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Better Health Update #35 - Monte Kline, Clinical Nutritionist

Constipation

Many people wince at talking about constipation, even though few problems can affect your health more than bowel irregularity. Mark Twain once said something to the effect that sex was one of life's most overrated pleasures, while bowel regularity was one of life's most important necessities! Let's look at what constipation is, why it happens and what to do about it.

DEFINITION OF CONSTIPATION

My dictionary says constipation is "a condition of the bowels marked by defective or difficult evacuation." But, how often should you evacuate? Medical doctors have a standard, purely idiotic line that goes, "Normal is whatever is normal for you." Eight year of college and you come up with that kind of nonsense? Try applying that philosophy to the rest of your life - whatever you do is normal (come to think of it, that is the philosophy of much of our contemporary culture teaches).

How about a dose of common sense - you know, that commodity that isn't very common. If you eat three meals a day (not to mention snacks), does it make sense that you would only eliminate waste once every week, or every three days, or even just once a day? Not really.
Those who study primitive cultures, where people don't have all the bad dietary habits and stress of modern civilization, find people generally have bowel movements corresponding to the number of meals they eat. Since most people around the world eat twice a day at best, two bowel movements per day is typical.

In my view healthy bowel regularity means two bowel movements per day. Now I don't just mean two eliminations of something, irregardless of size or consistency. I mean two good, well formed stools. The stools shouldn't be hard or small round balls. They should be 12 or more inches long, of good diameter, and not loose. The right kind of health and diet habits will produce that type of bowel movement.

Contrast my definition of healthy bowel activity with what the average American experiences: Hardly a week goes by that I don't see someone in my practice having only one bowel movement every three days. Every couple of months I see someone having only one bowel movement every week. Then occcasionally it's even longer periods - I've seen a number of people averaging only one bowel movement every three weeks! One of those was fatigued and couldn't figure out why she had no appetite!

CAUSES OF CONSTIPATION

There are both physical and emotional causes of constipation. The primary physical causes include:

1. Lack of Fiber - Unless you've been on another planet for the last 15 years, you've probably heard literally thousands of commercials highlighting fiber and bowel regularity . . . so this isn't a new subject. A more natural food diet is automatically high in fiber with its fruits, vegetables and whole grains. People eating the typical American junk food diet of fast food, sugar and refined grains, don't get much fiber. Nor do the people of my parents and grandparents generation eating "meat and potatoes."

In any event, start eating a more natural food diet as defined in my booklet, The Junk Food Withdrawal Manual, or our Client Manual at Pacific Health Center, and you'll go a long way toward improving your bowel regularity. There are also fiber supplements, which I'll talk about later.

2. Lack of Pure Water - Water is the primary cleanser of your body, designed to flush out toxins via the kidneys. Two issues emerge here - quantity and quality of water. Hardly anyone drinks enough water, quantity-wise. A good rule-of-thumb is to divide your body weight in pounds in two and drink that many ounces of pure water per day. That means most people should be drinking two or three quarts daily.
On the purity question hardly anyone drinks pure water either. I have a simple definition of pure water - pure water is nothing but water. It doesn't have chlorine, fluoride, heavy metals, nitrates, pesticides, or other toxic substances in it. But it also does not have calcium, magnesium or other supposedly healthful minerals in it either.

Water washes your body - it's a solvent. And water is the best solvent when it has no minerals in it. Get your minerals from your food and supplements and keep your water pure for cleansing the body.

3. Eating Sensitive Foods - Allergically sensitive foods can, among many other things, produce constipation. We often see people's bowel regularity improve primarily from getting them off of dairy products, wheat or some other food they are reacting to.

4. Lack of Exercise - Few things have caused more constipation than the increasing amount of time the average
person spends sitting - whether at work, in front of a TV, or whatever. We have become a sedentary society. Doing some daily walking is one of the best ways to stimulate normal bowel regularity.

5. Lack of Time - Many people pursue a morning routine that doesn't lend itself to a good morning bowel movement. If you wake up in the morning and are out the door on your way to work in a half hour or so, you're not likely to have good bowel regularity - you just haven't allowed the time for it.

