Laxatives Blow! Constipation, Gut Health & the Real Path to Regularity

Constipation, Brain Health, and the Gut 0:00

A 2023 study from researchers at Harvard Medical School analyzing data for more than 110,000 people found that people who were chronically constipated showed cognitive markers equivalent to three additional years of brain aging compared to those with daily elimination. Welcome to Vitality Radio, the podcast that helps you make sense of natural supplements and thrive without pharma drugs. I'm Jared St. Clair. I grew up in a health food store and spent over 40 years now figuring out what works and what doesn't, so that you can make confident, informed decisions about nutrition, supplements, and your health.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to Vitality Radio. My name is Jared Sinclair. Did you know that Americans spend more than $700 million a year on laxatives? Let that sit for a minute. Yeah, I did say let that sit. I couldn't help it, but today's show is actually about sitting more consistently for shorter periods of time and without discomfort. Here's the part that makes that $700 million number genuinely maddening. Most of this money isn't even spent solving anything. These products work exactly once you take them, something happens, you feel briefly victorious, like those t-shirts you say that say, I pooped with your hands raised.

If you haven't seen those are kind of hilarious. And then tomorrow the problem is back and now it's back with a tolerance. Do that for a year and your gut stops doing the job at all without a chemical nudge. You haven't fixed constipation, you've just added a subscription to it. Today we're doing a deep dive and really just pulling apart this whole problem. What these products are actually doing, these laxatives, why so many of us are in this situation in the first place and what actually works because there is a better way.

It's been around for thousands of years And it's time to learn about it. And, it is not just one thing, I have to tell you. It's a series of things, because if you've dealt with chronic constipation. There's a lot to it, but we're going to go piece by piece, item by item, lifestyle, supplement, diet, all of it. And try and help you get to the bottom of this because if you aren't pooping consistently, you are optimally well. That's all there is to. All right. It's bigger than an inconvenience, how I get into laxatives and how they work and what's wrong with them.

I want to name why chronic constipation actually matters in the first place, because yes, there's obvious discomfort. And most people have been dealing with irregular elimination for so long that they've normalized it. In fact, there are so many people over the years, happens all the time, they come to me and say, you know, I've got this, or I got that or whatever. And I'll ask them about their bowel habits and they'll say oh you, know I go every other day or three times a week or once a And there are people that actually believe that that's normal.

I'm trusting that my audience doesn't believe.

Why Constipation Matters 3:04

But maybe you're new and haven't learned some of these things. So if you stick around, we'll learn a lot more together, but we're really looking for one to two times a day at the minimum. And three times today is probably a pretty good number to look for as well, that somewhere in that one-to-three window. So what's actually happening in your gut when things don't move besides cramping, bloating, gassiness, and all that? Your gut microbiome needs to be fed. These are living, breathing, consuming organisms.

Their preferred food is fiber. Another very high thing on the chart for them is polyphenols, antioxidants. They ferment these things, they produce short chain fatty acids that fuel the cells of your colon and regulate your inflammatory tone throughout the entire body. And here's where it gets serious. When stools sit too long in the colon, those organisms exhaust their fiber supply and start fermenting protein instead, producing a very different and far more toxic set of metabolic byproducts. And when they burn through available proteins, some of these organisms begin consuming the mucus layer that lines and protects your gut wall in first place.

I often talk about antibiotics, glyphosate, refined foods, stress, and all these different things as factors in leaky gut and then autoimmune disease and everything that comes with it. But I probably don't talk constipation nearly enough. Usually when I bring it up, I talk it when you're about to start a liver cleanse or an endocrine cleanse, or a parasite cleanse. Under all those circumstances, you want to make sure your bowels are moving. You need to make sure they're moving on a regular basis all the time because as Sean Gibbons put it, a researcher at the Institute of Systems Biology, if we don't feed our microbes, they literally can start eating us.

That is the biological mechanism. They start to actually eat the protein and then they start the eat, the lining of the gut, mucus layer that exposes us to leaky gut and so many other issues. A 2024 study from that same group of over 1,400 healthy adults found that people who were chronically constipated showed measurable signs of decreased kidney function from exactly those protein fermenting metabolites building up in the blood. So constibation can also lead to kidney disease. There's also a cognitive connection.

