Bowel Movements

iLoveSugar

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What is most responsible for softening the bowels? I've been going, but often hard and dry.
 

4peatssake

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Hard and dry stools still mean constipated even when we're going.

Cascara is the best remedy imo. Emodin is the active ingredient in cascara.

Ray Peat said:
Emodin and the anthraquinones (and naphthoquinones, such as lapachone) weren’t the reagents that Koch considered the most powerful, but emodin can produce to some degree all of the effects that he believed could be achieved by correcting the cellular respiratory apparatus: Antiinflammatory, antifibrotic (Wang, et al., 2007) antiviral, antidepressant, heart protective, antioxidant, memory enhancing, anticancer, anxiolytic and possibly antipsychotic.

Working backward from these effects, we get a better perspective on the “laxative” function of emodin and cascara. Koch and Szent-Gyorgyi believed that cellular movement and secretion were electronically regulated. In one of his demonstrations, Szent-Gyorgyi showed that muscles could be caused to contract when they were exposed to two substances which, when combined, partially exchange an electron, causing an intense color reaction, but without causing an ordinary chemical (oxidation-reduction) reaction. This kind of reaction is called a Donor-Acceptor reaction, and it is closely related to the phenomenon of semiconduction. The reacting molecules have to be exactly “tuned” to each other, allowing an electron to resonate between the molecules.

In a muscle, any D-A matched pair of molecules would cause a contraction, but the same molecules, combined in pairs that weren’t exactly tuned to each other, failed to cause contraction. Szent-Gyorgyi believed that biological signal substances operated in a similar way, by adjusting the electronic balance of cellular proteins.

An effective laxative (besides preventing inflammation) causes not only coordinated contraction of the smooth muscles of the intestine, but also adjusts secretions and absorption, so that an appropriate amount of fluid stays in the intestine, and the cells of the intestine don’t become water-logged.

In the presence of bacterial endotoxin, respiratory energy production fails in the cells lining the intestine. Nitric oxide is probably the main mediator of this effect.
Bold is mine.

Cascara, energy, cancer and the FDA's laxative abuse
 

charlie

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Low metabolic rate is a major cause of constipation.

Thyroid, carrot salad along with cascara sagrada and you too can be in the cow patty crew. :mrgreen:
 

HDD

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What exactly should cascara do? I have 450 mg capsules by Solaray. If I take this I cannot go anywhere. Bowel movement is liquid. I tried opening the capsule and making a tea as someone in the forum suggested, leaving the sediment on the bottom and drinking the liquid. This has also caused liquid movement. Is this what should happen?
 

jyb

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Haagendazendiane said:
What exactly should cascara do? I have 450 mg capsules by Solaray. If I take this I cannot go anywhere. Bowel movement is liquid. I tried opening the capsule and making a tea as someone in the forum suggested, leaving the sediment on the bottom and drinking the liquid. This has also caused liquid movement. Is this what should happen?

A tip of a teaspoon can be a lot. You have to find the dose that doesn't result in excessively quick transit.
 

HDD

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Hmmm...ok, I suppose I could try half of the capsule. I thought maybe it was the product.
 

4peatssake

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No HDD, it isn't.
I wonder if the magnesium stearate is causing the issue.

I take aged cascara bark as tea and the laxative effect is to stimulate peristalsis and the movements are very natural. I think it's particularly important to get a pure source of cascara. PM me for info on getting it from Italy if you wish. I'm ordering from there next and I can send you some bark (I have a ton of it) if you'd like to try that meantime.
 

HDD

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Thanks 4ps. I wouldn't think there would be enough magnesium to cause the reaction I get. I will try using it again in a few days with even less than half. If it still doesn't have a good effect I will quit using it.
 

aquaman

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4peatssake said:
No HDD, it isn't.
I wonder if the magnesium stearate is causing the issue.

