Green Pharmacy for Constipation

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" Green Pharmacy " for Constipation JoAnn Guest Apr 13, 2005 22:21 PDT

Working as a nutritionist, I hear a great deal about people’s bowels and

am frequently astounded by what they consider to be normal behaviour on

the part of their nether regions.

More staggering still is the ‘sang froid’ with which many people regard

the dilatory nature of their bowel movements.

 

‘My bowels move regularly, once a week, whether they need to or not!’ is

often the attitude. Most people, indeed, see nothing wrong with this

situation; but ideally, according to naturopathic principles, when two

or three meals are being eaten daily the bowel should move at least once

or twice a day. If this shocks you, you should probably read on…

 

Let us take a look at what the bowels should be doing and what may

happen if they don’t do it properly.

 

TO START AT THE TOP

 

It is vitally important that food should be chewed in the mouth,

beginning the process of digestion correctly. The act of chewing starts

to break the food down. As the Chinese say, ‘The stomach has no teeth’:

if your food isn’t chewed in your mouth, it certainly won’t be anywhere

else. Chewing also alerts the stomach to the imminent arrival of food,

triggering the production of stomach acid and digestive enzymes.

 

The production of digestive juices in the stomach stimulates the rest of

the digestive tract to produce digestive secretions. Most of the

absorption of food constituents into the bloodstream takes place in the

small intestine.

If the original chewing doesn’t take place, or if you run around like a

demented duck whilst eating, this won’t happen! You will then get

partially digested foodstuffs fermenting and blowing you up like a

balloon, causing gripping pain and inflammation, and generally creating

havoc.

 

What’s more, if your food isn’t broken down and absorbed effectively,

you won’t get the nutrients you need from it, so you’ll become

malnourished despite eating plenty of food. Bizarre but true. In fact,

you often get hunger pangs because your body is looking for sources of

the nutrients it is lacking. Sorting out your digestion can therefore

reduce those troublesome cravings as well as removing stomach pains and

abdominal cramps!

 

MOVING ON

 

The main functions of the large intestine or colon are to absorb water

and salts from the food residues. The longer the bowel contents hang

around, the more water is absorbed and the harder and drier they become.

Dry, compacted faeces are much harder for the bowel to grip and move

along, so the bowel movements become slower and less effective. Thus,

transit time (the time it takes your food to get from mouth to anus)

increases and you’re on your way to constipation.

 

Wastes that sit around inside the colon for long periods of time can

stick to the gut wall, gradually hardening there. The gut wall becomes

inflamed and you get pain, cramping, bloating and all that IBS stuff

that is so common these days. When the gut wall becomes suitably

inflamed and irritated, new food arrivals trigger diarrhoea. Many

people’s diarrhoea is caused by their long term constipation, little

though they might suspect it.

 

What else can happen when your digestive tract is ‘under-functioning’?

 

Flatulence arises from the bowel contents sitting stewing instead of

moving on. Diverticulitis comes about when the muscles of the colon sag,

creating pockets that can fill with impacted faeces, creating

inflammation and further weakening the tone of the gut wall.

 

A sufficient supply of water is vital for the whole body, but

particularly the bowel!

 

Without sufficient water the bowel contents soon dry up, as described

earlier. The lining of the colon also changes, becoming thicker and

stickier rather than providing a smooth lubricant for the passage of the

faeces.

 

Drink! Taking 1.5 litres of water a day is a cheap and effective way of

improving health and raising energy levels. Try not to drink too much

just before, during or after eating, as this will dilute the digestive

juices. More than 20 minutes before or after eating is the best bet for

effective drinking.

 

Avoid coffee, alcohol, sugar and tobacco particularly if you are

constipated, as they upset the gastric secretions and deaden the

response of the bowel when used long term.

 

Foods that will help include:

 

• Short grain brown rice, cooked with lots of water and chewed well

• Figs, raw or cooked

• Dates, raw or cooked

• Carrot juice

• Prune juice

 

Exercise regularly, if only gently, as this stimulates muscle activity

and assists peristalsis.

 

SUPPLEMENTS

There are two main ways of encouraging better bowel movement with

supplements, either by using bulking agents or taking laxatives.

 

Bulking agents include products such as organic linseeds (flaxseeds) and

psyllium husks, which when taken with plenty of water, swell up inside

the bowel to soften the stool and provide the bulk needed by the bowel

wall.

 

If these simple remedies are not enough to get your bowel moving, you

may need to use herb laxatives. Popular natural laxatives include senna,

cascara and buckthorn bark. A middle strength product I recommend is an

effective tablet which includes frangula, chicory, blessed thistle and

fumitory.

