#141 - Daily Bowel Movements w/ Liz Roman, The Poop Queen

What is up and welcome back to Talkin' Nutrition. Today we are joined by the poop queen, Liz Romant. What's up? Hello, hello. Thank you for having me on. I'm excited to be here. Awesome. I think it's one of the more unique Instagram tags I've seen. I get a lot of comments about that. Hey, you know what? It's easy to remember. And there's so many people, millions and millions of people that struggle with poop issues, whether or not it's constipation, which I'll talk about a little bit today. But you get a lot of messages from people alternating diarrhea, constipation, severe constipation, severe diarrhea. And so my goal is to just help. everybody understand what normal bowel movements are and why it's important to our health. So at least it's a catchy Instagram name and something people will remember. For sure. I think it's really common too though. Plus there's a lot of kind of misconceptions around it. I feel like people don't fully understand or know what normal is, you know what I mean? It's like, it's normal. And then they go like twice a week, you know. Yep. Exactly, and I think a lot of times I think about just our society and how we chalk things up to either being normal, because that's maybe what a doctor has told us. As long as you're going a couple times a week, I think the conventional medicine still says if it's three times a week, you're good. And so that's less than 50%, right? It's kind of crazy. But then we also just think about our busy lives and the culture we have around go, go, go. We're very, very distracted individuals. media, right? You look at people, even when you're out at the restaurants, everybody's on their phone, right? They're always, you know, just distracted, it seems like. And so because of that, I think many people are not in tune with their body. Maybe they're sweeping things under the rug and just, you know, not even giving it the time of day or mustering through it and just thinking, this is my body, thinking this will go away, thinking, you know, that it's temporary, but then over time it starts to really escalate and then they find themselves in it. a really bad spot. And I think also just speaking from like the mom standpoint, like in mom culture, I know that it's a lot of stress and things that I see on social media. It's again, coming back to that mentality of I just have to handle this. I just have to get through my day, right? Like a lot of people don't have a choice but to. deal with the symptoms, sweep them under the rug, muster through, if you will, so that they can continue working and providing for their families or taking care of their kids. So it's just, I think, when we look at our ancestors, a totally different culture in how our central nervous system is and how then everything in the body is infected, not just our bowel movements. Absolutely. Yeah, I think again, it's one of those, like you said, people just kind of like, I'll just deal with it or it'll go away. But then before you know it, it's been like weeks or months even, you know. So what got you so like invested or like interested in gut health? Like, did you go through something yourself or? So I think a lot of people who have gotten into the functional space have their own story. And a big part of my story is being chronically constipated for eight years. So I was, I can distinctly remember in high school being very, very uncomfortable and bloated and gassy. I was having a lot of PMS issues too. I was having a lot of hormonal abs. horrible pranks in my periods, but I also wasn't going to the bathroom regularly. And so, you know, went to the doctors and they just said, well, try to, you know, increase your fiber, right, drink water, things like that. Eventually it got so bad that I went to a doctor in college and got a colonoscopy. And I had been using Miralax, shamefully, we can talk about that too, but I had been using Miralax as kind of just that symptom relief, but it was also very painful. Like I would take it and then I would have horrible cramping and then like urgency to go to the bathroom, right? So I knew if I took it, I needed to be home. And that's not what we want either. Like in fact, Miralax is toxic to the body, so toxic to the body. The reason why we expel it so well is because the body sees it as such. And so I remember after my colonoscopy, which I woke up in the middle of, by the way, not a fun experience, they just said, it was crazy. I just, you know, I didn't feel anything, but I got to see what was going on on the screen. They just basically said, everything is normal. Like, you're fine, idiopathic, like we don't know. They didn't diagnose me with IBS, but they basically just said, again, Miralax, fiber, and water. And shortly after that, so let's fast forward to like a couple of years after I graduated college, I was making good money and I was now living up in the Chicagoland area, met a girl who had seen a functional doctor and had just really great success. And I was like, I got to see this person. Right. So I go and I had always suspected some thyroid issues, but everything according to my doctors was normal. They never really looked at my antibodies or looked at my actual thyroid hormones, just that TSH and total T4. So lo and behold, yes, I. had severe gut dysbiosis. I had Hashimoto's. That was my second autoimmune diagnosis. When I was a young girl, I had children's rheumatoid arthritis. And I gained a lot of weight from that, always struggled with weight issues. But the biggest thing at that point in time of my life is I was so tired. I was so fatigued. And I was going to the gym. But I just wasn't seeing any progress. And so really getting to the root cause of what was going on within my body, both with the autoimmune immunity and with my gut, then allowed me to release a lot of that weight and overcome that chronic constipation and restore what I call queen -size poops, which really should be one to three times a day pain -free. So if we think about... the culture we mentioned earlier, you know, the doctors just say if you're going three times a week, you're not constipated