What your symptoms are telling you: Part I

Symptoms can be simply annoying, downright life-changing or anything in between. But symptoms aren’t there for no reason. As with most things in life, there is a reason and a purpose for symptoms.

We typically ignore the annoying ones if they have been persistent for a while or are not altering our lifestyle — constipation, low grade headaches and cold hands and feet are some examples — unless, of course they become severe. But even the little ones have meaning, even if they are easy to ignore.

Let’s take constipation. Most people don’t know what is normal in bowel movements. A perfectly running digestive system ends up generating a nice soft bowel movement about 30 minutes after each meal. That means, if you are eating three full meals a day, you should be having three bowel movements per day. About 50 percent of that waste consists of the previous days’ food waste, and the other 50 percent is dead cells and other waste metabolites.

We are told that you are not considered constipated unless you have skipped a day or two without a bowel movement. You are then considered medically constipated. However, it’s a problem even at one per day, just not as critically. What is the body telling us?

Most people recognize that insufficient water intake is causative. Hard and dry stools are likely a result of dehydration. But it may not be just that. One common reason, rarely acknowledged, is a lack of fat in the diet. Fat causes the gallbladder to release copious amounts of bile to emulsify the fat. This dictates color and texture. If you don’t have a gallbladder because it was removed, the dysregulation of bile could cause either constipation or horrible diarrhea — fortunately, there are things that we can do to help, even then.

Digestive insufficiency, starting at the stomach level or even higher in the mouth, can contribute. Digestive enzymes that are inhibited either because of dry mouth, anti-acid medication, poor chewing habits, stress or other reasons can affect digestion.

Malnutrition or inadequate quantities of food can also cause constipation. This can be either because the person is eating tiny amounts with the fear of gaining weight or trying to lose weight, or because of eating nutrient-poor processed foods. Inadequate fiber content can cause stools to be pasty and sticky. Foods such as dairy products (particularly cheese) and bananas can be constipating.

Lack of muscle tone, either because of chronic deficiencies or muscular or neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis or Parkinson’s, muscular dystrophy, spinal injuries or such, can also cause constipation.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of a “simple” symptom that can have many causes. Learn more next week, in Part II of What Your Symptoms are Telling You.

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Holly Carling is a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Licensed Acupuncturist, Doctor of Naturopathy, Clinical Nutritionist and Master Herbologist with nearly four decades of experience. Carling is a “Health Detective.” She looks beyond your symptom picture and investigates WHY you are experiencing your symptoms in the first place. Carling is currently accepting new patients and offers natural health care services and whole food nutritional supplements in her Coeur d’Alene clinic. Visit Carling’s website at www.vitalhealthcda.com to learn more about Carling, view a list of upcoming health classes and read other informative articles. Carling can be reached at 208-765-1994 and would be happy to answer any questions regarding this topic.