Constipation Relief: Natural Strategies to Get Things Moving Again

There’s a taboo topic I loooovvveee to talk about: 

Poop.

I promise I don’t have some weird fetish.

I’m a functional health practitioner — so obviously it’s something I talk about quite often, even though it makes lots of other people, well, squeamish.

Because your poop holds a ton of insight into your health.

And when you don’t poop enough, that’s a flag you should pay attention to.

What Is Constipation?

Poop is your body’s primary way of eliminating toxins, hormones, and metabolic waste. If you’re not pooping every day, those waste products can get reabsorbed — increasing your toxic load and triggering everything from fatigue to hormone imbalances.

Maybe you’ve noticed this yourself. When you haven’t had a good poop in a while, you can experience other symptoms, like feeling tired, sluggish, bloated, gassy, foggy-headed, or even irritable.

I find that there’s a lot of confusion about what constipation means. Lots of people think it means going days and days without a bowel movement. But the constipation isn’t just “not going.” 

Other signs of constipation include:

• Going every day, but feeling like you didn’t fully eliminate
• Abdominal pain or stomach cramps
• Having to push or strain to go
• Releasing stools that are hard, dry, cracked, or pellet-like
• Going less than once a day (even if you think that’s normal)
  

So if your “normal” isn’t a smooth, easy, complete bowel movement at least once per day — it’s worth investigating.

And surprisingly, the solution isn’t just downing more dietary fiber.

What Should Poop Look Like?

Everybody poops – but we all poop in our own unique way. What’s “normal” for you may be completely different than someone else. However, you might be surprised to learn that there’s an actual scientific standard as to what a “good” poop is — and it’s not just about frequency.

The Bristol Stool Chart categorizes poop into seven types, from hard little pellets to watery diarrhea. Each one gives us a clue about transit time — how quickly (or slowly) food moves through your digestive tract. Slow transit time often means constipation. Rapid transit time often means malabsorption or inflammation.

Ideally, you want to fall right in the middle of the chart:

• Type 3: Like a sausage but with cracks on the surface
• Type 4: Like a smooth, soft sausage or snake

These types indicate healthy, easy-to-pass stools. 

Anything drier or harder (Types 1–2) typically means constipation or dehydration. Anything looser (Types 5–7) may mean inflammation, infection, or food sensitivities.

The color and smell matter too. Pale or clay-colored stools may indicate issues with bile flow or liver function, while especially foul-smelling stool may suggest malabsorption or microbial imbalance. 

Paying attention to your poop gives us important clues about what’s happening in your gut health, digestion, detoxification pathways, and nervous system. It’s a vital diagnostic tool we use in functional medicine — no shame required.

The Gut Has a Mind of Its Own

Turns out, your gut has a mind of its own. Literally. 

Your gut is home to the enteric nervous system (ENS) — sometimes referred to as your “second brain.” This intricate web of over 100 million neurons lines your gastrointestinal tract and controls digestive movement, enzyme release, and nutrient absorption — even without input from your brain.

One of its most important jobs is activating something called the migrating motor complex (MMC), a rhythmic electrical wave that sweeps through the small intestine every 90–120 minutes between meals. Think of it like your gut’s cleaning crew. It clears out debris, bacteria, and waste — keeping your gut from becoming stagnant or overgrown with microbes.

This process depends on a delicate balance of neurotransmitters (like serotonin and acetylcholine), vagus nerve signaling, and muscle contraction. When it works, digestion flows smoothly. You feel light, energized, and regular. When it doesn’t, you get “stuck,” leading to symptoms including constipation, bloating, gas, or even bacterial overgrowth.

What Causes Constipation?

Chronic constipation is rarely “just about food.” It often traces back to one or more of four root causes:

• Stress and trauma

• Toxins

• Infections

• Nutrient deficiencies

Stress and Trauma

Research has shown that emotional and physiological stress can suppress MMC activity, reducing gut motility (movement) and leading to symptoms like bloating, discomfort, and yes, constipation.

Even if you eat a perfect diet and take all the right supplements, chronic stress can keep your digestive system in shutdown mode. Trauma — even from years ago — can stay stored in the body and continue to activate the stress response.

People often don’t realize that their history of trauma or chronic fight-or-flight living is directly tied to sluggish bowels. That’s because stress turns off the “rest and digest” parasympathetic system, which is responsible for normal gut movement. It also depletes neurotransmitters and messes with hormone signaling.

Studies show that psychological stress disrupts both the ENS and central nervous system (CNS), slowing digestion and bowel movements. [1] 

It also shows that trauma and long-term stress alter the brain-gut axis and impact neurotransmitters like serotonin, which plays a key role in triggering peristalsis — the wave-like muscle contractions that move food, fluids, and waste through your digestive tract. [1] Without enough of this neurotransmitter, the natural rhythm of your bowels slows down or stalls completely.

