You've probably found this blog post because you're struggling with constipation and it's making your life really miserable. The pain from being backed up can include back ache, cramps, bloating and it can impact on your mood. You want to get to the bottom of the problem and feel better, right? 

Many of the people I've worked with over the years have come to me with painful constipation and have been offered laxatives as a solution. Sadly, it's a temporary fix and unlikely to solve the root issues at play. 

In this post, I'm going to share the 3 main causes of constipation and I'll explain what you can do to start to feel better. Sound good? Let's go!

Something we've grown up hearing is that you should eat bran when you're constipated. Don't do it! It's actually really difficult to digest and possibly going to make things down there worse. 

So what should you actually be eating? 

• I recommend switching to gentle wholegrains - brown rice, oats, buckwheat and brown rice pasta. 
• Soak nuts, seeds and oats overnight to make them easier to digest. 
• Eat more legumes (if tolerated) and mash your root vegetables so your gut doesn't have to work as hard to break them down. 
• You could try the 3 Ps - pears prunes and peas - to get things moving. 
• Slippery elm can be added to smoothies (read more about that here!).
• Don't forget to increase your hydration.

Not many of us are aware of how our bodies work and how in sync our brains are with our digestive system. There is something called the "gut-brain-axis (GBA)" which is a two-way communication between our brain and our enteric nervous system, (neurons in our gut that control the function of our gastrointestinal tract). Basically what this means is that when you're stressed, your digestive system reacts. 

You might not think you're stressed right now, but your body has been living in fight or flight mode for a year during the pandemic. You might be working from home and trying to juggle home schooling, but if you're a key worker and have been on the front lines, that is a whole other level of stress. 

And what happens is the body "holds on to" waste because of the stress (the bowel is unable to relax fully) and we risk the reabsorption of toxins from the colon back into circulation in the body.​

So what can you do to reduce stress in the gut?

• Drink green tea - contains l-theanine, an amino acid shown to reduce stress
• Up your Vitamin B foods 
• Take magnesium baths and eat foods rich in magnesium (nuts and seeds are great, but soak them first!)
• Breathing exercises can help you calm your nervous system (watch my IGTV chat with Katy Wakefield about yoga nidra, breath and stress here.)

Try the above strategies, which can all be used together, and I bet you'll feel calmer and see a change in you gut sooner than you might think.

If you keep getting constipated or you've had life long constipation, and haven't found a solution yet, it could be that you have a particular bacteria (Methanobrevibacter smithii) taking up too much real estate in your large intestine. It's associated with IBS-constipation (IBS-C) because it produces methane, which delays gut transit time. This can be investigated by completing a comprehensive stool test.

Stool tests can be carried out through a qualified nutritional therapist (like me!) and then after a thorough analysis, we'd work on addressing the balance of bacteria in your gut. This would be through dietary changes and tailored supplementation advice.

I hope you've found this blog post helpful and there's some things in here that you've not tried yet. It can be so hard to see the wood for the trees when you're in pain and no one is listening to you. But I urge you to try some of the options I've listed, because they will help heal your gut for good rather just than temporarily easing your suffering. 

If you're suffering from constipation, there is light at the end of the tunnel!  “Ease your gut, beat the bloat” is my new 5 week programme where we work towards your optimal gut health. Email me to join the waiting list for the next start date.

​Need a little more support? Get in touch with me about working 1-2-1 over 90 days or book in for comprehensive digestive stool testing.

Living with tummy pain shouldn't be considered normal. I want to change the way we look at our digestive health. Find out more about my work and passion for helping you feel better over on Instagram! 

When you come away from the doctor's surgery with a diagnosis of IBS and you're told that life will always be uncomfortable, it's hard to see where to go next. You might be making some mistakes trying to fix your own gut symptoms, so I thought I'd write a blog post to help you.

It's understandable that many of my clients try to take matters into their own hands once an "expert" has told them that there's little to no hope for recovery. 

However, I want you to know that there is hope. You CAN have the freedom to love life again.  

Read on to see if you're making any of these mistakes...

This is something I see all the time. Often people cut everything out and eat the blandest diet they can bear because they don't know what else to do. It can be what ends up being recommended, after serial investigations and only as a last resort, however cutting everything out is pretty pointless if you don't work on the underlying issues. 

