Constipation
20 May 2005 - The American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons says the vast majority of patients with constipation can be successfully treated by adding high fiber foods like bran, shredded wheat, whole grain breads and certain fruits and vegetables to the diet, along with increased fluids.
Fiber supplements containing indigestible vegetable fiber, such as bran, are often recommended and may provide many benefits in addition to relief of constipation. They may help to lower blood cholesterol levels, reduce the risk of developing colon polyps and cancer, and help prevent hemorrhoids.
16 May 2005 - A Silent Killer - The
War On Constipation! By Dr. Jennifer Daniels
War, poverty, disease, and ignorance are just a few of the many worries and overt threats that preoccupy us and often times cause pain and suffering to ourselves and the people we love. Unfortunately it seems that every time we conquer one problem and inoculate ourselves from a given danger, dozens more reveal themselves and we are back to square one or worse.
Threats will continue to amass, which is a given. But our ability and power to deal with the challenges we face is the dynamic variable or secret weapon that entirely depends upon us. Even if we are well-equipped with effective strategies and alert minds, and can deal with various adverse conditions as they arise, our preparedness is only at 50% if we do not have a sound and properly functioning internal system. In the ensuing battles, not only will effective tactics and reflexes of the mind be needed, but even more important will be the internal condition of our physical bodies, as the combined duo of a healthy physical and mental state will substantially increase our chances of success when faced with the toxic and emotional challenges that lie ahead. Some say we are a nation of a thousand illnesses and disorders, when we are in fact a nation of immense potential and a few problems that unfortunately spawn many ailments. One of the problems or bottlenecks to better internal health that must be addressed on a large scale due to it's heightened prevalence across our nation, is constipation, a danger that lurks in the shadows and affects over 70% of Americans.
Stated bluntly, anyone who is not having at least 2 bowel movements a day is constipated. Yes, at least 2 (optimally 3) bowel movements a day are vital for optimal health!
Are you constipated right now? Whether you are occasionally constipated or suffer from chronic constipation, as 40%
(to 80%) of Americans do, there's absolutely nothing to be ashamed of, as many of your peers are in the same boat. Drop everything and pay attention, for it's time to look at ways we can address this problem. First let's review why constipation can be such a pain in the behind and how it leads to progressively worse or more dangerous conditions if it isn't resolved.
The transit time for all foods in your system should be 16 hours. So if you're interested in testing your digestive timing, ingest some corn and time how long it takes to appear in your stool. The time from ingestion to the time the corn ceases to appear in your stool is the true transit time. To the extent that the interval is greater than 16 hours, you are constipated and waste products are remaining in your body long enough to cause disease.
Major danger can arise when we add meat products to a poorly functioning or constipated system. Red meat that stays in the system for over 16 hours begins to putrefy and becomes toxic. Not only will this create discomfort and intense odor, but food that putrefies in the stomach, colon, or intestines creates a breeding ground for viruses, bacteria, and tumors.
The toxins and diseases that arise from a constipated system aren't the only reasons for concern. In addition to cancer, heart disease, diverticulitis, IBS, obesity, arthritis and a plethora of other conditions that have some link to constipation, the energy and straining required to relieve a clogged system can cause heart attacks, hemorrhoids, a ballooning of the intestinal wall, and can negatively affect the prostate.
According to various reports of the autopsies of two of our nation's most beloved personalities, upon their passing, John Wayne was found to have at least 40 lbs of fecal matter in his colon, and Elvis was found to have 60 lbs. Neither stardom nor wishful thinking can protect us from this current endemic. We must take action!
I have often advised a complete overhaul of the diets and lifestyles that cause constipation. Increasing water (at least six 8-oz glasses per day), fiber (31 grams), and 30 minutes or more of exercise a day can help to move waste material through the body. Unfortunately many of the ingrained habits and firmly held routines of most sufferers make it difficult to achieve an optimal working system and prevent the dire consequences of constipation. Amazingly, rather than altering their nutritional intake and making the needed lifestyle changes, many Americans have adopted the use of laxatives to solve their constipation. This is an incomplete solution as most laxatives work only at the level of the colon and do not address the poor circulation, poor liver and gallbladder functions which cause symptoms such as sluggishness and fatigue.
