Thrive After 45™

Constipation is the Symptom, Not the Problem - with Melissa Hall Klepacki

• Denise Drinkwalter • Season 3 • Episode 24

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What if the secret to feeling amazing was found in the most unexpected place: your poop?

It's a real question, and in this week's episode of Thrive After 45™, I sat down with gut health specialist Melissa Hall Klepacki to talk about something a lot of us are too embarrassed to mention....constipation.

Melissa has been helping people heal for nearly 30 years, and she gets to the root of the problem because, as she says, constipation isn’t the problem, it’s a symptom. 

Melissa has a master’s in acupuncture and is a true gut health expert, but her passion for this work was born from her own health journey, which included battling Lyme disease, parasites, and mold. 

We talk about how she went from feeling "devastated" by her gut issues to finding liberation, and how she now helps others do the same.

We get into the eight root causes behind gut issues, with some mind-blowing insights you’ve probably never heard before. Melissa shares actionable steps for better health, from the surprising reason you might be constipated to the simple tests you can do to uncover your own health hurdles. 

This is a must-listen if you're ready to stop feeling like your gut health is a mystery and start feeling like your best self.

Find out more about Melissa and her work:

Thank you for spending time with me today on the Thrive After 45™ podcast! If this episode spoke to you, be sure to hit that follow button so you never miss one.

And if you loved it, I’d be so grateful if you left a review - it helps more amazing women like you find this show!

Your journey doesn’t stop here - let’s keep the conversation going! Connect with me at denisedrinkwalter.com, and follow @thethriveafter45podcast for daily insp, tips, and support.

Remember, midlife isn’t the end - it’s just the beginning of a new, exciting chapter! Keep thriving, keep shining, and I’ll see you next time!

Speaker:

What if the key to your freedom, energy, and confidence was hidden in your gut? Today's guest knows exactly how to unlock it. Welcome to Thrive after 45, the podcast where you remember the woman you were never meant to forget. I'm Denise Drink, heart Whisperer, midlife mirror, and mentor for the women Awakening to. Her powers. This is your space to shed expectations, collapse timelines in return to yourself, for you by you because of you. It is such an honor and a privilege to welcome and introduce Melissa Hall Kki to the show today. Melissa is a gut health specialist with a master's in acupuncture, and she's been helping people heal. Since 1996, for nearly 30 years, she's impacted thousands of lives through her one-to-one work workshops, speaking engagements, her free ebook. Start pooping better. And now her new book, the Constipation Code. Melissa's passion and expertise guide men and women around the world from constipation to liberation by uncovering and addressing the eight root causes behind the struggle. Her work is about so much more than gut health. It's about giving people back their vitality. Freedom and trust in their own bodies. Melissa, it is such an incredible joy to have you here with me today, and I really can't wait to begin to learn more with you and share your incredible wisdom with our listeners. So. Welcome to our show.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, Denise. I'm so happy to be here. And it's so nice to be on a podcast where I'm speaking to my peers. Um, you know, usually when you record a podcast, you don't really know who the broad audience is, but I will be 55 proudly next month, and so I'm really happy to be speaking with you and your audience. Today. I

Speaker:

love that. I love that. Well, welcome. Listen, you've been helping people, people heal for like over 30 years. What first drew you to this work and why has gut health become such a central mission for you?

Speaker 2:

So I always wanted to be somewhere in medicine. Since I was little. I was that little kid with the Ace bandages and the band-aids and always the first on the scene. Um, but I got a little distracted in college. I was an athlete and focused more on athletics. Um, but as a result of being an athlete, my junior year of college, I slipped and fell in a boat bay. I was in the rowing team and I fractured a vertebrae in my back and I had a lot of problems for. A little over a year. It happened to also coincide with the death of my father who had cancer. He died my junior year of college, never putting two and two together that I wasn't healing from a back injury and I wasn't really healing from maybe the grief, the loss of my father. Um, it wasn't until a year and a half of pretty significant pain that I found an acupuncturist, and he was the one who reminded me that the heart chakra. Lies directly in front of the vertebrae that I broke, and it's not a vertebrae that would break normally it was T seven, so that's in the middle of your back in a pretty stable spot. Mm-hmm. Um, and he was able to make so much sense for me of other symptoms that were going on and just things that had unfolded since the death of my father, um, that I dropped what I was doing and went to acupuncture school. Um, and that was back in 1993 when acupuncture was not right. A thing. Mm-hmm. But it helped me so much that I just, it was a calling. I had to figure out how it worked and I had to be able to help other people with it. And I did. And it was amazing. And I practiced sports acupuncture for a while that, because that was my passion. I was around athletes, et cetera. Sure. Yeah. Um, and then, um, I got away from it a little bit. I got married, I had some kids, and I got really sick. Hmm. In 2009, I woke up in the morning and my left arm was numb and I thought, Hmm, I slept on my neck wrong. You know, sometimes your fingers are a little numb when you wake up. Um, and then by the afternoon I started feeling foolish. Um, went to lay down, said to my husband, watch the boys. And as I laid there, I thought, is my left leg going numb? So I called my doctor. It was a Saturday and they happened to have office hours. And by the time I got into the office, I was numb on my left side.