technically. We want to fully eliminate our bowels every single day because within that it's all waste, right? It's metabolic products. It is food that we've consumed that's been broken down with the waste from those things. It's toxins and other metabolites. So all of that stuff will essentially back up into the system for chronic... And that's really where we see a lot of things in terms of our gut brain access, our gut skin access, those types of things. Yeah. Yeah. I think even for a lot of people that might sound surprising already, like, I'm supposed to go like every day, you know, which we really should. And you brought up a lot of good points too. I mean, like the connection with thyroid and I feel like a lot of times, especially these days, especially when you go online, it's like all about gut or all about thyroid or, you know, it's all like these separate kind of silos, but it all goes hand in hand. And I feel like a lot of times, I don't know if this is maybe like, it's probably part of the doctors also not having the experience with those issues maybe or right. But it's sometimes hard to kind of really find that help that you need because here you're dealing with stuff yet you're told that you're being okay, right? That you're fine, that there's nothing wrong. And then down the road you find out there is a whole bunch of stuff. Yeah, and I think in terms of the health care here in the United States, you know, we're very blessed to have doctors and surgeons, you know, for very, you know, severe things, right? Don't come to me if you've been hit by a car, you have a gunshot, you know, cancer, those types of things. But when we really think about how the body works, we have, you know, the gut microbiome that one thing I tried to explain to my clients is there's two ways that you build your body up. and you actually are able to build muscle, have good energy, have all of the nutrients that you need. And one of those is. really being able to absorb the nutrients that you are ingesting. So there's a difference between just ingesting it and then digesting it and absorbing it. So a lot of people have deficiencies where we might be eating a good quality diet. But I mean, I see this all the time in my practice too. People coming in that do have a good organic diet or paleo or Mediterranean, but they lack different things such as stomach acid. or bile salt or pancreatic enzymes to really be able to properly break things down and absorb it. So that's a big thing is nutrient assimilation and absorption. And then the other big thing is our sleep and our recovery because that's really the only time that that body is able to go through. all the different detoxification processes that need to occur so that we can turn over ourselves, get rid of again all of the waste and rejuvenate. And we also see a lot of times people who do have gut issues have a lot of either insomnia or poor sleep, poor quality of sleep, trouble falling asleep. They wake up feeling more tired even than when they went to bed. They're tossing and turning. And so again, the biggest question here is what's happening within the gut microbiome and our detoxification systems that are causing such maybe blood sugar issues or cortisol issues that's really just regulating that circadian rhythm. I see that a lot with people who... are very toxic and have a lot of backup, they're waking up between 1 and 3 a And then they're unable to fall back asleep. And that's really liver cleansing time. And so the liver is trying to do its job, but the immune system is stimulated. And when that happens, our cortisol elevates. And when cortisol elevates, that wakes us up, right? And so really we just have to think about far beyond just the digestive symptoms that people experience, we have to think about the whole body. And what I was saying all of this for is to go back to the convention. medicine system, a lot of times you will see like you have your GP, right? Your general practitioner, then you have your OBGYN, that's more of the female reproductive system, an endocrinologist that should specialize in your thyroid, and then your GI doctor, right? But none of these people generally talk to each other. It's that they're working in silos and no one's really thinking the way we do in functional medicine of like, how does all of this come together under this umbrella? And rather than treating the, you know, issue with a pill, like, we say pill for every ill, or I would also say on the conventional, or excuse me, the functional side, supplementing the symptom. My goal as a practitioner is to really get to the root cause and figure out like why is all of this so, you know, just. there's so much miscommunication, so much misfiring in the body. Why is the body so burdened? And so if we can do that, then we can bring these 12 systems back in line so that they can work synergistically together and again, not work in such isolation in these silos and really be able to help that person move forward rather than just again, like masking the symptoms. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's, I think it's also really cool for like the health coaches and practitioners now who are more getting into functional to be able to actually provide that. It's so important. I mean, you mentioned, so we have like, let's say 50, 50, like people in the U S our clients, right. As well as over here in Norway and stuff. I will say most of my like functional kind of clients are over there, but you're seeing it here as well. And it's more and more. And I feel like Norway in particular is one of those countries where people kind of hype up like the medical system, you know, where it's like, it's supposed to be like the, you know, best thing ever. And it's good. Don't get me wrong. It is, it is good, you know, but yet I'm still seeing, okay, you have hormonal issues. Here's the pill, right? Just get on that. You got gut issues. I just do low FODMAP. That's like, that's it, right? Or just do that. Or hey, just, just don't eat dairy or something. Hey, you should lose 10 kilos. It's like, okay, yeah, they know that, you know, but it's like, it's the same thing