 

For more intensive action, granules of linseed and senna are very

effective. When using these laxatives, start with the smallest dose

recommended and work up until your bowel is moving well. Don’t whack in

with a huge dose or you may well have to increase your household

expenditure on toilet rolls…

 

Once your bowel is working well, reduce the dose and use the bulking

agents to continue the beneficial effect. Employ the lifestyle changes

as well, rather than depending on the laxatives.

 

That’s you: no bloating, no bubbling and boiling, stomach flatter, skin

clearer, eyes brighter, with a water bottle clutched firmly in your hand

and a definite spring in your step.

 

Healthy bowels: healthy body.

 

Moderator's Note: I would definitely not advise anyone to make use of

senna if they have any cardiovascular complaints. Senna is linked to

frequent heart arrythmias.

 

http://www.healthywaymagazine.com/issue28/05_bowels.html

 

---

_The " Green Pharmacy " for Constipation

-----

A few years ago, I was interviewed for Dan Rather's Eye on America

program on CBS. In another segment of the same program, Rather

interviewed the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration

(FDA), David Kessler, M.D. The program showed me in my habitual

fieldwork environment, on location in Ecuador, wearing my exotic

jungle garb. Dr. Kessler was shown in his office wearing his usual

coat and tie. Although we never actually met or debated on that

program, the difference in our garb spoke volumes.

 

Dr. Kessler and I disagreed about herbs and nutritional supplements.

He has come down rather hard on them, while I am convinced that they

can be useful. They're a cheap way to prevent some conditions,

ameliorate others and even cure a few.

 

But the FDA does not allow

any medicinal claims for herbs and supplements unless they have been

proven to FDA satisfaction with extensive clinical trials.

 

As of 1995, it cost $500 million to jump through the FDA hoops to

prove any new drug, herb or supplement to be safe and effective. Few

marketers of herbs or supplements have that kind of spending money.

Drug companies, which do have the money, can justify the expense

because once they get a new drug approved, they usually have a

patent entitling them to exclusive marketing rights for many years.

During that time they can recoup many times over the investment made

in the approval process. But who in their right mind would spend

hundreds of millions to prove that prune juice is a good laxative?

(It is.) You can't patent prunes, so you could never make your money

back.

 

In Praise of Prunes

 

When Dan Rather's producer called, he asked me what questions Rather

should ask Dr. Kessler. I told him to have Rather offer Dr. Kessler

a bottle of prune juice and ask if he considered it a safe,

effective laxative. If he answered no, I suggested that Rather

request that Dr. Kessler drink some and experience the results for

himself. If he answered yes, I suggested that Rather ask why FDA

labeling regulations prohibit prune juice marketers from stating

that prune juice is a safe, effective, gentle laxative.

 

At my supermarket, prune juice costs only $1.30 a quart, making it

probably the cheapest, least unpleasant laxative now available. At

my nearby herb store, effective botanical laxatives--rhubarb root,

cascara sagrada bark, senna pods and leaves and psyllium seeds and

husks--are almost as cheap, but they don't taste half as good.

 

Meanwhile, FDA-approved commercial laxatives, many of which have

senna, cascara sagrada or psyllium in them, are comparatively

costly. And many Americans do use prune juice as a laxative. So why

won't the FDA allow it to be labeled as such?

 

Facts on Fiber

 

The sad fact is that most Americans probably wouldn't need a

laxative, herbal or otherwise, if they ate right. Doctors know that

a high-fiber diet controls constipation by keeping things moving

through the intestine.

 

Thanks to a family history of colon cancer, I was already a high-

fiber freak when I first heard a talk by Denis Burkitt, M.D., a

respected British surgeon who has spent a lifetime working in East

Africa. Dr. Burkitt noted that in nonindustrial societies, among

them the African communities where he worked, people eat a very high-

fiber diet and rarely suffer from constipation. In fact, the only

people Dr. Burkitt ever saw with constipation while in Africa were

wealthy people who ate the same low-fiber diet that so many

Americans eat.

 

Here's a sure-fire formula to create a problem with constipation:

Take all the fiber-rich fruits, vegetables and whole grains out of

your diet. In their place eat lots of meats, fats and dairy foods.

No wonder an estimated 10 percent of Americans suffer from

constipation, with at least 20 percent of the elderly complaining of

it.

 

When I say that diet can control constipation, I'm not just talking

about prune juice. Every whole-grain item and every fiber-rich fruit

and vegetable helps prevent and relieve constipation. In folk

medicine the foods that get special recognition as laxatives include

almonds, apples, avocados, chicory, dandelion, dates, endive, figs,

flaxseed, grapes, mangos, papayas, papaya, persimmons, pineapple,

prunes, rhubarb, rutabagas, soybeans, turnips, walnuts and

watercress. You might easily contrive any number of soups and salads

from this list.