2023 study for researchers at Harvard Medical School analyzing data from more than 110,000 people found that people who were chronically constipated showed cognitive markers equivalent to three additional years of brain aging compared to those with daily elimination. Think about that. That is a massive factor there. The fat mechanism runs through gut permeability. When transit is slow, toxic metabolites cross a weakened gut barrier and appear to be associated with increased accumulation of the proteins linked to cognitive decline.

three years of accelerated brain aging from constipation. So if your bowels aren't moving, your brain's not going to work as well either. Estrogen reabsorption. Now I've talked a little bit about this on some recent episodes, so I won't belabor it too much, but your liver processes used estrogen and also many other chemicals that are hormone-like chemicals like endocrine disrupting hormones, xenoestrogens and things like that. it packages it with bile for elimination and when transit in the gut slows certain gut bacteria produce something called glucuronic acid which breaks that package apart and allows for the body to actually then recirculate these spent hormones which can lead to all types of issues hormone related issues more severe periods more sever hot flashes lower testosterone levels mood swings brain fog and so many other things and then this is one that doesn't get talked about enough especially considered 20 to 50% and that's a big range, right?

20 to fifty percent. It's because people don't talk about this one. Tends to be a little embarrassing for people. Between 20 and 50 percent of the adult population is affected by hemorrhoids. 20-50 percent peak prevalence falls squarely between 45 and 65 years old, but it happens younger and it Nearly 4 million Americans every single year visit a doctor or an ER for hemorrhoids. And most people dealing with them have been doing so silently for a long time without connecting it to their bowel habits.

Now here's the mechanism. Chronic constipation produces hard, dry stool that requires straining to pass. The strainging increases intra-adominal pressure, engorges the venous plexus around the rectum, and over time causes supportive issues in the anal canal to degenerate.

Laxatives: Types and Dependency Risks 7:50

A study of more than a thousand patients with hemorrhoidal disease found that constipation, straining, and hard or lumpy stools at least 25% of the time were all independently associated with increased prevalence. So basically the more consti- patient you have, the most likely you are to have hemorhoids. Very, very simple. This is all resolved if we have soft, regular, effortless elimination. And that's what we're going to talk about how to achieve today. So how does stimulant laxative actually work and are they a trap?

Because I think many people have certainly heard that they are. There are several categories of quote-unquote laxeatives. They're bulk forming laxaatives like psyllium husk, acacia fiber, flaxseed, chia seed, things like that. These add volume and water holding capacity to the stool. They work very mechanistically. Really they work with what your body is already doing as well. And they just help to add that bulk and allow the bowel to move more efficiently. In the case of flaxseed and chia, they actually add a little bit of lubrication as.

Osmotic laxatives like magnesium and then the chemical Miralax draw water into the colon. Stimulant laxiatives are different. They work by chemically irritating the lining of the intestinal tract, triggering contractions that push contents through whether the gut is ready to or not. In the short term, that works reliably. For a specific acute situation, it does the job. I'm constipated, I am traveling, and I've not, you know, in my normal environment, eating my normally food. Normally I' m regular, but I m struggling here.

A glass of smooth-move tea can be very, very effective for something like that, or some CineCot or Cina tablets or something along those lines. The problem is what happens with repeated use, not occasional use. Your gut has its own intrinsic nervous system. The enteric nervous is called sometimes also known as the second brain. It governs peristalsis. That's the rhythmic coordinated contractions that move food and waste through the GI tract. When you repeatedly override that system with a chemical stimulus, you are repeatedly telling it, You don't need to do your job anymore.

The bowel adapts and over time, normal peristalsis quiets down. you need the stimulus to get the movement without it, nothing happens. That's laxative dependency and it's documented, well understood, and what most of the $700 million is being spent maintaining, okay? So as I said, I see this a lot at Vitality and I have people that have struggled with it for decades. And it does tend to happen in women more than men, but also There's a little caveat there. Maybe what I should say is I hear about it a lot more from women than men.

Men don't tend to talk about as much, but it's certainly a big problem with men and hemorrhoids seem to be a problem for both genders for sure. Now there is a bit of a trap. I would anticipate most people listening to Vitality Radio are going to try to avoid stuff like MiraLax if possible or any other, you know, pharmaceutical intervention when it comes to laxative. You might be using psyllium in the form of metamucil. And I will just, quick word of warning, don't use metamycil, it's artificially flavored, sweetened, and I think colored as well, if I remember correctly.

I believe it has yellow five in it. If you're going to use psylium, which can be very effective and i'll talk about in just a minute, Just use psyllium or use a naturally flavored psyllanium that you can buy at your health food store or here at Vitality Nutrition. Do not use Metamucil. Please, please, Please. But the big one that gets people a little bit confused is Senna because Sena is the most prevalent stimulant laxative ingredient in both pharmaceutical environments like your drug store and natural product stores like Vitaly Nutrition.

It's in smooth move tea, which is a super commonly used herbal tea. And it's a lot of herbal laxative supplements. It is also in many pharmaceuticals and Senna, although it is natural. is a big problem. It is the one that will cause the most of this dependency of any type of laxative out there. Now, we're going to talk about MiraLax here in a minute as well, but just because sin is natural, and this is perfect example of natural doesn't mean healthy, Senna, I think has its place. I believe it was probably put here for a very good reason.

