IN a person who is on a normal wholesome and balanced diet, the bye-products or 'waste products' of digestion must be eliminated in order to maintain a balance.For a normal bowel movement, the stool should leave the bowels easily '' it should be brown in color, smooth and formed, and should float in water and then gently sinks.Peristalsis is the wave-like or worm-like movement along the stomach and the bowel, which propels food and the end-products of digestion to the rectum for evacuation.Depending on the types of food an individual eats, the extent of hydration and his or her physical activities, the 'normal' bowel movement may occur once or twice a day. This may not be essential to health; but for most people, it is an indication of good health.However, staying longer than three days without evacuating the bowels may not really amount to a disease, but it is too long. Some natural medicine practitioners believe that this may be a sign of unbalanced activities of all the organs of elimination (bowels, kidneys, lungs and skin).After three days, the intestinal content, stool or faeces becomes hardened and dry, and may be difficult to pass out - with a lot straining.Constipation occurs when peristalsis becomes insufficient, thus making the intestinal content, food, stool or faeces to move too slowly through the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and the colon. Stagnation of food residue and morbid waste products in the colon makes the faecal matter to become dehydrated (containing less water than normal), hard and dark in color, and may be painful and difficult to pass out. The hard stool sometimes breaks into small bits and pieces, coated with blood and mucus. Bowel movement (defecation) also becomes infrequent. There may also be a feeling of incomplete emptying after a bowel movement or there may not be the urge to defecate at all.Constipation is established when bowel movements -' hard and dry stool is passed out with excessive straining -' occur less than three times a week for a prolonged period. It is a big problem in our civilized society. It affects the young as well as the old and it is believed to be mainly due to the modern man's increasing remoteness from nature and natural ways of living.Dr. Norman W. Walker, D.Sc., Ph.D., noted in his book, Colon Health, published in 1979 by Norwalk Press, Arizona, USA:''Constipation is the number one affliction underlying nearly every ailment: it can be imputed to be the initial primary cause of nearly every disturbance of the human system. The most prevalent ailment afflicting civilized people is constipation. It is vital to stress that constipation affects the health of the colon, upon which the health of the body entirely depends.'It is proverbial that 'death often makes his house within the bowels'. This proverb is contrary to the opinion of some medical experts that there is no evidence which shows that the 'toxins' generated or accumulated within the body due to poor bowel movements (constipation) lead to health problems. However, many natural and traditional medicine practitioners believe that a poor bowel movement or a malfunctioning bowel is a form of 'self-poisoning' because as stool or faeces stagnates and ferments in the colon, various 'toxins' are produced and reabsorbed into the bloodstream. The various inimical chemicals generated may adversely alter the blood chemistry and lower the body's alkaline reserve. Also, the toxins may affect the heart, lungs, brain, and promote the proliferation of Candida albicans; and repeated straining when stooling may lead to hemorrhoids.Most holistic healthcare practitioners consider chronic constipation and bowel insufficiency as the precursors to the development of many diseases like appendicitis, arthritis, colon cancer, pile (haemorrhoids), diabetes, diverticulitis, growths in the womb and also sometimes in the breast, menstrual irregularity and many other female ailments which are very common today.Viktoras Kulvinskas, in his book, 'Survival into the 21st Century', Planetary Healers Manuals (1975), published by 21st Century Publications, wrote on page 226:'When the bloodstream pollutants exceed the filtrating capacity of the liver, kidneys, lymph nodes and lungs, the bio-computer sends out signals to the different centers of the body to start removing the filth from the bloodstream and to store it in preselected areas. The stored matter is called cyst, mole, tumor, cataract, arteriosclerosis, arthritis, rheumatism or cancer. The disease is named according to where the garbage is stored, the amount of garbage, the type of garbage and how fast it is being stored. If the body did not store some of this debris, it would exceed the filtrative ability of essential organs, which would be destroyed.'It has been observed that due to our remoteness from nature and unwholesome eating habits, it is the bowel that first becomes weak and insufficient in its activities '- among all the eliminative organs of the body. However, due to their inter-dependence, when there is poor bowel movement (constipation), the lungs, the kidneys and the skin struggle to compensate for the weakness or failure by increasing their activities; and this usually places extra burden on these organs of elimination.The symptoms associated with constipation are as follows:i) Infrequent bowel movements, difficulty in having bowel movements, painful passing of hard stool after prolonged straining which often result in anal pain, cracks in the mucous membrane lining the anus (anal fissures), rectal bleeding, hemorrhoids or rectal prolapse or sagging.ii) Abdominal problems, indigestion, bloating, excessive and foul smelling gas, body odor, coated (furred) tongue, bad taste in the mouth, loss of appetite, bad breath (halitosis), nausea and vomiting, skin blemishes (e.g. pimples in young children) and fever in infants.iii) Headaches, brain fog, irritability and lack of concentration, depression, fatigue; and some women may experience premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and obesity.In severe constipation, there may be faecal impaction (a solid immobile bulk of faeces that can cause intestinal obstruction) and inability to pass gas and faeces. A bowel obstruction may be due to serious medical problem like cancer of the colon, hernias, etc, which can give rise to acute constipation, recurrent vomiting and abdominal pain. Therefore, correct diagnosis of an acute constipatiosn by a competent physician is imperative.(To be continued).
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