Only use senna for a short time, 1- 1½ week. It is not healthy to use it for a long time, since its action moves fecal matter through your colon quickly. This quick action prevents absorption of nutrients by your colon depriving you of necessary minerals and vitamins.

Use senna only in amounts that produce required bowel movement and stool softness to relieve your constipation. Start with small amounts and increase your amount slowly.

Senna is sold Over-the-Counter under name Correctol®, ExLax®, Senokot®, and Smooth Move. Senokot also contain docusate sodium - a stool softener - an added benefit when hard, dry stools may cause discomfort.

Senna Tea with Potato peels

You can also prepare senna tea as follows:

Buy some senna tea at a health food. Place a tea bag into 1 ½ cups of distilled water and steep. Then, add peel of a whole red potato. Also, add a couple slices of potato meat. Add to this, a teaspoon of wheat or oat bran and flax seed.

Simmer this combination, strain it and drink liquid. This will give constipation relief for some of more difficult cases of constipation. Remember longer you simmer this combination stronger tea will be. Start with a 5-10 minutes and then work up to 15-20 minutes but you need to experiment with time.

There are brown and golden colored flax seeds. The golden cost more but there is not difference in their nutritional value.

You can grind them up in a grinder and add them to your smoothies. It is best not to use them in any cooking recipes. Heat destroys value of flax oil and makes it toxic.

I don’t recommend you buy ground up flax seeds as found on websites or in health food stores. Once you grind your flax seeds, you need to use them in your drinks or food soon after grinding so they don’t lose their nutritive value.

Even though Nutri Flax, ground up flax seed, is packaged so flax seeds don’t see light or oxygen, what happens when you open package? These flax seeds are going to be exposed to oxygen and light and as time passes they will become oxidized.

It only takes 10 to 15 minutes in light and oxygen for ground up flax seeds to become oxidized and lose it nutritive value.