And that is the occasional use. It's very effective that way. But if you're using it more than once or twice a week, and really once to twice, a weak is way too often too. but if your using more then once, or a twice week that's when you start to run into a potential issue, especially if using a day in, day out. Now I want to be accurate about this because there's concern that Sena causes chronic structural damage. And there's been a lot of research about this, and they haven't really been able to document that there is structural damage from Senna.

What they have been to able document is that the bowel does adapt. And that if you have to use Sena now, every day for weeks and weeks, you're going to have use it for months and months, years and years, oftentimes increase the dose over time. There's also concern with it darkening the intestinal lining. That does appear to be reversible, but it's a visible indicator that The Daily Anthraquinone, which is a kind of a natural dye essentially, is literally leaving its mark. For genuine short-term occasional use, Senna, totally defensible.

Daily habit, you gotta get away from it. Now Miralax, this is an interesting one, because I hear about this all the time. I have people, oh yeah, I've been using Mirallax for years, or my pediatrician told me to put my child on Mirillax. That drives me crazy. crazy when so many things like even simple prune juice can oftentimes take care of the job. But we're going to talk about that as well. Here's the problem with Miralax. It's purely chemical, polyethylene glycol. The form of plastic essentially, it's also known as PEG 3350. That's active ingredient in Mirallax, It is an osmotic agent.

Osmetic agents bring water to the bowel. Well, magnesium does aswell. So the first thing is, if you're using polyethylene glycal in the form Mirilax You should definitely be considering magnesium as an alternative, and I'll talk about that in a little bit more detail here in second. But the FDA never approved this drug for adults for more than seven days. A significant portion of people have been using it for months or even years. a study out of Stanford found that just six days on PEG, which is the active ingredient in Miralax, that it produced long-term measurable changes in gut microbial composition in animal models.

reduced diversity of the gut microbiome, which is huge, and actually created near extinction of certain beneficial microbial families in just six days. It also produced thinning of mucous layer, protecting the got lining which would in turn eventually potentially lead to leaky gut. These are animal model findings And I'm being very clear about that, but this is the second most used digestive remedy in the United States being far, being used far outside the original approval parameters. The FDA has also reported finding trace amounts of ethylene glycol and diethylene glycal in tested batches.

These are byproducts from manufacturing and breakdown of PEG 3350. Their position is that trace amounts aren't harmful at short-term doses. Daily long- term use is a different conversation though, and one that we don't even know the answer to. So we're talking about a real wrecking ball to the gut that is on par in some ways with antibiotics. And yet it's being used every single day by millions of Americans and American children. That's concerning. So what does the healthy bowel do? What does that look like?

Well, let's define the target first. I kind of did at the beginning anyway, we really want to be in what you could call the Goldilocks zone, which is Minimum once a day, optimal probably two times a, but between one and three times day of a well-formed bowel movement is what we're looking for. And there's plenty of research to back that up. There's also the consistency question, you know, what does a Well-Formed Bowel Movement look like? And this is going to get a little bit, well, poopy, I guess, But let's talk about it.

The Bristol stool chart, there are seven types of stool on the chart ranging from hard pellets to liquid. Type one and two are constipation, hard, dry, difficult to pass, meaning the colon pulled out too much water because transit was too slow. Types three and four are the target, well-formed, easy to past, indicating the gut is moving at the right pace. Type four, smooth, soft, sausage-shaped is the clinical gold standard. type five through type seven are progressively more loose, Indicating things are actually moving too fast.

So easy-to-pass. well-formed and smooth, soft and sausage-shaped. That's what we're looking for. what the experience should feel like. When your bowel is working correctly, using the bathroom should be almost a non-event, a clear urge, but not urgency, not cramping. You sit down, things move without effort, no straining. The whole process takes two or three minutes and you feel completely empty afterwards. No drama, No waiting,no coming back an hour later. I would anticipate that a very small percentage of people listening to this show are in that zone on a regular basis.

