Diarrhea is a symptom of an underlying problem. Although it is necessary to consult your doctor or health care professional to find the source of your diarrhea problems, there are many natural remedies you can use to reduce the frequency, irritation, and urgency. All in an effort to calm the digestive tract (because it’s working too hard right now!) try one or all of these diarrhea remedies the next time you find yourself running to the toilet.
Diarrhea home remedies
Lie down and relax
The very nature of diarrhea is painful, so to ease the pain, lie on your back with a pillow under your knees, then place a hot water bottle on a towel over your abdomen. This will help slow down pressure and calm muscle spasms and irritation. In this position, take a few deep breaths. This can help calm the central nervous system, which plays an important role in transit time.
Avoid dairy products, fat, sugar and excess meat
These foods are often the most difficult for the body to digest and therefore can contribute to irritating the digestive tract.
When you no longer have the ability to break down milk sugars (called lactose intolerance), it becomes very difficult to process dairy foods, causing them to sit in your system longer or be quickly expelled.
Fat is another resource-intensive food group, and meat is often high in fat. If you don’t have the ability to create the enzyme lipase, which is needed to break down fat, it can also cause food to sit for long periods of time in your system or quickly flush out through your system. diarrhea.
And because sugar is often highly processed, it can put the body on high alert and lead to issues like diarrhea.
Go on a diet
If the list of foods above just eliminates a lot of what you currently eat, here are some new foods you can focus on. Especially when the diarrhea kicks in, go back to basics by eating softer, easier-to-digest foods.
Foods that may benefit you the most during this time include bananas, rice, apples, and toast (preferably gluten-free). They can both give your system a break from digesting harder foods and provide essential nutrients to the body.
Herbal tea
Need fast relief? Herbal teas are very useful for many health problems, including diarrhea. The best herbal teas for diarrhea are elm, red raspberry, nettle, mint and cinnamon. Each serves a specific, beneficial purpose for digestive health, so having one or all of them in your cupboards can help put an end to your diarrhea.
Slippery elm tea, for example, is extremely soothing to the digestive tract, helping to calm inflammation and irritation. Although it is best to drink these herbal teas regularly, they can also help when the time comes.
Read also: Tea: the benefits according to the types
Drink bone and vegetable broth
Like tea, broth is another soothing drink that can help fight diarrhea.
Bone broth, for example, is made with collagen and gelatin, which help rebuild and repair damaged cells. If parts of your digestive tract are damaged (which could be why you have diarrhea in the first place), bone broth may be very healing.
Vegetable broth offers many nutrients to the digestive tract to help replenish vitamins and minerals lost due to poor digestion. You can either make broth at home in a slow cooker or buy pre-made bone broth at your local grocery store.
Probiotics
Did you know that the good bacteria inside our body regulate most of the digestion process? However, levels of beneficial bacteria can drop due to overuse of antibiotics, poor diet, lack of fiber, stress, and aging. Over time, this can cause us to lose all of our digestive function, causing problems like diarrhea.
Probiotics are beneficial bacteria which can be taken through supplementation or by eating fermented foods to help restore balance to your digestive tract.
If you’ve had digestive health issues for a while, it may be beneficial to take probiotics for up to six months, but especially to have them on hand when diarrhea sets in.
aloe vera juice
Aloe vera juice is another incredibly soothing drink to drink when you can’t seem to keep anything down. Just as you use aloe vera gel to soothe a sunburn or insect bite, the juice from the aloe plant has a very similar effect on your internal organs. When consumed, aloe provides a soothing coating to the digestive tract.
It may also be beneficial to drink it just before a meal to help the food settle into your system better.
Slowly increase fiber intake
Fiber was once looked down upon in the digestive health world, but today there is a lot of research on its benefits. Fiber not only helps flush out toxins and waste (some of which can irritate the tract, causing diarrhea), but in some forms it also serves as food for your probiotic flora, maintaining your healthy bacterial levels.
To start, slowly increase the amounts of fiber to get your system used to this food group, especially if it’s not a regular part of your diet right now.
clay
Bentonite clay is helpful in flushing out harmful toxins and bad bacteria in your intestines, allowing good bacteria to flourish. It acts like a vacuum, slowly sucking toxins out of the digestive tract as it moves. Once the irritants are gone, digestion can begin to resume a more normal function.
Please note that bentonite clay should be used with caution as clay is very dehydrating. Always take it with plenty of water and start with a small amount.
Help your body break down food better with enzymes
If the body has trouble producing enzymes on its own (which are needed to properly break down proteins, fats, and carbohydrates), it can put a lot of stress on the system. This can result in a slow or fast transit time, depending on what’s going on inside, such as infection or inflammation.
Short-term supplementation with digestive enzymes can help your body break down food better, allowing your system to more easily absorb nutrients and maintain normal transit time. It can also help reduce the presence of undigested food in the stool.
Also Read: Natural Bloating Treatment
