Today I was reading a study called ‘Gut Dysfunction and Chronic Disease‘, which gave insight to an exciting, growing trend. This trend is science confirming what holistic medicine has been saying forever, dis-ease starts in the gut. ‘Research has shown associations between compromised GI function and conditions as varied as rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, metabolic bone disease, and eczema. Therefore, assessment and proper support of GI function may provide benefit for patients with a variety of chronic complaints.’
Needless to say, the cost of ‘fixing’ these secondary conditions is much more expensive than the rudimentary gut support. So, why are we catching these issues so far downstream?
The answer is two fold. Firstly, science is only just starting to catch up to the importance of gut function; Even serotonin, long known for its use in regulating not only mood in the brain is also being seen as part of interesting secondary issues like bone density where 95% is created in the gut. Secondly, we do not have the health care systems in place to be able to correct sub-optimal gut function as it arises. And this happens for a number of reasons.
- Lack of understanding from physicians Two to three bowel movements a day is normal, any less is sub-optimal. Yes, sub-optimal. If your “normal” is a lot less than that you have dis-ease, it just may not be chronically symptomatic… yet.
- Lack of education in this field. Books like ‘What is your poo telling you?’ have sought to shed light on this most important subject, with some exciting results. Where is the education coming from?
- Poor testing Functional Medicine testing is starting to catch us up to a place where we can test effectively for gut function, but only a small % of doctors are using them and they can be expensive.
- Embarrassment and shame concerning defecation. There, I said it. As an Englishman with an armory of Blackadder inspired ‘toilet-humor’ it pains me to say it, but this is a HUGE issue. Seemingly no one is comfortable talking about their own bowel movements, never mind just saying the words!
Even anthropologists have come unstuck trying to get to the root of this conundrum. For whatever reason, humans are embarrassed and shameful of their bodily functions when it comes to feces. Although this may seem sad, strange or even hilarious on the surface, when we are faced with the kind of fiscal timebomb that America faces, we need to start looking outside the box, and preferably upstream.
Most holistic practitioners I have met, in their extensive intake, always look at bowel movements as a core fundamental to overall health. Looking at this objectively can make a huge difference to the patient’s health, and more importantly the cost of their health care over their life time. So what ideas for changing this?
Social Media provides an opportunity for information to go viral, and if there was one trend that I could initiate that could have the greatest leverage over health, it would be to make people more comfortable about talking about their bowel movements. So, to this end, we created ‘Colin the Colon’.
Colin talks about his bowel movements on the Twitter account @mycolonsays and he wants you, and your patients, to join the conversation. Some of the best ones we have had so far are
#mycolonsays I like to move it, move it!
#mycolonsays Don’t drink the water in Mexico, it makes me crazy.
To join the conversation you can
1) Retweet, direct message (@) or hashtag (#) mycolonsays.
2) Tell your patients about it and encourage them to participate
Can’t wait to hear what your colon is saying, and we would love to hear your thoughts on how we can shift this important paradigm.