And there's a reason for that and so many reasons for, and we'll talk about root causes next, but we've got to recognize that this is a critical factor

What Healthy Bowel Movements Look Like 17:20

in our health. And all of us need to pay attention to what to do to optimize this situation because Everything with your health starts in the gut. And when I say health, I mean positive and negative. If your gut's working right, your help improves. So if your guts not working, right? Your health declines. It's as simple as that. What are the root causes? Well, one of the big ones is a lack of fiber. Depending on the expert you talk to, and you're also going to hear from carnivore people that say, well, fiber is not necessary.

eat head to tail or nose to tale and all that kind of stuff. I'm going to kind leave that out of the equation. We're not anti carnivore. Short term personally is my take. Any kind extreme diet like that probably is more of a short term thing. Don't hate me if you're a carnival person and it's working for you. I am all about people healing themselves through whatever method they've got to do as long as it's actually producing the results we're looking for. But if we set that aside and talk about the overwhelming abundance of science that we have, we know that fiber plays a major role in all of this because fiber feeds the gut bacteria, fiber tends to improve motility, and fiber also tends help with appetite control and so many other things.

Most of us are getting less than half of the fiber that is recommended. 15 grams-ish per day is what most of is getting, depending on the expert. 25 to 35, even 38 grams is, what's recommended that fiber feeds the bacteria. That bacteria starts the short chain fatty acid supply, which fuels the colon wall, the microbiome, which helps to rebuild the gut lining and helps get us away from leaky gut, but also just simply helps with elimination all the way through. And hand in hand with that is plenty of water.

Hydration is way underestimated when it comes to colon health. The colon is a water reabsorption organ. When you're chronically under hydrated, it pulls more water out of the stool to compensate and you get dry, hard, slow moving content. Most people are walking around mildly dehydrated most of the time. And a good rule of thumb is probably somewhere around half of your body weight in ounces of good clean water. Then electrolytes can make a dent in that as well as far as their absorption benefits.

This is one that I want to focus on that. I don't think enough people talk about. And I was up at the eco conference with my lovely wife, Jen. We were listening to a bunch of practitioners, functional medicine practitioners. World renowned practitioners really talking about this stuff. And one of the women up there who I'm actually think is going to be able to come in here on vitality radio soon was talking. brain access and the stress response. If your body is in fight or flight, it does not want to process food.

About 80 to 90% of the energy that would normally be used to processed food, which is the beginning point of a healthy bowel movement, is actually getting the food processed in the first place. is basically shut off 80 to 90% of that. And so your body's not worried about how to eliminate the last meal when you're under a fight or flight response and you are tensed up literally and the colon is a muscle. If it's as tense as you, then of course it is not going to move like it should. That's a really, really critical aspect.

and if you struggling with constipation, breath work and stress reduction work, meditation and things that can actually bring cortisol down will actually help. To tell the digestive tract, we don't need to pump the brakes anymore. Digestion is a priority. Let's get into rest and digest mode. That's a really, really important thing. And if you're a woman from 35 to 55, a declining estrogen during perimenopause directly slows gut motility, constipation, bloating, and the sense that digestion has just become harder are extremely common during that transitional period.

It's a real physiological shift that requires a really sustained approach. So make sure that you're taking care of hormone balance and hormone clearance if you are in that age range and if your struggling with constipation. What are the protocols?

Root Causes of Constipation 21:30

This is really important. There's lot here to talk about. It's actually fairly simple though, because what it is, is it's a bunch of pieces. And each combination of piece is going to look differently for everybody. Because some of us need more fiber, some us needs more movement, and some more stress reduction. Some of will benefit from different supplementation, And some will need than one supplement to get optimal bowel clearance. But here's the thing. It is worth it if you need to do multiple things because again, you cannot have optimal health in the absence of optimal clearing of the bowel.

The liver dumps most of its toxins through the bow and we talked about liver health all the time and how the liver processes hormones. all the time. If the bowel isn't moving, the liver isn' t able to do its job effectively. We recycle things, we get sicker, not healthier. if the bow isn t moving our microbiome gets messed up. we end up with overgrowth of all kinds of things that we don't want, which can lead to everything from SIBO to CFO to parasitic infections and so many other things. So it's really, really critical.

that we recognize that this is a baseline thing that, we have to do. It's something I probably should talk about on Vitality Radio a lot more than I do, but I'm bringing it to you now. And this, is something that you'll be hearing about a little bit more often. I may even generate maybe an ebook or something on this. i'm gonna have, to look at that and perhaps do that down the road. But this show I think can be an extremely helpful tool for you. And if you're willing to work through the individual items and do some testing on your body, I don't believe anybody needs to be chronically constipated.

There are a lot of women I've met over the years, specifically women, and I think a lotta times because they talk about it more, but also I, think it is more prevalent overall, that are chronical consti-pated and they simply don' believe that they can't be. They've tried everything. And the only way they can get it to move is with Senna or Miralax or some combination of those things. I guess it's better to MOVE than not MOV. But those really need to be last resort, not first resort options for chronic constipation.

