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Pooping Only Every 3 or More Days Linked with Cognitive Decline, Research Finds

In the first research to look at constipation’s impact on the aging brain, scientists have found some concerning links.

Being chronically constipated, defined by the authors as having a bowel movement only every three or more days, has been linked with a 73% higher risk of subjective cognitive decline, according to research presented Wednesday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Amsterdam.

“Our study provided first-of-its-kind evidence that examined a wide spectrum of bowel movement frequency,” said Dr. Chaoran Ma, the research’s first author and assistant professor in the department of nutrition at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, via email. “We were surprised at how strong the associations were, especially for those with very infrequent bowel movements.”

About 16% of the worldwide adult population experiences constipation, but it’s even more common among older adults due to age-related factors such as lack of exercise and dietary fiber, and the use of medicines that can cause constipation as a side effect.

Chronic constipation has been linked with inflammation and mental disorders such as anxiety and depression, but there have been many unanswered questions about the relationship between digestive health and long-term cognitive function, according to a news release.

Cognitive function refers to a person’s mental capacity for learning, thinking, reasoning, problem-solving, decision-making, remembering and paying attention.

To find clues to these queries, the authors assessed more than 112,000 adults who had participated in the Nurses’ Health Study, Nurses’ Health Study II and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. The first two studies investigated risk factors for major chronic diseases among women in North America, while the latter study is looking into the same topics but for men. The authors of the latest research collected data on participants’ bowel movement frequency from 2012 to 2013, participants’ self-assessments of cognitive function between 2014 and 2017, and details on some participants’ objectively measured cognitive function between 2014 and 2018.

Compared with people who pooped once a day, constipated participants had significantly worse cognition equivalent to three years more of chronological cognitive aging, the authors found. Increased risk was also found among those who pooped more than twice daily, though these higher odds were small.

“The more we learn about the gut-brain access, the more we understand that it’s just so important to ensure that (preventing or addressing cognitive decline) is a system approach,” said Maria C. Carrillo, chief science officer of the Alzheimer’s Association, who wasn’t involved in the research. “The brain is not completely isolated from what’s happening in your blood flow.”

Bowel movements and the brain

This research wasn’t “designed to test the causal relationship between bowel movements, the gut microbiome and cognitive health, so we cannot firmly draw conclusions regarding the precise causal sequence underlying this association,” Ma said.

But bowel movement frequency and subjective cognitive function were also linked with the participants’ gut microbiomes, the authors found. Among those with infrequent bowel movements and worse cognitive function, there was a depletion in good bacteria that produce butyrates, fatty acids which support the gut barrier that prevents bacteria and other microbes from entering your bloodstream, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Butyrates also significantly aid in digestive health by providing the main energy source for colon cells. Those can be found in high-fiber foods, fiber supplements, prebiotics and full-fat dairy products — eaten in moderation — such as butter, cheese, milk or ghee. Ghee is clarified butter, made by isolating pure butterfat from the milk solids and water in butter.

Those who pooped twice or more per day and had worse cognitive function had a higher amount of species that promote inflammation and are related to dysbiosis, an imbalance in gut microbes associated with disease.

Other research presented at the same conference Wednesday had similar findings. In one abstract of 140 middle-aged adults, having lower levels of neuroprotective gut bacteria Butyricicoccus and Ruminococcus was associated with elevated levels of Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers.

In another, of more than 1,000 adults, those with poor cognition had abnormally high amounts of the bacteria Alistipes and Pseudobutyrivibrio compared with other participants. Alistipes bacteria have previously been linked with anxiety, chronic fatigue syndrome, depression and hypertension.

“It makes sense that individuals that are having those movements so much less frequently are going to have less of the good bacteria and more of the bad bacteria that’s caused by inflammatory conditions,” Carrillo said.

“Further studies are needed to identify the microbes involved, and their function,” Ma said concerning her research.

Regarding neurological and digestive health, “good food not only feeds our brain, but it also promotes healthy bowel movements,” Carrillo said.

Eating enough fiber from vegetables, fruits, whole grains and nuts can prevent constipation. Total fiber intake should be at least 25 grams per day, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. And being hydrated enough softens stool so you can pass it without straining.

Exercising at least a few times per week and managing stress can also help.

Contributor: Kristen Rogers, CNN

Elle Sez Series: Know Your Body – The Exocrine System

Elle Sez Series: Know Your Body - The Exocrine System

Your exocrine system includes a series of glands all over your body. These glands secrete substances that help your organs function, including sweat, breast milk, mucus and oil. Your exocrine system is different from your endocrine system, in that it secretes these substances through ducts. Conditions that affect your exocrine system include cancer, inflammation and hair loss.

