Your liver plays an important role in keeping your bowels regular. If you suffer with constipation, you may need to consider your liver. The liver produces bile, which gets secreted into the intestines after a meal. People with poor liver health typically cannot produce sufficient bile. Constipation is a common outcome.

Your body eliminates waste in four main ways; via breath, urine, skin, and bowels. If you're not able to have regular and thorough bowel motions, this could mean your detoxification processes, especially those involving bile production are under-performing. In today's world, various lifestyle habits can impair the liver’s ability to produce adequate and healthy bile. If your liver is fatty or inflamed or over burdened with toxins, optimal bile production can suffer while the liver is busy cleaning up.

Bile acts as an emulsifier for fat, fat soluble vitamins and antioxidants, as well as fat soluble toxins in your digestive system, facilitating their smooth passage towards elimination. Bile also has natural gentle laxative properties. Bile also deodorizes the stool. People who don’t make enough bile typically have extremely offensive smelling feces.

The bile is how your body eliminates excess cholesterol and triglycerides from your body. If your bowel is sluggish, these fats will be reabsorbed back into circulation and you could end up with excessively high blood levels of these fats.

Improving your body's detoxification mechanisms can aid bowel regularity and alleviate toxicity symptoms.

Constipation can also be caused by:

  • Insufficient fiber and/or vegetables in the diet
  • Food intolerance; most commonly to gluten, wheat and/or dairy products
  • Lack of exercise
  • Inadequate intake of water
  • History of excessive use of laxative
  • Insufficient sodium intake
  • Some medication side effects
  • Under active thyroid gland
  • Nervous tension
  • A structural abnormality of the bowel

How to improve liver health for optimal bowel function

Include a good variety of high fiber foods such as raw vegetables, fruit, legumes, nuts and seeds in your diet.

It's vital to drink 8 to 12 glasses of water a day.

If you have a fatty liver, sluggish liver or inflamed liver, my liver tonic Livatone Plus reduces inflammation inside the liver and clears fat out of the liver. It enables your liver to produce healthy bile.

Ox bile can be taken in supplement form. It improves digestion of essential fatty acids and relieves symptoms of bloating, indigestion and constipation.

Flaxseeds and chia seeds are excellent to assist with constipation as these have the action of lubricating the bowel. They can be sprinkled over meals, or added to yogurt or smoothies.

If stress plays havoc with your bowel, magnesium should help you. Magnesium relaxes the nerves and muscles of your intestines, making it easier to have a bowel motion.

Avoid gluten (found in wheat, rye and barley) and all foods containing it. Gluten can be a digestive irritant. Dairy products (especially cheese) are constipating for a lot of people, so you may want to try taking them out of your diet.

If you have suffered with a long term bowel problem, or developed a brand new bowel condition, please see your own doctor. It’s important to have an accurate diagnosis and rule out a serious condition.

The above statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.