So fiber is the first thing to take a look at. My personal favorite for most people is going to acacia fiber. There's a reason for this. Psyllium is most common. And I don't have a problem with psyllium. Psylliums fine, but it's a little more harsh. It's frankly kind of hard to get down. If you've ever used it, you pour it in water, it glumps up like a gel. it works. But acacia is pretty smooth. It makes your water thicker, but not gelatinous. And there are some really good acacea fibers that are even flavored.

We've got an excellent one from Enzimedica that I love. There's a really great one that is made by Enzymedica. It comes in a couple different flavors, but you can also get acacia just straight. It doesn't really have much of a taste to it. You can mix it in protein or wherever you want to put it, But I really like the one from Enzymatic. I've actually been using it myself and I like it! It's a great prebiotic fiber. Pretty easy to get down. Not crazy expensive. And while it is great for the gut in terms of movement, it's also great in the health because of what it does.

to actually feed the bifidobacterium and lactobacillus preferentially without the gas and bloating that can come with more aggressive fiber supplementation. And there's plenty of evidence that shows that it works. Psyllium would be another option. You just have to remember with psyllum, not Metamucil, get a natural one and get psylium. If you're going to do that, mix it in three, four, five ounces of water, drink it quickly, and then follow it down with at least another glass of psyllium in order to work and all fiber in our work needs plenty of water in the system to move it through magnesium is number two and of course magnesium as number one when it comes to supplementation for me for every purpose but there's nuance with magnesium it's not very often that I recommend anything beyond magnesium bisglycinate magnesium 3 and 8, my two favorite forms.

3 & 8 if you're mostly worried about brain stuff, bisglycinate if your worried the 800 plus enzymatic functions that require magnesium, sleep, muscle function, energy, metabolism, nervous system regulation, all that kind of stuff. Vital 5 magnesium is what it is for that reason. I love it. However, It doesn't create the osmotic effect in the gut that regular magnesium does. I don't love magnesium oxide. It's probably the best form or magnesium hydroxide is very good for gut motility. it'll absolutely bring a lot of water in to gut and flush the bowel.

But you don' t get very much magnesium from that. And we want to be taking magnesium for all of the health benefits as well as the gut health benefit. So if you're struggling with constipation, my recommendation is to kind of go like a 50 50. And that, and I say like 50, 50 cause it totally depends on you. Three capsules a day is my recommended dose of that formula. What a lot of people will do is they'll do two of those a days and they will one or two magnesium citrate per day. Citrate is an interesting magnesium because it's relatively bioavailable.

It's not bad. it is a good form of magnesium. Not as good as bisglycinate. but it is a much stronger osmotic form. It does put more water in the bowel. And I believe that you can probably get the amount of magnesium you need and have it stay in body with a combination of Magnesium Citrate and Bisglycinate as opposed to just BisGlycinate or just Citrates and that's why I recommend them together for laxative purposes. The only question is how much of each do you to get optimal benefits and you just simply have to experiment with your body and let your be the judge.

But generally speaking, I'd say 150 to 300 magnesium citrate and about 266 to 400 magnesium bisglycinate in the form of the vital five magnesium makes a lot of sense. Now, the one that I want to spend the most time on here because I haven't talked about it much on Vitality Radio is called Trifola. Triffola is known as a long arc tonic herb combination from India. In fact, when I first started developing this episode of the show, it was going to be in my ancient medicine cabinet series,

Natural Protocols for Regularity 27:40

just about trifola. And then as I was researching on trifla, I realized, you know, haven't really done a great show on constipation and laxatives. Trifola is It's awesome. I don't even know how else to put it. It is one of my absolute favorite things in Ayurvedic medicine and all of the herbal medicine kingdom. And so I wanted to give it a spotlight, but we had to talk about everything surrounding it, and so that's why this show became constipation and laxative with a highlight on trifle. Trifle is equal parts Amalaki, Haritaki and Bibitake are the three fruits.

These are fruits from India, And this has been around for at least 2000 years, we know in the Ayyurveda tradition. It makes it central to this conversation because of the mechanism of action. We've talked about stimulant laxatives, forcing the bowel to move by irritating the bow. Triphala supports the gut's own capacity to function. In 2017, there was a review of clinical evidence and it confirmed that it has what's called a prokinetic effect, supporting normal intestinal motility without irritation.

You can take it long-term without dependency and that's the whole distinction. It's also loaded with polyphenols and those poly phenols are phenomenal for your gut for a couple of different reasons. We're going to talk about that in detail here because it's really, really cool. As these poly-phenol travel through the GI tract and are metabolized by gut bacteria, producing compounds that selectively feed and grow beneficial microbial populations while creating an environment that is less hospitable to the problematic bacteria.