Speaker:

Oh, Melissa.

Speaker 2:

So it was really scary and I had little kids. Um, so I went to the hospital. I was there for three days. They ran every test. The only thing that came back was that my white blood cell count was low. That was it. Um, I had numbness for a couple of days, then I had headaches for a week. Then I was really, really tired and then I was better. It was the weirdest thing.

Speaker 3:

Mm.

Speaker 2:

Two months later I started with GI issues. I had a lot of stomach problems. Um, I had an endoscopy, a colonoscopy. Yeah. I swallowed a camera. A camera that takes pictures as it goes through your system. And I was told that I was fine. Okay. Um, so all of my symptoms. Never had an answer. I was always told that, oh, you might have this pain or this symptom or this rash, but there's nothing wrong with you. Long story short, I had Lyme disease. I had Tickborne disease of Bartonella, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, complicated by parasites and mold. I was a very sick chicken.

Speaker:

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2:

One of the fallouts from being so sick and having so many different infections and taking so many different antibiotics is that I ruined my gut and I felt Lyme disease was devastating and the, and the all that came with that. But when I was somewhat recovered from that and then dealing with the gut issues, I almost felt like it was worse. Oh, you know, I, I, I couldn't, I couldn't do half of the things in my life I love to do because I didn't, I needed a bathroom. Oh, I probably wouldn't need a bathroom, but if I needed it, I needed it. Right, right. So it life, you can't really go out to dinner because you know that half those things on the menu are gonna make you feel sick, and you don't wanna be the one saying like, could you boil my chicken and could I have just a baked potato plain? Right. It's devastating. It's devastating. So I did. I worked for a while. Once I was able to help myself, and actually both of my children have had Lyme disease. Um, and I helped us all through that. What I realized and people were coming to me left and right, and the, the core denominator was no one was pooping. And so if you are not pooping daily, okay, you are not getting toxins out of your body daily. So if someone tries to kill something with an herb or an antibiotic, you've got dead bacteria that has its own set of chemical properties that make you sick, make you a lot sicker. So I really can't help people until they're pooping well. So that became my focus.

Speaker 3:

Interesting. And why?

Speaker 2:

And why? Because I went to the doctor and I was told, drink more water, eat more fiber. Right? And yeah, you know, go get a bottle of MiraLax and if you don't poop for a couple of days, take a dose. That was it. That was what I was given. It didn't work. That doesn't work for most people. In fact, fiber and water and using a motility agent are all really important. Okay? But that's not it. But that's not it. And it has to be done in the right order, and it has to be done with consistency. And the problem with us, the constipated people who are Googling at two in the morning, we're trying it all. Right. For three days we eat a Kiwi in the morning and we are pooping and we're like, that's the answer.

Speaker 3:

There it is.

Speaker 2:

And then it stops working. Yeah. Then we switch to Dragon fruit or we fast. Mm-hmm. Or we have a bigger meal or we try it all. So I wanted to, um, in my work, I wanted to give people a roadmap.

Speaker:

Yep. Okay. Wanted to

Speaker 2:

say, here are the eight root causes of constant. Right. Which ones, and it's not just one. Most people have a few. Okay. But which ones are affecting you? And here's how to get out of that little changes you can make on each of those factors. Add up,

Speaker:

right?

Speaker 2:

Sure. And make big difference.

Speaker:

Sure.

Speaker 2:

So that's

Speaker:

why I, I do, I love, I mean, I absolutely love talking to guests like yourself who not only have. The scientific knowledge behind everything, but also have had the experiences, unfortunately, but fortunately for the rest of the world because now you get to marry not only your personal experience, but your knowledge and really create something that will impact those who are able to listen to your, your gifts of knowledge, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So. Eight root causes. How, where on earth do you come up with eight root causes? How does that come to happen? Where did you get that? Well, some

Speaker 2:

of them. Some of them are pretty obvious. Right? Okay. So we can start with number one. I mean, we can get into it. You wanna get into'em? Why not? All right, here we go. Yep. Number one, his daughter. What? Yep. And it's not what people think. Yeah. Okay. Because there are people out there that are constipated, that are drinking eight, eight ounce glasses of water a day as recommended, and they're still not pooping Well,

Speaker:

gotcha.

