Nothing ruins a vacation like travel constipation. We’ve all been there—changes in diet, environment, exercise, and routine can disrupt our body’s natural rhythms, leading to a whole host of digestive problems, including constipation.
Vacation constipation, or travel constipation, is an incredibly common occurrence that happens when you’re having fewer than three bowel movements a week or if your stools are hard, lumpy, and painful to pass. Even if you don’t have bathroom troubles in your day-to-day life, vacation constipation can strike when you travel.
Luckily, you can utilize plenty of natural constipation remedies before and during your trip to support your gut and keep things moving so that travel constipation doesn’t ruin your vacation. Find our 7 best natural remedies for travel constipation ahead.
1. Prepare with Probiotics
Habitually taking a probiotic supplement or eating probiotic-rich foods (kimchi, yogurt, sauerkraut, kefir) before your trip can set you up for success. Feeding the good bacteria in your gut ultimately aids digestion and nutrient breakdown and keeps your immune system healthy while traveling. Consuming probiotics throughout your trip can also help keep vacation constipation at bay.
2. Eat Plenty of Fruit
Eating fruit is one of the easiest (and yummiest) natural constipation remedies. Fruit is high in fiber, water, and the sugar alcohol sorbitol that helps make stool softer and easier to pass. Depending on where you’re traveling, you might have access to many gut-healthy fruits, but berries, pears, citrus, apples, kiwi, and dragon fruit are among the best fruits for constipation. Dried prunes and figs are also natural laxatives that can help relieve vacation constipation.
3. Hydrate
Staying hydrated is key for preventing travel constipation. If you aren’t properly hydrated, your large intestine will absorb water from your food waste, resulting in hard stools that are difficult to pass.
To help avoid vacation constipation, make sure you’re getting plenty of fluids throughout your trip. In addition to water, this could be tea, juices, fruit, clear soups, and even coffee. Try to limit sparkling water or sodas. While they may momentarily quench your thirst, their carbonation can make you feel gassy, bloated, and more uncomfortable if you’re constipated.
4. Stay Active
It’s easy to be a little lazy or get out of your exercise routine on vacation (it is vacation, after all), but try to stay active. Regular exercise promotes daily bowel movements and discourages travel constipation. Any form of cardio stimulates digestion, but yoga and stretching are also great. Even short and sweet activities, like a 15-minute walk, work as constipation remedies.
5. Abdomen Massage
This constipation remedy doesn’t require anything but your hands. Research suggests that abdominal massage can help relieve constipation by encouraging the movement of stool through the colon.
Laying down, massage your abdomen in a clockwise direction, applying gentle to moderate pressure. Use your palm to create small, circular motions around the belly button, gradually widening the circle until you’ve covered your entire abdomen.
Do this belly massage twice daily for 10 to 15 minutes or until you get relief. Incorporate deep breathing with the massage to de-stress and assist in constipation relief.
6. Fuel Up on Fiber
In addition to getting plenty of fruit and fluids, prioritizing fiber will help prevent and treat travel constipation. Most of us should be getting around 25 grams of fiber per day, which can be tricky to do on vacation.
Planning your meals around fiber-rich foods (whole grains, vegetables, legumes) and snacks (dried fruits, trail mix, whole grain crackers) will naturally prevent constipation and keep you satiated. Travel-sized fiber supplements can also be great to pack in your suitcase for an added boost.
7. Natural Laxative Alternative
Over-the-counter laxatives and stool softeners may stimulate your bowels, but dealing with their side effects isn’t what you want on vacation. We created Travel-eeze as a natural constipation remedy that helps keep you regular while traveling. The best part? No side effects. That means no cramping, runs, urgency, and dehydration.
Inside each travel-friendly pack is muscle-relaxing buffered vitamin C and fiber-rich raspberry powder, as well as constipation-relieving magnesium citrate, flaxseed powder, and cascara sagrada. This refreshing combination supports bowel regularity and overall digestive function, so you can enjoy all the perks traveling has to offer, constipation-free.