Because many people have trouble consuming the water needed, and refuse to resort to enemas, I often suggest incorporating
natural remedies into their lives as a daily internal cleanser that does not interfere with their everyday obligations. This is an
herbal blend that improves the functioning of our internal organs and circulation, as well as boosts energy levels. These
herbs and spices target constipation and toxic environments in many ways: ginger, cape aloe, garlic, cascara sagrada, cayenne pepper, barberry root, and senna
leaf. These herbs have solved the constipation woes of many people over
many years. Of course, if taking natural supplements or organic herbs isn't your cup of tea, and you still want to be free of constipation, then it's most often necessary to adhere to a disciplined array of lifestyle changes, such as consuming more water and fiber, adopting a more regular sleep cycle,
balancing meat intake, making sure that your thyroid is functioning properly and increasing your current levels of daily exercise.
Remember, that regardless of what regimen you follow in your fight against constipation, the decision to get better is solely up to you. But know that once you decide to get better, your march to better health will become easier and more rewarding every day. The road to 100% preparedness starts now!
SIMPLE RECIPE REMEDY FOR CONSTIPATION
Ingredients:
1 quart of distilled water
2 tbs lemon juice
1 cup pitted prunes, cut in half
1 tsp cinnamon
Directions - Put all ingredients except lemon juice in a pot. Bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in lemon juice. Eat as is or spoon over oatmeal as a sweetener.
How The Ingredients Work - The water provides lubrication necessary for movement. The lemon juice is a mild astringent which tones and strengthens the intestines. It is also a mild antiseptic and loosens the material from the intestines. Prunes provide the bulk or fiber and stimulation to move the intestines. Prunes also provide a food source to promote the growth of healthy bacteria in the colon. While cinnamon acts as a stimulant in this recipe it also creates a sense of well-being, is an anti-oxidant, is anti-cancer, and helps balance blood sugar.
This recipe is used for those who do a lot of deep breathing which causes constipation due to water loss. It is also helpful for those who are sedentary and sit for extended periods of time which causes constipation because of inactivity. This recipe tastes best with organic ingredients!
Contributed 27 February 2005
Constipation is a classic symptom of intestinal toxemia.
• If it takes five to ten minutes to complete a bowel movement, you are constipated. In a healthy body on a healthy diet a bowel movement should take no more than two minutes and require very little toilet paper.
• Too much cooked and acid foods, emotional stress, poor bowel habits or mucus build-up in the colon can cause constipation.
• Chemical laxatives are harsh and irritating to the bowel and should never be used. They provide only temporary relief and add to the problem. Most laxatives work because they are irritating to the colon. This causes movement of the bowel to expel the irritant.
• Up to eight glasses of water per day should be consumed. Just like flushing a toilet, the bowel cannot be cleaned without adequate water. A good regimen is to start the day by drinking two or three glasses of warm water. It is very helpful for the whole body to add the juice of one-half a lemon to the first glass. This is an
alkalizer and cleanser.
• Complete freedom from constipation requires detoxification of the colon with a good product like Herb Cocktail™, eating a diet of healthy food and liquids, exercise, rest and in some cases elimination or at least reduction of emotional problems. Acid-alkaline must be brought into healthy balance of pH 6.8 to 7.0
Taking back your power through understanding
1. 'Knowledge'
• How your body was designed to work
• Why disease happens
• How the body can reverse disease
• What ‘tools’ (food, beverage, attitudes) your body needs to be healthy
• Drugs treat ‘symptoms’ but not ‘causes’
• The critical role of acid-alkaline balance in the body
2. 'Cleaning'
• Incomplete digestion and wrong eating ‘sludge up’ the colon and other body systems
• All disease begins in the colon
• How to clean out the wastes and toxins that become stored throughout the body
3. ‘Feeding’
• Getting the ‘workers’ back into your body, and what kind of food has them
• What useable ‘building materials’ are for your body; and why lack of ‘complete amino acids’ causes degeneration throughout the body, including the hormonal system
• Why your body requires ‘whole foods’
• How ‘electrically alive’ supplements can replace the ‘tools’ your body has lost, and recharge it so that it can return to health
• How to balance your body’s pH so that no harmful bacteria, virus, yeast or fungus can live in your body
4. ‘Action’
• Putting your new knowledge into practice.