I take aged cascara bark as tea and the laxative effect is to stimulate peristalsis and the movements are very natural. I think it's particularly important to get a pure source of cascara. PM me for info on getting it from Italy if you wish. I'm ordering from there next and I can send you some bark (I have a ton of it) if you'd like to try that meantime.

It's definitely dose-dependent.

half a cap is enough for me. More and it's a bit liquid !
 

4peatssake

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aquaman said:
4peatssake said:
No HDD, it isn't.
I wonder if the magnesium stearate is causing the issue.

I take aged cascara bark as tea and the laxative effect is to stimulate peristalsis and the movements are very natural. I think it's particularly important to get a pure source of cascara. PM me for info on getting it from Italy if you wish. I'm ordering from there next and I can send you some bark (I have a ton of it) if you'd like to try that meantime.

It's definitely dose-dependent.

half a cap is enough for me. More and it's a bit liquid !
I think perhaps because I take the tea (using aged bark) - and sometimes very strong tea - that I haven't had a liquid experience. The tea is bitter but I've gotten used to it and I like the natural effects I have experienced.

I find that other more, ahem, explosive and liquid causing laxatives to be very unpleasant. I've not taken cascara in capsule form.
 

HDD

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I still had some effects the next afternoon. I wasn't constipated but maybe a little sluggish and thought I could use a good cleaning. Haha. I don't like that extreme. Very similar to too much magnesium. I may just opt for extra carrot salad if needed in the future.
 

4peatssake

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I hear ya HDD. I had that kind of experience with haidut's milk of magnesia and selzer water recipe. Explosive! :lol:
I hate running to the toilet!!

If you ever want to experiment with the tea, let me know and I'll send you some. I'm also going to try the cascara from Italy in the near future.

Ultimately, I think if the carrot salad does the, er, job, that's definitely the way to go. ;)
 

HDD

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I need to go by the wisdom "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." However, besides the laxative effect, I thought there was some other benefit to using it.

Thanks for the offer of the bark. I may take you up on that in the near future.
 

charlie

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TMI alert below! Like seriously I am gonna talk about poo in detail.

I think it was Peatarian who once said that Ray Peat said that poo should not have any form. It should be soft and formless. Like a cow poops, it just flops on the ground in a pile, with no form or no logs, for the most part.

So, I am under the impression that any kind of form to anyones poop, like a log form, would indicate constipation. When I hit the dose just right with the cascara, I go to the bathroom, in one swift movement, all the poo comes out and just falls into a patty, no logs, just a soft pile of poo. I call them man pattys, and they can be pretty darn huge, like block the toilet and call for help type huge. :rolling There is no waiting around for more poo to come, because its pretty much all came out in one swift motion. And I feel incredibly good after one of these kinds of poo's, clear even. Also, its not liquidy like diarrhea, its just soft, without form. You can tell when you have had too much cascara, it will give to many rumbles in the tummy, and when you poo you will have water coming out with it and I dont think this is what you want.

Man patty club in da house. :)
 
OP
I

iLoveSugar

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I go daily for the most part, it's just always dry and my abdomen hurts quite bad. Also more heartburn than lately. Going to a GI doc Tuesday, but I doubt I will leave there with any wisdom. Any help here would be great. Cascara doesn't work, nor does the carrot/bamboo. They all help me go, but not comfortably.
 

HDD

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Have you tried magnesium?

Or are you getting enough magnesium?
 
OP
I

iLoveSugar

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Good question. I have taken magnesium glycinate at times recently with success. Like everything else though, the effects dwindle. Mag baths have never helped, and milk of mag also works temporarily. I wonder why everything hardens inside of me, while I still go "often"?
 

HDD

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More ripe fruit might help. Do you drink coffee?

Have you tried aloe vera?
 
OP
I

iLoveSugar

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Haagendazendiane said:
More ripe fruit might help. Do you drink coffee?

Have you tried aloe vera?

Ripe fruit is hard to come by right now, but I do some cantaloupe. I quit coffee a ways back because I was getting WAY to jittery.

Haven't tried aloe in 4-5 years.
 

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