Constipation means a sluggish colon and / or delayed bowel evacuation and consequent stagnation of stools in the colon. Stagnation of stools in the colon is the mother of all diseases. Constipation is a common disturbance of the digestive tract. In this condition, the bowels do not move regularly or are not completely emptied when they move. Constipation is rarely an isolated complaint. Constipation, indigestion and flatulence generally go together. But this trend is generally ignored. Again, sometimes, constipation and diarrhoea or dysentry may often alternate.
Actually, this disorder is essentially a disease of modern civilization because of absence of active, natural lives and crude, unprocessed and natural foods.
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What not is Constipation?
A healthy man, living on natural food, has as many bowel motions as the number of meals eaten by him. If one eats slowly and sparingly of the right kind of foods and also chews his food thoroughly, and if one avoids spices and condiments, one’s bowel motion in a day will be quite sufficient even when he is eating more than once a day. The movement is free, easy and quick. It does not take more than a few seconds, so quick that one sometimes realizes that one has a movement only from the distinct pleasurable sensation which follows. In a healthy individual, all that is needed is getting up very early in the morning after a sound and undisturbed sleep. An abrupt change from the lying down posture to the vertical posture provides all the stimulus needed to cause the mass movement of fecal matter in the colon and bowel movement that follows naturally.
Composition, Bulk and Appearance of Stools:
Composition: Normally, 75 to 80% of the stools is water and 20 to 25% is soid matter. The solid matter consists of indigestible food residues such as fibre (about 30%), bacteria, both dead and living (about 30%) , unabsorbed fat from the diet and also fat formed by bacterial action (about 10 to 20%), cast-away cells from the inner lining of the alimentary canal, undigested and unabsorbed nutrients and residues from various secretions such as the bile, various digestive juices, and mucous. It is the bile pigments which imparts the characteristic colour to the stools.
Bulk of the Stools: The weight of the stools is dependent mainly on the water content. Vegetable foods, especially unrefined cereals, contain such dietary fibre which is indigestible. A part of the fibre may be digested by bacterial fermentation. The rest of the fibre will form part of the stools. This fibre has the capacity to absorb and hold considerable quantities of water. As a result, the stools become somewhat soft and also bulky. On the other hand, refined cereals like maida and polished rice contains little fibre. Animal foods contain no fibre at all. If such foods predominate in the diet, the stools tend to be hard and less bulkly due to the absence of water-holding fibre. As a consequence, while vegetarians living on unrefined cereals and vegetables and fruits pass bulky stools weighing 500 gms or more daily, non-vegetarians living on refined cereals may pass stools weighing not more than 100 gms daily. All foods which leave more fibrous residue increase stool bulk and help in easy bowel evacuation. All foods which leave very little fibrous residue tend to reduce stool-bulk and to cause constipation. The volume of the stools is also affected by the presence of gases which tend to get mixed with the stools. Such stools generally float on water.
Signs of abnormal stool
Under normal conditions, the stools should be well-formed and firm, but not hard. While hard stools are an indication of constipation, stools that are too soft are an indication of indigestion or incomplete digestion and also incomplete absorption.
What Louis Kuhne stated on constipation?
If you absorb a healthy animal passing stools, you will find that in the process of ejecting the stools, the anus does not get soiled at all. This is a fact which Louis Kuhne has emphasised in his book “New Science of Healing“. The inner opening of the anus is, so to say, folded inward. At the time of the ejection of the stools, this inner edge opens out and after ejection, it again curves inward. The same will be the case with healthy human beings.
So, the stools should be yellowish or brownish yellow in colour, except when they partake of the colour of certain highly coloured articles of food, such as leafy vegetables and beet root. White or grey coloured stools are an indication of the absence of bile pigments caused by a disorder in the liver or gall bladder or by an obstruction due to stones in the liver or the gall bladder or even by an obstruction due to the stones in the common bile duct through which the bile enters the duodenum. Normally, the stools should be well-formed, somewhat cylindrical. When there is gas, the stools may be shapeless or come out in thin strips. Being lighter on account of the mixture of gas, it will float on water.