Consuming this particular dish may reveal reasons behind your constipation issues.
Investigating Gut Health Difficulties: A Home Test for Transit Time
When stomach ailments like constipation or diarrhea occur, one's attention inevitably turns to digestive health. However, the significance of gut health transcends occasional discomfort, as it plays a critical role in overall health, influencing mood, immunity, and blood pressure, among other factors.
Identifying the root cause of digestive issues can be challenging, particularly without medical procedures such as endoscopy or colonoscopy. Fortunately, a straightforward method is available for testing a crucial gauge of gut health from the comfort of home.
Transit Time: Clarity on Your Digestive Health
Alterations in transit time—the duration taken for food to travel through the intestines—often signify gut problems. Transit time generally ranges from 12 to 73 hours, although the average is approximately 23-24 hours in a balanced gut, where bacteria help digestion by producing metabolites from consumed food.
When the gut's balance is disrupted, transit time can deviate from normal, resulting in either sluggish or accelerated movement. Both conditions can lead to unfavorable outcomes:
#1 - Slow Transit Time
A slow transit time indicates an insufficient intake of fiber or the wrong kind, causing bacteria to consume protein instead, resulting inflatmation and excess gas. Prolonged slow transit can result in abdominal pain, bloating, and constipation due to partially digested food lingering in the small intestine.
#2 - Fast Transit Time
When food moves too swiftly through the gut, diarrhea, malabsorption of nutrients, dehydration, abdominal discomfort, and further gut microbiome disruption may ensue. Causes of fast transit include an overactive thyroid, gastrointestinal disorders, stress, or a poor diet.
The Sweet Corn Test: Diagnosing Transit Time
To determine whether transit time is the culprit of your bathroom woes, you can conduct a simple test involving sweet corn:
- Abstain from consuming sweet corn for 7-10 days prior to the test.
- On the designated day, eat a modest serving of sweet corn and note the precise time.
- Afterwards, monitor your bowel movements for the presence of the corn's unchanged outer shell.
If the corn appears within 12 hours, your transit time is too brisk. If this result is consistent, consult a healthcare professional to rule out any health complications.
Conversely, if your gut transit time exceeds 48 hours, it is deemed slow. If no other GI symptoms, such as bloating, severe abdominal pain, lack of appetite, or nausea, are present, you can begin addressing slow transit by increasing water intake, fiber consumption, and potentially incorporating specific supplements to improve bowel movements.
By taking these measures to improve transit time, you can alleviate bathroom troubles, promote regularity, and support overall digestive health. Supplementation options include magnesium, potassium, slippery elm, dandelion, collinsonia canadensis extract, fennel, senna leaf, inulin, and aloe vera.
Sources:
How Well Is Your Gut Working? There's a Grossly Simple Way to Check. - Science Alert
- Maintaining gut health extends beyond alleviating occasional discomfort, influencing overall wellness, including mood, immunity, and blood pressure, due to the critical role it plays in our health and well-being.
- To gain insight into digestive health, one can perform a home test assessing transit time, which serves as a vital indicator of gut health, as altered transit times often signal gut-related issues.
- In pursuit of boosting wellness through improved gut health, nutrition, fitness-and-exercise, and health-and-wellness supplements such as magnesium, potassium, slippery elm, dandelion, collinsonia canadensis extract, fennel, senna leaf, inulin, and aloe vera can be beneficial, aiding in enhancing bowel movements and supporting overall digestive health.