• Assisting your body to health vs. trying to force it to do something with drugs
and how to get off the ‘road to disease and onto the ‘road to vibrant health.’
The Definite Cure of Chronic Constipation BY PROF. ARNOLD EGRET
The Internal Uncleanliness of Man
Chronic constipation is the worst and most common crime against life and mankind--a crime unconsciously committed, and one whose full enormity is not yet fully
realized. It stands accused of being one of the principal causative factors of all physical and mental diseases. I know as a fact, from my practical experience with
thousands of chronically diseased, that the life of man, and the extent of his mental and spiritual capabilities are largely influenced by the condition of the alimentary
tract. It is certainly very important that the brain and nerves of man are supplied with pure blood, and are not dependent on blood, polluted with impurities, arising
from an unclean alimentary canal. "Unclean" is too mild a word, when we are dealing with the worst kind of a filthy condition.
It is a fact that man, the product of the present "civilized" society of this much vaunted "advanced" twentieth century, is born unhealthy, because his mother, during
pregnancy, is almost invariably suffering from constipation. And I say further, that while in this state, she usually eats two to three times as much as is necessary.
This causes the so-called normal, more or less healthy man, to be somewhat encumbered from infancy. And to a much greater extent, is the constipated one--who
is loaded with such a mass of internal filth, that it can only be called "indescribable." His alimentary tract, reaching up from the mouth of the anus to his throat, is
filled with a morbid mucus--undigested, decayed and retained food-substances, all of which are in a state of fermentation and putrefaction. His intestines have never
had a perfect cleansing during his entire life. At the conclusion of each discharge, the anus must be artificially cleansed, which shows that the internal walls of the
intestines must also retain, after each passage, quantities of this same filth.
A physician of Berlin, whose life work was the performing of autopsies, stated that 60 per cent of all the corpses contained in the alimentary canal various foreign
mater--worms and putrefied feces--and he further stated that in nearly all cases the walls of the intestines and colon were lined with a crust of hardened feces,
making it evident that these organs had degenerated to a state of utter inefficiency. Progressive American physicians are rapidly awakening to the fact that retained
fecal matter is one of the chief causes of disease. Autopsies are constantly revealing indescribable filthy astounding conditions. One physician publishes the
following:
"I have found a prototype of the cause of all diseases of the human body, the foundation of premature old age and death. Surprising as it may seem, out of two
hundred and eighty-four cases of autopsy held, but twenty-eight colons were found to be free from hardened feces and in a normal and healthy state. The others, as
described above, were to a more or less extent incrusted with hardened, rotten, rejected food material. Many were distended to twice their natural size throughout
their whole length with a small hole through the center and almost universally these last cases mentioned had regular bowel evacuations daily. Some of them
contained large worms from four to six inches in length.
"My experience from day to day developed startling discoveries in the form of worms and nests of eggs, that we daily get from patients, accompanied by blood
and pus. As I stood looking at the colon and reservoir of death, I expressed myself in wonder that any one can live a week, much less for years, with such a
cesspool of death and contagion always with him. The absorption of the deadly poison back into the circulation cannot help but cause all the contagious diseases.
The recent treatment of hemorrhage of the bowels in typhoid fever has shown it to be caused by maggots and worms eating into the sensitive membrane and
tapping a vein or artery. In fact, my experience during the past ten years has proven, by the rapid recovery of all diseases after the colon was cleansed, that in the
colon itself lies the basic cause of almost all human ailments."
That this revolting and indescribable condition arises from the almost universal ignorance of right selection of food, reveals why the "Mucus less Diet Healing
System" is such an important discovery and development for the regeneration of mankind.
On the outside, the man of today is carefully groomed, perhaps unnecessarily and over carefully clean; while inside he is dirtier than the dirtiest animal--whose
anus is as clean as its mouth, provided said animal has not been "domesticated" by "civilized" man.