Speaker 2:

A couple of things I like to remind people, um, when we're drinking water, we don't drink all at once. So you don't wanna sit down and flood your body with a big glass of water because you've forgotten it's noon and you're like, oh my God, I had three cups of coffee and no water chunk. Chug, chug, ch ch. Right, right. That's not the way to do it. That'cause you're gonna pee that right out. The way that I like to tell people to start is the first thing in the morning when you wake up on your nightstand should be a large glass of room temperature water. Before you even get outta bed, I want you to drink that water nice. That stimulates the gastrocolic reflex, and that's what starts the process of the morning poop. Okay? Your body, your body is built to evacuate in the morning to make way for the rest of what's coming today. Right. Perfect. Yep. So by stimulating that, a lot of people think, oh, I need coffee to poop, and coffee does help. It is a stimulant. However, it is also that action of stimulating the stomach with fluid. Mm-hmm. Water is preferable. You're not gonna, you're coffee further dehydrates you. Right. So we start with eight ounces of water, the, the second glass of water of the day. I'd like you to put some electrolytes in there. Okay. Now, on the cheap, that's a squeeze of lemon and a pinch of salt. Anybody can do that.

Speaker 3:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:

For people who are picky and like things that are flavored, I have a lot of clients that say, I hate the taste of water. Yeah. Um, there is everything from chocolate mint to pineapple, mango electrolytes out there. Now it is, uh, it is hot, right. I, I, you know, there is a spectrum from, I, I prefer to use a pure electrolyte powder that contains no color, no flavor, no artificial anything. Right.

Speaker 3:

Sure.

Speaker 2:

And then there are, uh, electrolytes that contain all of that colors and flavors and aspartame or you get to choose. Yeah. I prefer you use one over not using one. I'd prefer you use the cleaner one. Right. But I always start with where you are. So if you're new to electrolytes, you do, you do you and do your flavor

Speaker 3:

perfect.

Speaker 2:

Um, the other thing I remind people is I don't want people drinking around mealtime. Oh, okay. So the idea of sitting down at at dinner with a giant glass of water, you're actually diluting your hydrochloric acid. So we need our stomachs to be super acidic, and people often think that their reflux is caused by too much stomach acid, when most likely it's not enough.

Speaker 3:

Hmm. Interesting.

Speaker 2:

When we don't have enough stomach acid, there's not enough. I want you to think of your stomach as sort of like a cauldron and that fiery, right? Yep. If there's pressure in there when there's food in there because there's action happening. Sure. And when there's that pressure in that stomach, the flap closes. Right, right to the esophagus. Right. So that, so that nothing can come up as all of that action is happening. But when that action is mild and kind of weak, there's nothing to keep that flap closed. There's no pressure there. So we get reflux. Right. Okay. Um, so I, most of my clients are taking digestive enzymes, but we'll get to that when we talk about food. But, um. But we want to make sure that we have strong stomach acid, and the way to do that is not to dilute it. No. So that is a no-no. Right. So the idea is we start with a glass of water in the morning, then the next glass of water has some electrolytes, and then we make sure we're balanced throughout the day. Sure. I have clients that use a timer on their phone. Yeah. Every two hours. I have a client that has one of those water bottles that has 8:00 AM 9:00 AM 10:00 AM works for her. Right. Sure. I offer my clients all of those possibilities. Mm-hmm. And solutions because everybody's different. Right. Of course. What works for one. Yeah. So that's the basic I, you know, it's all in chapter, of course, chapter three, all the details. Of course. Um, and the cool thing that I like about this book, being a girl of the seventies and eighties, is that I grew up reading Cosmo Magazine. Right. Cosmopolitan Magazine was our Bible. We laid in the sun on the driveway. We, we took those quizzes that said like, are you, oh yeah. Could you be? And so I wrote my book with quizzes in every chapter. Nice. Could, could dehydration be a factor for you? Right.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And it really asks you to look at your behaviors and practices and say like, Hmm, how much water do I really drink? Right. For sure.

Speaker:

Love that.

Speaker 2:

Um, so that's number one. Number two is dietary food triggers. And I think it, you know, by midlife for women Yeah. We all have a list of things that we know don't sit so well with us.

Speaker 3:

Sure.

