Constipation
Constipation
It is interesting that people talk about their digestive problems with the term regularity, because regularity – that is, order – is the answer to the problem. You eat and you eliminate; those are the basic physiological functions that keep us alive. When the elimination function blocked, it is called constipation. This is usually thought to be disease that needs to be treated with pills (laxatives). In reality, constipation is a poor function of an organ as it interacts with our environment (the food we eat). It is not a disease – but it can lead to disease – and laxatives are not the answer. It is recommended the following practices to relieve constipation:
• Drink seven glasses of water, preferably warm, each day. Drink more if the weather is hot or you are exercising.
• Never suppress the urge to move your bowels. The longer these undesirable substances linger inside you, the more likely cancer and reabsorption of toxins become. Also, if you override the urge, the stool thickens and harder to expel.
• Avoid antibiotics (except, of course, in life-threatening situations when antibiotics are necessary) because they destroy the healthful bowel bacteria. Take probiotics daily, usually acidophilus, bifidus, and benign E.coli populations; they build up a healthy bowel flora. You find probiotics in the fridge section of your health food store.
• Digestion starts with chewing well, and if everything you eat is soft, the digestion process does not function well from the beginning. There is a saying in German pertaining food: soft in, hard out; hard in, soft out. So give your teeth some work to do.
Here are some gentle herb and food remedies for constipation:
• Prunes
• Unsweetened prune juice
• Flaxseed (thoroughly chewed or freshly ground is better than store-bought ground)
• Psyllium
• Ginger
• Fenugreek
• Garlic
• Sweet violets
• Apple
The old saying “An apple a day keeps the doctors away” might well stem from laxative benefits of apples.
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