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The 8% Newsletter

It’s a new week folks, which means a new topic for your knowledge-hungry minds. As we reach mid-august, we wish those of you who are going on vacation good travels. Take advantage of the break and recharge your energy for productive months ahead!

For the Olympic fans out there, we bet this year will go down in history for the US, especially with Simone Biles on our side (phew!) winning a whopping 3 gold metals! And of course, Yusuf Dikeç’s flabbergasting performance. If only he could make the world know how easy it is to get all your minerals in one blue bottle.

But enough chit-chat, let’s talk the ever discomforting and unpleasant world of IBS.

What is IBS?

To be totally honest… we don't know, and neither does your doctor. Yeah yeah, it’s a GI tract disorder, but it’s cause? That’s where things get muddy. IBS is usually described as an idiopathic condition, meaning that science is unable to determine a specific cause. So it is generally diagnosed based on symptoms that a person may or may not describe.

IBS Effects

Although we can’t pinpoint a cause for IBS, we do know some potential causes that at the very least have ties to this condition. Let's review the most common contributors. 

Having a particularly sensitive gut is one such contributor. Events that seem normal to a gut healthy individual may seem painful to varying degrees to someone with a more sensitive gut. Some of these events can be passing gas, muscular contractions and other normal digestive processes. 

But sensitivity doesn’t stop there. Sometimes foods that are irritants like coffee, dairy, alcohol, fermentable oligosaccharides (a type of carb) and other compounds have been known to upset some people with IBS. It may or may not apply to you but it is definitely worth reflecting on and determining if there is in fact a pattern of diarrhea/constipation following the consumption of those or other foods.

Next, drumroll please… is stress! This is one of the most important and relevant contributions to IBS simply because stress activates what is called the sympathetic nervous system, known for activating the “fight or flight” response. And funny enough, as with everything about us humans, it is subject to serious individual interpretations. And by this we mean the following: 

  • Constipation: Picture this- Behind you, a hungry lion. In front, plains with nowhere to hide. Your brain activates a fight or flight response, and you get the heck out of dodge. Your blood is much better spent going to your heart, lungs and skeletal muscles that are going to get you out of danger rather than helping you digest yesterday's dinner, or at least that’s what evolution wanted. This means that, in theory, it should stop us from both urinating and defecating. Not to get graphic, but just imagine if you did either in such a situation, even the lion would laugh (and then probably eat you)! All this to say, when stress is prolonged or chronic, you may end up with constipation.

  • Diarrhea: A rather unsexy topic of discussion, but as you know here at the 8% we don’t stray away from such a topic, especially when it’s in the way of understanding how we can truly become healthier. So, although stress should make you not go to the bathroom, our bodies sometimes surprise us in weird ways. Instead of directing all of that blood flow to your heart, lungs, skeletal muscles, all that stuff that will help you live, sometimes stress can stimulate the muscles in your gut. So that funny situation from earlier… yeah that can happen. These muscles in your gut cause peristaltic movements that are wavelike and move everything from one end to the other. This also means that nutrients won't be able to absorb well because they need time and water won't be reabsorbed either (or to a very small degree). This causes your stool to be watery and half digested, known colloquially as diarrhea. 

Most people with IBS can experience only one of these options, but some lucky individuals will get to experience both at varying rates. This makes it somewhat difficult to manage simply because if you experience both, what would be good for constipation would aggravate the latter and vice-versa. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything to be done. Now according to this distinction you can determine where you lie in the IBS spectrum, if you happen to be there: 

  1. IBS-C: Constipation

  2. IBS-D: Diarrea

  3. IBS-M: Mixed (These are the lucky few).

A quick note before moving forward; IBS is not a threat to your health, but rather a pain in the you know what for those who have it. So tell your blood pressure to chill out a bit. 

What to do

IBS is strongly associated with stress, so controlling your stress is a fundamental part of managing it. There are many, many ways to improve one's levels of stress and wind down, but we are going to leave those for another week since there is so much to cover!

The following recommendations will be separated into two parts, for IBS-C and IBS-D respectively. As you can imagine, giving recommendations for IBS-M is very hard and requires constant adjustment based on the symptoms at any given time. That being said, you can obviously apply the change to whatever type you may have at a given time. 