here. That's what I'm trying to say. It's a good system, but you know. credit where credit's due in terms of it's not the individuals because I've met some amazing. you know, doctors, and I will say even in my practice with some of the cases that I've dealt with, you know, they're GI doctors. I encourage my clients to take testing to them, obviously with the caveat of they may disregard it because this is not something they have in their toolbox. And so they are trained and educated with certain tools. The same thing, the same way that we are in functional medicine. And some of them are very open and very excited to see these things that we're able to provide that then, you know, conventional medicine doesn't have. and others unfortunately are very closed minded. And so we never wanna say that it's just the individual, but it is really just the system, right? They're in a system that is broken and that's just. been what they've been taught. And we also know, I think, at least here in the United States, in the past four or five years, anybody who kind of goes against the grain was really shunned. And so thinking, too, about that individual, they went to school for many years, paid a lot of money maybe to become a doctor, and this is their family. And so you can't blame the person. Hopefully, they're doing what they can in speaking with their patients and educating them. But like you mentioned, a lot of the times, it will be some of these blanket recommendations of, go low FODMAP, even if they're seeing a dietician or something in the hospital. But that's not going to cure the person. That's not going to fix that underlying root cause issue of why there's so many bacterial overgrows that are causing this person to react to these fermentable carbohydrates. And it was also never intended to be a long -term diet. It was really intended to be more of that symptomatic relief. And I do think it's helpful. But so many people then just feel like, they have to live that way for the rest of their life, right? Whether it's low FODMAP or dairy free or gluten free or, you know, whatever it might be for that individual. The goal always of our work is to help them be able to get back to eating a diverse diet. I know you align with this, like diversity is key. Whether or not that is the types and, you know, quantities of the food and the macros, like we always need to be changing things, at least seasonally, I would say, or annually, so that your gut microbiome can also have diverse array of microbes to support again that healthy immune system that we all need. Yeah. Yeah, I think even just that it's something that's that's actually very simple. If you think about it, right, we need that diet variety. We need to to practice the basics because when it comes to the main causes, just in general, it's all like lifestyle stuff for the most part, right? Just basic like, hey, we're not taking care of our diet, like stress, sleep. Yeah, I would say too, I think there's definitely a big environmental component as well. What I'm seeing more and more. But again, when we think about the immune system, the immune system should be able to handle things and help us detoxify things. It is now though that we have kind of a combination of things. So we have more toxicity than ever, right? We have more chemicals and pesticides and herbicides and, you know, just things that are being utilized in food, like processed food that are not natural, right? we have all of that exposure because it's quick, it's simple, it's easy for a lot of people. And then you combine that with this go, go, go constant state of stress mentality that most individuals have. Again, I can only speak for the way that the culture is here in the United States, right? Like our inflation is through the roof. And so people are not just working their tails off. They're now maybe even getting second jobs, right? Or doing other things to try to bring in more income to fill those gaps. And they're just burning the candle at all ends. And meanwhile, all of the systems are just on fire and the body is screaming, you know, for nutrients, but that person may or may not be able to do things that are supportive of their gut health, such as... sit down with their food and get calm and chew their food really well, right? They might be rushing and then eating on the go and they're not chewing their food well enough. That puts a lot of stress on the digestive system. Like that's just one example amongst like many, right? Other than just, of course, like you said, lifestyle factors, food quality, the choices that we're making to support our body with sleep and, you know, recovery, not over training, you know, but also not being sedentary. It's like such a fine, delicate balance with all of this. And, you know, that's just really where my heart is with many people right now in terms of what I'm hearing and I'm seeing just with my followers is that they're so stressed out. They don't even know where to begin. Right. And so a lot of times in our practice, we're even having the conversations of do just things that are very uplifting and supportive to you. You know, that can be simple things like adrenal cocktails that comes to mind, right? Where we have some minerals and maybe some coconut water for some potassium and mineral salts and maybe some vitamin C, different things like that. But... doing things that really bring them joy, laugh, connect, play, right? All of that is going to impact not just our gut, but again, our entire system because we are humans that need connection. And I think that is a big piece that a lot of people have lost as well. And so while the functional side is really cool with the tools we have of testing and labs and all these things, if the person is coming in and they're so... strung out, just stressed out. Their central nervous system is chronically in that fight or flight. The first thing is to calm that down and try to get the body to feel a little bit more safe. And then we can come in, you know, with some of those agents that we might need to, to whether or not, you know, it's eradicate a parasite or address H. pylori or SIBO or candida