It never ceases to amaze me when new patients say their bowel movements are normal, yet when asked about frequency the answer is from once every two days to once a week. Many people consider they don’t have a problem with their bowels unless they have pain or diarrhea.
Constipation is a major threat to the health of your entire body. The food you consume requires many steps in the process of digestion and absorption before you can use it for fuel, tissue repair and healing.
If waste material fails to leave your body within the appropriate time frame, changes take place within your bowel which sets the stage for serious problems. Within the bowel are billions of bacteria which further break down waste products from digestion. The nature of these bacteria is healthy provided they remain within the confines of the bowel. Among the many chemical reactions within your bowel, production of vitamin B-12 is of critical importance. If you are low in vitamin B-12, it’s quite possible that your bacterial garden in the bowel is out of balance.
When waste products fail to be removed within 18 to 24 hours of ingestion, the pH shifts from slightly acidic to alkaline. The longer stool remains in the bowel, the greater the pH shift. With a shift from slightly acidic to slightly alkaline, the acid loving bacteria are impacted, changing how chemical reactions are carried out. When this happens, the good, acid loving bacteria are replaced with a bacterial flora which begin to produce toxic elements with names like skatol, cadaverine, and putracine.
Internally produced toxins get absorbed into the blood stream and go to the liver, where nutrition is supposed to be processed. Now instead of nourishment for strength, energy, and tissue restoration, we see a toxic soup which burdens the liver in it’s attempt to properly run the body. Elevations in ammonia from this imbalance can set up headaches. When this happens, hormone balance, blood sugar stabilization, protection from environmental toxins and general well being all, (forgive the pun) go in the toilet.
When the becomes liver compromised, we may experience everything from headaches, fatigue, aches and pains, to endocrine dysfunction. Correcting constipation can range from extremely simple to totally frustrating. Diet, fiber, and water intake are crucial.
Among considerations causing constipation, the greatest is that of dehydration. If the body is lacking hydration, increased conservation occurs and is usually evident by increased urine concentration. More fluid is reabsorbed from the bowel, creating more compaction of the stool and slowing down transit.
Putting off the urge to go causes reduced signal of need to eliminate and can cause expansion of the bowel, defeating the muscular contraction of this critical organ. Medications for pain, depression, and high blood pressure can interfere with bowel transit, resulting in constipation with no resolution till the drug is discontinued.
Activity is always beneficial as massage of the gut by way of the obliques and rectus abdominis muscles can stimulate bowel activity. For this reason, a sedentary lifestyle is not conducive to good bowel function.
A lack of fiber in the diet with foods which glue the system made from refined grains found in pastries and white breads can be a great problem, especially in the elderly, where chewing food has become a problem. Besides diets which are bland with no fiber, too much fiber, once a person is already constipated can create the equivalent of cement in the system. This is where the use of appropriate colon irrigation can set the stage for recovering healthy bowel function.
After clearing the bowel, it’s important to restore the environment so the normal healthy bacteria can re inhabit this organ and maintain it’s health as well as the entire body.
One last comment on causes of constipation. Vacations, where routines get altered, long flights, dehydration, public rest rooms, these all play a part in upsetting normal body responses. The reason for this article being posted early is due to a long flight to Dallas tomorrow with altered routines, but hopefully no dehydration. Instead, good foods, wonderful friends, and great ministry.
www.drjohnabriggs.com
Constipation is a major threat to the health of your entire body. The food you consume requires many steps in the process of digestion and absorption before you can use it for fuel, tissue repair and healing.
If waste material fails to leave your body within the appropriate time frame, changes take place within your bowel which sets the stage for serious problems. Within the bowel are billions of bacteria which further break down waste products from digestion. The nature of these bacteria is healthy provided they remain within the confines of the bowel. Among the many chemical reactions within your bowel, production of vitamin B-12 is of critical importance. If you are low in vitamin B-12, it’s quite possible that your bacterial garden in the bowel is out of balance.
When waste products fail to be removed within 18 to 24 hours of ingestion, the pH shifts from slightly acidic to alkaline. The longer stool remains in the bowel, the greater the pH shift. With a shift from slightly acidic to slightly alkaline, the acid loving bacteria are impacted, changing how chemical reactions are carried out. When this happens, the good, acid loving bacteria are replaced with a bacterial flora which begin to produce toxic elements with names like skatol, cadaverine, and putracine.
Internally produced toxins get absorbed into the blood stream and go to the liver, where nutrition is supposed to be processed. Now instead of nourishment for strength, energy, and tissue restoration, we see a toxic soup which burdens the liver in it’s attempt to properly run the body. Elevations in ammonia from this imbalance can set up headaches. When this happens, hormone balance, blood sugar stabilization, protection from environmental toxins and general well being all, (forgive the pun) go in the toilet.
When the becomes liver compromised, we may experience everything from headaches, fatigue, aches and pains, to endocrine dysfunction. Correcting constipation can range from extremely simple to totally frustrating. Diet, fiber, and water intake are crucial.
Among considerations causing constipation, the greatest is that of dehydration. If the body is lacking hydration, increased conservation occurs and is usually evident by increased urine concentration. More fluid is reabsorbed from the bowel, creating more compaction of the stool and slowing down transit.
Putting off the urge to go causes reduced signal of need to eliminate and can cause expansion of the bowel, defeating the muscular contraction of this critical organ. Medications for pain, depression, and high blood pressure can interfere with bowel transit, resulting in constipation with no resolution till the drug is discontinued.
Activity is always beneficial as massage of the gut by way of the obliques and rectus abdominis muscles can stimulate bowel activity. For this reason, a sedentary lifestyle is not conducive to good bowel function.
A lack of fiber in the diet with foods which glue the system made from refined grains found in pastries and white breads can be a great problem, especially in the elderly, where chewing food has become a problem. Besides diets which are bland with no fiber, too much fiber, once a person is already constipated can create the equivalent of cement in the system. This is where the use of appropriate colon irrigation can set the stage for recovering healthy bowel function.
After clearing the bowel, it’s important to restore the environment so the normal healthy bacteria can re inhabit this organ and maintain it’s health as well as the entire body.
One last comment on causes of constipation. Vacations, where routines get altered, long flights, dehydration, public rest rooms, these all play a part in upsetting normal body responses. The reason for this article being posted early is due to a long flight to Dallas tomorrow with altered routines, but hopefully no dehydration. Instead, good foods, wonderful friends, and great ministry.
www.drjohnabriggs.com
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