IBS-C

As you’ve heard us say before, you should be including fiber into your diet, but not any old fiber. To deal with the symptoms of constipation it is advisable to include a good amount of soluble fiber into your diet. This fiber draws water to your stool making it bulkier, and the bulkier the stool the more peristaltic movements and the faster you will relieve the traffic jam. It would be advisable to include at least 2 good sources of this fiber per day, here is a few ideas: 

  • Artichoke

  • Brussel sprouts

  • Kale

  • Carrots

  • Lima Beans

  • Whole grain rice or pasta


Those of you who read The Constipation Chronicles edition of The 8% will know you need to drink a lot of water when you increase your fiber intake. If you don’t the fiber can have the complete opposite effect and act like cement, and no you don't want that. 

Obviously our gut muscles do most of the heavy lifting but it is good to give them a hand from time to time. A great way to help move everything through is to move around. Running and walking are great ways to keep everything in motion and is highly recommended to improve your constipation. You can even make a routine out of it… and us! A quick text to speech on the newsletter while you walk, well you’ll be exercising your body and mind! What a deal!

Now, there’s a not so secret, secret fallback plan made available if all else fails, and you haven't gone for a few days. That’s right, laxatives. Incredibly useful, but tend to be packed with chemicals *cough-cough* MiraLAX, we’re looking at you. But don't worry, it’s not just MiraLAX, there are plenty of bad options to choose from. Bet you wish there was an all natural laxative that works not by chemicals doing the dirty work, but with electrolytes working together. You guessed it, OmniBlue Original liquid minerals is your masked hero!

In a world of chemical solutions to organic problems, it is necessary that we ask ourselves what the short or long term effects will be of the things that are introduced into our body. Instead of delivering a bunch of potentially harmful chemicals, OmniBlue Original delivers… minerals! And a lot of them at that. When taken for this purpose, it is important that you build up the dose, dittoed just the right amount (not too much), and don’t exceed 1 teaspoon. This way it will draw water to your stool via osmosis, moistening up that lump of stool.

So, instead of ingesting polyethylene glycol 3350 (not even joking, an actual ingredient in MiraLAX) which is an aggressive chemical that can cause all sorts of side effects, OmniBlue gives you minerals that not only help treat and prevent constipation symptoms from IBS but also help to nourish your cells and body while you are at it.

IBS-D

Now we’re at the opposite end of the IBS spectrum, enter: insoluble fiber. This fiber gels, it absorbs water and clogs things up. When you are experiencing this form of IBS it is important to also eat non-irritant foods. So cross french fries, hamburgers, alcohol, strong coffees, acidic foods, etc off your grocery list.. What foods have this soluble fiber?

  • Oats

  • Bananas

  • Avocados

  • Chia Seeds

  • Potatoes

You can lose a lot of water and electrolytes through loose stool which puts you in a prime position to get dehydrated. The obvious thing to do is to drink water, however, hydration is a two step process. It’s water and electrolytes. This is a very simple and very overlooked fact that is the cause for many people's dehydration.  And yes we know what you are thinking, that is exactly what we mentioned above… you are very observant. The key here is the quantity and the dilution. You want to have just a few electrolytes in your water for IBS-D. Just enough to maintain healthy levels but not enough to draw water from the gut and make symptoms worse. For this purpose you would want to use OceanHydrate Sports, and add a half serving to 32 oz of water, taking small and frequent sips throughout the day. This will make sure that your body is replenishing all of the water and electrolytes it is losing without making you feel worse. 

 

Final thoughts

We bet you’ll agree, that’s enough fiber talk for a while. So put your feet up, grab your minerals, and get ready for next week’s edition where we’ll really get into a topic that we’re not sure many people even know about: the dangers of low body pH. Sounds sciency, but as always, we’ll make it worth reading it.

We’d also like to take a few moments and remind our readers that being a part of The 8%, you not only get the exclusive discounts through the newsletter, but you’re also the first to know about our limited sales. All delivered in a non-spammy way of course. Nothing worse than joining a mailing list only to get emails every 3 hours.

Have a great week and we’ll see you next week!