This fiber blend does two very important jobs. In a bowel cleansing program it is the bowel vacuum, pulling inflammation from the bowel walls and carrying out the waste the body releases as it heals. And every home should have a jar of it on the shelf for the middle of the night, when a stomach bug or a bad bit of food has the body purging from one end or the other. Then it soaks up the acid, bacteria and poisons that are causing the trouble, and it soothes the raw tissue while it works.
What a Good Absorbing Fiber Blend Contains
A good absorbing fiber blend might contain these nine ingredients, all powdered:
- Psyllium Husk Powder, 8 parts. The bulk of the blend. It swells into a gel that firms up loose stool and carries waste out.
- Flax Seed, 2 parts. Soothing, lubricating fiber.
- Apple Pectin, 2 parts. A gentle, binding fiber long used to settle diarrhea.
- Bentonite Clay, 2 parts. Draws toxins and bacteria to itself and carries them out of the body.
- Activated Charcoal, 2 parts. One of the great absorbers. It soaks up poisons and gas in the gut.
- Slippery Elm Bark, 2 parts. Coats and soothes raw, irritated tissue all the way down.
- Marshmallow Root, 2 parts. Another soothing, coating herb that calms inflamed membranes.
- Peppermint, 1 part. Settles the stomach and eases cramping.
- Plantain, 1 part. A healing, drawing herb for irritated tissue.
“Parts” can be any measure you like, as long as you use the same one for every ingredient. By weight, that’s 8 ounces of Psyllium, 2 ounces each of the next six, and 1 ounce each of Peppermint and Plantain. Mix the powders well and keep them in a tightly closed jar.
The Bowel Vacuum
This is the blend’s most important work. As part of a bowel cleansing program it acts as a bowel vacuum. It pulls inflammation from the bowel walls, and it helps carry out the toxic waste the liver dumps when the body is going through a healing program.
Because it is so absorbing, it needs a lower bowel formula working alongside it, or it can stop you up with a brick in your bowels. So the lower bowel formula of your choice comes first (see Helping Sluggish Bowels Move Again). Spend about a week finding your number of capsules, and if your bowels still aren’t regulated, give it another week before moving on.
When your bowels are moving well, increase your capsules by 1 or 2 the night before you begin the vacuum the next morning. Someone already taking 10 or more capsules may need 2 or more extra to pass the vacuum well. It all depends on the person, their size, and the state of disease in the body. Then take 1 rounded teaspoon about every 3 hours through the day, which comes to five doses a day, for a two-week bowel cleanse. A rounded teaspoon is right for almost everyone. For someone very large, or with serious bowel disease, a bit more may prove helpful. If your bowels seem too tight at the end of the day, add another capsule. If they’re a bit too loose, drop one. You are in charge. The lower bowel formula keeps the bowels moving well while the vacuum does the heavy cleansing and healing work.
Drink plenty of liquid during the cleanse: an extra glass of water after each dose, and lots of pure water, herb teas and diluted juices through the day. It makes the whole program work better.
And what are we aiming for? A healthy bowel moves once for every meal you eat. If you eat three meals, you should have three bowel movements.
For someone with Crohn’s disease, colitis or irritable bowel syndrome, where loose, irritated bowels are the problem, it may be necessary to back into the healing program by starting with this blend first. Sometimes the lower bowel formula isn’t used at all, because the bowels are so sick and loose that they just need this blend. Taken daily, it soothes the bowel and firms up the stool. Some find one teaspoon a day does the job, others need three, and it can be used for as long as it’s needed.
I know this one firsthand. In the late ’90s I was working in social service, and my own bowels were a real mess: horrid cramps one day and constipation the next. That’s when I first discovered this blend. I took it for nine months. I wasn’t perfect with the dosing, but at the end of those nine months the cramping and constipation stopped. My bowels have never worked quite right, but they are healthy now, and I don’t suffer, as long as I take my poop pills.
In an Emergency
The blend thickens fast. Put it in water or juice in a jar with a lid and shake it. Don’t expect to stir it, because it won’t stir. Then drink it all at once, before it sets up. Water or juice is fine either way. If blood sugar is a concern, water the juice down.
Cramping bowels. If the bowels are crampy, even if you’re not passing anything (the old folks called it griping), shake one rounded teaspoon in about 6 ounces of water and drink it down. In about ten minutes your bowels will be right as rain.
Wet, crampy stool. If you’re passing wet, solid stool with cramping, take the same rounded teaspoon each time the bowels produce the crampy stool. Usually one dose clears it, but if you need more it is not a problem.
Watery diarrhea. If you’re passing water from the bowels, shake a full tablespoon in 12 ounces of water and drink it all at once. Repeat each time you pass water. This can be repeated as long as needed to tighten the bowels back up. Drink extra water along the way to replace what you’re losing.
Don’t get ahead of the problem. Don’t anticipate and take more than you need, because it can over-tighten the bowels. Take another dose only when the bowels produce the problem.
For Vomiting
Shake a full tablespoon in 12 ounces of water and drink it all at once. It absorbs the acid or bacteria in the stomach that is making your insides want to purge. Either it settles the stomach, or it comes back up. Most people throw it up rather quickly, but it comes up like applesauce and is not harsh on the tissue in the throat.
Once it has come back up, the stomach-settling herbs will now work very well. Peppermint tea, an ounce of ginger root juice, or a teaspoon of a good digestive tonic in a cup of hot water all help. The digestive tonic can also be mixed in equal parts with a liver and gallbladder formula. See Fast Relief for an Upset Stomach and Cleansing the Liver and Gallbladder, and Clearing Parasites.
For Children
Dose children by weight. Put the child’s weight over 150 pounds, and give that share of the adult dose. I round their weight to make it easy: a 50-pound child gets a third of the adult dose, and a 75-pound child gets half.
My Own Night of Food Poisoning
I had a case of food poisoning myself over twenty years ago. I ended up using nearly an 8-ounce jar of this blend during the night, taking a dose each time my bowels let go, and drinking extra water since I was dumping so much from my bowels. Finally, around 5 a.m., I passed solid waste, and that was the end of the event. I was exhausted, but my bowels were fine all day. I was not constipated, and there were no leftover issues in my bowels at all.
For everyday bowel support, see Helping Sluggish Bowels Move Again and A Fiber Blend That Heals While It Works.
This is shared for educational purposes, from my own study and experience. It is not medical advice.
