GI Motility Part 2 – How to improve your motility
In Part 1 of GI Motility here, I looked at what motility is, the signs and symptoms and discussed the gut-brain axis.
In this blog, I’ll look at what you can do to improve your motility, and what might require further investigation.
As you read on, it will become as clear as day that resolving your motility problems is vital for long-term health and healthy ageing, especially if you want to avoid neurodegenerative brain disorders like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
Improve your motility yourself
These are some simple, yet nonetheless powerful things you can do yourself
Move more
Eat more fibre
Hydrate
Take magnesium to bowel tolerance
For further investigation
If these things don’t help, other possibilities to check in order to identify the root cause/s are
Gut dysfunction
– Bacterial, parasitic and yeast infections (overgrowths)– Intestinal permeability
– A lack of bacterial diversity
– Gallbladder issues
– SIBO
Investigate prokinetics
Gut-brain axis problems and vagus nerve inactivation
Excess insulin and blood sugar issues, including diabetes
Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s
Move more
A sedentary life in an invitation to motility problems. Motility involves contractions, and exercise activates smooth muscle contraction while also improving intestinal circulation and gallbladder motility, which impacts the rest of your gut’s motility too.
Hydrate
While this may seem overly basic, dehydration is the number one cause of constipation and can contribute to motility problems.
Hydration can be more complex, however. If you have muscle cramping and constant salt cravings, you could have a mineral corticoid issue. This means you can’t reabsorb the water as your body requires.
If you’re low on electrolytes (minerals), you may also have troubles with water reabsorption, similarly causing constipation and motility issues.
Eat more fibre
Fibre plays two roles. First, high fibre foods are a bulking agent, which helps move food along your GI tract and promotes motility. But high fibre foods are also a source of prebiotics, feeding good gut bacteria and the cells in our gut lining. The greater diversity of plant fibres you eat – vegetables, grains and legumes – the better your diversity of gut flora and stronger your health.
Take magnesium
Taking magnesium to bowel tolerance is a short term solution to getting things moving by softening your stool and increasing motility. But taking a single mineral in isolation long-term is not ideal.
To find your tolerance level, obtain some unsweetened magnesium citrate powder. If magnesium doesn’t agree with you, you can use vitamin C. Remember to keep well hydrated during this process
Begin the cleanse first thing in the morning, before you eat. (You can, however, eat normally throughout the day)
Take 1000mg of magnesium mixing into half a glass of water (or diluted fruit juice) and drink/sip it over the course of a few minutes
Repeat this every hour, on the hour, recording each time you take a dose, and continue until you need to use the bathroom. You are looking for the bowel to pass a watery stool. Once this occurs, the flush is finished and you can stop drinking the magnesium
The next time you go to the bathroom after the cleanse, your stools may still be a bit watery, but things should return to normal pretty quickly
Note what total amount of magnesium you took to achieve bowel tolerance. This is your level
Heal your gut
You need good motility to balance your gut and vice versa. For example, you can't improve your gut flora or microbiome if your food isn’t moving through your gastrointestinal tract properly. This is because as your food moves through it impacts your pH (acid-alkaline balance), the diversity of your bacteria and your metabolites (the products of energy production that play many important health roles).
Also, get if you don’t have good motility, bacteria and yeast often overgrow. This can damage your gut nerve plexus (the nerve bundles) hindering good communication with your brain via your vagus nerve. This can result in deficiencies of digestive enzymes and more, further exacerbating gut issues.
Gut infections can impact your motility
The bacteria cagA not only adversely affect motility, but contains a protein that has been significantly associated with gastric cancer and peptic ulcers and many other health problems.
An infection or overgrowth of Klebsiella spp./pneumoniae, a bacteria normally found in the intestinal tract, in unhealthy people could be involved with Crohn’s disease, Rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis as well as affect motility and cause diarrhea, gas, abdominal pain, and bloating.
The gallbladder
If you need caffeine to have bowel movements, you may have a motility issue as your gallbladder is not contracting properly. This is a motility issue, possibly because of neurodegeneration of the gut or chronic inflammation the nerve plexus.
SIBO
SIBO (small intestinal bacteria overgrowth) sufferers can have poor motility and coexisting constipation. This is because it creates excess methane that hinders motility. Hydrogen SIBO, on the other hand, increases motility leading to diarrhoea.
SIBO can cause bacterial translocation into the small intestine where it doesn’t belong and can destroy the microvilli (which absorb nutrients) leading to malabsorption syndromes and the more serious endotoxicity.
Investigate prokinetics
Prokinetics coordinate the downward movement of the gastrointestinal tract, amplifying and coordinating gut motility. They do this by stimulating the migrating motor complex of small intestine. Damage to the migrating motor complex can be caused by gastroenteritis and food poisoning.
Of note, magnesium and laxatives do not have a prokinetic effect as they don’t do this. While they can promote bowel movements, this doesn’t mean they have turned on your migrating motor complex.
There are six prokinetic options, three of which are naturally occurring. These are Iberogast, ginger root; and ginger-containing prokinetic formulas. Iberogast has a stronger prokinetic effect than some pharmaceutical ones.
The migrating motor complex works best 90-120 mins after meals. Snacking stops the migrating motor complex from working for 1.5-2 hours afterwards as does drinking anything that distends your stomach (even water) or artificial sweeteners and stevia, so it’s best not to snack between meals and sip unsweetened clear fluids if you want to improve your motility.
Check you gut-brain axis and vagus nerve
Traumatic brain injury, neurodegeneration or neurodevelopmental issues can result in reduced two-way communication between your brain and gut via the vagus nerve, which runs from your brain stem into your organs.
This reduced communication leads to reduced parasympathetic activity (our rest and digest state) during which digestion takes place. In this state your body won’t produce stomach acid and digestive enzymes to break down food and blood flow to your gut will reduce. This leads to gut inflammation, reduced motility, constipation and gut infections. This inflammation can also cross the blood-brain barrier, inflaming your brain in a vicious cycle of neurodegeneration.
By doing vagus nerve exercises, you can stimulate the communication between your gut and brain, and improve motility. If you need magnesium to have bowel movements, this could indicate you need to do these exercises daily. I’ve written a detailed blog about this here, but the things that work over time include vigorous (no matter how unpleasant)
gargling
gagging
coffee enemas
loud singing
yoga, breath work and meditation
A word on coffee enemas
As gross as this may seem, distending the intestines using an enema can be very effective in activating the vagus nerve. The caffeine in the coffee stimulates intestinal motility, relieving bowel contents. Over time, your vagal system pathway and bowel function can improve and you may be able to wean off the enemas.
Be mindful of neurodegenerative diseases
If you, or anyone you know, has motility issues i.e. constipation, have lost some of their smell, taste and ability to blink, or find swallowing difficult, it may be wise to check for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
Resolve blood sugar imbalances
Excess insulin involved in blood sugar imbalances and diseases, alters gallbladder motility and thus general motility. Most of the clients I see have some kind of blood sugar imbalance, so this should not be readily dismissed.