Usually, there are problems in the gut that need fixing or healing. And I always look at those factors before any diet decisions are made. For example, we'd look at how you can reduce stress, which is often a contributing factor for gut health by focusing more on foods which have a calming effect on the nervous system. Sometimes clients are taking anti-acids like Omeprazole or Rennies to ease digestive symptoms rather than  solving the actual issue, which could be a vitamin or mineral deficiency, or even too little stomach acid. 

Working with a qualified nutritional therapist means you're not on your own. Find out more here.

When I meet clients who are following a low-FODMAP diet, it's usually a strategy that's been dished out by their GP willy-nilly. (This isn't a criticism as such, because GPs are underfunded and have limited time and resources to support their patients. I get it!) But if you're recommended to follow the low-FODMAP diet, you have got to do it properly. 

What often happens is people think onions and garlic are fodmaps so they cut those out but they don't do the diet appropriately and unfortunately it doesn't work like that. Excessive bloating, industrial gas and foul smelling stools are often associated with specific bacteria--Desulfovibrio spp and methanobrevii smithii—both of which can be picked up in a comprehensive stool test, and I can organise this. If you want to know more head here.

Following the low-FODMAP diet long term with no support can cause a depletion in microbials and friendly bacteria. Which is (in case you've not realised...) a bad thing. A healthy gut needs those things to do its job properly. 

Instead of following a low-FODMAP diet, you should join my new 5 week programme. We'll follow a much more enjoyable anti-inflammatory diet, with recipes that you can try and we'll even do a cook along. The focus is on healing, nourishing and rebalancing your gut, not making you miserable! You can live a happier and healthier life! 

In the grand scheme of things, taking supplements isn't altogether a bad thing. In fact, they're a resource I often recommend to my clients. Under expert guidance, supplements can be incredibly beneficial. With a careful approach your therapeutic needs can be met.

However, I've seen an increase in clients who are taking supplement advice from influencers—who have no nutritional training—they've seen recommending them online. Or perhaps friends who've noticed improvements in their symptoms saying, "you should try it! It's worked wonders for me!". Sadly, supplements need a really personal approach. What works for one person might not work for another person. It can be an expensive waste of time!

The same goes for probiotics. Often my clients tell me they've "tried that; it doesn't work" but there are may different strains of probiotic, all with different abilities. And many probiotic rich foods are actually quite strong and can be overwhelming on a gut that is out of balance. So my approach is to look at healing the gut first, fixing any issues and then adding in probiotics to build gut health.

So you've had a colonoscopy and it's ruled out the Big C, and numerous worrying illnesses, but hasn't given you an answer to your questions. That's not to say you don't have a problem, though. It just means that your problem can't be seen by a camera. Enzymes and bacteria are invisible to the basic cameras used in these procedures. And they're also unable to pick up how you feel and any bloating you might have. 

So while these tests can be vital to rule out life-threatening illnesses, it's important that we acknowledge other ways of investigating gut health. A great example of this is using food journals like we keep on the "Ease your gut, beat the bloat" group programme. By recording what you eat and when, we can work through your diet, identifying triggers. Ones that can't be picked up by a camera!

Another avenue of investigation, beyond a colonoscopy, is comprehensive stool testing. This provides information on bacteria, yeasts and parasites that can become problematic if they become too dominant in an imbalanced or unhealthy gut. These bacteria, yeasts and parasites can be more easily detected because the tests use technology that can measure bacteria's genetic material so they are more easily detected. Find out more about that here.

It can be really lonely working through gut health problems by yourself. Investigating triggers and symptoms with no support is hard! But it doesn't have to be like that. According to research, about 20% of the UK adult population have IBS at any one time. So you're truly not alone! 

Having to face all these difficulties on your own means that often you might face an information overload. You might end up Googling for ideas and getting caught up in searching down an endless rabbit-hole of info. Simply put, it is super-overwhelming. And it can cause you to give up. 

So one easy fix is to look for a trusted and reliable community to share the journey with you. Love or hate social media, it's a place where you can meet fellow sufferers and compare and contrast your symptoms. You can share resources, develop strategies together or just hang out. But it's hard to know where to seek support and who you can trust online, isn't it? Joining a group programme like mine is a fantastic way of creating community. 

