How Your #2 is Messing with Your #1 ( and your vag )

Hey there! 😊 Dr. Kelly here, your Double Board Certified Pelvic Floor Physical Therapist, dropping some EXPERT talk about poop because, well, it matters more than you might think!  

Abnormal poops aren't just a bummer-- loose or hard poops can lead to pee problems, pelvic pain, and even issues down there (hello, symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse and hemorrhoids!). Let's dive into this important topic.  

4 Ways Your #2 is Affecting Your #1

The short term effect of poop issues (whether they are too hard or too loose), is that they hurt. This pain is distressing to the survivalist part of your brain.  And because your brain is amazing, and it wants to protect you, it tries to "help you" with this poop problem by ignoring your pelvis.  But it's not meant to ignore your pelvis...so instead of "ignoring the discomfort and magically fixing your problem", ... the brain ignoring the pelvis only results in you being disconnected from your pelvic floor muscles :(. Which, unsurprisingly, isn't good.

This brain-body disconnect results, for various reasons in the deep stomach stabilizers doing too little to support your pelvis and spine, and your pelvic floor muscles doing too much, which ends up causing a vicious loop where the tighter muscles cause more pain, which causes more pee and poop problems.  And don't fret--these can be addressed, relatively easily, with specific exercises, but before we can do the exercises, let's understand all the ways that poop problems mess with your pelvis as a whole. 

1. Constipated Bottoms Cause Even Tighter Pelvic Muscles

Yep, being constipated can turn you into a tight-ass, and that's not a good thing. As I mentioned above, pain from constipation often leads to tighter-than-normal pelvic floor muscles...which lead to more pee and poop problems, which leads to more tightness in pelvic muscles.  Without skilled help, it's a viscous downward spiral. But with proper understanding, and appropriate exercises, like what you can get from a trained pelvic pro, we can break that cycle, and resolve the primary poop complaint, as well as any collateral damages to pee, sexual or prolapse function, relatively quickly.

2. Hard Poops Cause Tighter Pelvic Muscles...Which Cause Even Harder Poops

Tight pelvic floor muscles mess activate something called the Recto-Anal Inhibitory Reflex (RAIR for short, preferably said while mimicking a lion's roar). This RAIR Reflex is one of the body's responses to stress.  Think of it like this: you are running away from a Tiger that wants to eat you.  That sucks, and is stressful, and you don't have time to stop and poop, or the Tiger will eat you.  

Your amazing body tenses the pelvic muscles in response to the stress, and this pelvic floor tension activates the RAIR, which results in the colon (poop forming part) sending formed poop BACKWARDS up the tube, so you can escape the Tiger...then poop from the safety of a cave, later.  

But...what happens when this pelvic floor muscle tension lasts LONGER than "just when the Tiger is chasing you"....or it's tight for YEARS due to illness, or stress or just never connecting to the pelvic floor in the first place?  When this pelvic floor tightness lasts a long time (we call that chronicity in the medical field), your poop is constantly being sent "back upstream" into the descending colon, where it is dried out more than it usually would otherwise be...forming a dry, hard poop...that will then be more painful to pass...and the cycle persists (unless we intervene with simple and specific exercises). 

And yes, there is a world where this pelvic hyperactivity contributes to loose stools, but we'll talk about that later :) 

3. The Brain-Body Disconnect Rears its Ugly Head

We discussed this "brain body disconnect" briefly earlier in this article. In short, pain and discomfort can make your brain ignore the signals from your pelvic muscles.  The brain ignores the pelvic floor muscles because it's trying to protect you by ignoring the pain or discomfort...but as it's actually not designed to ignore pain signals for a prolonged period of time, it ends up ignoring proprioceptive (position sense) signals from your diaphragm, deep abs and pelvic floor.

This results in the pelvic muscles resting too tight (and abdominal muscles resting too loose, and diaphragm coupled to them both), and you don't even know that this imbalance is happening. And that's a problem, because you can't relax what you don't know is tight, and you can't fix what you don't recognize is broken (or uncoordinated).

4. Tight Pelvic Muscles Also Cause Hemorrhoids, Pee Leaks, and Prolapse Symptoms

We now arrive at the final way that poop problems mess with your entire pelvis.  If we have this poop problem, and haven't addressed the brain-body disconnect, we have hard poops with uncoordinated pelvic floor muscles that are resting "too tight" and "pinching off the opening", so to speak.  To evacuate (fancy speak for "have a bowel movement"), the "GO, SWITCH" to tell the colon to push the poop out is a relaxing and lengthening of the pelvic floor BEYOND its resting tone.  This movement, which is NOT pushing from the stomach, is called "bearing down" and it is a vital part of normal pelvic function.  

If the pelvic floor is an elevator in a 4-story building, it is meant to rest on the ground floor, and "kegel up" (tighten and squeeze and lift) to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors (then relax again), to match the tension and speed that a task requires during the day.  "Bearing down" is the dropping and elongation of this elevator, into a half sub-basement, then "relaxing" back to the ground floor. 

If a pelvic floor is uncoordinated, and can't bear down, a person ends up STRAINING with the abdomen to FORCE POOP OUT.  This is often accompanied by holding your breath, and is TERRIBLE for your body.  Not only does it increase cardiovascular blood pressure, but if you are "forcing poop out" of a "closed door", you're also "forcing your bladder and uterus (if you have one) out your vag.  This poor pressure management is how constipation, and poor poop mechanics, over time, can lead to unwanted guests like hemorrhoids or even prolapse. It's a domino effect that no one wants.

To Summarize: Poop Problems Are the Root of All Evil

(At least in the pelvic health world)

So, if you're dealing with pee, poop, pelvic pain, or sexy time problems, your poop habits are as crucial to address as your pelvic muscle health, coordination and pee habits!

Thanks for sticking with me through this poop talk. 

If you are ready to make a change, consider my online programs designed just for you. From leaks to prolapse to poops, I might have a course that changes your life. Watch them on your computer, or seamlessly stream them from your phone or tablet (via the FREE Kajabi app, a blue K, downloadable wherever you get your apps), so that the pelvis of your dreams is only a click away!  A Poop Course is in the works, but until then Vag Lab or the Signature Series both teach you a lot of 💩 !  

If you want to stick it out for the 💩Course, I understand!  Join my mailing list via the form below, and you'll be notified when it drops! 

Sending good vibes and happy pooping your way! 🚽💕 #HappyPoopsHappyLife #PoopTalksWithDrKelly

XOXO

Dr. Kelly 

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