Chronic Diarrhea
Answered by: Christine Dennis
Question from: Anna
Posted on: April 12, 2010

Six months ago I stopped eating soy as I had a lot of digestive problems, ie: bloating alternating constipation and diarrhea and odd smelling urine and the worst hemorrhoids in my life. A nutritionalist did a hair analyst test and found me intolerant to soy, sunflower oil, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds. grapes, rapeseed oil, grape seed oil, curry spices but not chili.

Your symptoms suggest that perhaps your liver and gallbladder are what is unhappy with those foods as opposed to you being sensitive to them in terms of an allergic type response. I would be very surprised if a hair analysis would be able to determine whether you are sensitive or not to those foods.

This proved somewhat difficult as I am Vegan and enjoyed spicy food. However I managed to completely change my diet. The very first day I stopped eating soy my bowels became loose, and then real loose. So I started to take psyllium powder to bulk the stools up a bit. I have managed to find hemp proteins and spirilina and hemp seeds which help to get plenty of protein. My diet is good of fresh organic food and veg with lots of greens. I skin brush every morning and do yoga and breathing exercise each day. I take slippery elm tea 3 times a day as it has so many nutrients in it and seems to help the hemorrhoids and I have no bloating or discomfort apart from the very loose bowels and sometimes undigested partials in my stools but no blood thank goodness.

Do not tell me to go to a doctor as today the medical profession in Britain is at its worst. I do not trust them and their advise in the past has not even made logical sense. The ones I know are simply drug pushers. Of course there must be some genuine ones somewhere but I have not met any for years. Any advise on a good choice of herbs.

Something is irritating your bowels and that "something" needs to be removed. I would first start with dairy and wheat.

I would also look at liver health as your digestion function relies heavily on the entire digestive system function together. Liver stagnation is a common complaint these days. Too much caffeine - coffee, green tea, black tea, chocolate and stress all has a negative impact on the liver and digestive function. Bitters herbs before meals help to gently stimulate liver function for better digestion - dandelion greens is a favorite. Astringent herbs to help improve bowel tone are also indicated - witch hazel leaf and twig, stag horn sumac berry or geranium root.

Herbs to help sooth the irritation AFTER the offending matter/food has been removed would be a tea like chamomile, licorice root, catnip and nettles.

For more information on herbs for diarrhea, please see: http://www.richters.com/qa-search.cgi?search=diar

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