Long ago Naturopathy proved, that in every disease there is a constitutional encumbrance of foreign matter, a clogging-up of the system. That statement of fact is
not sufficiently explicit. The encumbering matters, substances which would become dangerous if they were foreign to the body, and of no use to the system, consist
of masses of accumulated feces, undigested food, morbid mucus, and retained superfluous water, all in a state of fermentation and decomposition. Truly, chronically
constipated man constantly carries in his intestines a veritable cesspool, by which the blood stream is continually polluted and poisoned, a fact which only a skilled
observer can at once detect by facial diagnosis. Official medical science and the inexpert layman do not suspect "constipation" when the individual consumes from
three to five meals a day, while he is having one so-called, good bowel movement. Man imagines that his "comfortable fatted" body is a sign of health; at the same
time he is as much in fear of a cold wind and "germs" as he is of the devil. When such a "well-fed" man who is usually constipated, takes a fast or is put on a
"mucus-less diet"--as I have advised hundreds as their last resort--will discharge masses of putrescent filth, fetid urine loaded with mucus, salt, uric acid, fat, drugs,
albumen and pus, according to his disease.
The most surprising effect of these treatments is the immense quantity of the discharged feces and the fetid exhalation from both the mouth and skin. But the most
important "discharge" is the elimination through the circulation into the urine. The urine of everybody will then show a sediment of mucus as soon as he fasts a little
or reduces the quantity of his food, or makes a change toward natural, mucus less foods. Doctors call it "disease" and it is in fact a self-cleansing process of the
body.
This self-elimination through the circulation is the body's most wonderful healing work of every disease. To control this process by food and food quantities is the
only true, natural and most perfect therapeutic art of healing and is in no other "treatment" so successfully accomplished as in the "Mucus less Diet Healing System."
This elimination--especially that of the sick man after a long period of misery, suffering and unsuccessful medical treatment--is man's "greatest event." He now
realizes what he had never thought of--and what only a few physicians in the world have ever understood as I did, through thousands of cases--that mostly all
civilized men are walking, living cesspools, due to chronic constipation.
All his former unsuccessful treatments now appear to him in a tragic-comical light. He now knows exactly where the source of his suffering is to be found, no
matter what the name of the disease may be. He now understands that he was wrongly and ignorantly treated by the doctors who "suppressed the disease," without
eliminating the filth, which was retained in his entire system, especially in his alimentary canal, since childhood, and which condition constituted the principal
causative factor of the disease.
The Effect of Laxatives
I believe that neither physicians nor laymen really know or understand how and why the body performs the laxative effect of these different remedies. Official
medical science knows very little about the "why" of the drugs. Their application is based upon the experience only that each one has "a special effect."
All laxatives contain more or less poisons, that is, to enter the circulation in a concentrated form. The protective instinct of the body reacts instantly by a greater
water supply into the stomach from the blood in order to dissolve and weaken the dangerous substance; the intestines are stimulated for increased and quickened
activity, and so the "solution" is discharged, only taking parts of the feces along. This is the physiological explanation, and you can see that the effect is an abnormal
stimulation of vitality in general, and of the intestinal nerves in particular. It is an open secret that all laxatives finally fail, because the constantly overloaded intestines
are being over-stimulated by the laxatives and thereby slowly paralyzed. To continually increase the laxatives year after year, instead of changing the diet, means
SUICIDE--slow, but sure.
The Real and Deeper Cause of Constipation
Constipation itself is a disease, and a really "severe" one, at that, because in severe cases it burdens the system with a heavy load of filth, sometimes weighing as
much as ten pounds or more. Disease as such is an abnormal, unnatural condition; even "orthodox" physicians agree on that. We should expire slowly and
painlessly, when vitality is exhausted, had we not lived with disease and suffering. That cases of "natural death" are becoming more infrequent nowadays is further
proof of the depths we have sunken into in the "swamps of civilization."
Constipation--this most common disease--has not decreased or improved in spite of thousands of remedies for sale on the market, and in spite of so-called
medical science; simply, because the "diet of civilization" is unnatural. The human intestines are not organized at all for this unnatural food to either digest it perfectly,
or to expel the unused residue.
Very little is known about foods that are constipating, and those of the opposite kind. What I wrote and proved in my book, "Rational Fasting and Regeneration
Diet," regarding the fundamental causative factors of all diseases, constitutes the deepest insight known into the nature of chronic constipation.
