Organic Olivia logo

Why Improving Your Bowel Movements Can Change Your Life

  • Published on: 21 December, 2015
  • Last update: 05 December, 2018

“In the 50 years I’ve spent helping people to overcome illness, disability and disease, it has become crystal clear that poor bowel management lies at the root of most people’s health problems.” – Dr. Bernard Jensen, Tissue Cleaning Through Bowel Management

As many of you know, I’m big on cleansing the body. I’ve been both parasite and colon cleansing myself for the past few years and I can’t tell you the changes I’ve experienced in my mind and body (and the *things* I’ve gotten out!) You can see a picture of one of the big guys I passed in this post.

Aside from the shock factor of parasites and worms (which I was told by doctors that I didn’t have… until they saw the pictures), I’ve removed inches of mucoid plaque and hardened/calcified fecal stones that have been there for years. I’ve passed putrid, black sludge during a 15 day juice fast. Why and how did all of this stuff get inside of us?

The short story:

Our intestines are 25 feet long. A healthy, fibrous, whole food diet will move through those 25 feet with ease and create a bowel movement like clockwork approximately 30 minutes after you eat each meal. This would equate to 3 healthy movements per day. However, as soon as the bowels become sluggish (due to stress, unhealthy food, or lack of movement), the fermentation and putrefaction of food waste will occur before it gets a chance to leave your intestines. It should be fermenting in the earth feeding earthworms, not inside of you feeding parasites! We absorb the toxins and ammonia gas particles that result from fermentation, which then go directly into our blood stream. This can cause headaches, cloudy or foggy thinking, bloating, depression, anxiety, abdominal pain, joint pain, acne and infection (due to waste in the blood) and even heart arrhythmias.

Screen Shot 2015-12-21 at 2.12.51 PM

The whole shebang:

Your gastrointestinal tract is the center of your body, just as the hub of a wheel is what supports the wheel itself. Without digestion, absorption, and elimination, we die. Every single cell in your body requires the nutrition that your GI tract extracts from food. If you can’t extract those nutrients – if your digestion is impaired – or if your waste does not move out efficiently, the rest of your organs and cells are immediately hindered. You cannot have complete health without achieving bowel health first.

Ayurvedic medicine says that if you’ve ever noticed a thick coating on your tongue when you wake up in the morning, it shows there is “ama” in your digestive tract (AKA a poisonous residue of undigested food). This means that your digestion is abnormal or weak. Ayurveda considers “ama” to be the beginning stage of any disease. It all starts in the gut!


This same gut unfortunately take the brunt of abuse from acidic/toxic foods and drinks.

Many common American foods, such as charred meats and soda, inflame and weaken the intestine’s structure. Other foods, such as breads and pasteurized dairy, act like glue and adhere to the intestinal walls. Many other foods are so abrasive that they cause excessive mucus to be produced from the intestinal walls to protect itself. This mucus is stored along the bowel walls and affects your ability to absorb nutrients, which I’ll talk about in a minute as “mucoid plaque.”

Keeping your intestinal tract clean is the most important thing you’ll ever do, and here’s why. The billions of cells in your body – your skin, hair, nails, brain and organs ALL depend on the absorption of nutrients from food in the bowels. This absorption can be completely blocked from your healthy cells due to retained waste in the colon.

This waste (especially the waste by-products of refined starches, sugars, and dairy products) eventually leads to a toxic buildup of a gluey substance called “mucoid plaque.” This plaque causes inflammation and the breakdown of the intestinal wall, and the sticky buildup prevents nutrients from being absorbed.


Additionally, our intestines become a breeding ground for parasitic infestation thanks to all the waste they have to feed on and clean up. These parasites consume any remaining nutrients left in the GI tract.


How your GI tract affects your skin, lymph & kidneys:

Your GI tract also plays a valuable role in your lymphatic system.


The lymphatic system is your sewer system, and it must have a way to eliminate wastes from your body. The GI tract/colon, kidneys, and skin are its main avenues for this purpose. When the colon become impacted or obstructed, the lymphatic system becomes backed up. Without a doorway out via the colon, your body begins to rely on your kidneys to take the excess burden of waste elimination.  When the kidneys are blocked, your body goes to its last resort: eliminating through the skin. This is where acne, cysts, boils, eczema, psoriasis, and other skin disorders come from – a backed up elimination system whose root began in the colon.