Overview

What is the exocrine system?

Your exocrine system consists of glands all over your body that carry out many functions. It’s part of your autonomic nervous system, which controls involuntary actions supporting your well-being.

Glands are tiny organs that secrete substances that trigger certain biologic processes. For example, your salivary glands produce saliva to keep your mouth moist.

What is the difference between the endocrine and exocrine systems?

Your endocrine system: Endocrine glands secrete hormones and release them directly into your bloodstream. Your bloodstream then delivers hormones to target tissues.
Your exocrine system: Exocrine glands secrete substances into ducts, which carry the substances onto the surface of target tissues.

What areas of the body do the exocrine glands support?

Exocrine glands control specific functions in your:

Breasts.
Mouth, specifically, saliva production.
Pancreas.
Skin and hair.
Small intestine (duodenum).

Function

What is the function of the exocrine system?

Exocrine system glands take on a variety of functions.

Mammary glands produce milk.
Mucinous glands produce mucus to line and protect delicate tissue.
Sebaceous glands produce an oily substance on the surface of your hair and skin.
Serous glands produce watery substances, such as sweat and saliva.

What are the functions of the exocrine system glands?

Exocrine system glands serve many essential functions based on their location:

Breasts

Mammary glands, which are modified serous glands, support breastfeeding (chestfeeding). They produce milk that nourishes babies and boosts their immune systems.

Mouth

Serous glands produce saliva in many areas of your mouth. Saliva lubricates and protects your mouth and throat. It also initiates the digestive process by breaking down carbohydrates.
Mucinous glands are also present in your mouth and play a role in lubricating the substances you swallow.

Pancreas

Your pancreas functions as both an exocrine and endocrine gland.

As an exocrine gland, it releases substances that neutralize stomach acid. It also secretes digestive enzymes that break down proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
As an endocrine gland, your pancreas secretes hormones, insulin and glucagon, that regulate blood sugar levels.

Skin and hair

Serous glands help you sweat. There are two types of sweat glands. Eccrine sweat glands are in nearly every area of your skin’s surface. Apocrine sweat glands secrete a fatty substance that slows evaporation so sweat keeps you cooler longer.
Sebaceous glands secrete oil that produces moisture to protect your skin and hair.

Small intestine

Mucosal glands, known as Brunner’s glands, release a substance that protects your small intestine from stomach acid. It also activates enzymes that break down sugars in food and absorbs nutrients.

Anatomy

What is the anatomy of the exocrine system?

The anatomy of exocrine system glands includes:

Acinus: Tiny sacs containing cells of exocrine system secretions that the duct hasn’t yet released. An acinus may house many different types of cells depending on the type of secretion the duct is responsible for.
Duct: Passageway that transports cell secretions to the inner surfaces of organs throughout your body.

Conditions and Disorders

What conditions and disorders affect the exocrine system?

Exocrine system diseases and disorders include:

Mammary gland conditions

Breast cancer.
Breast pain (mastalgia).
Ductal carcinoma in-situ.
Fibroadenomas of the breast.
Mammary duct ectasia.
Mastitis.

Pancreas gland conditions

Pancreatic cancer, including ductal adenocarcinoma.
Pancreatitis.

Salivary gland conditions

Salivary gland cancer.
Sjögren’s syndrome.

Skin gland conditions

Hormonal acne.
Hyperhidrosis.
Body odor (bromhidrosis).
Hair loss (alopecia).
Ear wax buildup and blockage.

Small intestine conditions

Rare, noncancerous tumors, including Brunner’s gland hamartoma and Brunner’s gland adenoma.

Care

How do I care for my exocrine system?

Taking good care of yourself is one of the best ways to keep your exocrine system healthy.

You can do this by:

Staying physically active. Eating a diet that’s high in protein, fruits and vegetables, but low in saturated fats and processed foods.
Drinking plenty of water.
Limiting alcohol consumption.
Quitting smoking if you use tobacco.
Seeing your healthcare provider for regular check-ups.
Staying current with screenings, including mammograms for breast cancer.

A note from Cleveland Clinic

Your exocrine system includes glands all over your body. They secrete oil, mucus, saliva and milk that aid in organ function. Various conditions can affect your exocrine system, including tumors, inflammation and blockages. Taking good care of yourself can lower the risk of experiencing these issues.

Contributor: ClevelandClinic.org

How to Build Healthy Habits

It’s not about willpower. Good habits happen when we set ourselves up for success. Our new challenge will show you how.

We’re all creatures of habit. We tend to wake up at the same time each day, brush our teeth, have morning coffee and commute to work, following the same patterns every day.

So why is it so hard to form new healthy habits?