Life doesn't have to be lonely!

Have you made any of these mistakes?
Are you at the end of your tether?
Tried every option with no success?
​Time to try something brand new!
I'd love you to join my 5 week programme “Ease your gut, beat the bloat”. Each week we work towards your optimal gut health so you can feel better.
Find out more here on this post, or here. Feel free to email me any questions you have about the programme and how it works. 

This is a 5 week nutritional mastermind for people struggling with gut health. We spend the 5 weeks exploring and identifying your triggers and figuring out the underlying issues. Then we look at ways to support you to feel better. We study foods that help your gut lining stay healthy, that stimulate digestive secretions you might be lacking, look at links between the brain and gut, and you’ll learn practical tips every step of the way. 

I’m not in the nutritional world to make people’s lives miserable! I got into this business to make a difference and help people like you. Stellar Health came to fruition after years of my own struggles, and wanting to find solutions. But I understand that not everyone has time to study for years to learn about nutrition like I did! 
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I get it! You’re busy, even in these bizarre times of coronavirus. You need practical tools that’ll help you rebuild your gut health. And I’ve designed this 5 week group programme to do exactly that. 

We’ll be doing a live cook-a-long in Week 3 and throughout the programme I’ll share sensible and delicious recipes you can cook and adapt easily (ones that don’t involve weird and wonderful ingredients that you can only buy in that one random shop in London!).  

Gentler ways of eating

This is not 5 weeks where we stop eating everything in order to work out where your problem stems from. Ease your gut, beat the bloat is all about developing gut health through nourishment, and taking the time to understand what’s really going on inside you. 

Elimination diets work for some people, but in my experience it's listening to our bodies that gets results. And it's hard to listen properly when we're tired, hungry and cranky, unable to enjoy food right?! Which is why I don't follow that path with my clients.

Save money

Working with me—an experienced and well-qualified nutritional therapist—on a 1-2-1 basis isn’t an option for everyone financially and I only work with those clients over 90 days, but not everyone has that time spare. So joining my group programme is a brilliant way of accelerating and optimising your gut health while accessing my wisdom at a lower price. 

On a logical level, think of the money you’ve saved from not going to eat out for the last few months. For less than the cost of a pub dinner for two each week, you can instead learn how to nourish your body with the things it truly needs. You’ll get a toolkit of resources and a new network of support to help you on your journey to food freedom. 

So you'll finally stop feeling worried about whether you should go for that night out (because where is the nearest toilet?!) and instead - when lockdown’s over - you’ll be able to confidently head out with your friends and make food choices you know won’t make you feel grim. 

(Plus you'll save a tonne of money on pointless supplements that won't alleviate symptoms or help your gut! Hurrah! If you do need supplements, I will give you guidance on what will truly support you, based on evidence, rather than expensive second-guessing.)

But you've tried everything?
Quite often, I am a last resort for clients who are at the end of their tether. You've tried the GP, you've exhausted the library of healthy eating cookbooks and have watched every food health programme on TV.  And now I'm suggesting that a 5 week programme could be what you need? I know it sounds mad. 

But I haven't spent the last 7 years helping people just like you to work out what's really going on inside their digestive system to make them feel so unwell, just to fob you off with a programme that doesn't work! I know that by nourishing your gut with the right foods, rebuilding the gut lining, and teaching you how to choose foods that will work for your body and your lifestyle, we can work together to make a real difference to your well-being. 

So what have you got to lose? Ease your gut, beat the bloat starts 5th March 2021. Find out more here and book your spot on the group programme today! 

Opening up to people about the pain you’re suffering and sharing embarrassing moments can be like medicine in itself. And it’s a huge benefit of being on a group programme. You are learning on this gut health journey together! 
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Knowing you’re not alone, and being able to lean on each other for motivation and encouragement, is massively underestimated. You cannot get this on a video course. Live human interaction and experiencing transformation together is quite literally life-changing.

Meeting online every week with friends to learn and cheer you on is quite simply brilliant. Asking each other questions and giving each other respectful and reciprocal support in the group sessions, but also in a private community, is invaluable.