For years, during patient intakes, there are questions about “transit time”. This means, how often do you “house clean”?
\Getting bad stuff “out of us” is as important as good stuff going “into us”.
Two BMs/day is the gold standard. At this elimination rate, there is much less chronic inflammation in the body.
Over the years I notice that many ill patients, especially breast cancer and cognitive decline patients, have a history of long-term constipation. One of the first things we do is make sure the digestive tract is “moving”.
New data, from three prospective cohort studies with more than 100,000 adults, show chronic constipation may be associated with worsening cognitive function.
Compared to individuals who have a bowel movement once daily, adults with constipation, who have a bowel movement every 3 days or more, had significantly worse cognition that was commensurate with an additional 3 years of chronologic cognitive aging.
Findings
The findings were presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) 2023.
Chronic constipation, defined as having bowel movements every 3 days or more, has been associated with long-term health problems such as inflammation, hormonal imbalances, anxiety, and depression.
I would call chronic constipation not going daily. I go into this in-depth in my book Healthy Digestion the Natural Way (which has sold over a million copies).
The analysis involved data from 112,753 women and men from the Nurses' Health Study (aged 30 – 55), the Nurses' Health Study II (aged 25 – 42), and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (aged 40 – 75). A subgroup of 12,696 participants completed a standard neuropsychological test battery for objective cognitive assessment between 2014 and 2018.
The results show that bowel movement frequency was associated with overall objective cognitive function and learning and working memory in an inverse J-shape dose-response manner.
Compared to adults who had one bowel movement daily, those who only had a bowel movement every 3 or more days had significantly worse cognition, equivalent to 3 years of additional aging.
They found that bowel movement frequency and subjective cognition were significantly associated with the overall variation of the gut microbiome and specific microbial species. The more diverse the gut species, the healthier the “thinking”.
Knowledge is Power.
You should know the poop patterns of your kids as many issues begin that early. If they aren’t pooping regularly, you need to figure out why and help.
Best regards for your great morning “Pooptatutionals”!
Dr. B.
References:
"Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) 2023: Abstract 73719. Presented July 19, 2023.
Healthy Digestion the Natural Way Berkson DL Wiley 1996
Chronic Constipation Linked to Cognitive Decline - Medscape - Jul 19, 2023.
Thank you for this interesting information! I never connected bowel movements with cognition. It makes sense though. All the more reason to eat a high fiber diet. More fruit and veggies and less animal protein.