How Constipation and Toxic Re-absorption can Worsen Your Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms And What To Do About It
In this podcast you’ll learn how important it is to have regular bowel movements and how going to the bathroom regularly can have a dramatic impact on your healing. [spp-player URL=https://paddisonprogram.podbean.com/mf/play/2jc4dr/Paddison_Podcast_Bowel_Movements.mp3″]About 3 weeks ago I was in my office, sitting down as I usually do each day and helping people inside the Paddison Program Support Forum and I had one new member, Virginia, post this funny comment, she wrote
“Lots of bowel action going on…wonder if that is related to me feeling better? TMI? #sorrynotsorry :p “
And I thought ‘I should do a whole podcast about bowel movements because they are absolutely critically important to RA?
Dr Shinya wrote a whole book about the bowel in The Enzyme Factor and I loved it – so why not?
So here we go!
Many people with RA have no idea that the contents of their bowels plays such an enormous role in their joint pain.
Which is fair enough, since the joints are physically separate from the bowels by quite a large distance. So it’s not intuitive to think that your joints and gut are connected, and in fact you may have had your doctor or Rheumatologist tell you that they’re not related at all.
But the truth is, they are deeply connected as we’ve covered in other podcasts, in fact even in the most recent one with Dr Tom O’Bryan.
So consequently, when you have Rheumatoid Arthritis it’s really important to have regular bowel movements. Think about what happens when you don’t remove the trash from your house – pretty soon the whole house starts to smell. The same thing is going on with your body.
For me, I learned a lot of this out the hard way. When I was suffering at the worst of my RA I was able to detect a relationship between my bowel movements (or lack thereof) and my RA pain. In fact, if I went to bed at night without going to the bathroom after my evening meal I would wake up with distinctly more pain. After many tests on this initial theory, I was able to conclude that the longer I ‘held’ my waste the more pain I felt as a result. So, I always made sure I went to the bathroom as soon as I feel I need to and never wait a minute longer than I need to. In fact, I sometimes used to do enemas before bed at night to clean myself out so I would sleep poo-free. This had the remarkable effect of reducing my morning stiffness the next day.
How Are Bowels And Joint Pain Linked?
Science tells us the following:
- people with RA have a bacterial overgrowth in their intestines [1], and that the more bacterial overgrowth the more severe the RA [2].
- levels of ‘good’ bacteria in our gut such as Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus are lower if you are constipated [3]
- a constipated person also has more ‘leaky gut’. [3]
- A constipated person also has more potentially pathogenic bacteria and/or fungi in their intestines. [3]
The good news is that once the constipation is resolved, the intestinal permeability is dramatically improved, which will always result in less joint pain for RA sufferers. In one study the intestinal permeability was able to be reduced down to 26% in just 3 months using basic laxative therapy. This demonstrated that constipation actually causes leaky gut and a bacterial imbalance, rather than being the result of such. [3]
In a nutshell, the problem with having waste sit inside you for too long is that there is a higher re-absorption rate of toxins back into the body. By moving your bowels quickly, these pathogens are removed so there is minimal reabsorption and the gut has a better chance of healing it’s intestinal wall.
How To Reduce RA Symptoms By Improving Bathroom Regularity
The optimal number of bowel movements per day will differ from person to person. Generally, an elimination for every meal is a good guideline, thus producing 3 easy-to-pass bowel movements per day. Some people will go more regularly, and some a little less regular, but at least once per day should be an absolute minimum. Here’s how to keep things moving like clockwork and therefore keep joint pain low:
- As soon as you need to go, then go. Prevent toxic reabsorption by getting rid of the waste as soon as it makes itself known to you
- Exercise more. Simply walking more with move things along, or any form of exercise will help
- Drink more water. As poo moves through your intestines, water is taken from it back into the body. So to avoid hard, brittle poos that take time to pass you need to drink more water.
- Try plums or prunes in your diet regardless of where you’re up to in the Paddison Program. The priority is to get the bowels moving.. if this fails
- Take over the counter laxatives they nearly always work
- If you’re really irregular, you could try some coffee enemas at home. These are just quality coffee, warm water, a home enema kit, and let gravity do the work. I don’t endorse regular colonics (at hydrotherapy centres) since without extraordinary after-treatment care this can deplete you of too much healthy bacteria
- Most of all, it’s necessary to follow the Paddison Program for Rheumatoid Arthritis to heal and seal your troubled intestines with fiber-rich, anti-inflammatory foods and eliminate the cause of the pain
Conclusion
By establishing very regular bowel movements, through regular exercise and the ideal RA diet via the Paddison Program, you can reverse the bacterial overgrowth and heal the gut wall, which all will be very noticeable via a reduction in external joint swelling and inflammation. This was exactly my experience, allowing me to get off the toxic drugs and get my life back, and I’m here to help you do the same….
Just like Virginia!
3 weeks since she’s made her bowel movement comment within our support forum she’s just written in the last two days:
“My energy levels are definitely up. My joints are definitely improving” and “I am becoming MYSELF again.:joyful::joyful::joyful: I have been putting down a new kitchen floor today all by myself! I am just so EXCITED to be able to do stuff like this again”.
I’m excited to be able to help people, I hope this podcast has been helpful to you, and if you’d like help from one on one then I recommend the Paddison Program Membership where I can work with you to achieve your health goals – so just jump on the waiting list if you’d like to be notified when I’m ready to take on new members.
Thanks for listening and happy healing!
References:
[1] “Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth in patients with rheumatoid arthritis” Ann Rheum Dis. 1993 Jul;52(7):503-10.
[2] “Intestinal flora in early Rheumatoid Arthritis” Oxford Journal of Rheumatology (1994) 33 (11): 1030-1038.
[3] “Alterations in the colonic flora and intestinal permeability and evidence of immune activation in chronic constipation” I.L. Khalifa, E.M.M. Quigleyb, E.A. Konovitcha, I.D. Maximovaa