Behavioral scientists who study habit formation say that many of us try to create healthy habits the wrong way. We make bold resolutions to start exercising or lose weight, for example, without taking the steps needed to set ourselves up for success.

Here are some tips, backed by research, for forming new healthy habits.

Stack your habits. The best way to form a new habit is to tie it to an existing habit, experts say. Look for patterns in your day and think about how you can use existing habits to create new, positive ones.

For many of us, our morning routine is our strongest routine, so that’s a great place to stack on a new habit. A morning cup of coffee, for example, can create a great opportunity to start a new one-minute meditation practice. Or, while you are brushing your teeth, you might choose to do squats or stand on one foot to practice balance.

Many of us fall into end-of-the-day patterns as well. Do you tend to flop on the couch after work and turn on the TV? That might be a good time to do a single daily yoga pose.

Start small. B.J. Fogg, a Stanford University researcher and author of the book “Tiny Habits,” notes that big behavior changes require a high level of motivation that often can’t be sustained. He suggests starting with tiny habits to make the new habit as easy as possible in the beginning. Taking a daily short walk, for example, could be the beginning of an exercise habit. Or, putting an apple in your bag every day could lead to better eating habits.

In his own life, Dr. Fogg wanted to start a daily push-up habit. He started with just two push-ups a day and, to make the habit stick, tied his push-ups to a daily habit: going to the bathroom. He began by, after a bathroom trip, dropping and doing two push-ups. Now he has a habit of 40 to 80 push-ups a day.

Do it every day. British researchers studied how people form habits in the real world, asking participants to choose a simple habit they wanted to form, like drinking water at lunch or taking a walk before dinner. The study, published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, showed that the amount of time it took for the task to become automatic — a habit — ranged from 18 to 254 days. The median time was 66 days!

The lesson is that habits take a long time to create, but they form faster when we do them more often, so start with something reasonable that is really easy to do. You are more likely to stick with an exercise habit if you do some small exercise — jumping jacks, a yoga pose, a brisk walk — every day, rather than trying to get to the gym three days a week. Once the daily exercise becomes a habit, you can explore new, more intense forms of exercise.

Make it easy. Habit researchers know we are more likely to form new habits when we clear away the obstacles that stand in our way. Packing your gym bag and leaving it by the door is one example of this. Wendy Wood, a research psychologist at the University of Southern California, says she began sleeping in her running clothes to make it easier to roll out of bed in the morning, slip on her running shoes and run. Choosing an exercise that doesn’t require you to leave the house — like situps or jumping jacks — is another way to form an easy exercise habit.

Dr. Wood, author of the book, “Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick,” calls the forces that get in the way of good habits “friction.” In one study, researchers changed the timing of elevator doors so that workers had to wait nearly half a minute for the doors to close. (Normally the doors closed after 10 seconds.) It was just enough of a delay that it convinced many people that taking the stairs was easier than waiting for the elevator. “It shows how sensitive we are to small friction in our environment,” said Dr. Wood. “Just slowing down the elevator got people to take the stairs, and they stuck with it even after the elevator went back to normal timing.”

Dr. Wood notes that marketers are already experts in reducing friction, inducing us to spend more, for example, or order more food. That’s why Amazon has a “one-click” button and fast-food companies make it easy to supersize. “We’re just very influenced by how things are organized around us in ways that marketers understand and are exploiting, but people don’t exploit and understand in their own lives,” she said.

Reward yourself. Rewards are an important part of habit formation. When we brush our teeth, the reward is immediate — a minty fresh mouth. But some rewards — like weight loss or the physical changes from exercise — take longer to show up. That’s why it helps to build in some immediate rewards to help you form the habit. Listening to audiobooks while running, for example, or watching a favorite cooking show on the treadmill can help reinforce an exercise habit. Or plan an exercise date so the reward is time with a friend.

Contributor: Tara Parker-Pope, NYTimes.com

How Extreme Heat Can Kill and How You Can Stay Safe

High temperatures are not just uncomfortable, they are bad for your health – and can even be deadly.

Of all the natural disasters, extreme heat is the No. 1 killer, studies show, killing more people than hurricanes and tornadoes combined.

“What is most problematic about heat is that this is a sneaky climate issue because it kills many people, but it is not impressive like a hurricane or something. It’s just happening all the time, so it is sneaky,” said environmental epidemiologist Tarik Benmarhnia of the University of California, San Diego.

There’s been a 74% increase in deaths related to heat since 1980, a 2021 study found. With the ongoing climate crisis, high temperatures are expected to get worse, and heat waves will last longer, affecting parts of the country that aren’t used to them.

