Did you know that virgin coconut oil is particularly good for relieving constipation fast? I found that in my 16 years of using and eating virgin coconut oil daily. How did I discover that? When you take the unrefined coconut oil internally with food, it makes you poop soft and watery stool. If you drink like 2 tablespoons straight from the jar on an empty stomach, it triggers stomach cramps and diarrhea.
If consuming virgin coconut oil can cause diarrhea, you definitely can use it as a natural laxative to ease your constipation. Make sense?
However, it's kind of tricky and risky to use unrefined coconut oil as a natural laxative.
Done right, virgin coconut oil quickly relieves your constipation and makes you feel light and good every day. Done wrong, it can over-stimulate your sluggish bowels and make your life "laxatively" miserable. (Imagine dashing to and fro your bathroom the whole day or worse, night.)
So, how to make sure this unrefined coconut oil helps with your constipation without over-loosening your bowels and making you poop all day long, non-stop?
Best is to familiarize yourself with it. Yes, the more you understand virgin coconut oil, the better you can utilize its intrinsic laxative properties to treat your constipation.
So now, let's first find out why virgin coconut oil is good for treating and relieving constipation. And how it helps to turn your bowels from lazy to hardworking.
Right after that, I'll show you how many tablespoons you need to poop effortlessly without suffering unpleasant negative effects from eating virgin coconut oil. And how quickly virgin coconut oil will take its laxative effect on you.
1. Why is virgin coconut oil so good for constipation?
Virgin coconut oil is good for constipation because it contains medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) that help to make you poop with ease.
In fact, it's specifically the medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) and glycerols from MCTs that work to relieve your constipation. How?
Having sluggish bowels is the most common cause of constipation. When your bowels are sluggish, your stool will move slower through the intestines. One of the key functions of intestines is to absorb water from the food we eat. (Our body requires water to build cells and perform many other critical functions.)
Hence, the slower your stool moves, the more water from the stool will get absorbed into your body. This invariably leaves behind a stool that's dry and hard, and get stuck in your bowels. That's why you cannot poop no matter how many gallons of water you've guzzled.
1.1 MCFA – The fuel that stimulates your bowels
How MCFAs (in virgin coconut oil) work to relieve constipation is that they serve as immediate fuel to stimulate intestinal muscles. It's the contraction and relaxation of intestinal muscles that push your stool forward.
In essence, MCFA helps to quickly "awaken" your sluggish bowels.
When your bowels become more active and hardworking, less water from your stool will get absorbed. Which means, your stool now gets to retain more water and becomes softer. And so, it can wriggle faster in your intestines.
But the potent laxative effect of virgin coconut oil doesn't stop there. It goes on to soften your stool further to the extent your stool can slip through your intestines with ease. And that calls for the help of glycerol.
1.2 Glycerol – Your effective stool softener
Glycerol has another name called glycerin. Sound familiar?
The name should ring a bell if you've ever used some sort of enema or glycerin suppositories for constipation relief.
Glycerols attract water molecules. So, when they attach to the stool, they'll pull as much water as possible to help soften your stool.
Besides that, the mass (of the stool) created from gathering water also stimulates your intestinal muscles. This makes your urge to poop even stronger.
It's worth noting that hardened stool may have lots of intestinal gas trapped inside due to bacterial fermentation of food.
So, when your stool softens and thus, changes shape, it'll release these trapped gas and make you feel uncomfortably bloated. Moving stool in colon releases trapped gas too.
That explains why many constipation sufferers experience painful stomach cramps (intestinal muscle spasms) after taking virgin coconut oil internally. It gets particularly more intense when your stomach is empty or has very little food to slow the MCT digestion.
In fact, all sizes of triglycerides (short-chain, medium-chain, long-chain, very-long-chain etc) have laxative effect.
1.3 Olive oil vs coconut oil – Which is better at relieving your constipation?
Take olive oil for instance. It can make you poop and help to alleviate constipation too. But it may take a bit longer for the laxative effect to kick in. Why?
That's because olive oil comprises solely long-chain triglycerides (LCTs). They're larger in size and hence, require more time for our body to break them down into individual units – long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs) and glycerols.
Another reason for the relatively slower laxative effect from olive oil is that, its LCFAs do not convert to energy well. This is because our body finds it more resource-intensive to transform the longer LCFAs into energy than the shorter MCFAs.
Which is why LCFAs often end up in your fat reserve for the most part.
Eventually, only some glycerols are slogging to help you poop if you use olive oil instead of coconut oil. Not a bad natural laxative though, if you prefer olive oil to coconut oil to help with your constipation.
However, if you've got the better coconut oil for faster constipation relief, why use olive oil?
2. How to use virgin coconut oil as a natural laxative for constipation relief
To ease your constipation, ingest 2 tablespoons of virgin coconut oil in the morning with a light breakfast. The reason for having a light breakfast is that you can have one more light meal with the oil later if your first round of virgin coconut oil intake fails to make you poop.