Speaker 2:

Um, and so there are foods that drive inflammation. Right,

Speaker 3:

right. And

Speaker 2:

so, and those are unknown. Those are, um. Those are food mediated. We, they're different than food allergies. We call them food sensitivities.

Speaker 3:

Sure. Mm-hmm. Um,

Speaker 2:

and in my book I talk about a test, A finger stick test that you can do gets sent to your house and it tests for the 22 most common foods. Why I like this test is because I have so many people come and say, I'm so healthy. I sleep well. I drink my water. I work out three days a week. I have my almond butter smoothies in the morning. I drink my green juice. Yep. And when their food sensitivities come back, like they can't, almond is off the charts a lot of times. Avocado, they're sensitive to, so all of these healthy foods that they're getting, that they think they're doing this great thing are actually contributing to leaky gut and causing more damage and inflammation.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. So

Speaker 2:

that, and that test is$199, which mm-hmm. Is a lot of information. For$199 and you can actually, all you do is avoid those foods for 90 days and work on some gut healing. There's some gut healing principles, um, some supplements you can take to soothe and heal the gut lining because everything that we're doing today is damaging our gut. Denise, like ibuprofen. Gluten, right? The glyphosate and gluten, all the chemicals that we're taking in any kind of aspartame or fake sugar, right? It all damages the gut lining. And when the gut lining is damaged, food particles get in to the bloodstream and the body reacts.

Speaker:

Yep. Right? Makes sense. So that's

Speaker 2:

why it's important.

Speaker:

Yeah. Minimal

Speaker 2:

deficiency is another big one. I don't know. We, you know, we did such a good job in this country talking about multivitamins. Did you take your multivitamin? But nobody ever talked about minerals. And if you look at the studies. The soil level of minerals is dramatically depleted year over year. We just don't have the same minerals. So they'll say like an apple, you'd have to, you know, eat whatever it is, like a pound of kale today to get the same as you got from one leaf

Speaker:

40 years ago. Right, right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Um, and so we don't get enough minerals. And so one of the things that's really important is complete mineral. Um, uh. I just lost the word, making sure you have all of your minerals. Right, right. So a mineral supplement that contains all of them. However, one mineral that we know is specifically, um, contributing mineral depletion of magnesium is. Is really significantly affecting, um, constipation. Yeah. And we find that when we use either magnesium citrate or magnesium glycinate, both of those can really help people move their bowels. Um, and sometimes it takes higher doses because we are so. Depleted.

Speaker:

Right, exactly. It takes time

Speaker 2:

to build up. So I find that people will start with higher doses and then be able to, to save to lower doses once they build up the reserve. Right? So that's another big one. Um, number four is medication side effects. People forget,

Speaker:

you know,

Speaker 2:

people come to me on four and five medications. And two or three of them are very constipating.

Speaker:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:

No one ever told them.

Speaker:

No, of course. Yeah. It really,

Speaker 2:

it's a matter of doing your research. If you are listening to this and you are constipated and you are on pharmaceutical drugs, please Google it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Constipation and the name of your medication.

Speaker 3:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:

Go to your doctor and say, I'm suffering.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I

Speaker 2:

need, I need an alternative solution. And Nice. A lot of times there is, yeah, there's a different type of medication that can, you know, get you the same sort of results without the side effect of constipation. Right. So that's a big one. Um, liver dysfunction. People don't talk about the liver when it talk, they talk about constipation. They just think usually intestines. Right? Um, but your liver, um, and the secretion of bile, all of that and um, has to, has an impact on constipation. And when we think about the levels of fatty acid or fatty liver disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, I think they're rebranding that actually, I forget there's a new name for it, but, um, is a big problem and it really is because of all of our processed foods. Mm-hmm. It's non-alcoholic, right. We know alcohol impacts the liver and most of us are probably drinking alcohol, so we have some liver, liver impact to start with. Sure. But when we are eating highly processed foods and inflammatory oils, we're either for, we're even further impacting the liver. Right. So it's taking a look at the practices that wreak havoc on your liver. Mm-hmm. You'll take the quiz and understand maybe that's affecting me as well. Yeah. Yeah. Um, gut dysbiosis is another one. When we say gut dysbiosis, dysbiosis means like a, um, uh, what's supposed to be there is out of whack. Right? Okay. So we know there, we've heard about probiotics. Yes. That's the, that's the good pro, pro-life, the good bacteria that lives in our gut. And really important because there are. We know of probably a couple hundred strains and their purposes. Um, when I run a gut dysbiosis test, there's 10 hallmark strains that we look at. We know we need those strains to be robust. Okay? If those strains are robust, digestion happens, fibers get broken down, mucus layer gets replaced, et cetera. Um, however, when we have bad bugs, so we get them all the time from things that we eat from traveling, a lot of people will say like, I went to Mexico in February and I got traveler's diarrhea and I never really recovered. When we run the gut dysbiosis test, we pick up the bacteria

Speaker 3:

Interesting. And then we

Speaker 2:

can treat it. Yeah. But, and that goes, you know, the gut dysbiosis test is for people. In general, not just for constipation, because I do have a lot of people that will have, that are moving their bowels five and six times a day, which is

Speaker:

okay.