or whatever it could be going on with this person. But that's become such a big focus for me because I do see a lot of relapse with people who've done the functional work. there's been some of those missing pieces related to how are you living your life and managing your stress, you can never out supplement a poor lifestyle or a crazy stressed out lifestyle. So that is one thing I think if you're listening to this right now and you're like, man, my symptoms keep getting worse and worse, I really just challenge you to take an evaluation of when do you feel calm in your day? Or do you always feel like my analogy is just that you're running around with your hair on fire, you know? And you're snappy and you're pissy and you're moody and all of those things because you just are chronically late or whatever it might be. Like what are the things that you need to do to feel safe? Like within your body to feel calm. That's really gonna be a key place to start. Cause that's gonna be what signals. your digestive system to really get into functioning properly and doing the things that it's designed to do to help you assembly all those nutrients that you're eating. I think that's great. I think it's such a big one that a lot of people would also not know about because it's like, hey, I've got issues. I got to take like a fiber supplement or I just got to, you know, cut dairy or whatever it is. Yes. Starting with the stress management is huge. I mean, not just for God, like just about anything health related, you know, and it's the number one thing we're not very good at as a society. I feel like. Myself included. Like, let's be completely honest. Myself included. You know, it's like I know all of the things and, you know, on that note, I think I was just having this conversation with somebody last Friday because there's a few people that I will tell my clients, hey, I really like this person. You know, might want to give them a follow on Instagram. But it can also become very overwhelming very quickly to then think about. I got to do all these things to de-stress, which is a bigger stressor to my stress. And so I really try to just encourage, like, pick one thing. And the word that really comes to my mind is play. Like, we have lost, as adults, we've lost that sense of childlike, you know, time. And so whatever it is for you, like for me, I'll be totally honest, I'm very transparent about this. If somebody tells me to take a detox bath or... you know, meditate or whatever, like, it just makes me want to throw up because those are just things that, one, I've tried meditation, I've tried visualization several, several times. I feel more tense and I feel that it's not something that I have been able to do yet, right? It would be great if I could. The detox bath thing, like, I love them maybe once a week, but if they're saying, like, that should be part of your daily routine, that's not realistic for me. But what does feel right for myself is walks in nature, getting sunlight on my eyes. A lot of times I do that solo by myself. A lot of times I do it with my husband because he works from home. And so we'll try to plan in our day. We have, you know, a toddler. And so like just having a little bit of that space to be away from our computers, our home. And, you know, when our son is at school, it's really kind of rejuvenating for us. And so that makes me feel good. And then other things I do is just like laugh, right? Watch comedy, watch the roast of, Hart's latest roast on Netflix of Tom Brady. Like little stuff like that to where it's free, right? It doesn't require more money or investment, but it also is something that I can align with and feel really good about doing consistently. Because I don't think that if you are bought into anything, right, that your coach maybe is asking you to do, you won't be consistent with it. And then essentially, you're again, in backup, you know, where you were before. Yeah. I think also when it comes to like the routines and stuff, what you just mentioned, it can feel like a lot where you see everyone's morning routine these days and do this to, you know, these 20 things to like wind down in the evening. So yeah, but these are also real people who are already super fucking busy. It's like, maybe just that one thing of like just doing something they really enjoy is plenty, you know? Like it doesn't have to be this crazy routine. Like it kind of bothers me a lot. because you see it all the time, you know? It's like all super specific. It's like a list of like 10 things. It's like, let's just start with one thing and let's just do more of what you actually really enjoy. Yes, I 100 % agree with that. There's so many people with their morning routines out there and it just kind of makes me want to gag because I just think it's so, like it's not realistic for that many people and it's so day to day, right? I'm really a big fan of also asking myself, like I love this analogy and this I've learned, my gosh, from one of my first nutrition certifications, precision nutrition way, way back in the day, but HALT. and really doing like this mind -body scan and what is it that I need today or right now in this moment to fill my cup up. Maybe it is that I'm hungry. I haven't eaten in the last six hours because I just delved into work and back-to -back meetings. Okay, I need to fuel my body, right? Am I anxious or angry? Like what is the sensation that I'm feeling physically and how can I maybe get myself out of this? Do I need to deep breathe? Do I need to go for a walk? Whatever it might be. When, am I feeling lonely? I changed the L around, so this Ackerman is kind of different for people, but I changed the L to being, am I feeling lonely? Do I need that connection with individuals? Because again, over the past four or five years, there's been a lot of isolation. And then the last one is just, am I tired? Like have I been doing, doing too much lately? Do I need to rest and chill? Do I need to say no to something, get something off my plate, cancel an event, a meeting, whatever that might be, and rest? Because if we can't even connect with our body, we can never expect