This is a terrain building. product terrain building at the molecular level. In 2020, a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial at UC Davis found measurable shifts in gut microbial composition after just four weeks of Trifola use, including increased bifidobacterium and lactobacillus bacterium. And a 2025 study found that Triffola also supports acromancia the bacteria that is central to maintaining the mucosal lining. And acromansia also is that bacteria, that we know has the most research showing that it actually improves GLP-1 signaling.

That's why there's 10 billion units of acromancia in the GLp-one metabolic optimizer formula. I did not know until I started doing this show that there was a 2025 study just last year, showing the TRIFLA for four weeks improves acrimansias. That is awesome because Acromansia plays a major role in the prevention or the curing and healing of leaky gut. Now you don't expect with Trifola dramatic change day one or two, you know, take it as a laxative and poop normally the next day. However, most people within two to four weeks are noticing significant improvement in their bowels are functioning.

And so basically there's a few steps here that you can consider. But what I tell people is always magnesium and experiment with which types, citrate versus bisglycinate or some combination of the two. Never a bad idea, I don't think, to do acacia fiber. Awesome prebiotic, good for gut motility, great for the overall microbiome support and health. And then Trifola, that combination can make a lot of sense for a lots of people just kind of starting out and sort of testing one at a time and see how your body does.

Now there are two forms of Triffola that would carry a vitality that I really, really like. Most trifola products on the market are either under dosed or you have to take like six of them a day or have take a powder and I'm not going to lie here, Trffola powder is terrible. was very difficult to take. I tried it once, super bitter, couldn't get over it, I'm not interested. But in pill form, it can work really well, but it needs to be concentrated if you don't want to have to a handful of them. The two that I carry are both formulas that are Indian companies, companies from India, Himalaya Wellness and Nature's Formulary.

Nature is Formular is owned by Sabinsa, one of my absolute favorite companies. They're both great brands with excellent Ayurvedic herbal traditions. They know how to make this stuff. The Himalaya Wellness Triphala is my starting point for most people that want to try Tri phala because it's a combination. It has whole herb components and a concentrated extract component. So you get a much higher polyphenol content than a regular Tri Phala, but you're also still getting the whole herbs and that combination I think makes a ton of sense for people.

They recommend it as a one-a-day, which is great. I'm not gonna tell you you're gonna get away with one a day. You may need more, especially in the early going. Y'all have to experiment. One to three a days is probably a closer to accurate dose, but it's loaded with the polyphenols. It will improve the gut health as it doing its thing with helping with constipation and regularity as well. And then the Nature's Formulary is just an extract. Its in little capsules instead of a bigger tablet, so a little easier to swallow, it a lot of people like.

Still loaded with polyphenols, but not as much of the whole herb. I think it's probably overall going to be a little more gentle. Some people will need something a Little more light or just don't need Something as strong. Others will Need the stronger one. You just got to ask yourself, where are you at with your constipation? If it is a super chronic issue, you're not going daily or you are only going Daily because you rely on something like Senna or Miralax or something Like that. I'd probably recommend the stronger one, start with one a day, work your way up to two or three a days if you need to.

But if have occasional constipation and you're just looking to optimize gut health through the things that Triphala does, and maybe you are struggling on the toilet once or twice a week, but not every single day. Then the Sabensa formula, the Nature's formula I think makes all kinds of sense. The next thing I want to talk about is maybe the elephant in the room or the elephants that's not in room. If you're an astute herb person, like so many of my listeners are, you may have noticed I haven't mentioned cascara sagrata yet.

And cascaras sagrada, while having one of the coolest names in all of herbalism, is a go-to in European and Western herbalisms. And the reason it's so popular is because of a guy who is one of my personal heroes in the industry and that's Dr. John Christopher. Dr Christopher was the founder of the school Natural Healing. He's arguably the most influential Western herbalist of 20th century. I would say not arguably at all if it was his formulas that Initially started nature's herbs, nature way, natural sunshine, grandma's, herbs and also solar ray.

So they all started with Dr. Christopher's formulas. And he had a formula that is known as the lower bowel formula. I still out there under the Dr Christopher name. We carry it here at Vitality Nutrition. It was also known to spin LB and natural acts too, and a couple of different brands. His position was very interesting because many people have put Cascara Sagrada. in the same spot as Senna, and it really doesn't belong there in my opinion. But there are questions about cascara. He believes cascarra sagrada produces large, soft and painless evacuations and after extended usage the bowels will function naturally and regularly from its tonic effects.

he called it a regenerative medicine.He distinguished it explicitly from Sena, which he considered harsher and purgative. He emphasized that the bark must be properly aged at least one year, which modifies the anthraquinone compound into gentler forms. That's the compound that is found also in a similar form in Senna. Now, the caveat here is that cascara does contain anthroquinones compounds and does stimulate peristalsis through that mechanism. The modern evidence doesn't fully validate complete independence from dependency at any dose, But I believe in Dr.