Oatmeal, quinoa porridge, smoothie, juice or soy milk… these are good food or beverages to go with virgin coconut oil. They carry both water and fiber, which aid in relieving constipation too.
If your breakfast is quite dry like you're taking wholegrain bread with peanut butter spread, then drink plenty of water.
Adequate water intake is crucial to stimulating bowel movement and relieving constipation with virgin coconut oil. Glycerols from virgin coconut oil need water to help soften your stool and make you poop, remember?
Insufficient water consumption could explain why some people cannot poop and alleviate their constipation with virgin coconut oil.
If you've ingested enough water but yet your very lazy bowels refuse to budge 2 hours after taking the coconut oil breakfast, then ingest another 1 tablespoon of virgin coconut oil with a light meal.
2.1 "Can I take 2 tablespoons of virgin coconut oil internally straight from the jar to help with my constipation?"
Of course you can eat virgin coconut oil by itself without food to treat constipation. But you may wind up suffering severe diarrhea if your stomach is empty. And the painful stomach cramps and discomforting flatulence can make you suffer for few hours.
Which is why I don't encourage people to take virgin coconut oil orally on an empty stomach to help them poop. Unless this is the last resort and you're very desperate to have a bowel movement for relieving constipation.
2.2 "Can I consume virgin coconut oil as a laxative in the afternoon instead of morning?"
Why not? The reason I suggest morning is because in the event of a diarrhea trigger from virgin coconut oil, you still have plenty of hours for the diarrhea effect to wear off before you go to bed.
I just want to make sure you can sleep soundly at night without dashing to and fro your bathroom.
In fact, you shouldn't just use virgin coconut oil as a laxative for fast constipation relief in the morning. You should continue to ingest the unrefined coconut oil all day long to keep your bowel movement regular.
It's just that you should limit your consumption of virgin coconut oil at dinner to ½ tablespoon or lesser. This is to ensure you don't get the runs in the evening that'll probably affect your sleep quality at night.
2.3 "Is it good to take virgin coconut oil capsules for constipation?"
Taking virgin coconut oil capsules orally seems like a good way to help with pooping and reduce constipation. It's convenient because you can take and swallow the natural laxatives anytime, anywhere.
But each capsule typically contains only 1 g (1000 mg) of virgin coconut oil in it. Based on the recommended 2 tablespoons (14 g) of virgin coconut oil for constipation relief for adults, you'd need to swallow 28 capsules. Are you game?
Honestly, it's not cost-effective to use virgin coconut oil capsules as a laxative. What's more, the animal-derived gelatin they use to make the pill may cause health issues due to the presence of hormones and antibiotic residues, and even diseased animal tissues.
That said, I strongly recommend that you get a decent jar of quality virgin coconut oil instead. But if you think taking pills provides really great convenience for you in many ways, and cost is not an issue to you, then by all means.
2.4 "Does rubbing virgin coconut oil on my stomach help to ease constipation?"
Rubbing virgin coconut oil on your stomach doesn't help with constipation relief. If it does make you poop, it's most likely because you feel relaxed during the rubbing or massaging.
You need to ingest virgin coconut oil for it to fully unleash its laxative effect.
2.5 "Does virgin coconut oil work well as a suppository or enema?"
Virgin coconut oil needs to get digested and split into glycerols and MCFAs to produce laxative effect and cause bowel movement. Putting virgin coconut oil up your bottom may not break it down into the bowel-stimulating compounds.
However, virgin coconut oil suppository or enema should work to some extent as it could lubricate your colon walls and help you poop more easily. But stools that are stuck somewhere in the colon where the oil can't reach may not slip out.
As said before, virgin coconut oil works best at relieving constipation upon consumption. You can try using both ways together – eat and inject into your bottom.
2.6 "How fast does virgin coconut oil work for constipation?"
If you're taking 2 tablespoons of virgin coconut oil with a meal, you should feel the urge to poop within 2 hours.
However, don't just slouch on the couch and wait for the laxative effect of virgin coconut oil to kick in. Keep yourself active and move about. Like, do some household chores or light exercises, stretching yoga poses or take a stroll.
Staying active helps to expedite the digestion of virgin coconut oil into its laxative compounds. Your bowel movement might just arrive in less than an hour.
Also, try to keep calm and relaxed. Feeling emotionally stressed, depressed or tense etc can stiffen your intestinal muscles, making them difficult to push your stool forward.
In other words, negative emotions can work against the positive laxative effect of virgin coconut oil. So, keep your negative emotions in check if you want quick relief for constipation with virgin coconut oil.
2.7 "Can I use MCT oil instead of virgin coconut oil to help with constipation?"
MCT oil is an edible type of fractionated coconut oil that comprises purely MCTs (medium-chain triglycerides). Because of that, MCT oil may work as a more potent laxative to stimulate bowel movement.
However, I still recommend unrefined virgin coconut oil as the best laxative for relieving constipation. Why?
First off, it contains a natural mixture of MCTs and LCTs. All of these triglycerides possess antimicrobial properties.
