Gut health
🚽 How To Survive Constipation In Pregnancy
As a gastroenterologist, my wife is as poop-obsessed as I am.
Given that 32% of women suffer constipation while pregnant, she was determined to do everything possible to maintain glorious bathroom moments while carrying our little gremlin.
Here’s what helped:
1️⃣ Gentle movement
Gentle movement helps the colon move things along. The less time stool remains in the colon, the less water is absorbed and the less hard it becomes.
For my wife, this just meant regular walking breaks throughout the day. Intensity doesn’t matter, regularity does.
2️⃣ Mucilaginous foods
Mucilage is a thick, gel-like fiber found in certain plants that becomes slippery when wet. It coats the colon, improving digestion, and also acts as a prebiotic, supporting beneficial gut bacteria.
My wife upped her mucilaginous food consumption by eating more chia and flax seeds and okra.
3️⃣ Sorbitol-containing fruit
Foods containing sorbitol can have mild laxative effects, so may be of use in cases of colonic gridlock.
My wife ate more pears and apples, but you’ll also find sorbitol in stone fruits e.g. cherries, peaches, apricots and nectarines.
4️⃣ Coffee
My wife loves her coffee and we all know how much our favourite morning pick-me-up can help with pooping!
Fortunately, decaf does the same job, just minus the caffeine, which she was keen to avoid while pregnant.
The NHS recommends no more than 200mg of caffeine per day when pregnant, which is around 2 cups of instant coffee (might be less for larger sizes or stronger brews)
5️⃣ Iron Supplements
Here’s one that didn’t affect my wife, but I want to include because it’s relevant to so many pregnant women.
Iron supplementation is routinely prescribed to pregnant women all over the world. In some cases, it can cause or worsen existing constipation.
Interestingly, in one controlled study, (PMID 33866933) pregnant women who took their iron supplements every other day, instead of every day suffered fewer GI side effects while experiencing no significant effect on their anaemia status.
However no one should stop taking iron if they’ve been prescribed it during pregnancy.
If iron is causing problems, please talk to a doctor or midwife, who can look at changing your dose or suggest a different preparation.
6️⃣ Fiber
This is the biggest lever of all. Getting an extra 10g of fibre by adding LOAM to your morning cup is a no-brainer. However, I wanted to be certain it was safe for mother and child.
That’s why we did extensive, 3rd party contamination and heavy metal testing of LOAM which it passed with flying colours. These standards were even more stringent than Prop 65, widely acknowledged as one of the toughest safety standards in the world.
This is important because you deserve to know that LOAM exceeds all relevant safety protocols for fiber supplement.
GENERAL health
✂️ Cut LDL-Cholesterol By 30%
I have a very personal history with cholesterol.
In 2018, I was a fit 28-year-old man, regularly exercising and lifting heavy weight and....I had sky-high cholesterol levels.
Here's the problem: when it comes to lowering LDL-cholesterol, exercise is unlikely to do it alone
Exercise is great for cardio-vascular health, building muscle (resistance exercise) and mental health; but by far, the biggest lever to pull for reducing LDL-C is diet.
Controlled studies have shown significant drops in LDL-C from:-
- Simply eating a lower saturated-fat diet (less red meat and dairy products)
- Having a bias for eating whole foods
- Swapping high-saturated-fat foods with similar (low-saturated fat) alternatives e.g EVOO instead of butter, soy protein instead of animal protein
And when these interventions were combined to form a portfolio diet (low in saturated fat, high in viscous fiber (e..g oats, psyllium), high proportion of protein from plants) LDL-C dropped by an incredible 30%! (PMID: 14624410)
However, controlled studies are not real life. In fact, in one of the studies above the participants had their meals and snacks prepared for them to ensure adherence! That’s the kind of study I’d like to participate in!
The good news is: longer-term, observational studies show similar, albeit less dramatic findings.
As one example, consumption of tree nuts (brazil, pecan, pistachio, almonds, cashews etc) in real-life populations was found to inversely correlate with LDL-C, with the strongest effect at the highest levels of consumption.
So, here’s your practical, lowering LDL-C playbook:
1️⃣ Focus on making replacements e.g.
- Butter, cream, ghee -> olive oil
- Meat heavy dishes -> lentils, beans, tofu, soy
- Low fiber breakfasts -> oats, barley, psyllium
- High sugar/salt snacks -> fruit or nuts
2️⃣ Prioritise whole foods over processed or ultra-processed foods
3️⃣ Reduce saturated fat consumption
4️⃣ Considering stacking these changes for the win e.g. replacing half the meat in a lasagne for lentils reduces saturated fat AND increases fiber
P.S. We’ve had a tonne of people saying how LOAM has helped with their LDL cholesterol and frankly that’s one of the reasons I created it for mysef!
Anyway based on all those amazing messages we’re gonna go ahead and run a cholesterol trial for LOAM!
Naturally you'll be the first to hear the results when they come in.
REFLECTIONS
💪 The Power Of "I Did"
✅ Be a great husband.
✅ Be a great dad.
✅ Produce awesome content, week after a week.
✅ Build a successful company.
✅ Take good care of myself.
The list of self-improvement tasks is never-ending and I’m not exaggerating when I say that.
We will literally never run out of things to improve.
Now, that’s no bad thing necessarily. Voluntary self-improvement is a wonderful thing to pursue, but I’ve come to realise that sometimes, you just have to look at yourself, the way you are right now, and be happy.
If you’re on any kind of self-improvement journey - nutrition, exercise, education, wealth, relationships - you must have made some progress already. Have you acknowledged that?
A simple way to do so is to create an “I Did This” list.
We’re all familiar with “to-do” lists, well an “I Did This” list is simply yesterday’s to-do list, crossed off.
But why limit yourself to yesterday? What have you achieved in relation to your chosen goal in the last week, month or year?
Just taking 5 minutes to note what you’ve already done is a powerful way to remind yourself that you’ve already achieved some of your past goals.
You might be surprised at how far you’ve already come. Perhaps you’ve even achieved, dare I say it, enough?!
👋 Who are you again? I’m Karan Rajan - a doctor and curious explorer of all things health and wellness. I'm the founder of LOAM Science, a microbiome company aiming to create the best fiber product in the world! I host the Dr Karan Explores Podcast, where I talk to experts in science and medicine to cut through the BS of modern health advice. If you'd like an easy way to dig through the archive, you can ask me any questions about the podcast and talk to my digital librarian here. I've also written two books "This Book May Save Your Life" and "This Is Vital Information". I'm the Chief of Science of Throne, a smart gut health tracking device.
If you feel strongly about some health things or just want to say hi? Hit reply... I’d love to hear it and hear from you! (yes I read every reply!!!)