Most heat-related deaths and health problems are avoidable. Three of the most common conditions to watch out for are dehydration, heatstroke and heat exhaustion.

Dehydration

Your body needs water and other fluids to function. When you lose more fluid than you take in, you get dehydrated.

Mild or moderate dehydration is manageable by drinking more fluids, but severe dehydration needs medical attention.

The problem is that your body doesn’t always let you know early enough that you need more water. By the time you feel thirsty, you’re behind on your fluid replacement. Older people often don’t feel thirsty until they are actually dehydrated.

Experts say that when you have to be out in the heat, it’s important to drink fluids even before you head out, or else you may not be able to catch up on what your body needs.

While you’re outside, particularly if working or exercising in the heat, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends drinking a cup of water (8 ounces) at least every 15 to 20 minutes. But don’t drink more than 48 ounces per hour, which can lower your sodium levels too much, causing confusion and other health problems.

You also want to stay hydrated after coming inside from the heat, drinking enough fluids to replace what you’ve lost through sweat.

Chronic dehydration can raise your risk for kidney stones and urinary tract infections, as well as longer-term problems.

Heatstroke

The “most worrisome consequence” of high heat is heatstroke, said Dr. Scott Dresden, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Northwestern University.

With heatstroke, the body can’t cool itself and regulate its temperature.

In normal temperatures, your body loses water through sweating, breathing and going to the bathroom. But when humidity rises above 75%, sweating becomes ineffective. Our bodies can let off heat only when the outside temperature is lower than our internal body temperature, usually around 98.6 degrees.

If the body’s temperature rises quickly, its natural cooling mechanism – sweat – fails. A person’s temperature can rise to a dangerous 106 degrees or higher within just 10 or 15 minutes. This can lead to disability or even death.

Older adults, people taking certain medications like beta blockers and antidepressants, and kids can all have a harder time with heat regulation. Alcohol can also make it hard for the body to regulate its temperature, as can being dehydrated or being overdressed for the heat.

If you notice that someone is confused, has a flush to their skin, seems to be breathing quickly or complains of a headache, move to the shade or into air-conditioning. Cool them with cool water, icepacks or wet towels around their neck, head, armpits and groin. And get medical help as soon as possible.

A person who has heatstroke may sweat profusely or not at all. They can become confused or pass out, and they could have a seizure. Left untreated, heatstroke can quickly damage the brain. It can cause the heart to beat dangerously fast and the body to shut down.

You can lower your chance of heatstroke by wearing loose-fitting, lightweight clothing. Wear sunscreen, too: People who are sunburned have less of an ability to regulate their body temperature. Drink lots of water. Try to avoid working outside or exercising during the hottest parts of the day. Let yourself acclimate to high temperatures before you start running marathons or doing any other extreme outdoor exercise.

Heat exhaustion

Heat exhaustion happens when the body loses too much water or salt through excessive sweating. Typically, this can happen when you’re exposed to high temperatures combined with high humidity or if you are involved in strenuous physical activity, like running or playing football.

Heat-related illness is the leading cause of death and disability among US high school athletes, according to the CDC. But it can be a problem for anyone taking part in everyday activities like mowing the lawn or going for a walk.

Signs of heat exhaustion can include cool or moist skin with goosebumps, heavy sweating, feeling faint or tired, an unusual heart rate, muscle cramps, a headache or nausea.

If you think you or someone else has heat exhaustion, get some rest in the shade or in the air-conditioning. Drink cool water. If symptoms don’t improve, get medical attention.

At that point, the treatment isn’t all that pleasant. “We typically use ice baths in our emergency room,” Dresden said. “We’ll do cold-water immersion.”

If that isn’t available, a hospital may try wet sheets and a large fan.

How to stay healthy in the heat

Extreme high temperatures can be linked to at least 17 causes of death, most of them related to heart and breathing issues but also including suicide, drowning and homicide.

Studies have shown that exposure to extreme heat can contribute to mental health issues, problems for pregnant women and poor birth outcomes.

Even if you aren’t working or exercising outdoors, be careful in extreme temperatures.

Dr. Stephanie Lareau, an emergency room physician in Rocky Mount, Virginia, said it’s important to keep an eye not just on the temperature but on the heat index. That takes into account humidity, and that can matter more for heat-related illness.

When planning activities, try to keep them out of the heat, especially if you’ve got young kids or the elderly in your social circle, since they don’t handle the heat as well.

“Make sure everyone is drinking plenty of fluids,” Lareau said. “You don’t have to take in copious amounts of water, but drink a little bit before you’re thirsty – and especially when you are thirsty. Those things are really important. Heat illnesses are totally avoidable with the right approach.”

Contributor: Jen Christensen, CNN Health /p>