Sleep and Constipation: The Straight Poop

Nearly everyone has suffered from the slowing down or halting of our normal plumbing (constipation) when traveling, especially when there is also Jet Lag involved.

There is new research which demonstrates the basis for this problem may be our gut bacteria.

Obvious though it may seem, gut bacteria do NOT see the light of day. This simple factor, daylight, also known as Zeitgeiber (German for “timekeeper”) has the most profound effect on how

our body  keeps track of the day/night (circadian) cycle. It seems that this cycle has importance to everything from single cells to complex organisms.

Losing track of this cycle can cause major disruptions in many of our body functions-sleep, bowel movements etc

Researchers from Israel were able to demonstrate significant changes in the types of bacteria that were present in the colons of persons who had travelled and

had Jet Lag: the disconnection that happens when our body clock is different than the outside clock. The change was correlated with decreasing gut function (constipation) and did not improve until the subjects restarted the diet that was back to the one they had before they left:  breakfast at the original breakfast time, etc. The effect was dramatic; as was the return to normal function.

There was also a effect on weight gain.

 

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