somebody else, like a practitioner or a health coach or a life coach or a mentor, whoever, to be able to help solve these issues if we. we can't even be aware and in tune. So I do really like that because I think a lot of these people who have the morning routines, there can be benefits and value to them for sure. But what if that isn't what you needed that morning? What if you needed to sleep a little bit more because you woke up a few times in the night or your kids were waking you up in the night or whatever it might be? Give yourself permission to break that. Like. I have to be up at 545 to make sure that I get my meditation and my water and my whatever it might be done. Really give yourself permission to be flexible, I guess, and be intuitive with your body and then still honor the commitments that you have and the routines that you know make you feel good. But I agree with you on the morning routine thing. I think there's a lot of gray area that people don't portray. You know, it seems like black and white on social media at least. They're all super dogmatic about like this one specific thing that, you know, or like, you know, this, this wholeness. because it's like, at first I fast and I do this and then I, you know, I, I, I fell into the, the 5am trap. I call it a little bit. It's like, I read the, the book, the 5am club and I started doing that, you know, went through the, you know, routine. And at one point I was like, I'm spending like a full hour every single morning, right? Which is now costing me sleep because I still have to get used to it. You know, I'm spending a full hour getting ready for the day. So I was like, well, is this really helping? I don't know. Then I got into kind of like Alex or Moses approach where it's just like wake up coffee, just go, which also works for time being. And then now I'm kind of like what you just mentioned is like, I'll base it off of what I feel like I need. Like I'll meditate. I'll go for a walk sometimes. journaling. Sometimes I will get started with work when it's super busy. But creating that awareness, I think is huge to where also to our listeners, like you want to play around with this stuff and don't think I'm going to try this thing and it has to be the thing like right away might take a little while to figure out. And I think that needs to be said too, because even when it comes to stress management, which is also a buzzword, let's just call it like doing more fun stuff. It's like even there. you're going to have to find like a routine that actually works for you, that you can make work with your schedule and stuff, you know? But kind of tying that back to digestion, because this one being a big one, stress management, right? When it comes to other things that people would want to do when they struggle with digestive issues, or maybe they can't go to the bathroom, maybe they're going too often. Let's first start with some of the things that people should probably not do that are often being recommended. I love this one. So the biggest thing I would say to not do is to start just throwing random supplements in. So you might see an ad on Instagram. Somebody may recommend a probiotic. The biggest question that I would challenge you with is what are you wanting to get out of this? And is that, you know, product's going to do the job? So from the probiotic side of things, many different probiotics are actually going to make things worse. because different probiotics do different things. They serve different functions. So for example, someone with chronic diarrhea or very watery loose stools, there is a specific one strain product that I like, Saccharomyces pylori, that you can use and you can even do that at like kind of higher doses. Sometimes I go up to 30 billion CFUs for one meal and they would do that maybe all three meals if they were really, really... in a flare. But you might not want to take that at such high doses, right? You're chronically constipated. And so that is number one. I would also say that quality really matters. There's a big difference in what you're going to get from a full script or a practitioner depot, a certified practitioner portal where we know their therapeutic grade quality supplements that have been verified and they're coming from the manufacturer versus Amazon or something that's been sitting on the shelf at Walgreens or things like that. And so that is something that I would not recommend doing. If you're going to take a supplement to support what you are dealing with, I think that you should really do some research around it and understand that it's going to be the right fit for you. Fiber supplements, I think that, again, we have to consider that most of them are made of synthetic ingredients, and that can actually make digestive issues worse. And so I am of the belief that we always wanna start with a whole food approach, right? If I'm living on a standard American diet or an ultra processed diet right now, let's start by slowly changing you over to that more one ingredient whole food with a variety and diversity to bring in some natural fibers that your body can utilize to do the job. And then from there, we think about natural pre and probiotic foods. rather than taking just a supplement right away and let your digestive system accumulate to those changes. So anything that you do with the gut microbiome, if you're changing something, it does have a little bit of a response time. So generally, I tell my clients five to seven days is where this adjustment period, you might feel a little bit more gassy, a little bit more bloated, you might notice things moving through your stomach or your digestion actually working, but in general, it should be a quiet event. So once you get past that, like five to seven days, then maybe you start to have to look at, you know, what am I consuming? Am I always getting bloated after I eat that kimchi, for example, right? Or does something very acidic give me like heartburn or upper GI issues? Okay, maybe I need to stay away from that for a little bit of time. So it really has to be like something again that you're really in tune with, but above all, before