 

If you are constipated, the first thing you should do is change your

diet to the " double high five " by eating five fruits and five

vegetables a day. If you are still constipated after two days,

increase your fruit and veggie intake while diminishing your intake

of low-fiber foods like meats and refined breads. Also, I'd

recommend that you avoid tea if constipation is a problem for you.

Tea is rich in tannins, which is one reason that it is recommended

as a treatment for diarrhea. Tannins help bind stools and hold back

bowel movements.

 

Fruit and vegetable juices also work, especially those that retain

much of their fiber. Prune juice tops the list, of course, but some

juice advocates say that apple-pear juice is a particularly good

laxative. Among vegetable juices, asparagus, jícama and potato have

been suggested.

 

Some people who favor juicing use machines that eject most of the

fiber. When it comes to treating constipation, that's a big mistake,

because fiber is precisely what you want.

 

 

Green Pharmacy for Constipation

 

Several herbs can also help prevent and treat constipation.

 

Flax (Linum usitatissimum). Also known as linseed, flaxseed as an

herbal treatment for constipation gets an endorsement from

Commission E, the body of scientists that provides advice on herbal

treatments to Germany's equivalent of the FDA. Commission E suggests

taking one to three tablespoons of whole or crushed flaxseed two or

three times a day for chronic constipation.

 

A special word of warning: If you try this remedy, make sure that

you also get plenty of water--at least eight full glasses a day--to

keep all that bulk moving through your digestive system.

 

Psyllium (Plantago ovata). Tiny psyllium seeds contain a fiber

called mucilage, which absorbs a great deal of fluid in the gut.

This makes the seeds swell. They add bulk to stool, and as stool

becomes bulkier, it presses on the colon wall, triggering the muscle

contractions we experience as " the urge. " Psyllium is quite popular

in Germany, and Commission E approves taking three to ten

tablespoons a day for chronic constipation.

 

As with flaxseed, psyllium needs water to work, and if you take it

without water, it might obstruct your digestive tract.

 

And if you have asthma, don't take this herb. There have been

several reports of allergic reactions to psyllium, including a few

serious asthma attacks from inhaled seed dust.

 

You should also watch how you react to this herb if you have

allergies. If allergic symptoms develop after you take it once,

don't use it again.

 

Aloe (Aloe, various species), buckthorn (Rhamnus catharticus),

cascara sagrada (Rhamnus purshianus), frangula (Frangula alnus) and

senna (Cassia senna). These herbs all contain powerful natural

laxative chemicals called anthraquinones. With certain reservations,

Commission E endorses all of these herbs for treating chronic

constipation.

 

I suggest trying any of these anthraquinone herbs only as a last

resort. You should try a high-fiber diet and other, gentler herbs

before reaching for any of these. Any herb that contains

anthraquinones can be unpleasantly powerful.

 

If you use buckthorn, cascara sagrada or frangula, which are all

barks, insist on aged bark. The anthraquinones in fresh bark

irritate the digestive tract and may cause bloody diarrhea and

vomiting.

 

Anthraquinone laxatives should not be taken over long periods of

time or during pregnancy or nursing. If you take these laxatives for

long periods, you may become dependent on them. That's why I call

them a last resort.

 

 

 

Senna

 

Leaflets and seed pods of senna are used to make a powerful

laxative.

 

 

Fenugreek (Trigonella foe-num-graecum). Like psyllium, fenugreek

seeds contain " fluid-absorbing " mucilage. If you use fenugreek seeds,

make sure you drink plenty of water to keep things moving along. And

don't use more than two teaspoons at a time, as any more may cause

abdominal distress.

 

Rhubarb (Rheum officinale). I like this constipation-relief recipe

from physician Ronald Hoffman, M.D., that was published in Parade

magazine:

Puree three stalks of rhubarb without the leaves. Add one

cup of apple juice, a quarter of a peeled lemon and one tablespoon

of raw honey. It will make a thick, tart drink that should do the trick.

 

 

Dr. Hoffman is right about rhubarb. It contains a natural laxative

chemical that's roughly equivalent to that in cascara sagrada and

senna. It's also high in fiber. Remember, though, that its laxative

action can be pretty powerful; you should probably try some other

methods first.

 

http://www.mothernature.com/Library/Bookshelf/Books/41/35.cfm

_________________

 

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-

DietaryTi-

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Genes

 

 

 

 

AIM Barleygreen

" Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future "

 

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets.html