Eat this every morning to clean your gut and move your bowels naturally

If you need coffee to have a bowel movement, your digestive system is already not working the way it should. In my point of view, that's not normal physiology, that's compensation. And if you're also dealing with bloating, heaviness, or bowel movements that don't feel complete, this isn't just about fiber. Because for a lot of people, honestly, more fiber tends to make things worse. Because the real issue isn't what's in your gut, it's that your body has lost its ability to move things on its own. And this is where most advice completely misses the mark. Because in traditional Chinese medicine, constipation isn't just a gut problem, it's a breakdown in Now in this video, I'm going to show you the three main patterns that cause this, why your body isn't moving the way it should, and how to actually restore that movement naturally, so you're not relying on coffee, fiber, or laxatives just to go to the bathroom. Hey guys, I'm Dr. Alex Hine, a board-licensed doctor of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine and author of the health book Master of the Day. Let's jump in. Over 700 years ago, during the Jin Yuan dynasty in China, there was a physician named Li Dongyuan who started noticing something that didn't quite fit the medical paradigm of his time. He was treating patients who weren't just coming in with acute illnesses or external infections, but people who were chronically tired, weak, bloated, and slowly declining in ways that didn't respond to the standard treatments of the time. And what stood out to him wasn't just their symptoms, but the pattern behind them. These were people who were overworked, undernourished, eating irregularly, thinking and worrying constantly, and over time their bodies just seemed to lose the ability to process food and transform what they were taking in. So instead of continuing to chase individual symptoms, he began to shift his focus and ask a different question, which was essentially, what system in the body is failing first that causes everything else to fall apart? And the answer he kept coming back to over and over again was the spleen and the stomach, the digestive system. So in traditional Chinese medicine, these aren't just digestive organs in the western sense. They are the core system responsible for transforming food and drink into energy, into blood, into all the substances your body needs to function. And what he realized was that when this system becomes weak, everything downstream starts to suffer. Your energy drops, fluids either dry up or accumulate inappropriately, and the body loses its ability to move things the way it should. And this insight became the foundation of his entire approach to medicine, which was that many chronic diseases don't begin where the symptoms show up, but much earlier, at the level of digestion and transformation. And in many ways, what he was seeing back then is not that different from what we see today. It's just showing up in modern form. So what is the root cause of why your gut gets stuck? You know, if you don't understand this part, you'll keep chasing the temporary fixes. From a modern medicine lens, constipation usually gets reduced to things like low fiber, dehydration, or not enough movement. And yes, those do play a role. But in Chinese medicine, we look at patterns. And most constipation falls into a few key imbalances. Sometimes it's what we where your digestive system simply doesn't have enough energy to transform and move food properly. The peristalsis is weak. Sometimes it's dryness in the intestines, which we associate with yin or blood deficiency, meaning there isn't enough fluid to lubricate the bowels or this inflammation. Other times, it's liver chi stagnation, which is incredibly common where stress or tension or emotional holding tightens and restricts movement in the gut. And then finally, So what you start to see is that constipation is not one thing. It's a pattern of imbalance. And if you don't address the pattern, you end up forcing a system that's actually asking for help. So let's talk about this morning formula, which is a simple gut clearing ritual. This is something simple you can do tomorrow morning. And it's a combination of warm water, soaked chia seeds, stewed apples, and a little bit of cinnamon. And I know it sounds a bit too simplistic to work, but I'm going to break down why each one of these does something really specific inside your body. And honestly, it's pretty tasty anyway. So the first part is warm water, where we're using this to wake up the digestive system. So one of the simplest things you can do, something I have almost every patient do, is just the first thing when you wake up, instead of reaching for coffee or cold water, you drink a cup of warm water, not iced, not chilled, actually warmed up. And this matters a lot more than you might think. Because in Chinese medicine, we say your digestion is governed by the spleen and stomach, the pancreas, stomach, small intestine. And those systems function best with warmth. They've historically been described like a cooking system, something that needs a steady gentle heat to transform and move the food properly. So if you introduce cold into that system, first thing in the morning, it's like throwing basically cold water on your stove, like it dampens the digestive fire before it even gets going. But when you drink warm water, you're doing the opposite. You gently stimulate the intestines, hydrate the system after a night of sleep, and help activate what we call digestive qi, digestive function, so things start moving. And even from a modern science point of view, this lines up with your body's natural gastrocolic reflex, which is really the built-in signal that tells your digestive system, it's time to move the bowels. So instead of forcing a bowel movement with stimulants, you're just gently waking up the body. The next step is chia seeds for moistening and lubrication. So then we'll move into the chia seeds. And this is really important. They need to be soaked first, not dry, not sprinkled straight on top of something. When you soak them, they absorb water and form that gel-like mass. And that's exactly what makes them so useful for the intestines. Because a lot of constipation, especially the chronic kind, isn't just about things being stuck. It's really about dryness, where there isn't enough fluid or lubrication in the system for things to move properly. And in Chinese medicine, we describe this as like a lack of yin, or a deficiency of intestinal fluids. And when that lubrication isn't there, the movement becomes difficult. Things get sluggish, or they just don't move at all. So what the soaked chia seeds do is they start to restore the missing piece of lubrication and moisture. They hold onto water and add a little bit of the bulk, and they add a smoother, more comfortable passage without irritating