- Do you empty your bowels completely (gentle laxative) before an extended fast?
- Do you have trouble doing extended fasts?
0 voters
This thread:
and one answer to the thread in particular, has inspired me to raise an issue about extended fasting, that I mostly see “ignored” here on the forum…
I come from a background of EF (10 years experience) and am part of a (non-English speaking) fasting forum and one of our few “must do” golden rules is that before an extended fast, you must COMPLETELY empty your bowels, using a mild fasting-friendly laxative…
I only see this referred to here on the forum about 1% of the time and am wondering whether this is causing ppl difficulty with EF’s.
To the best of my EF knowledge, the digestive tract “shuts down” during EF, which means your bowels do not naturally expell any remnant stool because gut motility basically stops.
The EF knowledge I’ve “grown up with” states that this can have remnant stool fermenting or rotting (mould/ fungal growth) which can be both unhealthy and cause discomfort.
Also, by having remnant stool in the bowels, as far as I’m aware, it also signals to your body not to completely shut down the digestive tract, which means that hunger signals from the stomach are not completely suppressed.
Anyway…
Everyone who’s doing well with what they are doing => just continue.
Everyone who’s having trouble with extended fasting might want to consider this issue/ try a mild, fasting-friendly laxative to see if it helps reduce/ resolve their problems with EF.