Christopher, and I'll tell you this story with Dr Christopher that is, well, it's not a story, but just the way I see him, I believed he was an inspired individual. I belief that he came across herbalism in a very interesting way. He wasn't classically trained in herbalist. And he up with a lot of his formulas on his own and his formula's are brilliant in so many ways. Absolutely adore this human being for what he did and what contributed to herbal in the modern age. And I do believe that cascara when used correctly, I still don't recommend it daily, but I believe it can be used near daily without much trouble and I've seen that a lot over the years.

I Still don' believe we should have to rely on it though because ultimately our bowels should do the thing without having to be forced to do their thing. So my take on it is Cascara on its own, not really my favorite. Caskara in combination with other gentle herbs makes a lot of sense. Now the Dr. Christopher's lower bowel formula is cascara, but also has cayenne, barberry, ginger, lobelia, red raspberry, turkey rhubarb. fennel and goldenseal. The carminative herbs are there to smooth the cascara, harsher cascar effect.

So it's really designed to be more balancing. Golden seal supports bile flow and digestive secretions. And so you have this real synergistic design. While Dr. Christopher, I think was not aware of Trifola probably because it really hadn't made its way over here from India at that time. I think if he had been, he probably would have been a big fan and Trifle with the lower bowel formula can make a lot of sense, especially if you look at Triffle as a day in, day out formula while you need it and the Lower Bowel Formula as something you use maybe, you know, more as needed and, uh, multiple times a week can be fine, I thing with that.

And some people even use it for a couple of months at a time to try and gain that tonic effect that Dr. Christopher was talking about. You really just have to experiment with your body and see how it does. Now, because I'm such a big fan of Dr. Christopher, when I developed my first colon cleansing formula, which is still on the market today, called 10 Day Lean and Clean, I decided to put Cascara in it. It's actually in a little bit lower dose than what is in Dr Christopher's. I've decided play it a bit more safe, you could say.

But it also has some extra fiber, oat bran, psyllium, has aloe vera, turkey rhubarb, and slippery elm. Slippery elms, of course, we know is fantastic for the gut lining and soothing inflammation of the guts. It has konjac root, which is another fiber in their apple cider vinegar, chickweed and Atlantic kelp. So this formula is designed to be a short term or occasional use formula. And a lot of people use have lean and clean on hand when they need a laxative to use a couple of capsules when things aren't moving like they should,

Triphala and Herbal Support Options 38:10

or they'll do an occasional cleanse with it. I highly encourage this if you're trying to get those bowels moving, like we talked about earlier. You can do the 10 day lean and clean exactly as it's described on the label. It's called 10-day because if you use it as its design, six capsules a day, it is going to last you 10 days. However, most people don't need six-capsules. We found that most do really well with two to four capsule per day. So they get like a 15-20 day supply out of it. And that's great.

You could do that once, twice a year. as basically a colon cleanse that also has some mild liver and kidney detoxification properties to it. It's called Lingonin Clean, because it also as a couple of things in there that are designed to kind of help with appetite while you're using it as well. Kind of a dietary kickstart seasonal cleanse type of the thing. But you can also use two capsules as needed as the laxative like you might do with the Dr. Christopher's formula. We also have the Life Season's regularity.

And if you are thinking, oh my gosh, Jared, you mentioned like 19 different things. I am, I'm giving you a lot of options because what I've found just like with sleep and so many other things that people struggle with is that one option doesn't work for everybody and combinations of things oftentimes are what are needed. But as I stated earlier, we simply want to get there and whatever method we need to use that is safe and health promoting And even if that means experimenting with multiple different things, I think it's worth it.

I know it was worth that because we want those bowels moving for all the reasons I mentioned at the beginning of the show. So life season's regularity does not have cascara. It is the gentler of three that I just mentioned. Probably not still quite as gentle as trifle is, but it is a really nice middle ground for a lot of people. It's got butternut bark, turkey rhubarb, aloe vera, psyllium, horseradish, barberry, fennel. So it's actually about half of the Christopher's formula, but they use a higher dose of turkey Rhubarb than Dr.

Christopher does in place of. The cascara sagrada, and we've had a lot of success with that one too. And I would consider that. If needed, you can use it daily, at least for extended periods of time. But ultimately, what we want to do here is we wanna get the bowels going as they should, and that means rebuilding the gut over time. And that is where, of course, probiotics and digestive enzymes come in. There's a big reason, so many reasons, why probiotic and digest enzymes are in my Vital 5. One of those reasons is they are critical for optimal gut health.