Don't you know that bookbinder's paste is made of fine white flour, rice or potatoes? That glue is made from flesh, gristle and bones? Don't you know how sticky
these substances are? Don't you know that skimmed milk, buttermilk and cream are the best ingredients to furnish sticky base for colors for painting? That the white
of eggs will stick paper or cloths so perfectly that it resists dissolution in water? Every housewife and cook knows how oils and fats stick to the sides of a pan. At
least 90 per cent of the "diet of civilization" contains these sticky foods and man stuffs himself daily with awful mixtures of them. Thus the digestive tract is not only
clogged up through constipation, but literally glued together with sticky mucus and feces.
Herewith the "mystery" of chronic constipation is unveiled and the story told of the fundamental causative factor of all diseases. Disease is but internal
uncleanliness--this simply states a true but woeful fact. Fruits, green leaf and starch less vegetables do not contain these pasty, gluey mucus substances and are
natural foods--yet little credit has been given them by doctors or laymen. I will lift the veil and show why they fail to understand. Fruit acids and mineral-rich
vegetable juices dissolve the pasty mucus encumbrances. Fruit sugar causes and develops their fermentation and forms gases. This so greatly feared fermentation of
the inside filth is another necessary stirring up "process" to prepare them for elimination. Acid and fermented starch and glue lose their sticky ability as soon as they
ferment. If an average meat eater or a child fed mostly on starchy foods accidentally eats too freely of good, sweet fruits, a "revolution" in the alimentary canal, with
diarrhea usually sets in, and fever is caused through the increased fermentation.
In severe cases, if a doctor stops the diarrhea and feeds, as is usually the procedure, the patient dies, because Nature was kept from accomplishing the cleansing
process. The partly dissolved poisons remain in the system, causing death.
The patient literally suffocates in his own mire of filth, accumulated during his life from wrong food material and over-eating. If he does not die, his case ordinarily
becomes chronic, which means: Nature is continually trying to expel poisonous mucus and gases, in spite of all obstructions and counteracting remedies. The
constipation merely aggravates the process. Instead of eating less, and then only loosening foods, the chronic patient stuffs himself more and more with wrong
foods, becomes fatter every day and even takes pleasure in his increased weight. In fact, this over-weight, called health by the misguided ones, is mostly
accumulated feces--water--and various kinds of filth. In most cases of tuberculosis, these conditions are typical. Five to six meals a day and one bowel movement
or even less--no wonder he takes on weight, looks "full of vigor"--but can never be cured.
Nourishing and Curing Laxatives
No advance physician will deny the relation between any disease and constipation. But today people are far away from Nature and the truth, and they are kept
more and more in darkness--when taken sick they do just the opposite of what they should do. The slightest indisposition, a little headache or cold, which is the
result of insufficient bowel movement, is treated with more, and so-called better eating--in spite of a decreased appetite. This is the main reason why Influenza, the
"Flu," became a fatal disease. Formerly "Flu" was as easy to cure as the harmless "Grippe"--a self-cleansing process of the body, mostly prevalent in springtime.
Knowing nothing of "scientific medicine," germs, eta., the patient instinctively followed his lack of appetite, took a mild laxative and very rapidly recovered; usually
he felt much better after than before the "healing" disease. Today, he is falsely taught that a germ is responsible--and not his dangerous unhygienic habits. He eats
too much, which is against the law of Nature, instead of fasting the way every ailing animal cures itself. But the amount of internal impurities and auto-toxins of man
exceed those of any diseased animal. A long fast, therefore, would kill the majority of sick men; however, they would not die by starvation, but would become
suffocated from their own poisonous filth. As an authority in fasting I know full well the reason why a fast is so feared by most people, and that it has been
misapplied by laymen. It is a crime to advise a constipated patient to fast until his tongue is clean, before removing the "deposits of poisons" from his intestines. I
could only succeed in curing very old, severe cases of chronic constipation by relatively long fasts. Man, in regard to health, is more degenerated than any kind of
animal. He lost his reason, so to say, about matters of which he thinks the animal has none at all. Yet! his intelligence places him far above the animal and enables
him to assist Nature to overcome obstructions and difficulties that could become dangerous. That is the philosophical sense of the Art of Naturopathy.
