Who doesn't like to feel great? But when you're irregular, everything about your day can seem sluggish. That's why maintaining good digestive health is a goal everyone feels good achieving.

Digestive Health is a general term that describes when you are feeling your best as a result of consuming a balanced diet AND having regular, healthy elimination.

Health professionals agree that the body operates at peak performance when all parts are working properly, including the digestive tract. "Regularity," the process by which the body moves food through digestion and absorbs nutrition while eliminating waste, is a vital contributor to overall daily health.

When the body isn't moving food properly, or is "irregular," unwanted short- and long-term effects can impact one's lifestyle and even your overall outlook.

Anyone who suffers from irregularity knows the discomfort and sluggishness associated with irregular bowel action. A well-functioning human digestive tract will extract nutrients and other valuable components from food as it travels through the body, ideally spending just the right amount of time in moving waste material out. Regular bowel habits-normal laxation-are critical to digestive health and also to an overall sense of well-being.

Beyond the short-term discomfort of just not feeling right, irregularity has been associated with serious long-term effects that impact overall health. Almost one in four American adults suffer from irregular elimination, which can be the result of poor eating habits, heredity, stress, disease, medications' side effects or simply natural aging.

Among options for treatment are over-the-counter remedies-bulking agent powders to mix with liquid-and prescription medications to ease the discomfort of difficult elimination. Nutrition professionals, however, recommend eating a well-balanced diet rich in fiber and minerals which contribute naturally and directly to digestive health by keeping the bowel moving.