you start going and just buying supplements, I think, you know, start by making sure that your diet is. good, it's diverse. On the flip side of the diarrhea, I would say in terms of constipation, people who are chronically constipated and backed up, more fiber might actually make it worse. So I would recommend utilizing a supplement than in that case. Very generic and broad spectrum, I can recommend magnesium. So there's a few different types. I like magnesium calm, which is magnesium citrate that's pretty readily available in most stores. Natural Vitality is the brand. Otherwise, I'm a big fan of magnesium oxide. In the Fullscript account that we utilize, there is one called oxy powder. And so it's oxide, but it's got some oxygen in it. And so magnesium is one that many people are deficient in, just in general. But that can be something that can really help. So the citrate is more of a osmotic laxative. It'll pull water into the bowels. You can do that at high doses. And you can even use it for kids above the age of one years old, which is really nice. So that's kind of my first kind of go -to if somebody is, I need to triage this. I have not gone to the bathroom in 10, 12, 14 days. If that's you, you definitely want to see a doctor. But I do get a lot of those stories from just followers or people who are coming into our program. And so that is something that can help. Is it always the thing that works? No. Sometimes we need certain things like prokinetics. And here you could use ginger. I love. Teas, herbal teas are really powerful and very helpful and soothing. So you could use something like a smooth move tea. Dandelion root, I really like aloe. Aloe is really great. So there's some different herbal supports that we can use to put into place first. But as far as like really harsh laxative things such as, you know, Miralax, I would avoid those because again, like a lot of the fiber supplements, it's toxic. It's made of synthetic ingredients and we just don't want to put that into our body. Yeah. Which then again, it's, once again, it's like a more basic answer to what people would usually jump on, right? Because of what is typically recommended. Yeah. Yeah. And I think too, I mean, I wish that, like, for example, just general practitioners, even OB -GYNs, like I will share that I was just at my OB this past week and she's like, are you feeling constipated in the early stages of pregnancy? And I'm like, well, a little bit, but, you know, I'm pretty good at keeping things moving. And a lot of that has to do with my nutrition, right? So a good. Fiber, two kiwis a day has been shown in research to act as an osmotic laxative. We think apples, pears, prunes, prune juice, some of those just really good nutrient -dense foods that we have that we can utilize even beyond some of the things that I mentioned supplemental -wise earlier. Why don't doctors have those conversations with people more, including GI doctors? Water for sure, so I know that was a big thing that was recommended. Make sure you're hydrated. There's a big miss to this. And so part of that is, yes, you want to be drinking volume of water, adequate intake, but you need to have minerals with that. Sodium specifically, so that you can absorb water and pull it into the cell. So intracellular hydration is crucial. And a lot of people don't, A, drink enough water, or B, have the proper amount of electrolytes to really absorb the water. And so then they're feeling, you know, waterlogged as I like to call it, where they're puffy. Some people will even say like they notice swelling or things like that. And so we want to pull it from the extra cellular layers internally. And you'll notice even that you feel a little bit thinner too, if you do that. So water is important, but above that is going to be making sure that you have mineral, proper mineral water and salt. I mean, I know we both like element T for example, which is great. Do you feel like people, generally speaking, want to consider getting on that? Or would you say, hey, you could also just salt your meals, get some potassium from certain foods, et cetera. Yeah. So as I mentioned earlier, I'm really a big fan of adrenal cocktails. But I would say that also lemon water in the morning is a huge game changer for people, especially those that maybe have more of that constipation side where they're needing to stimulate the liver and support their bio flow. So a lot of times if someone is constipated and they're having like the little lumps of poo and it's floating in the stool, that's really more of an indication of bile insufficiency. So. Bile is a type of gastric juice made by the liver, typically stored in the gallbladder if you have a gallbladder still. And then it's given to your digestive system in the right amounts at the right time to help break down and emulsify fats. And sometimes that comes very peanut butter -like rather than fluid and liquid. And that can make people really, again, struggle to go to the bathroom having to strain or again, floaters. So lemon water in the morning will not only wake up digestion, but it will stimulate bioflow, which is really great. And I've seen that do a lot for many clients just in and of itself. And then I would say to add a little bit of like a Celtic sea salt, a good mineral salt to that. I don't think everyone needs to be taking element tea. I like it because it's flavorful. It helps me drink more water and stay on track. But it is also something that is an investment. And so I would say warm lemon water in the morning. Pinch of sea salt, if you want to get a little potassium, do some coconut water, really hydrating. And if you're going to make it then more of an adrenal support, stress handling, maybe you're waking up like I used to, relying on caffeine, you want to have some form of vitamin C. Whole food vitamin C is going to be important there. So I actually like something called Camu Camu powder. You can get it on Amazon or at your local store. A lot of whole food or health food stores will have it. but that's a pretty high dose vitamin C. It's kind of tart, it's really delicious. So put that in to give your body a little