the sun to heal myself with no avail…I’m here to tell you, all of those things are not only attainable but are foundational to achieving optimal health and are core elements to overcoming all chronic and stubborn diseases.
At the age of 23 I suffered a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) preventing me from the ability to engage in physical activity for over 12 years post my car accident. Today, I know I could have recovered from this injury much quicker if I had known then what I know now! But….the accident lead me down the healing path. A path that I was destined to take to help myself heal and to learn how to help others heal complicated and chronic disorders as well.
During this time, I learned two things: How to harness the healing power of sunlight and how to utilize frequency based medicine to facilitate biological transformations in the body - all the way down to the mitochondrial level.
Today, I lead an active life and you can bet I’m uber passionate about teaching others how they can overcome even the most daunting health experiences that most medical professionals have band-aid solutions for, at best.
And today, my health continues to improve each day and I now lead an active, healthy lifestyle - all of which I thought would never be possible to achieve again. All it took was discovering the most effective path to health and healing to get me there and now, to help my clients get there as well!
Causes of Chronic Constipation, Point #4: The role that Epstein-Barr Virus plays in chronic constipation.
A lot of people struggle with the Epstein-Barr virus, and oftentimes it’s something people don’t realize they have. This virus could be diagnosed as so many different things, from fibromyalgia, to Lyme disease, the flu, or mono. Epstein-Barr can look a lot of different ways. Usually, if you have been exposed to Epstein-Barr and you have a sunlight deficiency, you don’t go outside much, and your immune system is weak, this virus can stay in your body and cause chronic constipation. To even be susceptible to the Epstein-Barr virus, you have to have both sunlight and vitamin D deficiency.
If you are getting enough sunlight and you are exposed to Epstein-Barr, you may not even express symptoms. If your sunlight and vitamin D is adequate, even if you came into contact with Epstein-Barr, you will likely not get it. This virus can cause constipation if you have Epstein-Barr or mono currently or have had it in the past. I have seen this lead to chronic constipation states, even in people who had Epstein-Barr when they were as young as 10 years old. Now, they’re 40 or 50 years old and have been constipated for years. There’s a huge connection between the two, so keep that in mind.
The Bottom Line of Common Causes of Chronic Constipation and How to Treat It
I hope you enjoyed this episode and hope it helped you gain insight into the chronic constipation state, as well as the layers at which we have to address when it comes to truly overcoming chronic constipation. Remember that if you or someone you know struggles with this and they have followed all the standard approaches, all hope is not lost. It’s a matter of diving deeper into the root causes.
If you enjoyed this episode, I would appreciate it if you took one minute to rate and review. Each review helps more people just like you learn the deeper truths about health, healing, and what’s driving our epidemic rates of poor health today. Don’t forget to take a screenshot of the episode, share it on your Instagram stories, and tag me @sunlight_rx. Thanks for tuning in and see you next week!
Episode Resources & Useful Links:
Be featured on The Primal Pioneer Podcast
Do you have a healing story that you want to share with the world?
Have you conquered an “incurable disease”?
Have you been mistreated by the medical profession and want your voice to be heard?
Do you have a mind-blowing healing story or experience that you feel would benefit others?
If so, Heathar wants to learn more!