What Makes You Want to Poo

I am always curious how laxative makes us want to poo. The western medicine laxatives has many forms, such as to simulate the intestine mucosa, to penetrate stool with more fat and water, to tell intestines not to obsorb water thus hydrate the stool, or to bulk build stool with more fibre.

The Chinese medicine thinks the lung and large intestine are linked. Dr. Lin once told me a case about a nonstop coughing child. After drinking the herb medicine, the child's mother called Dr. Lin with furious voice. "My child was having the diarrhea, the watery feces was all black and stinky!". The doctor then asked "How about his coughing?" The mother replied "Ur..., it's stopped.".

Dr. Lin explained this case examplify the reverse of "Lifting the teapot cap and the tea starts to flow". The cough was induced by congested intestines, once the debris clears up, the "chi" or whatever regains the movement.