Bowel Movements

Bowel movements are often in our thoughts throughout the day. How jealous are we of those who go to the toilet once a day for a couple of minutes and it’s done and dusted for the rest of the day! We can get somewhere near that on the low Fodmap diet, but most of us will never be quite like them. At the end of the day, we have IBS and though we can control it with diet and a well-balanced lifestyle, it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. At least, not until they find a cure and that’s not on the horizon.
So, let’s discuss our bowel movements. Watch my video to learn of a few things that are actually “normal” for us, as annoying as they are.

You can find the Bristol Stool Chart HERE.

Bowel Movements

Today, I’m going to talk about bowel movements. Not exactly a subject for dinner party conversation, but anyway, it’s a very important conversation for those of us with irritable bowel syndrome. Our bowel movements fall into one of three categories. Either we have IBS, diarrhea, constipation, or we swing between the two. From my observation of my clients, there is actually a fourth group, and that’s those who don’t consider their bowel movements to really be a problem, but they have all the other symptoms of IBS, and it might be just that they’ve got used to how they are and they’re not aware that they are, in fact, not the norm. Anyway, with the low Fodmap diet, that will all change. The diarrhea will change if you’re doing the diet correctly and putting into place the various different steps. For constipation, that will also change. I get my clients to look at the Bristol Stool Chart. This, for a long time, has been a chart that the medical profession uses to categorize bowel movements.

There are seven different types of bowel movements, from very hard little pebbles, which is constipation and is number one, right down to the worst of the diarrhea, at number seven. We want to be around about number three or four. Both of those are considered a normal bowel movement. The fact is that people with IBS, to get a normal bowel movement, doesn’t necessarily mean that everything else is completely normal because, for example, one of the symptoms of IBS is what we call incomplete evacuation. We have a feeling that we haven’t quite finished, and sometimes we might have, sometimes we mightn’t have, but that is a common complaint of someone with IBS. Now, they’re not actually saying that it is incomplete. They’re saying that we get a sensation of it being incomplete, and this is a part of the messages from our brain to our gut being incorrect, being faulty. So, it is a possibility that there is nothing more to come out, but that we feel there is, but that is just a faulty sensation. So, when we think that we’ve more or less done the bulk of what has to be done, it’s a good idea, after waiting a couple of moments, just to see if this might be true and then get off the toilet and go about your life. I think you will find that, in fact, it was complete, that there is no need to run back to the toilet ten minutes later because you hadn’t finished. That feeling of incomplete evacuation will disappear as you get on with your life. So, it’s something you’ve got to tell yourself, which is not an easy thing to do, because you feel you have to continue sitting there until it’s complete, but you might be just sitting there straining for nothing, and all that’s going to do is perhaps cause hemorrhoids or a fissure, and you do not want those extra complications that can come with IBS – with constipation in particular. So, get off the toilet when you’ve done what you think is the bulk of the bowel movement, and get on with your life.

I suggest that with your daily journals that you should be keeping, that you are also putting down what your bowel movement is every day, when it happens, and what number it is.

When it happens is also an interesting point. The most natural thing for us as human beings is to get up in the morning and to have breakfast. Breakfast means to break the fast, and that’s what you should be doing. You’ve been fasting all night, and we know our bodies don’t like fasting very much, so we should have our breakfast as soon as we get up. We don’t muck around. We don’t exercise. We don’t do this and that. We get our breakfast. That should stimulate a bowel movement, so then you go to the toilet and you’re done for the day. It’s possible you’ll have another one, or even two more bowel movements within that day, and that’s still normal. But you’ve got that first one out of the way so you can go to work safe in the knowledge that you at least have completed one. That habit might take a while to form if it hasn’t been a habit up until now, but it’s one that’s well worth creating, so you stick at it. You get up, you have your breakfast, and that will stimulate a bowel movement, and you go to the toilet. Try to make that a daily habit. It will take time, but it will be well worth it.

That’s enough talk about bowel movements. I hope that has helped. Thank you for watching, and goodbye.