Screen Shot 2015-12-21 at 3.22.03 PM

You can imagine what would happen in your home if your septic tank became blocked. The wastes from your toilet would back up and spill over. Most people would leave their house at this point!


The lymph system is like an ocean within the body. 90% of water in the body is lymph while the rest is blood, intracellular fluid and cerebral-spinal fluid. The lymph system lies just under the various layers of the skin. There is no pump to move the lymph like the heart pumps the blood. Lymph only moves by stimulation through movement and exercise, also by the electro-magnetic energy system of the body (which would be blocked energetically due to waste in the colon/GI tract!)

Blood travels throughout the body, feeding cells with nutrients (that it should have extracted via digestion). It then gathers wastes from the cells and dumps them into the lymphatic system. The lymph then carries the waste products to the toxin “exit doors” which as I mentioned would be the colon, kidneys, bladder, lungs, liver, and eventually the skin. A blocked colon throws the whole system off.

5 Ways to Cleanse + Move the Bowels

1. An excellent herbal bowel formula:

A good mix of herbs that are nutritive to the intestines and safe to take on a daily basis will help break down mucoid plaque, kill parasites, lessen inflammation, and strengthen your intestinal walls. Any good bowel formula will be designed to counteract inflammation and clean the walls at the same time. A superior formula will also clean out the pockets (diverticulum) that are formed from impacted stool.


The amazing thing about certain herbs is that they’re not only cleansing – they’re rebuilding as well. When your gut is damaged from years of waste, you need herbs that will restore healthy cell walls.

The best cleansing, strengthening, and rebuilding herbs include: Cascara Sagrada, Slippery Elm Bark, White Oak Bark, Wild Yam Root, Plaintain Leaf, Licorice Root, Barberry Root, Gentian Root, False Unicorn Root, and Ginger Root. My absolute favorite formula is called Lower Bowel Formula by herbalist Dr. Christopher and has a majority of these herbs. I hope to make one in the future that has the rest of them! I take 3 capsules of Lower Bowel 2-3x per day. They are not habit forming and you can take them either during a cleanse or for life.

2. Colonics:

Colonic therapy can be very helpful when assisting cleansing of the colon (large intestine). However, the small intestine can’t be neglected, which is why the herbal bowel formula mentioned in #1 used in conjunction is always best. Colonics are like a more powerful version of an enema (which I’ll get to in a moment!) Colon therapists are licensed to perform colonics, which essential wash waste away from the colon walls. They are great for removing impacted stool in the large bowel, aiding in relief of abdominal distention, lower back pain, sciatic pain, kidney pain, headaches, and fevers. It can also help to remove parasites, which many colon hydrotherapists will tell you about!

To get the most benefit from a colonic session, change your diet to a very cleansing diet and begin taking an herbal lower bowel formula about a month before the procedure. A ‘cleansing diet’ would be plant-based and consist of only whole plant foods. It would also have a high percentage of raw foods which contain live enzymes and further assist in breaking down waste.

3. Enemas:

Enemas are yet another great way to assist your bowels and elimination. Enemas one quart or under will clean and strengthen the descending, sigmoid, and rectal areas of the large intestine. Enema bags that hold two quarts (like the one I use) also achieve results higher up in the colon, such as the transverse, ascending, and cecum portions. An enema consists of body-temperature water (I like ~99* F) or tea that is flushed into your colon through a small hose. It is painless and quite relieving. The best teas to brew (if you want more rebuilding power than plain hot water) are Cascara Sagrada, Mashmallow Root, Slippery Elm Bark, and Burdock Root.

Since a ton of health problems are caused by recirculating toxins from waste in the colon, enemas used to be standard process in hospitals! When my mom was a kid, whenever she had a headache, stomach ache, virus, or anything else, her mother would administer an enema and she’d be better within the hour. Nowadays pharmaceuticals have taken over the medical scene and enemas are viewed as “alternative,” even though old Merck Manuals that I have from the early 1900s recommend them for just about everything!


How to Do an Enema:

1. Purchase an enema bag with hose.

2. Fill the bag with two quarts of body temperature water or herbal tea/water mixture. I always use distilled water and it must be body temperature so that you barely feel the water going in. Once it’s filled, clamp the hose so that the water doesn’t come out yet.

3. Hang the hot water bottle at least two feet above you.

4. Lay on your left side comfortable with the hose easily accessible.

5. Lubricate the tip with olive oil for easy insertion.

6. Insert the tip, slowly unclamp the hose, and let the water flow slowly into your colon, stopping the flow periodically while you rest and deep breathe. You may experience a little “urgency” to relieve yourself as more water flows in so be sure to take breaks to breathe and relax as often as you need them!

