… and how we negotiate that with our colons
The moment my car turns onto my street after a trip, my colon knows I’m back home and back to my own toilet. My colon instinctively knows that the time for holding back is over (I could not do number two for three days, just because I was in unfamiliar surroundings). This is a thing I have: being somewhere new and strange, my colon needs at least a few days to get used to a strange bathroom.
Pooping on vacation
I am not alone: According to the magazine Everyday Health, this is more common than one might think. In the article “Why Can’t I Poop on Vacation?” Dr. Jeffrey Loria, an internist and gastroenterologist from New York City, being away from your regular routine of eating or sleeping can seriously affect your digestion.
He says any disruption to a person’s daily schedule can interfere with digestive regularity as you are less likely to eat nutrient-dense foods or to drink adequate fluids. The article offers suggestions: drink water because coffee and alcohol dehydrates you. Load up on fibre-rich foods such as prunes, kiwis, broccoli and dates. And move. Loria writes that one traveller discovered her own solution by accident: a medjool date every morning from the breakfast buffet and, for the first time in years, no bathroom drama on the road. So just the simple act of getting up and moving every day can have a beneficial effect on one’s bathroom routine.
What is fascinating, as well, is that I have the feeling that my colon knows when it gets home. It seems to have an inner compass that knows exactly when it is home. I remember the first sleepovers at my then new partner’s place: I could not poop, even though my habits weren’t interrupted. In German, we call this type of person Heimscheißer, a person who can only do number two at home. I have not found such a word in English.
The second brain
The colon is like a second brain: science has long stressed that the colon has a nervous system of its own. According to “The Second Brain: Our Enteric Nervous System,” written by Heather Gerrie, published on the UBC Neuroscience Graduate Programme website, scientists call it the enteric nervous system. It contains 100-million neurons, more than your spinal cord, and produces 95 percent of your body’s serotonin—the happiness hormone.
The brain and colon also talk to each other. According to the article, the vagus nerve runs from the base of the brain all the way down to the colon, carrying messages to each other in milliseconds. Gerrie also explains that our gut has its own microbiome, an enormous number of bacteria (even more than the number of humans on our planet).
According to the Canadian Digestive Health Foundation, what we eat is important because it is one of the fastest ways to influence the gut microbiome. A healthy colon supports digestion, immunity, hormones, energy and mood. The research is still catching up, but one thing is clear: fibre matters, as mentioned earlier.
Fibre is found only in plant foods, and the body cannot digest it. It feeds good bacteria, keeps bowel movements regular, lowers cholesterol and supports the heart. Health Canada recommends 25 grams of fibre a day for women and 38 grams a day for men. It is found in oatmeal, legumes and broccoli, for example.
I think it is important to eat fibre and look after one’s colon. But more important is the relationship between colon and brain. My colon always knows where home is, and where my toilet is. I talk to my colon; I negotiate: Just a few more hours before we get home, I say. Standing in a gas-station bathroom on the road, I say, We are almost there, you can hold on just a little longer.
And “he” listens (we have an agreement): unfamiliar toilets are for emergencies only; the best toilet is still waiting at home.