bit of that boost vitamin C that can go to the digestive system and help with bowel movements as well, but it's more intended to support your immune system, antioxidants, and then stress handling on the adrenals. So that would be where I would start even before something like Element or Relight or whatever electrolyte the person chooses. Yeah, that's great. I think it's always better to start with with real food or you kind of like basic approaches. Because like you said, it is an investment. It does kind of add up, especially when you also want to get some magnesium, maybe some other things. Yeah, for sure. So when it comes to the research around gut health in general. how new, like kind of recent is it? And like, how much do we kind of know in quotes, you know? Yeah, there's a lot we don't know. I would say, so in terms of the research, this is just something that started being researched in the 1840s. And so it's still evolving and developing. Every day they're learning new things. We think about most recently, back in 2001, they discovered a keystone species in the gut called acromansia. Now you're seeing a lot of people on. social media talking about acromantia products that you can purchase and all of this stuff. And what acromantia is, it's a very important part of our immune system, but it also helps with insulin signaling. And we do see with a lot of low carbohydrate diets that acromantia goes very, very low. And so that can drive insulin issues or signaling issues, so blood sugars elevated, but it is really important. And you can support acromantia levels with a variety of different foods, polyphenols. pomegranate, cranberry, things like that, but that's just from 2001, right? What we also know is that it takes about 18 years before new research reaches your doctor. So we can say maybe five, six years ago, the good GI doctors who are keeping up with their stuff heard about acrimantia. I don't know if they talk about it, to be honest with you. Most of the GI doctors that I hear stories about are similar to my experience, or right now I have a couple cases where I'm working with the client. and also giving them information to share with their GI doctor to ask for further testing to be done. But they've come up with some different things. We've got breath testing for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. In the last four years, they've determined, OK, methane is not actually a bacteria. It's an archaea. And so they are determining that there is a difference between this. And then we're looking at fungal overgrowth instead of just bucketing what used to be under this small intestinal bacterial growth. So it's ever evolving. And there's a lot I would say that we don't know there's a lot from the functional side that conventional medicine doesn't recognize in terms of the The what's the word I'm looking for? Can I would say it's very common for individuals to have parasites and they can really cause a lot of Damage to the body we do need them at some level. They're there to help clean things up, but when they get really, you know overgrown and we're looking at things like iron deficiency anemias, a lot of inflammation in the GI tract, a lot of pain. That generally comes down to parasitic infections. And that would be more somebody can feel like, hey, my anxiety is through the roof. I have trouble sleeping. I'm waking up a lot at 3 AM. Full moon time, I get more irritable. I'm very hungry. There's some different telltale just like symptoms of parasite infections. Allergies can be included in that, specifically dairy intolerance. thinking about grinding their teeth at night. Those are just some other ones. But we see this a lot in lab work and then also on stool testing. And I wish that was something that conventional medicine looked at a little bit more, but they don't, right? Their colonoscopies and the endoscopies, they're looking at the function of things. Like is there an ulcer? Are there polyps? Are there diverticulitis like pockets, things like that? So the health of the intestine, they can't see with their eye, right? Just. the levels of bacteria, that is something that needs to be tested in a stool test. And even though they do stool testing, it's very what I would call pathogenic. So they're looking at like the big players of E. coli, C. diff, Campylobacter, like some of these like more serious acute infections, but they do miss a lot of things. Even like H. pylori, I have two cases in my practice right now. H. pylori is a type of bacteria that burrows into the lining of the stomach. and it damages our parietal cells, which produce stomach acid. That, in turn, can obviously lead to the nutritional deficiencies because we don't have enough stomach acid to break down and absorb those nutrients. But it also can lead to a lot of upper GI issues, so heartburn, GERD, acid reflux. And so conventional medicine says, hey, let's just throw a proton pump inhibitor, right, or some Prilosex, some Tums, suppress, suppress, suppress. And over time, You can read a book that's called Why Stomach Acid is Good for You. This has widespread effects on the body. Osteopenia, osteoporosis, a variety of things. Because again, we're not able to assimilate our nutrients. And so in the conventional side of things, they have a breath test. You would have to have some very, very high levels of H. pylori to catch that on a breath test. But I have two cases right now, extremely. extremely high levels of H. pylori in their stool analysis, which looks at the DNA, negative on breath testing, but very symptomatic, like so symptomatic they were on a proton pump inhibitor sleeping upright at nighttime. Thankfully, that's not the case for her now and we're healing and we're moving forward. But what I always say to people is your symptoms will trump any testing, conventional or functional, right? It doesn't matter. I don't care that this shows me that, you know, you didn't have H. pylori. We have a ton of symptoms and on our stool analysis we can see, that the DNA is detected at very high levels. And so why wouldn't we address it? Because it's all about quality of life for people. So I