What is the Precautionary Poop? I thought you'd never ask.
If you force yourself to try to go #2 out of fear before leaving the house or if you have thought "I'll just try to get rid of all the diarrhea so that I'm safe", I call that The Precautionary Poop - and I did it for years.
This indicates a digestive problem (obviously) and may be more concerning, an issue with the mental "wiring" surrounding your digestion.
First, from a physiologic perspective, diarrhea is often a result of water being pulled from other tissues into the intestine, not from simply ingesting too much liquid. Your body will "make" diarrhea to rid itself of unwanted material or to limit irritation of the gut. The point is, if you are trying to make the loose stool stop happening by going to the bathroom more or reducing water intake, you won't win and will be doing more harm than good.
Second, the act of preparing to leave the house can become an unconscious trigger for gut hyperactivity if you "train" yourself to have to go to the bathroom in this way. Much like the way the bulimic can develop the ability to vomit on command. The act of digestion resulting in a bowel movement shouldn't be a direct response type of thing, in fact, it's shouldn't be a quick action at all Instead, the stimulation for digestion should be a gradual process beginning with the brain, to the salivary glands, to the mouth, and so on.
We will go into that in greater detail in the future but for now, and for best long term healing of your gut problems you must achieve relief of the digestive system itself AND address the brain function component.
These two together are part of why I get great results with my clients. Sure lots of doctors can supply you with medicine to "turn off diarrhea" for a while but once you build a tolerance to the medicine or supplement yet haven't rewired the gut-brain connection, symptoms often come back.
The real magic comes from creating new neural pathways that are more health-supporting and getting off the ingrained unhealthy pathways relating to digestion. This strategy is what sets my method apart from other standard supplement-only programs. For real healing, you must incorporate the brain along with the gut.
Listen, I know this type of condition is often embarrassing and ultimately demoralizing so I'm all for having a strategy like keeping a roll of TP in the car or a backup pair of pants stashed. Being prepared is wise, but trying to plan your diarrhea episodes isn't a successful plan, that's just continued suffering.
If you are doing The Precautionary Poop, we gotta talk.
Live Well,
Dr. Troy
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