Therefore, if you want to cure chronic constipation perfectly and without any harm, you must change your diet, and instead of using foods which produce disease
and constipation, eat really nourishing foods which loosen up, dissolve and cure. But people are ignorant regarding this truth just as they are about fasting, and they
try to do things without previous experience or knowledge, and failure is usually the result. What I call
"Mucusless Diet" consists of fresh, ripe fruits and starchless
vegetables, for they are the ideal foods, and the fundamental remedies for all diseases. Of course, the application must be intelligently advised by a practitioner
graduated from my school of the Mucusless Diet Healing System.
It is an "eating-your-way-to-health" treatment, and consequently the most reasonable method of curing, because wrong eating is the causative factor in all
diseases.
These mucusless, nourishing and "laxative," that is dissolving foods, form new blood; the best blood that has ever run through your veins--and at once start the
so-called constitutional cure of the body. The circulation of the new blood, permeating every part of the system, dissolves and eliminates the morbid mucus, which
is clogging up the entire human organism; it especially loosens the deep-seated impurities in the intestines and renovates the whole system. This, then is the great
enlightening fact--why constipation not only can be perfectly cured, but why the
"Mucusless Diet" cures when all other treatments have failed.
In severe cases of chronic constipation it is advisable in the beginning, to use as a help, a harmless laxative, to remove the solid obstructions of feces in the
intestines; in other words, to eject the worst filth out of a clogged-up pipe system. Enemas consisting of clear, warm water are also a good help in the beginning.
Among numerous laxatives on the market those of botanical origin are the least harmful. After many years of experience, I have prepared a "special mixture" of
this kind. It has the advantage of removing the old, solid feces, obstructions and mucus, from the intestines, without causing the usual diarrhea and constipation as an
after effect. It is to be used in the beginning only, as an aid, and will not have to be used continually. As soon as the intestines are cleansed from the retained masses
of feces and other obstructions and the mucusless or mucus-lean diet is taken up, you will realize the truth of the previously stated facts. You will then perceive with
both your eyes and with your nose that I have not exaggerated. And you will become convinced that the state of obstruction was not only localized in your
intestines, but that all passages of your entire system were obstructed and constipated with mucus, from your head to your toes.
You will then experience the formerly unbelievable fact--that any kind of disease--even those considered incurable by all doctors--under my treatment soon begin
to improve and are finally cured, if a cure is at all possible, simply because the source of poisoning of the system--the chronic constipation--is eliminated. Then the
new blood, derived from natural food, circulates "unpoisoned" through the entire system and dissolves and eliminates every local symptom, even in the most
deep-seated cases; and it removes the impurities of the entire system, which were mainly supplied from the deposits of poisons and morbid mucus in the intestines,
which condition is called Chronic Constipation.
Conclusion
"Life is a tragedy of nutrition" is a statement I made many years ago. Everyone knows we dig our graves with our teeth, but the saddest of all is the present-day
superstition of 99 per cent of the people--the most highly educated and the ignorant--the healthy as well as sick--the rich and the poor--that we must eat more
concentrated food when weak or sick. Concentrated food, high protein and starchy foods are the most constipating which, as shown in this booklet, accumulate in
the form of waste in the alimentary canal. The so-called "good stool" daily is in reality constipation and you may now see that constipation is the main source of
every disease and that the average person suffering from constipation can only be healed perfectly by a diet, free from STICKY--GLUEY--PASTY properties and
that is a MUCUSLESS DIET.
You may improve your elimination temporarily through laxative remedies--special physical exercises--vibration, massages and various other methods, but you
cannot clean out the old obstructions from the alimentary canal and regenerate and cleanse the whole system as long as you eat the same mucus and toxic-forming
foods which have caused and continue causing your constipation and all other ailments of the human body.
THE DEFINITE CURE OF CHRONIC CONSTIPATION ALSO OVERCOMING CONSTIPATION NATURALLY
Copyright 1922, Dr. Benedict Lust
NOTE FROM SOIL AND HEALTH: The second part of this booklet is an essay by Dr. Benedict Lust. Although the copyright on the booklet says 1922, and thus that date probably puts the entire
booklet into the public domain, from internal evidence it is clear that Lust's essay was written (or re-edited) after the age of Television. Thus it is not included here.
Mucusless diet booklets from the Leaflady