How to Treat Constipation Part 1: Magnesium

The question of how to treat constipation is a common one. Constipation is the most frequent gastrointestinal complaint in the United States, leading to about 2 million annual visits to the doctor. Yet, most people end up trying to treat constipation themselves, which is why there is a multi-million dollar laxative industry in this country. Here we will review one often overlooked natural solution for constipation treatment without stimulant laxatives– magnesium.

Magnesium as Osmotic Laxative

Magnesium can help cure chronic constipation in multiple ways. In one capacity it acts as an osmotic laxative and in another it acts to sooth the sympathetic nervous system. As an osmotic laxative, it is ideal to have a type of magnesium that is not absorbed well by the digestive system. This allows the magnesium ions to move into the colon where they serve their osmotic effect. Magnesium ions are quite large and when they are in the colon there is lots of extra space around them – in other words are present in a low concentration. This causes the water that is sitting around the colon to move from its high concentration environment into the colon – where it softens stools and relieves constipation.

This is particularly important because the normal function of the colon is to draw water out of the food you eat and into the body. When dealing with constipation treatment, one must reverse the flow of water into order to stay regular. The next question is how to treat constipation with magnesium from the perspective of the nervous sytem.

Magnesium to Relax the Body

The large scale deficiency of magnesium in the typical Western diet produces a situation called “sympathetic nervous system dominance”. You might remember the sympathetic nervous system from school as the part of your body that activates the “fight or flight” response. It is problematic for constipation because it draws blood away from the digestive tract and causes constipation. Chronic magnesium deficiency leads to a state where the body cannot relax – leading to constipation. Laxatives are of minimal help in the long-term with this issue because the body is dealing with a mineral deficiency.

When looking at how to treat constipation for this type of deficiency, one needs a type of magnesium that is well absorbed by the body so that the nervous gets the support it needs. This is how to treat constipation from a dual approach – one type of absorbable magnesium to help the body relax into comfortable bowel movements and another type of nonabsorbable magnesium to draw water into the bowel.