mean, the research is still evolving. I hope that the tests will get more and more specific. I hope that they will become better and better. But I think what we have so far is still much better than what we used to have. But we also didn't used to have the amount of GI issues that we have today. And that comes down to. everything we've been talking about, right? Poor quality of food, ultra processed foods, high levels of stress, not slowing down and eating. And we think back to like what our ancestors did, or I even just think back to my childhood. We sat down and ate dinner as a family every night together, right? We set the table, everybody sits down. You're not excused until you've finished and you're not rushing and those types of things. And I think just where we are at today, that's very far and few between for people. So a lot of it comes back to the lifestyle factors, but. The good news is we do have some tests and we have things we can do, you know, functionally to help people get out of the space. Absolutely. Nice question, I guess, because this kind of ties into this as well, because I see a lot of just IBS. I'm blanking out of words. irritable bowel diagnosis. diagnosis. Sorry. Yeah, absolutely. I've seen that a lot where people are like, they're told that they have IBS. But then they're dealing with all these different kind of versions, I guess. So first of all, my belief, and this might agitate some people, but the reality is there is no diagnosis for IBS other than symptoms. So now they've classified IBS C constipated, IBS D diarrhea, or IBS mixed. The question is why? I always say to my clients, we know your bowels are irritable. That's why you've come here. That's why you've gone to your. GI doctor, if the only answer they have for you is Imodium or Miralax, keep digging. Keep asking the question, what is going on? Why are my bowels irritable? Because again, there is not a definitive test. It is almost like PCOS in a way where PCOS is a syndrome, right? And there's different types of PCOS. So IBS is kind of this umbrella catch -all diagnosis. And I really wish that, you know. the conventional space would do a little bit more further investigating to help people rather than just slapping that label on and makes people feel like this is just how things are. And you know, that's the way they have to live for the rest of their life. And that's absolutely not true. There's a reason your bowels are irritable. Most of the time there's some underlying infections driving inflammation. And if we can calm all of that down, we can eradicate things that need to be eradicated or on the flip side, we can just rebuild your microbiome. So I've also seen several people who have been on antibiotics after antibiotics after antibiotics. Their good bacteria is completely wiped out. Their immune system is struggling to hang on. Their mucosal barrier is broken down. A lot of people who are taking antihistamines that dries everything out, it dries everything out. Your mucus membranes goes from your nose to your tail. So a lot of naysads and other over -the-counter medications can really damage the gut microbiome too. And so. We need to rebuild the house for many people. And sometimes, again, it doesn't always require eradication. I've got a case right now. She's a missionary. It's really cool to see. I'm happy that she doesn't have what she thought, which was a lot of overgrowth and infection. She's just been completely wiped out. And a lot of that has to come back to things that she's been taking to travel to different countries and do so in a safe manner. But there's always a cost and a consequence to things. So for those individuals who may be listening and say, yeah, I I've had these GI issues. And if you really trace back, I did this round of antibiotics for whatever it was, a cold, a flu, COVID, sinus infection, or UTI. It could be a variety of things, skin issues, cysts, or rashes, contact dermatitis. And you did an antibiotic, and now things have gotten worse. We see that a lot, secondary infections, or just a completely wiped out immune system, a microbiome, because that opens the door. for things. So sometimes that's the better scenario. And I like those cases a lot more because they feel better so much faster if we're just having to replace what was lost. And yeah, so they got microbiome. It's a huge passion of mine. I would just say to people listening, I struggled for eight years. And I thought that I was alone. And my doctors made me feel crazy. They told me my weight loss resistance was because of. I was overeating and I wasn't. I was eating 1200 calories, weight watchers, going to the gym all the time. And weight loss is a byproduct of health. And when you can really focus on getting to that root cause, everything will fall into line. Your digestive system will regulate itself. Your energy will be online. Your sleep will be great. Your mood will be stable. Your periods will be easy. And you just got to work to get to the root cause. So. Amazing. Thanks so much. That was awesome. Before we let you go, where can people find you? So as you mentioned earlier, I am on Instagram at the poop queen, but I also own a practice and we do work with people internationally. So our practice is called Fit Mom. And so we have our website. I will give the link to you so you can put that in the show notes if you guys wanna connect with us there. But most importantly, you can go to fitmomlife .com backslash Liz, L -I -Z, and you can grab a copy of my constipation cure guide. If you are somebody who is chronically constipated, I have poured my heart into soul into that. It's been updated already and I'm going to make an update again soon. But that is really all of the tools in the toolbox that I can give you, broad spectrum, generic, without working with you one -on -one to really help unlock your bowels and get you moving one to three times a day pain free. amazing. That's super helpful. Awesome. Thanks again. And to our listener, of course, if you enjoyed this episode, make sure to share a quick screenshot on your Instagram stories and I will be back in a couple of days. I'll talk to you soon.