Everything we eat that the body can’t use has to leave through the bowel. When the bowel is sluggish, that waste sits. If you hold a cesspool in your middle, the blood that travels through every part of you picks up that poison and carries it throughout your entire system. What can you expect but to develop issues in every part of the body? Supporting the body to remove its waste every day is one of the most basic, most important things we can do for our health.
Over the years I’ve come to rely on two bowel formulas. The first is fashioned around the formula Dr. Schulze used to make. The second I put together for myself nearly twenty years ago, fashioned around Dr. Christopher’s lower bowel formula. So many people have come to love it that it’s made right alongside the first.
What a Good Lower Bowel Formula Contains
A good lower bowel formula might contain these eight herbs:
- Curacao and Cape Aloe, 2 parts. A strong bitter that wakes up the muscles of the bowel wall and gets things moving.
- Cascara Sagrada Bark, 2 parts. Tones the muscle of the bowel and helps it find its own natural rhythm again.
- Senna Pods, 1 part. A dependable bowel stimulant, the gentler part of the senna plant.
- Senna Leaves, 1 part. Adds the stronger push of the senna leaf.
- Ginger Root, 1 part. Warms the bowel and eases the cramping that can come as it starts to move.
- Barberry Root Bark, 1 part. Stimulates the flow of bile from the liver, which is the body’s own natural laxative.
- Garlic, 1 part. Cleanses and fights the bacteria and parasites that thrive in a sluggish bowel.
- African Bird Pepper, 1 part. Brings fresh circulation and carries the other herbs where they need to go.
“Parts” can be any measure you like, as long as you use the same one for every herb. By weight, that’s 2 ounces each of Aloe and Cascara, and 1 ounce each of the rest. Powder the herbs, mix them well, and fill capsules.
With or Without the Cayenne
I make this formula two ways, with the African Bird Pepper and without it. If you find you need more than five capsules a day, the cayenne can upset your stomach or burn a bit. It can feel like acid reflux, especially if you take the capsules without food in your stomach. For anyone who needs a larger number, leave the pepper out.
An Extract for the Very Sensitive
Some people can’t swallow capsules, and some bowels are so sensitive that even a small amount of the powdered herbs sends them into cramps. For them, the same formula without the cayenne can be made into an extract.
I had a woman who could not move her bowels, but even a quarter of a capsule would rip her up. She’d be in horrid cramps. We made the extract, and she needed only one or two drops a day. Without that little bit of help her bowels were just too tight, but with it she was fine.
Put the dry herbs in a glass jar and pour in 80-proof vodka. Once the herbs have settled, you want about 60% herb sediment on the bottom and 40% liquid on top. Shake the jar every day. The traditional timing follows the moon, from the new moon to the full moon, about two weeks. I prefer to let my extracts sit a full three months, which makes them good and strong. Then strain and bottle the liquid. Start with a single drop a day and adjust from there.
A Second Formula: Heavier on the Cascara
Senna has been given a bad name over the years, and some people find it harsh. Some simply respond better to a different set of herbs. For them, a good alternative formula might contain these five herbs, with no Senna and no cayenne:
- Cascara Sagrada Bark, 4 parts. The heart of this formula. When I built it for myself I tripled the Cascara, because that was what my body responded to. It appears a good many other people like it too.
- Barberry Root Bark, 1 part. Gets the bile flowing.
- Ginger Root, 1 part. Warms the bowel and eases cramping.
- Curacao and Cape Aloe, 1 part. A bitter that wakes up the bowel wall.
- Turkey Rhubarb Root, 1 part. Moves the bowel, then gently tones it afterward.
By weight, that’s 4 ounces of Cascara and 1 ounce each of the rest.
How Much and How Often
Both formulas are used the same way. Take 1 capsule with dinner the first day, 2 the second day, and 3 the third day. Keep adding one capsule a day until you find your number, the amount that gives you good, easy movements.
The average person lands between 3 and 5 capsules a day. There are a few poor souls who need 10 or more. I need many times the average myself, and my body is grateful for every one. There is no limit. The goal is to support your body in removing its waste, however many capsules that takes.
Working Alongside the Fiber Blends
These formulas get the bowel moving. Fiber gives it something to move. In a bowel cleansing program, a lower bowel formula is always established first and kept going, so the bowel keeps moving well while an absorbing fiber blend, the bowel vacuum, does the heavy cleansing work. For a healing fiber blend, see A Fiber Blend That Heals While It Works, and for the bowel vacuum itself, which doubles as a 911 for vomiting and diarrhea, see A 911 for Vomiting and Diarrhea.
This is shared for educational purposes, from my own study and experience. It is not medical advice.