7. After a few minutes, move from your left side, to lying on your back, to the right side. This will be sure the water reaches all areas of the colon, breaking up and dissolving waste as it goes.

8. You can massage your abdomen as it’s being filled with water. This will loosen the mucoid plaque and petrified fecal particles.

9. Retain the water for 5-10 minutes, then sit on the toilet and eliminate.

The best time to use an enema is when you’re constipated, feeling ill, or parasite cleansing. In my opinion, enemas are the most effective way to sweep out the large worms when you’re taking anti-parasitic herbs. However, there is no need to overuse enemas. During a cleanse, one every 3-4 days should suffice, and only during the period of the cleanse. For day-to-day bowel movements, you should never rely on an enema-  a diet abundant in raw fruits and vegetables along with an herbal lower bowel formula will work much better in the long run than frequent enemas. Use them wisely and as needed for cleansing!

4. Do a Parasite Cleanse!:

I truly feel that parasite cleansing saved my life. When I was at my lowest point of health, I had a Chinese herbalist tell me that my liver and colon were toxic and that I was filled with waste, parasites, candida, etc. He told me that so many Americans are living this way, not realizing that their fatigue and cravings are not normal. At the time, I also had IBS and painful cystic acne all over my face and back. My colon was filled with waste/parasites, and food/nutrients were struggling to get through. Waste couldn’t get out, so of course it was all coming out through my skin in the form of acne. After my 3rd parasite cleanse, I popped out a huge worm that you can see here, and my back acne finally went away! I passed many other creatures such as liver flukes, pancreatic flukes, pinworms, flatworms, and roundworms in my days of parasite cleansing, and to this day I no longer have any symptoms of IBS. I also got out a ton of mucoid plaque. I am so passionate about parasite cleansing that I created my very own herbal formula with the best herbs my team has researched and tried. Below is a recent Snapchat I received from someone doing my cleanse who wanted help identifying the type of worms she saw in her stool:


5. Healing Clay:

Another method of cleansing the bowels includes the use of clay. They are very popular in Europe, and in many countries such as Portugal, health professionals use clay packs over the abdomen to draw out toxins. Dr. Schulze, another fabulous herbalist similar to Dr. Christopher (who I mentioned in #1) has a great intestinal powder called “Intestinal Formula #2” that includes bentonite clay and charcoal (to absorb free floating toxins). This formula is very beneficial for IBS and diarrhea, and is a powerful intestinal vacuum that draws out old fecal matter. I like to use this formula while I’m juice fasting since it’s so strong and can do serious cleansing work on old impacted fecal stones when the intestines are clear.

You Might Also Like:



How often would you suggest gettnig colon hydrotherapy? I have heard a few different opinions, people telling me its not good for me, to the professional saying that I should do it at least six times. Not sure what advice to trust. What do you think?



Go with your gut 😉


Could taking citromag work in place of enemas to clean out the colon as hospitals have you take them prior to colonoscopy.


When using bentonite.. Do i have to use enema to remove mucoid plaque ? Thanks


Quick side note: I;ve read past post before on instagram and noticed that 429 is a number you see often and for myself it’s 729 and just realized my question posted 7:29 your time and 4:29 my time (California). too funny!


Hi Olivia, I would like to start the cleansing process, but i’m a bit confused on the order needed. Is it best to do a parasite cleanse and followed by a Liver cleanse and then a kidney cleanse? For how long do I do the parasite cleanse?


Hi Olivia! I am learning so much from your site. I also struggle with acne, sometimes horrible periods, and regular painful digestion issues. I’ve never heard of doing a parasite cleanse but I guarantee you this is a huge part of my problem. Just rings true with me. Starting new, would you do an enema…then go to the colon/parasite cleanse or what order do you recommend doing all this? I’m also planning to start on Lysine and a probiotic. Thank you!


This is awesome stuff to raed about to help you from the inside out.


I see the directions on the formula #2 where it says to take 5 times a day. Is that how you have used it? How many days in a row have you taken it?


Dang, your site is awesome so helpful for someone who’s trying to better their health and you always make sure that I understand EVERYTHING super thank you!


This was very helpful. Thanks a lot. I hope to purchase your parasite kit in the new year

Leave a Comment


Follow Organic Olivia



Join the Organic Olivia Community