My Most Important Morning Task-Effective Pooping!

Recently, a few of my subscribers emailed me to share a post related to digestive health. Thus this one is to fulfill your demand. But as usual I like to impart via story, if possible a humorous one. Remember the goal is to De-stress!

Everyone wants to be successful. We have so much to learn from the lives and routines of leaders and popular figures. I observed that even topics such as how leaders and successful people start their day has been of great interest to many of my friends and family members.

In fact, I once searched it on Google myself. It was to help my teenager niece learn and develop a morning routine. The title was something like “7 effective morning habits of highly effective people”. What I found was an interesting and enlightening moment. Of the 7 habits listed one was “pick the most important task first”.

My most important task: I don’t know about you but for me as a gastroenterologist, the most important first task I want to accomplish- is getting rid of the waste in my colon. Simply quoted- Poop! Some people call it going to the John; you could potentially call it going to the Jim. It just sounds more appealing. 

What makes morning poop important? Morning poops are great and very important. Human body is best equipped to eliminate waste during this time. When we are asleep, our small and large bowels are processing and assimilating the food. However, when we wake up in the morning, our internal biological clock goes off. The colon starts to contract most vigorously. In fact, it squeezes three times as hard in the first hour we are awake as compared to when we are asleep. Although not having a morning bowel movement is not a sign of any ailment or ill health, it could make the day less pleasant and more burdensome! It is advisable to not hold your poop in and postpone it. Just do it.

For me, early morning pooping is also a nice awakening experience.

1.It gets me out of bed quickly, I mean real fast.

2. It makes me feel lighter and nimbler.

3. It stimulates my olfactory cells (smelling experience) and instantly rouses my soul

4. It enables me to start the day with time to think and introspect. Where else one doesn’t get interrupted?

Often times, I recommend my patients suffering from constipation to develop a daily routine of morning poops. This is to utilize the exaggerated natural colonic activity in the morning to unload the burden.

Recommendations for Effective Bowel Movements: Here is what I recommend to help your gut unburden and achieve a satisfactory bowel movement:

1. Take a fiber supplement (psyllium husk-2-3 Tsp with full glass of water) at night just before going to bed with a full glass of water.
2. Aim to have an uninterrupted sound sleep for 7-8 hours.
3. Every morning when you wake up, drink a cup of coffee. A hot cup of Joe in the morning works synergistically with colonic motility and increases its contractility.
4. If possible, add a small amount of cream to the coffee along with a high fiber breakfast such as oatmeal or granola. Cream and fiber breakfast causes the stomach to distend. This sends signals to the colon to contract more vigorously. In medicine, we call it gastro-colic reflex.
5. Then, exercise for 5 minutes such as jump, dance, or stretch. And then just relax on the commode and evacuate! So simple. Even if it doesn’t happen the first day, it eventually will. With tincture of time, grit and persistence everything improves, your colon will learn to behave as well.

Since I started the post with mentioning about successful leaders. I would like to thus conclude it with the quote from one of the most powerful leaders of today Joe Biden.

He once said, “The greatest gift is the ability to forget- to forget the bad things and focus on the good.

Doo Doo Doctor’s version of this is “The greatest gift is the ability to poop in the morning- to unload the burden and focus on the lighter side”.

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Thank you for reading! Keep smiling.

Disclaimer: This blog/video is not intended to provide diagnosis, treatment, or medical advice. Content provided in this video is for educational purposes only. Please consult with a physician regarding any health-related diagnosis or treatment.