Constipation is usually the butt of many jokes, pardon the pun, but whilst it might not be the most glamorous topic, it's one of the most common and overlooked health issues in the UK that could be reflective of the deeper issue.

This is the deep dive episode into constipation that many of you have been asking for with consultant gastroenterologist

Dr. Angad Dylan.

Hi, I'm Dr. Rupi. I'm a medical doctor and nutritionist. And when I suffered a heart

condition years ago, I was able to reverse it with diet and lifestyle. This opened up my

eyes to the world of food as medicine to

improve our health. On this podcast, I discuss ways in which you can use nutrition and lifestyle

to improve your own well-being every day. I speak with expert guests and we lean into the science,

but whilst making it as practical and as easy as possible,

so you can take steps to change your life today. Welcome to the Doctor's Kitchen podcast.

Consumption affects one in seven adults and up to one in three children experience it,

and it's responsible for thousands of hospital admissions every year.

So this week, I'm joined by Dr. Anger Dylan.

He's a consultant, gastroenterologist, an accredited bowel cancer screening endoscopist at Lewisham and Greenwich

NHS Trust with advanced training from St Mark's Hospital, one of the world's leading centres

for intestinal disorders. Dr. Dillon also specialises in complex endoscopy, bowel health and

digestive well-being, and he also happens to be my best friend from medical school,

who I've literally known for over two decades. We talk about lesser-known constipation strategies,

what functional constipation means and functional gut disorders in general, how it can be

related to other medical issues and what you should be

optimizing before you reach for a laxative or any other supplements and medications. We're going to

explore what normal actually means, whether the Bristol stool chart that I'm going to be showing to

...