What if your constipation is caused by overgrowth of Candida yeast? The powerful antimicrobial properties in virgin coconut oil can help you deal with that overgrowth and restore your bowel health quickly. Once restored, you can poop as per normal.
Another reason is, the MCTs are taking dominance over the LCTs. So, virgin coconut oil still works well as a potent laxative though.
Having some LCTs provide an edge that makes virgin coconut oil a better natural laxative over MCT oil. Since LCTs do not get digested as fast as MCTs, they can serve as lube to grease your intestinal walls. This helps to make your bowel movement smoother and more pleasant.
In essence, not only virgin coconut oil can help make you poop and ease your constipation, but it takes good care of your gut health too.
In my opinion, MCT oil is best for those who just need a laxative for fast constipation relief. And that's it. But let me warn you first, the stomach cramps and diarrhea effect MCT oil causes may occur twice as intense as that caused by virgin coconut oil.
That's especially obvious if you take MCT oil internally on an empty stomach. Even if you consume MCT oil with food, its laxative effect might still appear quicker and stronger than that from virgin coconut oil.
So, if you're a senior or you're pregnant, I don't suggest using MCT oil to make you poop and alleviate your constipation. Just to be on the safe side.
Of course, the one disadvantage of virgin coconut oil is always its naturally-occurring odor (good quality one smells nice but the crappy one can make you puke). If you don't like that smell, get pure refined coconut oil for your constipation relief.
Refined coconut oil basically behaves like virgin coconut oil but without its intrinsic odor.
3. What if virgin coconut oil's laxative effect doesn't work on you?
Virgin coconut oil is good at relieving constipation, no doubt. But that's provided your bowels are able to respond to the stimulating laxative properties (glycerols and MCFAs) of the unrefined coconut oil.
If your bowels don't respond well to the laxative effect of virgin coconut oil each and every time you use it, such that it worked previously but not this time, on and off. That means your bowels could have gone into a severe disorder and lost the fundamental function to clean themselves.
This could happen especially if you've been using lots of laxatives, enemas or drugs for treating constipation all this while.
In that case, what you seriously need now is to focus on fixing your bowel health and quickly get your bowels back in action.
Once you reclaim your bowel health, having one bowel movement per day, every day will become like a walk in the park. Don't you long for that?
In fact, if your bowels are in optimal health, you should be able to poop even 3 times a day without much effort, like this:
Taking the morning bowel movement for instance, your poop should include 20% from last night dinner and 80% from yesterday lunch.
Then your afternoon poop should come from last night dinner (80%) and this morning breakfast (20%).
Lastly, your evening poop (before bed) should comprise 80% of breakfast and 20% of lunch from today.
What goes into your mouth first will come out of your bottom first – first in, first out.
If you can have such a bowel movement routine every day, you'll realize your stool and fart do not smell as awful as before. That's not all, as less toxic stuff from the waste will get stored in your skin cells, your skin will shine. It'll become less acne-prone too.
These are signs of a good bowel health. And a healthy bowel leads to a healthy body and glowing skin.
So, if you wish for such an excellent bowel health and get rid of your constipation permanently, I encourage you to look for a safe solution that uses holistic yet natural approaches to fix up your bowel health.
Like Dr. Scott McLeod's Nature's Quick Constipation Cure manual. It's an affordable $10 e-book that shows you exactly what to eat and do every day to naturally rejuvenate your bowels.
Once rejuvenated, your bowels will spontaneously get rid of the useless toxic waste daily. This way your toxic waste won't get stuck in your colon and then rot for days that'll make you constipated and sick.
To top it off, you'll "accidentally" reduce your stomach fat along the way with the simple constipation-relief methods laid out in the guidebook.
Guess what, tummy fat actually contributes to causing constipation by pushing against your colon. Therefore, dissolving your tummy fat can greatly reduce the pressure putting against the colon, enabling you to poop more effortlessly.
In short, if you follow the simple instructions inside this constipation relief e-book to a T, you'll soon regain your bowel health and you should never have to suffer constipation again.
Okay, so the practical guidebook offers an effective solution to get rid of your constipation, permanently. Which is true without a shadow of a doubt.
However, I have just one thing to say about this e-book. Dr. McLeod advises constipation sufferers to take fish oil as part of the treatment plan because of its omega-3 content.
In my opinion, fish oil may contain mercury and other toxic compounds such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs). It smells fishy too.
Flax oil and flax seeds, on the other hand, are plant-based and hence, a lot safer and healthier to consume for their rich omega-3 content. So, I suggest that you substitute flax oil (or ground flax seeds) for fish oil when you're on page 31 of the guidebook. You can use chia seeds instead if you have since chia seeds are high in omega-3 too.
As a vegetarian, I don't take fish oil but I never run short of omega-3. I'm the best living proof that our body can easily convert the ALA in flax oil or flax seeds to EPA and DHA. Not a problem at all.
One more, the book also suggests using milk in your diet. If you're lactose-intolerant, just replace it with the plant-based milk of your choice. That's it.