Tis the Season to Be... Constipated? And other Seasons Greetings from PHOD
As you engage in sprees of holiday travel, cookie binges, and wassal benders, your GI tract may turn serious Grinch on you. Every year millions of people find their bowels get as miserly as Scrooge himself. Here’s some Holiday bowel advice to make sure you don’t end up like one of the 800,000 Americans each year who end up in the emergency room due to this pesky condition.
First off, constipation is more than an annoyance. It’s a sign of a Western diet that is probably promoting other diseases, like diabetes and heart disease.
If you have a hiatal hernia, hemorrhoids, varicose veins, diverticulosis, or anal fissures, these can all result from straining. If you have to strain to make a bowel movement (BM) or if you have fewer than 1 BM per day, then you likely have a constipation problem. Straining can cause blood pressure to surge and reduced blood flow to the brain. In sicker hospital patients it can result in “bedpan death syndrome”. It’s a technical term, but to simplify: you don’t want that.
We can regard constipation as “fiber deficiency syndrome”. Eat enough dietary fiber, and it usually goes away reliably. Note if you have a dense constipation, it can sometimes require relieving the obstructing hard stool with laxatives like polyethylene glycol (Miralax), which may be the best and safest laxative.
Here is a list of things that help constipation:
Walking 13,000 steps per day.
Adequate hydration. Make sure you are not dehydrated. On average, assuming only moderate loss from sweating, women are advised to drink 4 to 7 cups of water a day and men from 6 to 11 cups per day.
1 tablespoon of ground flax seeds per day works better than psyllium (Metamucil), and flax seeds also caused weight loss and improved hemoglobin A1c. Psyllium btw is non-fermentable meaning it is dead to your gut bacteria.
Dietary Fiber. You really want to feed those gut bacteria fermentable fiber, like dietary fiber from foods. Why? Because they turn that fiber into powerful anti-oxidants which keep you healthy.
Here is the ultimate longevity-inducing fiber cocktail to keep your bowels moving for a century at least plus or minus.
1 cup apple sauce
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup ground flax seeds
1/2 cup prune juice
Mix and keep in fridge. Enjoy 1/2 cup 1-2 times per day.
(Note: this recipe is new and never tested but expected to be awesome).
Holiday Fiber Cocktail Recipe
Same as above but stick a candy cane in it. Serve it to the kids. Tell em Santa is taking one last look at his Constipated Kids list before he decides who gets what.
Healthy (Vegan) Eating During the Month of Veganuary
For the month of January, Kat Samworth is offering free coaching to help people eat healthier.
BONUS! Cooking demo with light lunch January 7th!
When: Sundays – January 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th. 12 – 1:30pm. Snack provided!
Where: First Unitarian Church, 730 Halstead Road – Room 25
Email Kat at ktsamworth@gmail.com with questions
Successful Aging January 10 and 29
In December, we met to discuss strength training. Strength training is the most neglected healthy behavior (after daily pooping, see above). To review the key elements and a major hack that yields great strength gains in a fraction of the exercise time, see our Successful Aging Through Strength Training page.
Successful Aging is a group medical program covered by your insurance. We are sharing a lot of insights you will not find elsewhere.
We will meet again on Wednesday January 10, 2024 from noon to 1pm (and a repeat of the same topic on Monday January 29 from 5 to 6pm).
We will focus on mental health and happiness. Lots of fascinating insights from the science of positive psychology and lifestyle for mental health!
Vegan Chili Cookoff Saturday January 13th, 5:30pm
First Unitarian Church, Parish Hall
730 Halstead Rd, Wilmington, DE
Come warm up on a cold winter night with a bowl of chili! Please join us at the First Unitarian Church on Saturday, January 13th at 5:30pm for a Vegan Chili Cookoff! $5 entry fee goes to the Youth Group for a future service trip. Come and enjoy trying different vegan chilis, or bring a bowl of chili to join in the competition. Prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. Register at the church website or bring $ the night of the event. Cups will be provided for the tasting. Drinks and cornbread provided as well. Come out for a healthy plant based meal! Click here to sign up.
Dr. Donohue’s Concierge Practice Is Open to New Patients
Dr. Donohue’s Longevity-Focused Concierge Practice continues to be open until we reach 200 patients, which is expected to happen in early 2024.
To learn more about this practice, called the Progressive Health Institute, click here.
FAQ
What is Progressive Health Institute’s approach to precision medicine and longevity?
If you are familiar with Peter Attia’s book: Outlive, then you know that there is more to healthspan than diseases and medications. Medicine 3.0, as Attia and others describe, is much more proactive than traditional modern medicine. We collect more data about important systems in your body, including your vascular health, metabolic health, cognitive health, and musculoskeletal health. We then address any abnormalities much earlier than traditional medicine. Like decades earlier. We reverse your underlying early disease indicators through whatever means that science has proven. Our favorite approach is lifestyle medicine because it is so powerful and empowering for people. We also use whatever other modalities that science has proven to reverse disease, improve function, and extend life. Attia is brilliant, but he misses the boat on the power of nutrition. And he likely puts a bit too much stock in the zone 2 exercise bucket. That is to say, he believes that large volumes of low level exercise are the solution to longevity.
A total game changer in the science of longevity and precision medicine is Michael Greger’s new book, How Not to Age. With 13,000 scientific references, this book is a literal trove of hundreds of insights that can and will extend your lifespan and boost your health. What’s more, Dr. Greger donates all proceeds from sales of his books to charity.
Speaking of whom…
Dr. Michael Greger Himself to Answer YOUR Questions Live on January 26, 2024!
At 2:30pm on Friday January 26, we will show Dr. Greger’s 76 minute summary of his new book How Not to Age. Following this, at 3:45, Dr. Greger will join us live to answer our questions. We plan to collect your questions in the chat during the program.
NOTE: I have seen this lecture by Dr. Greger at the ACLM Conference in 11/2023, and it was by far the most beloved talk of the entire conference!