Toxins

Environmental toxins—like heavy metals, mold, pesticides, or endocrine disruptors—can interfere with ENS function, slow detox, and cause chronic gut inflammation.

These toxins create oxidative stress, damage gut nerves, impair neurotransmitter production, and clog up your detox pathways.

That’s a problem because pooping is your body’s main way of getting rid of toxins. If you’re constipated, those toxins can get reabsorbed and trigger symptoms like skin problems, hormonal imbalances, and fatigue.

Detox support—including opening your internal drainage pathways, introducing binders, and using liver supporting nutrients (such as glutathione, bitters, and NAC)—can help move the toxic burden out so your gut can reboot.

Infections

Pathogens like parasites, candida, or bacterial overgrowth (especially SIBO) can inflame the gut lining, disrupt enzyme function, and interfere with serotonin — 90% of which is made in your gut.

Serotonin is key for activating the MMC and triggering peristalsis. Without it, you’re left feeling full, bloated, and constipated.

According to a 2024 study in Nutrients, disrupted microbiome balance and poor serotonin signaling are major contributors to functional constipation. [2]

Some common examples of constipation-triggering infections include Blastocystis hominis, a parasite known to cause both diarrhea and constipation depending on where it colonizes, and methane-dominant SIBO, which has been directly linked to slow gut transit and chronic constipation in multiple studies. Fungal overgrowth, like Candida albicans, can also irritate the gut lining, slow motility, and impair healthy neurotransmitter production.

Infections don’t just cause local inflammation — they can disrupt the complex feedback loop between your gut microbiome, neurotransmitters, and brain. When that communication breaks down, it creates a cycle of poor digestion, increased inflammation, and harder-to-pass stools.

And in some people, food sensitivities — especially to gluten or dairy — can create similar low-grade inflammation that disrupts motility and contributes to constipation.

This is where testing comes in: functional stool tests, organic acid tests, and SIBO breath tests can identify what’s going on, so we can treat it properly.

Nutrient Deficiencies

Your gut needs fuel to function — and that fuel comes from nutrients, not just calories. 

Micronutrients are what make the engine of digestion run. Without them, the signals between your gut and your nervous system get fuzzy, and the muscles that move things along start to slow down.

Low levels of magnesium, vitamin D, zinc, B6, and choline can impact your ability to pass stool by disrupting neurotransmitter production, weakening muscle tone in the colon, and stalling the migrating motor complex.

Multiple studies demonstrate this connection. Magnesium, for example, plays a direct role in drawing water into the colon and relaxing the intestinal muscles — and research confirms that low intake is linked to more frequent constipation, especially in women over 50. [3, 4, 5]

Vitamin D helps support both gut barrier integrity and muscle contraction. And B vitamins like B6 are essential for creating serotonin and other chemicals that keep things moving.

The problem? Many of us are walking around depleted without realizing it. Chronic stress, gut inflammation, a limited diet, poor absorption, or common medications like proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) can all lead to nutrient gaps — especially in people with IBS, celiac disease, or SIBO.

Low thyroid function can also slow motility, particularly in women over 40. If you’re dealing with constipation along with fatigue, thinning hair, or cold hands and feet, it’s worth exploring your thyroid health as part of the picture.

The best way to find out if you are deficient in specific nutrients is through testing.

Common Mistakes That Make Constipation Worse

A lot of people try to self-manage constipation with tactics that actually make it worse in the long run. Let’s clear up a few myths:

Overloading on fiber

Yes, fiber is important. It feeds your gut microbiome and bulks up stool. But without hydration and motility, it can just sit there, fermenting and creating gas.

Reaching for stimulant laxatives

Laxatives may provide quick relief, but they don’t restore function. They force the bowels to contract and can cause dependency over time (AKA: create lazy bowels – yes, that’s a real thing!)

Using coffee as a crutch

Coffee stimulates the colon in a couple of ways: the caffeine can increase muscle contractions, and it can also trigger the vagus nerve — which helps prompt a bowel movement. But this is a short-term fix. Relying on coffee daily may mask deeper issues with motility, neurotransmitter balance, or your enteric nervous system.

Thinking all liquids are as good as water

Stool needs water to move. Some people think as long as there’s liquid in it, it’s as good as water. But this is absolutely not true! Beverages like coffee, soda, and wine don’t count. In fact, some of them are dehydrating and make constipation worse.

Holding it

You might think that if you just wait long enough, your body will eventually produce a bowel movement. After all, we have busy lives to lead. Who has time to poop these days? But the holding it in can actually make constipation worse! When you ignore the urge to go, the rectum stretches and the signal to your brain weakens — making it harder to recognize the need to go later. Over time, this bowel habit can lead to hard stools, longer transit time, and even chronic constipation. Research has linked stool withholding to delayed colonic transit and impaired rectal sensation, particularly in both children and older adults. [6]

Colon cleansing

Enemas and colon irrigation (also called high colonics) are sometimes used to relieve constipation by flushing out the colon. But they’re not a long-term solution — and in many cases, they can make things worse. Regular use of enemas, especially in older people, can weaken the body’s natural ability to have a normal bowel movement. And colonic irrigation, which involves pumping water into the colon, can actually damage the intestinal wall if you’re constipated while it’s being administered. *Note colonic irrigation in a healthy colon is safe and supportive.

