Written by Naturopath, Jess Valencia
Naturopaths love your crap! It gives us a lot of insight to the health of the bowel and
digestive tract. The type of stool you pass, how often and the colour can give us information about how your bowel and digestive tract are working. Changes to bowel habits are important to have investigated with a Health Professional.
The Bristol Stool Scale is a medical chart that gives POOP a classification.
- Types 1 & 2 suggest constipation
- Types 3 & 4 considered healthy.
- Types 5-7 suggest diarrhoea/loose stools.
Why is it so important?
The transit time of your stool can help identify if there are digestive tract issues that warrant further investigations or treatment. Constipation or diarrhoea require a good assessment to identify why your body is producing this type of stool. These conditions can be due to many reasons including inadequate food/fibre and water intake, imbalances in the microbiome, bacterial overgrowths or other structural issues that can develop for example, haemorrhoids and bowel inflammation. There are so many causes for irregular bowel habits and for most of us increasing fluid intake daily and eating a wholefood diet with daily vegetables and fruit can be the remedy that we need. However, there can be more serious reasons for bowel habit issues such as colorectal cancers.
What do I need to know?
If you have any concerns about your bowel habits, check in with a Health Professional. Trial making some basic changes to your water intake and eating habits.
What tests are available?
POO Sample tests can identify the functional biochemistry going on inside you.
Our clinic has access to many FUNCTIONAL ASSESSMENTS that can help check the by-products of digestion in the stool, bacteria/yeast/fungus/parasites as well as a comprehensive check of your MICROBIOME-what bugs live with you -the good, the bad and the ugly ones.
What treatment can I expect from Natural Therapies?
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FOOD/WATER as medicine- BASICS first! There will be a check on fluid intake and wholefood vegetables/fibre intake to ensure this is adequate. We can help support you with dietary recommendations and changes to improve digestion.
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Nutritional Medicines: Sometimes our bodies need a ‘leg up’ on therapeutics doses of nutrients to guide us back to good health. Probiotics can promote the levels of good bacteria that can have a significant positive impact to the entire digestive tract and bowel.
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Herbal Medicines: Herbal medicines can influence body systems back to optimal function and provide symptom relief. These may be either tablets, capsules, powders or Personalised liquid blends. Herbs are prescribed according to your symptoms and any data from stool analysis testing results to fit your unique needs.
Ready to understand what’s really going on in your gut?
Book an appointment with Jess to get personalised support and a treatment plan tailored to your symptoms.