Speaker 2:

Just as much of a problem. I was gonna ask, is that,

Speaker:

yeah.

Speaker 2:

Okay. Yeah. If you're listening to this and you're like, I'm not constipated, I poop six times a day. Not good either. Right. I want you to think about your body needs to absorb all of those minerals and good fats as it makes, as your food makes its way through your intestines, right? Yeah. Your small intestines specifically. And so when your transit time is too fast mm-hmm. You are not absorbing nutrients.

Speaker:

Makes sense? Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So your bones are at jeopardy, your brain is at jeopardy. Mm. So they should, everything they should take, they should take a gut dysbiosis test and understand what's going on. And then there's a protocol to fix it. Right? Respond to kill. Yeah. To kill the bad stuff. Usually we do, we kill the bad guys and we beef up the good guys. And that levels out the microbiome.

Speaker:

Nice.

Speaker 2:

So that's a big one. Parasites and mold is one that no one talks about. No, never in mainstream medicine, right? Never. Your, your general physician, however, it's a big problem. Yeah. Um, I, all of my private clients that I have worked with through parasite cleanses, 100% have passed visible parasites

Speaker 4:

in their stool. Wow.

Speaker 2:

100%. I mean, they're there and they're causing problems. When we are compromised, when we have mold, when we have gut dysbiosis, when our immune system is taken down, when we have inflammation, um, they grow. They thrive.

Speaker 3:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:

Um, and so they get overgrown and they cause problems and they can cause constipation problems. Um, so parasite cleanses, I recommend twice a year or the Native Americans did it and it's, we should be doing them too. I, it's the same. I was talking to somebody the other day about how, I think it was in the 18 hundreds when they realized that surgeries were really compromised because doctors weren't washing their hands.

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker 2:

Right. And then they started wearing gloves and the incidence of death and surgery decreased dramatically. However, at the time to think that a doctor was dirty, doctors were revered as God. So how could a doctor be causing this problem? Right. And I feel like it's the same thing in this country when it comes to parasites. We think, not me, I, right. I eat organic, right? It's on vegetables. It's on meat. If you eat sushi, if your cheeseburger wasn't cooked until it was dry and lifeless, there's ants. The fact of life and we, and we deworm our dogs monthly, right?

Speaker:

Yes. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So I don't know how, how the world hasn't caught up here, right? However, know that it could be an issue for you. Okay? And the same thing with mold. Mold exposure is. Unbelievable. Um, they say over 50% of buildings are. You know, have many issues. Um, I had a mold, I, we had a house fire. My house burned down in 2016. Oh my gosh. I kind of thank God because I found black mold when they tore down one of the bathrooms behind the toilet and the wall, like it lived there insidiously and. It can affect you. It makes people sick. Some people sicker than others. Mm-hmm. Mold is an interesting one because for the most part, our body should be able to detox it. But if you have a genetic issue, an HLD, an H-L-A-D-R snip, your body takes mold in and goes, I don't know what to do with that and sequesters it, and then it grows in your body.

Speaker 4:

Mm.

Speaker 2:

Do a little research. If you think if you live in a house where you think there's mold and you have symptoms, brain fog, joint pain, general fatigue, migraines are some common ones. Um, there's actually a mold, I have a mold quiz, um, on my website that people can take. Um, but it's a big problem for people. If you go into the bathroom, the two second mold test, go into your bathroom and lift the back plate of the toilet. Oh, yes.

Speaker:

Yeah. Yes. Yeah,

Speaker 2:

yeah. Take a look. Take a sniff. Take a look because mold grows where water sits. Sure makes sense. So best to do in your least used toilet. If you happen to have a toilet that's like in a weird spot you don't use, check that one first. That can be a big issue. And the last one, here we are at number eight, is nervous system dysregulation. Mm. Stress slash circadian rhythm.

