Dr. Trisha Pasricha

then I think we could solve a lot of this problem on our own.

I grew up in a poop-positive family, and I hope I am currently raising a poop-positive family, but my dad was and is also a neurocastroenterologist, so we talked about poop all the time.

I mean, for example, a lot of people can't poop at work.

Well, a lot of us who don't have the luxury of working from home...

The urge to go is going to strike.

And, like, if you have decided that you just can't go, you're constipating yourself almost by choice.

And you're creating a big problem for yourself later.

Well, I think that people don't have a good framework for how to poop.

And so I think about it in terms of three things, and I call these the three Ps.

But one, I think that pliability.

And that is how basically how soft or pillowy that poop is.

More fiber.

Often, but not always, but often the issue is fiber.

And truthfully, 95% of Americans, we are not meeting our fiber goal.

So like more often than not, you need more fiber.

Propulsion is the other problem.

Propulsion refers to how your muscles are generating these contractions in your own gut to push that poop forward.

So that's the second P. And then the third mistake that can come into play is in our pelvic floor.

And I think this is the most underappreciated part of it.

Like we were often like, oh yeah, we need more water.