Bowel Cleansing...long

[Guest guest]

Thank you for posting this. I think this is the best piece I've read on this

list regarding healthy bowels. I really appreciate your posting it!

calee

 

Bob & Breezi <bobandbreezi wrote:

What is Normal Bowel Activity?

Herbert M. Shelton

Dr. Sheltons Hygienic Review

 

...Few, if any, organs of man's body are subjected to as much abuse as his

colon. For ages it has been the object of attack by all schools of so-called

 

healing and by all manners of means.

 

The colon has been accused of being lazy; it has been claimed to be

superfluous and its removal advocated; it has been blamed as the source of

almost all the so-called diseases with which man suffers. As a consequence

of

this, it has been goaded and pricked with laxatives, cathartics, and purges,

 

cut with knives, filled by injection, with plain water, soapsuds, molasses,

oils, and other substances to force it to act. It has been filled from above

 

with sand, wheat bran, rough, bulky vegetables, psyllium seed, agar-agar,

mineral oil, olive oil, etc.

 

All of these and many more agents have been employed to force the colon

to

empty itself. They have been employed by those who cannot trust the

functions

of life to the laws and forces of life, but who feel that they must

constantly interfere with the functions of life if life is to continue. They

 

either irritate the bowels and cause them to act vigorously to eject the

source of irritation, or fill them so full of bulk that they are forced to

" move " to make room for the succeeding load of bulk. This plan works on the

same principle as that of the hay bailer. One bail of hay is forced out by

the one that comes after. It is a plan of remedying sluggish bowels by

giving

them more work to perform.

 

All that the various " cures " for constipation ever succeed in doing is to

 

increase the constipation, weaken the walls of the colon and produce

visceroptosis and other troubles. Not one of them even remotely touches the

original cause of constipation. The enema and colonic irrigation produce as

much trouble as other palliatives of constipation and leave the cause of

constipation untouched.

 

The colon functions automatically. Its activities are sub-consciously

controlled. Only the final act of expelling the feces is partially subject

to

conscious control. Conscious meddling with the body's sub-conscious

activities is always injurious. There is no more reason for regularly

meddling with the function of the colon than there is for habitually

intervening in the activities of the heart. Indeed, we can trust the colon

to

faithfully perform its function just as much as we can trust the heart to

faithfully perform its work.

 

People who regularly take heart stimulants or heart depressants pay for

their meddlesome interference with the function of this organ with

increasing

heart trouble. In like manner, people who habitually force or retard bowel

action pay for their folly by increasing bowel impairment. Bowel action,

being spontaneous and automatic, does not require to be consciously

regulated

any more than does any other of the body's subconscious or automatic

functions.

 

There are thousands who live constantly with their minds in their colons.

 

They are never satisfied with the function of their colons. Their movements

are never complete enough, or never frequent enough, or they are never the

proper color, or thy do not occur soon enough after their eating. These

people are obsessed with their colons and live for their daily passage or

passages. They seem to think that man's chief function in life is to be

constantly filling up and emptying out again. Their very worry and

apprehension over their bowel function tends to produce the very trouble

they

fear or to perpetuate and intensify the troubles they have.

 

If these people can only learn that the normal bowel supplies its own

lubricant and " acts' normally when there is a need for action and the

abnormal bowel is injured by artificial lubricants and by all forcing

measures, they may be taught to follow the sage advice of Dr. Charles E.

Page, who says, instead of badgering the bowels into unusual activity: " A

good rule for many who suffer tortures of mind because of constipation would

 

be: mind your own business and let your bowels mind theirs. Try not to have

movements, but rather to deserve them. That is, attend to the general health

 

by living hygienically, and the bowels, if given regular opportunity, move

when there is anything to move for. "

 

The principle that normal bowel function depends upon good general health

 

is the very antithesis of that generally held; namely, that good health

depends on regular (if not normal) bowel action. Also, the principle that

normal bowel action rests upon right living is the very opposite of the one

generally followed; namely, that normal bowel action depends upon special

attention to the bowels.

 

There are so-called dietitians whose main object in feeding seems to be

to

prepare food mixtures to increase peristalsis. They feed, not to nourish the

 

body, but to make the bowels move. They feed laxatives, not nutrients. Their

 

" dietetics " is a simulacrum of the drug system.

 

The impaired colon needs less work, not more; rest, not stimulation; more

 

nerve energy, not increased enervation; nourishment, not bulk. Instead of

giving the colon more material to move, give them more energy to move with.

 

A normal bowel action is never forced. It comes as a response to a

spontaneous urge to go to stool. It is never difficult and does not require

straining and grunting. It is free of effort. The normal movement is so easy

 

and is so quickly over that one hardly realizes he has had a movement. The

movement requires from five to ten seconds to completely empty the rectum

and

is accompanied by a distinctly pleasurable sensation. The normal stool is

free of all odor.

 

If movement is forced when there is no urge; if it is accomplished only

by

much training; if it is painful; if the stools are foul; the movement is not

 

normal. If the stools are very large and hard; if they are thin, ribbon-like

 

strands; if they are composed of little balls: if they are loose and watery;

 

they are not normal.

 

Much has been written about the proper position to assume at stool. There

 

is little doubt that primitive man assumed the squatting position, a

position

that renders the use of toilet paper superfluous if the movement is normal;

but it has been my observation that the normal bowel will move easily and

freely in any position; whereas, the abnormal one may not move easily in any

 

position. I cared for a child that could have a bowel movement in a standing

 

position only. Of more importance than position is nerve energy. If nerve

energy is low, no position will compensate for its lack.

 

Few people ever have a normal stool, for the reason that most people

habitually over eat to such an extent that their stools are made up largely

of undigested food and this is almost always in an advanced state of

decomposition. Such people are usually constipated from overworking their

colons. Even though they have regular movements, the egesta is often one to

three days behind the time it normally should have been expelled.

 

Most animals have a bowel movement immediately upon arising. Most men and

 

women tend to do the same. This would seem to be one of the established

rhythms of the body.

 

There is also a tendency for a movement to follow immediately upon the

ingestion of a meal. However, this is by no means invariable and depends

upon

the amount and character of food previously eaten and the time that has

elapsed since taking the prior meals.

 

There is no doubt that a small quantity of bulk in the food eaten offers

the bowels a better opportunity to move the feces along, but it must be

recognized that truly normal bowels will move efficiently on a bulkless diet

 

of bananas and water. Too much bulk is commonly prescribed and used. If your

 

bowels move regularly only because you eat lots of bulk, you are

constipated.

 

It is good health that insures normal bowel movements and not daily

movements that insure good health. Normal bowel action is, therefore, based

on healthful living.