Speaker:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

Um, all of that, right? So if you are going to bed at 2:00 AM on some days and waking up at 10:00 AM some days, but then some nights going to bed at 10 and waking up at six, your body doesn't know what it's supposed to be doing. Our bodies love a rhythm. Mm. And that's what we work on when we are working on, I, I run a 21 day gut reset program and we are working on rhythm, getting your body into the process, right? Right. And so we set up all of these little cues along the way, um, so that your body understands that. But if you are stressed and you are, like many of my clients who work outside the home and you need to leave the house at. 6 48 so you can make it to work and you're up at six 15 and you take a shower and you brush your teeth and you feed the dog and you grab your coffee and you get out the door. There's no time to poop. Yeah. So things need to change, right? So we need to rearrange our schedules, calm our nervous. Wake up, right? And have that glass of water in a relaxed state at six, maybe instead of six 15. Um, part of my program offers a medi meditation that I co-wrote that helps you to get your nervous system into a relaxed state. Love it.

Speaker 3:

It's

Speaker 2:

really, really important. You can't poop if you're always charged.

Speaker:

Yeah, makes perfect sense. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And then there are other causes, not to say, you know, as we go through menopause and our hormones start to shift, the decrease in estrogen and progesterone definitely doesn't number on your digestive system. I'm a big fan of hormone replacement therapy. It has to be done very carefully by a professional. Mm-hmm. But I think that can really help other things like structural issues. Right. I'm not covering that. I'm talking about the things that we have control over. Um, though I do recommend pelvic floor therapy for people out there that have, um, some structural issues, that can be very helpful. Sure,

Speaker:

sure. Why do you think that's been amazing? I'm sitting here going Yep. Check, check, check. Oh, better do. Better be in touch with, better get the book. I've got some homework to do. So thank you for all of this. Such a wealth of information. Why do you think so many people who, you've mentioned probiotics, maybe do elimination diets, gut protocols, they still struggle. What's the missing piece that you find that many, if not most practitioners do overlook?

Speaker 2:

That's a good question. Um. I think, well, that's what I do in my 21 day program. Right. Okay. So we do it the, we do it the right way. If you are constipated and you try to take more fiber mm-hmm. You're, you're like stuffing a garbage disposal. That's not working. That's not gonna work. We've gotta open up that pipe first. We need to figure out how, with what we usually use, what, um, we call a motility agent. A lot of times for people it's magnesium citrate. So in the pro in the, and there's a couple of different options which I present in the program, and you choose what you feel is right for you. We tighter it so we figure out our right dose. Sure. Too much magnesium citrate for anyone is gonna call What is gonna cause what we call disaster paths. You don't want that. You don't want that too little. We don't want that. And too little, you won't really see the result that you're desiring. So the first bit of of the program is really finding our proper dose. Um, the other things are we need to understand how much fiber we're actually getting. Mm. Denise, most people think they're doing a great job, and most people. Yeah, so I recommend this for everyone listening. If you think you're doing a great job, I want you to write down what you eat today. And at the end of the day, I want you to go to chat gpt.com and I want you to say, here is everything I ate today. Can you tell me how many grams of fiber I got? Okay, so be specific. If you ate 10 grapes, put 10 grapes. Right. Yeah. If you ate a, a medium sweet potato, put a medium sweet potato. Try to give it as much information as you can, and I think you'll be surprised people who have constipation in order to overcome that and regulate your bowels. I like people to be between 40 and 50 grams of fiber a day. Most people come in around 12.

Speaker:

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Speaker 2:

And so if you want to have that morning epic poop where you're like, I can seize the day, my stomach's flat, I feel great, right? Yeah. You need that fiber and you will have, you want your poop to fill that toilet bowl, right? Little tiny poops. Yeah. That's not what we're looking for. Right. There's something called the Bristol stool chart. People can Google that. It's B-R-I-S-T-O-L. Mm-hmm. And it's what we use in in gut health to, to take a look at our bowels and decide what's healthy. There's number one to number seven. Number one is what we call goat pellet poops. I'm sure we've all had those at times. And number seven is liquid diarrhea. Right? Mm-hmm. No one wants either of those, so right in the middle is a number four, which looks like a sausage, right? Yep. It's not super bumpy or dry. It comes out kind of like a snake. You don't have to, what we call hyper wipe, right? Yep. It's not messy.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. That's

Speaker 2:

ideal. And when you are moving your bowels daily, getting the right motility agent, eating enough fiber, your nervous system is regulated.

Speaker:

Mm-hmm. Right?

Speaker 2:

That's what happens. It's,

Speaker:

it happens. Right? Yeah. Makes sense.

Speaker 2:

That's what your body wants to do.