Before we ever have to eliminate something, we have too consume it and digest it, right? And so the enzymes are a big player in that. This is what breaks down chicken into the individual amino acids that are in the chicken. What breaks Down whey protein into The individual Amino acids. They're in whay protein. what Breaks down starches and sugars and fats and all these types of things. Digestive enzymes along with bile and stomach acid are the big three of digestive health. And I believe everybody over 35 years old in America should be taking digestive enzymes with every single meal.

If you want to do a combo that works really, really well, Then you do the digestive enzymes with probiotics in the back on track formula, still as favorite a formula as I've got. I absolutely love this stuff. Use it daily myself and have for well, since I have on the market about 18 years ago. Back on track, it has the spore probiotics plus El Ruderai plus the digestive enzymes plus ginger plus fennel plus peppermint to help soothe and cool a upset gut. And in the short term, It helps with the gassiness and the bloating and heartburn and all those types of things.

But in a long term because the probiotic that are in there it actually can help to heal the gut lining and promote optimal gut health and regularity as well. If you're already getting enzymes from another source, Vital Spores, our spore-based probiotic that also has Saccharomyces boulardii in there, can make a lot of sense. If your dealing with chronic constipation, you are probably going to want to use the probiotics for a minimum of 90 days, probably more like 180 days and enzymes you just use every day.

So to put it all together, there are a lot of different options here that I've mentioned. I wanted to make this as comprehensive of a show as possible while also not making it confusing. If I get enough questions on it, you know, maybe we'll do something with some sort of like a little ebook or something like that or a guide, but basically. Let me try to break it down the best I can for you. Fiber, digestive enzymes, probiotics, magnesium, these are musts. Now, you don't have to supplement fiber.

You can definitely get fiber from your diet if you're paying attention, but you can supplement fibers as well. Magnesium is a general rule you're going to have to supplement as well. Those are core. Three of those are three of the five vital five. So they make sense for your health regardless, but certainly for you gut health as. Well, if you want to lock into kind of a protocol, then starting with the 10 day lean and clean can make a lot of sense to just kind get things moving. I would do that with Triphala.

At the same time, when you're done with the lean and clean, keep on the Trifola, Keep on The probiotics, keeping on magnesium, you know, that kind of stuff. And see if you can do it with just the trifola as the support in gut and over time. As I said, Triffola is a builder and a healer and strengthener of the gut, not a stimulant that creates issues in the got. So starting with a cleanse can make a lot of sense. If you want to ditch the opening cleanse and just kind dive into, more just a daily laxative support, then Triphala is my favorite place to start.

But if you've had a significant amount of constipation, you're probably also going to have to use something like Lean and Clean, Dr. Christopher's formula, or regularity for that. Again, the goal always to get away from the laxeatives. You shouldn't need that support if You've done what you need to repair your gut to optimize your diet and all of that stuff. So we want to Get away the polyethylene glycol in the Miralax. We want to get away from Sena. If you're dealing with those things, utilizing those, things you may need to use them for a little while, while you are introducing these other things that we've talked about.

But I do believe that anybody listening to this show that's dealing constipation, no matter how long you've been dealing can get past it, can optimize your gut. And I will say if you're struggling, even with doing the things that I'm recommending, you may also want to listen to some of the shows that we're doing on parasites here on Vitality Radio, because parasites can play a major role too. What I am recommending today can still help. but the parasite's going to tend to create enough issues that we can't really get where we want to get without getting rid of the parasites first.

And that leads me to one more thing before I let you go, and that is that Jen and I have decided that were going try to simplify parasite detoxification for you this year. In the next few weeks, you'll be hearing a really comprehensive full moon parasite protocol that we've come up with that. We are thrilled about, we designed it at Eco while we were learning about all things detoxification. There's so much cool stuff on the horizon from what we learned at eco and what continue to learn as we dive deeper into this stuff.

I can't wait to share it with you moving forward. If you have any questions, call us 801-292-6662. That's 801292-6662, or jump online, vitalitynutrition.com. And if you haven't checked us out on YouTube yet, please do. Just type in Vitality Radio or Jared St. Clair, you'll find me. Bunch of shows, bunch of shorts. If don't mind liking, subscribing, and commenting, that would be extremely helpful and I appreciate it very, very much. Until next time, I'm Jared St. Clair and this has been Vitality Radio.

Thanks for listening to the Vitaly Radio podcast. If this episode helped you, follow the show, share it with someone and explore trusted education and resources at vitalitynutrition.com. See you next. Hello, everyone. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode of Vitality Radio. Just a reminder that this podcast is for educational purposes only. This podcast has not been evaluated by the FDA. Thank you.