the intestines. And from a science point of view, that gel is rich in soluble fiber, which improves your stool consistency, and also feeds the good gut bacteria. So again, we're not pushing anything, we're creating the right internal conditions. Next up, we're stewing some apples. So this is where things start to come together with the stewed apples. Because one thing people tend to overlook is that how you prepare food matters just as much as what you eat. Raw apples, even though they're healthy, can actually be a little bit harder to digest, especially if your system is already weak or prone to bloating. But when you stew them, when you soften them gently with heat, like in your oats or in water or in congee, something changes. They become much easier on the GI and in many ways more therapeutic. So in Chinese medicine, we say like stewed apples, stewed fruits, stewed pears are known to support the spleen, generate fluids, and encourage movement in the intestines without being harsh or overstimulating. So if you're someone who feels bloated after meals or fatigued or inconsistent with your GI, this is a really powerful tool. And from a modern point of view, when apples are cooked, the pectin, a type of soluble fiber, becomes more available and easier to work with. So that helps support your gut lining, improves your stool, and feeds good gut bacteria in the microbiome. So now we're not just trying to get about movement, you're actually rebuilding the foundation of the digestion underneath. And by the way, this is actually a really small piece of a much larger picture. Because what we're talking about here, things like dryness or stagnation or weak digestion, are patterns I see all the time in people with bloating, gas, and food sensitivities. And a lot of the time people try to solve these issues by just cutting out all the foods or trying different diets. But the real issue is that the system itself isn't functioning the way it should. So if your food list is getting smaller, smaller, smaller, smaller, I actually go much deeper into how to fix this step by step in a live gut health masterclass. You can register right down there below to watch it. We break down exactly what your pattern is, what's driving the symptoms, and how to start fixing it. So if you're dealing with register for that free gut healing masterclass because it's a deep dive into exactly what you need to do to fix it. The next thing we're adding is cinnamon or roguet to warm and move the circulation. So then we're going to add a small amount of cinnamon. Nothing excessive, just a little bit to make a difference in flavoring. Because cinnamon is a warming herb, a lot of people dealing with constipation are actually running on the colder side internally. Digestion is slow, their metabolism is sluggish, their energy is low, and their bowels tend to reflect that same lack of movement. So cinnamon stimulates circulation, moves what we call stagnant chi, improves function, and brings back a little bit of activation in the digestive tract and increases your metabolism. So now we're not just addressing dryness with the chia or rebuilding function in the microbiome with apples, you're also correcting the underlying cold and stagnation that keeps everything stuck. And from a modern science point of view, cinnamon has some interesting effects. It helps regulate blood sugar, which can stabilize your energy and indirectly support your gut and motility. So again, the cinnamon, we think of it as like stimulating, warming, and moving. Now for example, look at one of my patients, Santi. He had chronically slow and incomplete bowel movements every few days, never satisfied, always bloated, wasn't sure if he had SIBO, mold, candida, or other issues. And after treating him with traditional Chinese herbal formulas, not only did the extreme constipation and bowel movements that always changed, improve dramatically to almost a daily bowel movement, he was also sleeping through the night for the first time in several years by fixing his nervous system. So when you put all this together, you're not just adding fiber, throwing random things at the problem or laxatives, hoping it sticks. You're actually addressing the underlying patterns causing the issue in the first place. The warm water gently activates movement and wakes up the GI with the gastrocolic reflex. The soaked chia seeds bring moisture back and restore lubrication. The stewed apples help nourish, regulate, and support the GI and rebuild the microbiome. And the cinnamon adds warmth and circulation, helping everything move more efficiently. And what we want to do is restore the function, not just treat the symptoms. Now one final layer here we need to talk about because a lot of people get stuck here. Your gut is deeply connected to your emotional state. And ancient doctors talked about how the emotions affect certain qi flow in the body and affect certain organs. So for example, liver is responsible for the smooth flow of like that pent-up stress response. And things like stress or frustration or emotional tension are some of the biggest disruptors of that flow. So if your mornings are rushed, if you're immediately on your phone, if you're eating in your car, of course your body's already in a stressed state. So you're reinforcing the stagnation before the system even has a chance. So part of this isn't just about what you eat. It's about slowing down, sitting, giving your body a 30-minute ritual. Because sometimes the issue isn't physical. It's something deeper and systemic. So when you look at something as simple as a morning routine like this, it's easy to think it's just about digestion or just about a more regular poop. But what Li Dongyuan was really pointing at is what we still see today. It's never just about the gut. It's about how your body is transforming everything you take in, how it creates energy from the food, how it moves fluids, and how the whole system is functioning as a whole. Because when your GI starts working the way it's supposed to, you don't just notice it in your bowels. It's in your brain function, your energy, how you react to food, and just your mood. And so for a lot of people, if you're in that place where your digestion is becoming more sensitive, you're feeling more reactive, you're eating less foods, make sure you watch that Gut Healing Masterclass I've linked up right below this video. Because we'll go really step-by-step to figure out what is your underlying pattern so you can personalize and really figure out this is probably the root cause of my chronic constipation, my bloating, and my gas and issues. So go ahead and register and watch that live Masterclass because it'll give you a lot to digest. Now I realize we talked a lot about poop and constipation here today, but I also shot a great related video on two of the most important nutrients that are missing if you have chronic constipation and I share it right up here.