Speaker:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:

And so we make sure in the program that we're doing all of those things, we're starting with water. We're, we're looking at food and food sensitivities. We're knowing what we're, you know, some people will, some people come in Denise, and they're eating six foods. That's it. Hmm. They're eating chicken and they're eating. Um, yeah. You know, and some, and it's so different for people. Like some people of course would think that, I'm like, how can you even digest that? And they're like, that works for me.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So we try to, once we start moving bowels, um, and increasing fiber, people general. Find that they can eat more variety, more. Yeah, because things are moving through, things aren't fermenting. You know, there's a lot of talk about something called SIBO right now. It's kind of a hot topic in gut health, and SIBO is spelled SIBO, and it stands for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. And what that really means is when your transit time is slow, when food moves really slowly through the intestines, and it's not fully digested because your stomach acid is weak,

Speaker:

right?

Speaker 2:

It ferments, mm-hmm. Causes lots of gas. So if you are someone who gets a ton of bloating, you gotta back it up. You gotta make sure you're chewing your food first, and number two, that you're actually digesting it in the stomach.

Speaker:

Right. Um, we use a lot of

Speaker 2:

digestive enzymes. Hydrochloric acid we can add to give a little bit more power there.

Speaker:

Beautiful. So much. So much and it's so. Individualized, yet there are definite things that need to happen in order to make things flow the way they sh they are meant to based on our human bodies, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. And even like, and, and in this program, like when people start using high, higher doses of magnesium citrate, we find over time. That they go less and less and less as they bring up their fiber. Sure. And they're introducing new probiotics. I love eating things like sauerkraut and kimchi, which put them back into your system naturally. Right, right. Things that we never thought about eating.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Um, we start eating for our gut, I tell my clients that we should be eating 30 different fruits and vegetables a week.

Speaker 4:

Hmm. That's

Speaker 2:

another great test for yourself. Get out a piece of paper, leave it on your counter. It's a great thing to do if you have a family or kids. Sure. Yeah. You're trying to get them to realize how important it is to kind of eat the rainbow. Right? Yes. We write down every food, every, we had Brussels sprouts tonight, you know, in the morning we had strawberries with our breakfast. Yep. And you'd be surprised, and it's fun to kind of shoot for 30, take the kids to the grocery store and let them pick out something they've never tried before. Right. All of those things are important for our gut microbiome. Eating the same thing every day.

Speaker:

Yeah. Yeah,

Speaker 2:

and I have an, an, an anecdotal story. I have a dog, um, that had an autoimmune disease. He's eight years old. He's a cockapoo, and he started developing scabs on his skin. Oh. And, and they smelled extremely bad. I took him to three vets and wound up at a dermatologist who put him on an autoimmune drug and a high dose of steroids, and he had a stroke and almost died. So I took him off knowing what I know about and I don't write, I'm not a vet and I don't like, of course, I don't like trying to self-treat, et cetera. But knowing what I know about gut health, I weaned him off all of his medication and I changed his diet. He no longer eats any standard commercial dog food. Yep. I make his own food with coconut oil and ground beef and whatever vegetables I get from the farm. Always rotating. Sometimes he has rutabaga, sometimes he, they have turn turnips and I have three dogs, so of course I have to make food for all of it. You can't just do it for one.

Speaker:

No,

Speaker 2:

he's healed. His skin is perfect. You can, you can't even tell that he had a stroke. He used to kind of walk sideways. He's healed. Wow. We healed his gut using probiotics and digestive enzymes and good food. And it's the same for human beings, right? Mm-hmm. We are. Food is, we've been sold a bill of goods when they've said it doesn't matter. Yeah. Cancer patients are told every day. It doesn't matter what you eat.

Speaker:

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. It matters. It matters so much. Mm-hmm. The variety, right? The quality. Yeah. Not eating chemicals.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Um, that, that's the best place to

Speaker:

start, right? Absolutely. And those are things you can implement immediately. You can do ground to table. Just focus on that. The other thing I've learned over the years is, um, as you're in the supermarket, at least here where we are in Canada, I don't know if it's the same where you are in the States, but um, outside is where you shop inside is processed outside is the Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We

Speaker 2:

call, um, packaged, like in packaged food. Bags and boxes are body bags

Speaker:

for food. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. There's

Speaker 2:

nothing alive there. There's nothing nutritional there.

Speaker:

Love that. Love that

Speaker 2:

real food.

Speaker:

Mm-hmm. Yeah.'cause you're a real person and you deserve it. And you need to do it for you by you because of you.'cause nobody else can do it for you. It's about you, right?

