Are you struggling with constipation despite consuming enough water and fiber? A sluggish liver and gallbladder could be to blame. Improving liver health may be the key to achieving healthy, regular bowel motions. Giving your detoxification systems some attention and support can improve your digestive system and overall energy level.

Your body eliminates waste in four main ways; via breath, urine, skin, and bowels. If you're not able to pass at least one bowel movement a day, this could mean your detoxification processes, especially those involving bile production are under-performing. Your liver is extraordinary. As well as preparing toxins you consume, absorb, and internally produce for elimination, your liver also creates bile, which is essential for healthy digestion. 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.

If you don’t produce optimal levels of bile, it makes efficiently using your bowels challenging. 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.

If your detoxification pathways are functioning inefficiently and your bowel is sluggish, symptoms such as fluid retention, low mood, low motivation and bloating can occur. 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.

Fortunately, by improving your body's detoxification mechanisms, you can aid bowel regularity and alleviate toxicity symptoms.

Other potential causes of constipation include:

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

Mechanical problems with the bowel are common, such as prolapsed bowel or extra loops of bowel or bowel pockets. These pockets form in the wall of the colon and this condition is called diverticulosis.

Good liver function is vitally important for healthy bile production

The following tips should help:

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

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.

Linseeds (or flaxseeds) are excellent to assist with constipation as these have the action of lubricating the bowel. A good way to take linseed is in a mix called LSA - this is linseed, sunflower and almond meal - this can be purchased or you can make your own with a coffee grinder.

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 these. Gluten can be a digestive irritant. Cheese is constipating for a lot of people, so you may want to try taking it out of your diet.

If you believe that you may have a bowel problem, it is a good idea to see a specialist in gastrointestinal disorders, known as a gastroenterologist. The most serious problems to exclude are malignant tumors of the stomach and bowels, which become far more common as we age. This is why it is important to have thorough investigations early on if you develop any change in bowel actions, unexplained weight loss or abdominal pains.

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