Improved
6112 HealthChanged
3785 LivesSaved
3568 Lives0 lives impacted in the last 24 hrs Learn More
Dr. Rakel discusses how frequently women should be moving their bowels.
Dr. Rakel:
Well, I think if you have a healthy intestinal tract you will evacuate well each day. I used to think that, you know, everybody has their own time to evacuate. You know, some people evacuate every four or five days and I used to think that was normal but now as I have studied some of the Eastern traditions and the healthcare, and I explored some of this GI dysfunction more, is we are learning that we need to evacuate on a regular basis and if we don’t evacuate on a regular basis then we might have more of a not so ideal balance in our GI function.
So I generally, we should have a large luminous tool, it’s okay if they float but they shouldn’t be real oily but, I know this isn’t the most pleasant thing to talk about, but the stool quantity should be fairly large and it shouldn’t be a bunch of pebbles stuck together and we should have at least one stool a day if not more.
And we should have, we should crave and enjoy our food, take time to eat because when we take time to eat, particularly with friends and people we enjoy, we are more relaxed and when we are more relaxed we stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system that encourages our pancreas to secrete enzymes that allow us to digest our food.
So when we eat on the run, that is an opportunity for us not to digest our food well and it’s going to lead to intestinal dysfunction. So take time, this is hard for us to do but take time and really enjoy your meal, alone or with friends, because you will digest it better.
So we should be able to tolerate our food well. We should be able to eat a variety of different foods but generally the GI tract works better if we are rich in those high fiber foods such as multicolored fruits and vegetables, whole foods that were recently alive in a variety of different foods that we enjoy with other people.
About Dr. Rakel, M.D.:
Dr. David Rakel, M.D., attended medical school at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and completed a family practice residency in Greeley, Colorado. He spent the next five years in rural practice as one of two physicians staffing a 14 bed hospital in Driggs, Idaho. As medical director for Grand Targhee Ski resort in Wyoming, he developed an interest in sports medicine and received his Certificate of Added Qualification in 1999.
Dr. Rakel completed a two year fellowship in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona from 1999-2001. He joined the University of Wisconsin Department of Family Medicine in 2001 where he teaches and practices, and is the medical director for the University of Wisconsin Health Integrative Medicine. Dave is board certified in family medicine, holistic medicine and sports medicine. He is also certified in Interactive Guided Imagery.
Visit Dr. Rakel at The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health