Speaker 2:

Yes. And one of the, I was listening to your podcast a couple episodes, and one of the things I love that you say, Denise, is we can't step boldly into the life we are meant to be living. And I answer if we are constipated.

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Can't,

Speaker 2:

yeah. I can't be my best self. No. If I wake up in the morning and feel bloated and miserable, of course we owe it to ourselves

Speaker:

to fix this. Absolutely. Absolutely. And people like Melissa and in the show notes will have all of the ways to contact her and find out more about her book and all of the things you can start to do. And this doesn't have to be, oh my gosh, I have to change my whole life tomorrow. No, it's a journey. It's a process, and it's about your learning for your health. And it's in your hands, right, Melissa? Oh my gosh. Is there anything that you would love to share with our audience before we wrap up today? Anything that you just really wanna drop in and say, this is my final nugget for today anyway.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I just think that we, once we learn, we do better, right? Yeah. And so if you are dealing with constipation and you read the book. And it works for you. And you get to share that with somebody. Right. Someone once told me knowledge is only powerful when it's shared.

Speaker:

Yes. Which is

Speaker 2:

why I wrote the book. Right. It's all my knowledge pretty much free. I mean, I've been studying for 30 years. The book's 7 95. Right. And it will help you. It's cheaper than a copay at your doctor's office. Right. Um, and then once you heal yourself, you help others.

Speaker:

Exactly.

Speaker 2:

That's, that's the way the world works. And I like to say that, um. When we poop better, we're nicer. And when we're nicer, the world's a little bit better. And that's really what we need is the world to be everyone, to be a little nicer in the world, to be a little better. And if we're feeling good, it's a lot easier.

Speaker:

Totally. You're not battling what you are trying to just do internally and you don't even understand. So I totally 1000% agree with you. So Melissa, thank you so much for being with us today. It has been eyeopening to say the least for me, who used to be as. Girl growing up I used to be a little mis constipated and the doctor said, well, if you're regular every two to three days, that's fine. You don't have to do it every day. That's just your system. Now we know better. Now we know more. And with all of your expertise. I did have a question. You had mentioned a couple of tests that can be done. Is that just for um, US citizens or can those tests also be done in other parts of the world like Canada, et It's so

Speaker 2:

US and I actually called the lab and asked them specifically about Canada, and they can be done to Canada. The shipping charges are higher. Sure. But yes, they will ship to Canada.

Speaker 4:

Okay. So

Speaker 2:

the two tests that I love are the food sensitivity test and the gut microbiome test. And it depends. When you read the book, you'll see like, which one makes sense for you.

Speaker:

Okay. Perfect. Perfect. If people have questions around, say they look, is there a a good way to contact you? If they've done the book and they're like, I'm just not sure about blah, blah, blah, is there something they can do or is there a spot where they q and a or anything like that, that they can help? Or your 21 day. Cleanse parasite. Yeah. Like

Speaker 2:

yes, I do, I do parasite cleanses twice a year. I'll do the gut reset. 1, 2, 3 program twice a year. Um, one open is open for registration. Now it starts September 8th. I don't know when this will air, but Okay. And then there'll be one in 2026. Okay. Um, and I had a, I, I'm on a lot of podcasts where I share Yeah. What I do, I actually had my own podcast for three years. I did a three minute health minute. Oh, cool. I have about a thousand episodes. That was really fun. So, um, people, I'm really accessible. I'm on social media. You can find me there. You'll leave that in show notes. Hit me in the dms. Email me, Melissa. Melissa Koki. I'm here to help.

Speaker:

Perfect. Thank you so much. If the conversation has resonated and something has triggered inside of you to start to make a move and a change and start to look at your constipation codes, make sure that you reach out. Follow. Check the show notes, get all the information. Become an advocate for yourself by learning about your body, your needs, and understand what is best for you by you because of you. Please let us know what resonates with this podcast that you have just listened to. Share. Follow review. We love all of it. Melissa, what a joy to spend this time with you if you are wanting to explore this and more in terms of how do you start to look after yourself and you always seem to, I'll do it tomorrow. I'll do it. I've got time for that right now. I've got this on my. Burner and you are tired of doing that, but you can't get out. Come and join us in my mentor membership called Becoming Her, where we will touch base every month. We will connect, we will create a space for you to be heard judgment free. Figure out where it is you are right now and where you want to go in your life, no matter what it is that you're dealing with, and we're there behind the scenes. I wish everyone an incredible day. Make sure you drink your water as Melissa has shared so beautifully and so detailed. Take care of yourselves and we will see you on the next episode.