I had dinner with a friend of mine who’s been going through a very stressful time: emotional stress; challenges with kids and homelife, and physical stress; not sleeping well and lots of travel. In the last couple of weeks, she’s noticed blood in her stool a few times. Sometimes it’s part of the feces, but then she’s also seen some loose blood in the toilet bowl. She asked for my advice.

She doesn’t have an anal fissure or external hemorrhoids. So that leaves two possibilities: Internal hemorrhoids or ulceration/wounding of the intestinal wall.

Internal hemorrhoids don’t usually hurt at all. If you don’t have any pain in your rectum, but find yourself straining to poo (even though the bowel movement may be soft or liquid), OR, you have a bowel movement and there’s no blood whatsoever and then all of a sudden, at the end, there’s anywhere from half a teaspoon to several tablespoons of blood; you may have a bleeding internal hemorrhoid. If you suspect this is the case, then I have very effective treatment instructions for both internal and external hemorrhoids.

Colonic bleeding – If you suspect the blood is coming from your colon (blood from your stomach or small intestine will be green or black by the time it exits your rectum – as will iron supplements and blueberries) then you may think you need a colonoscopy and to get in to see your doctor immediately.

Personally, if it were me…

1. I would see a Naturopathic or Integrative physician and I would only consider a colonoscopy after all other tests had been performed, or if I had a strong suspicion I might have colon cancer. My free Colonoscopy Dangers report has all the details, along with instructions of what you can do before and after a colonoscopy to protect against the damage.

2. I would either go on an elemental diet to rest the bowel and use the opportunity to create a healing spa for my gut. Or, I would use these well-tolerated food-based shakes to give my gut a break. Or, I would go on a half-elemental diet; so half of my intake would be Absorb Plus elemental shakes and the other half well-tolerated low residue or FODMAP foods.

3. I would take MucosaHeal (MucosaCalm in Canada) on an empty stomach to heal and soothe the mucosal lining of my intestine. George’s aloe vera juice would be helpful too. For strong colonic bleeding, I would do Jini’s Healing Implant Enema.

4. I would definitely take high dose Natren brand probiotics. Take 1 tsp. of each Natren brand probiotic (Megadophilus, Bifido Factor, Digesta-Lac = total 12 billion cfu) mixed in 6-8 ounces of room temperature, filtered water (not tap water) on an empty stomach (15-20 minutes before food, or 2 hours after food), 3x/day. Take the last dose (1 tsp. of each) before bed. The powders can be mixed in milk or yoghurt if needed.

I would take Natren probiotics three times a day for three months and then once or twice a day (always on an empty stomach) for the following three months. If bowel movements are normal (no more than 2 bowel movements per day), or constipation is an issue, then take the probiotics in capsule form, if preferred.

Why Natren ONLY? Natren is the only brand that meets my probiotic selection criteria for ensuring powerful, therapeutic-grade probiotics through to the date of expiry on the bottle.

A study conducted by Health Canada to test probiotic brands found in health stores found that:

“The results showed that none of the 10 products tested matched their labeled microbiologic specifications and two brands grew nothing aerobically or anaerobically. No Lactobacillus grew in five brands, although their labels stated that this was the main species. Eight brands contained viable cells, but only 10% of the number stated by their manufacturers. Most product labels did not adequately identify or quantify microbes which led the author to conclude that the use of probiotics should not be recommended at this time.”

So please don’t go get a probiotic from Amazon or your local health store and then wonder why you’re not seeing results.

5. I would seek emotional healing to discover why I’m allowing myself to be stressed to this degree. What am I not giving myself permission to do, or be? Where I am feeling guilty for saying, No…? Where am I allowing myself to be driven by external factors and going against my own intuition or body wisdom?

I would view this symptom as a message. I would say to myself: My body is speaking… what is it saying? I would use EFT Tapping, hypnotherapy, or Craniosacral therapy (Level 2 or higher) to heal the root cause(s) of this imbalance.

So that is my answer/advice to my friend. I would not use invasive medical diagnostic testing to throw me into a disease-management pathway of drugs and surgery – a feedback loop of collateral damage that is very difficult to get off of. No, I would examine and treat my body as the wondrous, wise, beautiful part of my soul that is always advocating on my behalf – that always wants the best for us. And I would pursue the wholistic, mind/body/spirit pathway to true healing.

Yes, this is way more work than popping pills and hoping it all goes away! Resistance rises up to rail and push against our efforts to go deeper, to connect deeply with our body and live our brilliance. It is so much easier to put someone else in charge (doctor, spouse, parent) and just follow instructions and then blame them when you don’t get better, or say, “Well I did everything I was supposed to. But nothing’s working.” Absolving responsibility is so much harder than taking it upon yourself. Namaste.

p.s. If bleeding is also/only from the stomach or small intestine, then the treatment would be the same, but just delete the Healing Implant Enema.