I never cease to be amazed at the people who tell me they don't have time in the morning to take an acidophilus capsule upon arising, take homeopathic remedies 15 minutes later, and wait at least another 15 minutes after that before eating. Since most of them are Christians, I'm always wondering when do they read the Bible and pray? When do they exercise? When do they plan out their day? If you're going to have any kind of a spiritual life or physical life, may I recommend what Jesus did? He went to bed early, and he got up early.

My "morning routine" is two to three hours every morning. It's been that way virtually all of my adult life, and few things have contributed more to my health than that routine.

6. Emotional Stress - When you are emotionally stressed, the primary area of your body to "feel" that stress is your digestive tract. Furthermore, within the digestive tract, the primary repository of emotional stress is the colon. When you're stressed the muscles of the colon tighten up rather than having their normal peristalsis which moves the waste through the colon toward elimination.

The effect of emotional stress on the colon was demonstrated in a abdominal surgery I once read about. A criminal, who had just been caught by the police, was having abdominal surgery under a local anesthetic, so that he was conscious. When the surgeon first had his colon exposed, everything looked normal - just like the textbooks. But then the doctor asked him, "Have you had any trouble with the police lately?" Immediately the colon muscles tensed up, ceasing their previous normal function.

I have often asked chronically constipated people if they tend to hold their feelings in, such as suppressing anger or other emotions. Almost always they say "yes." People that bury their emotions are more likely to have some kind of intestinal problems, including constipation.

DEALING WITH CONSTIPATION

I believe a number of steps can be taken to eliminate constipation:

1. Improve your diet - A good natural food diet with lots of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains is essential to good bowel regularity. If you need some guidelines on changing your diet, I recommend my booklet, The Junk Food Withdrawal Manual.

2. Get off of sensitive foods - If you haven't already done so, get tested at the clinic to find out what foods you're sensitive to.

3. Use a psyllium husk supplement - Most constipated people do well on a fiber supplement, such as those made from psyllium husk. This is a non-digested plant fiber, mixed into juice and drunk, that swells as it goes through your digestive tract, essentially acting like a broom. It absorbs toxins as it gets into cracks and crevices, but it also just provides physical bulk to stimulate more normal bowel regularity. I do not recommend the popular grocery store, drug store brands of psyllium or other fiber products, though, in that they all contain sugar or artificial flavors.

Psyllium can be a problem with some people, particularly people that have been very constipated for a long time. If you have some narrow, constricted areas in the colon, all that psyllium fiber may just pile up there and create a lot of abdominal blockage and pain. So if you get pain or bloating after you start taking psyllium and your bowel movements are not becoming larger and more regular, stop taking the psyllium. An herbal laxative, enemas, or colonic irrigations may be more appropriate, at least temporarily.

4. Possibly use an herbal laxative - Probably 90% of the time or more we can get good results using our psyllium-herbal combination (Pro Bulk M). But with some people, particularly those that have had many years of constipation, it may also take an herbal laxative to get things going. Generally these are just used temporarily, while psyllium is fine to use indefinitely.

5. Enemas - Manually flushing out the lower bowel with an enema is very appropriate to relieve constipation, particularly if nothing else is working. While psyllium supplements and herbal laxatives usually suffice, occasionally an enema may be required. Remember, it is essential for your health that you not allow toxic material to build up in the colon from constipation.

6. Colonic irrigation - Colonics are basically a high tech enema done with a machine by a trained therapist. Unlike enemas, the entire length of the colon can be flushed out. Some practitioners place a major emphasis on colonics for detoxification. I used to recommend a lot of colonics but have since found that in most cases the same job can be done more naturally with internal supplements. At present I only recommend colonics for people with a long history of constipation who do not respond to psyllium and/or herbal laxatives.

7. Increase pure water intake - I recommend at least two quarts of distilled water per day for most people.

8. Develop a morning routine - Go to bed earlier and get up earlier. This will give you time to drink a lot of water, exercise, eat a high fiber meal, and most importantly, spend some time with God.

DISCLAIMER: The information contained in this publication is for educational purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose illness nor prescribe treatment. Rather, this material is designed to be used in cooperation with your nutritionally-oriented health professional to deal with your personal health problems. Should you use this information on your own, you are prescribing for yourself, which is your constitutional right, but neither the author nor publisher assume responsibility.