Quick Relief Tips

Fixing ENS (enteric nervous system) dysfunction and MMC (migrating motor complex) impairment takes time. The best place to start is identifying your unique root causes through gut microbiome testing.

But while you work on healing, you deserve to feel better now.

Here are some quick relief solutions and lifestyle changes that can help:

✅ Spacing Your Meals – Eating every 2–3 hours can inhibit the MMC. Even small snacks or beverages with calories can interrupt the MMC, so true fasting between meals is key. Leave at least 4 hours between meals to allow the MMC to do its sweep. For example, eat your meals at 8:00am, 12:00pm and 5:00pm. 

✅ Walk After Eating – Movement promotes peristalsis and can help the MMC function better. Even 10 minutes is a benefit. 

✅ Drink Prune Juice – This age-old remedy is rich in natural sorbitol, a sugar alcohol with gentle laxative effects that can help relieve constipation. Prunes also contain fiber and polyphenols that support digestive function and nourish the gut microbiome. If you (or your kids) don’t like the taste, try turning it into a popsicle or blending it into a smoothie with berries and a splash of lemon to mellow the flavor. Personally I think they are delicious – and they’re just dried plums.

✅Proper Toilet Posture – Use a stool to elevate your feet. This mimics a natural squatting position, straightens the rectoanal angle, and makes it easier to pass stool without straining. Turns out those weird Squatty Potty people know what they’re doing!

✅ Abdominal Massage – Gently massaging your belly in a clockwise direction can help stimulate your colon and encourage movement. Try lying down and making small circles with your fingertips, starting on your lower right side and moving up, across, and down the left.

✅ Magnesium Oxide — This non-absorbed form of magnesium helps draw water into the colon to soften stools and make them easier to pass.

✅ Bowel Mover – A herbal supplement blend that gently stimulates the colon without being habit-forming.

✅ IBSynergy – This powerful formula supports the enteric nervous system and MMC restoration with nutrients like 5-HTP, glutamine, perilla, and ginger root.

✅ Consume High-Fiber Foods – Eating a variety of plant-based, high-fiber foods supports gut health and promotes regular bowel movements. Focus on whole grains, fiber-rich vegetables, legumes, fruits, and seeds to naturally stimulate peristalsis and feed beneficial bacteria in your gut microbiome.

✅ Daily Ginger Tea – A natural prokinetic that stimulates digestive flow.

✅ Get Plenty of Regular Exercise – Engaging in consistent, moderate physical activity supports overall digestive health by improving circulation, reducing stress hormones, and stimulating the enteric nervous system. Studies show that regular movement helps regulate bowel function, especially in people with chronic constipation. [7]

✅ Deep Belly Breathing – Taking a few minutes to breathe deeply into your belly can help shift your body into “rest and digest” mode. This activates the vagus nerve and supports the gentle contractions your gut needs to move things along.

✅ Try Fiber Supplements (If Needed) – While fiber isn’t a cure-all, targeted supplementation can help if your diet is lacking. Be sure to ingest both soluble and insoluble fibers to support digestive function. Just be sure to drink plenty of water to prevent bulk-forming fiber from worsening constipation. * SPECIAL NOTE ON FIBER: I prefer you have a gut test before starting a fiber supplement because if you have bacterial overgrowth, fiber can cause more bloat. Also, if you have SIBO, avoid fiber supplements until it’s  cleared up

Real Healing Takes Time — But It’s Possible

The enteric nervous system takes longer to heal than your skin or muscles. That’s because it’s neurologically rich, sensitive to stress, and deeply intertwined with your emotional experiences.

But the beautiful thing is that the ENS is resilient. With the right support — nervous system regulation, targeted nutrients, and gut-focused protocols — you can restore your body’s natural motility and finally have the daily, satisfying poops you’ve been missing.

The fact is, constipation isn’t just annoying — it’s a sign your body’s systems are under stress.

We’re dedicated to helping people just like you identify what’s causing your constipation symptoms at the root. This usually begins with a gut microbiome test to uncover what’s really driving your symptoms — from infections, commensal bacterial overgrowth and toxins to nutrient deficiencies and hormonal imbalances.

Unlike conventional care, we don’t hand you a laxative and send you on your way. We use a functional medicine approach — one that identifies and heals the root cause, so you can feel better for good.

Book a call with us here and let’s talk about how we can help you “eliminate” constipation for good. You don’t have to live with bloat, gas, or irregularity. Let’s help you feel light, clear, and back in rhythm — every single day.