HEALTH NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 146, 20 May 1930, Page 9

HEALTH NOTES

CONSTIPATION. ITS PREVENTION AND TREATMENT. (Contributed, by the Department of Health.) Constipation is not necessarily a serious ailment, the neglect of which must bring dire disaster on our heads, states an article in an official journal of the Society of Medical Officers of Health, London. • Its universal prevention in not going automatically to convert a nation from a C 3 to an A 1 standard of health; nor is it likely that, by doubling or trebling the frequency with which we evacuate the bowels, we shall banish cancer from our midst. Rut most of us know from personal experience that severe constipation entails a very real sense of discomfort, and that we feel better when our bowels act thoroughly at least once a day. So, however sceptical we may be when faddists rant at constipation as if it were the Devil himself, it is worth our while to make sure that we do not suffer from it ourselves.

There are two very different ways — the mechanical and the physiological —of regarding and treating constipation. The first is alluringly simple. The infinitely complex human body is regarded as a man-made machine which is inadequately lubricated. That is its only fault. So that all that is needed is more lubrication. The person who in the past secured an evacuation only every other day acquires a regular after-breakfast habit by taking his salts, his paraffin oil, his cascara pill, or whatever is the most fashionable aperient at the moment. Millions live on this system and doubtless many benefit from it not a little. But it is a short cut to health which, like so many short cuts, is likely to lead its patrons astray. The inherent weakness of this mechanical attitude lies in the fact that it entails tinkering with an effect instead of getting to the root of a causo. Constipation may merely be a symptom, a sign of a thoroughly unwholesome mode of life. To content oneself with relieving constipation by aperients without investigating the causes of it is like introducing prohibition into ,a country with natives whoso ten-dollar thirst is ignored. The first question, therefore, a sufferer from constipation must ask himself is not “What aperient should I take?’’ but “Why am I constipated?” If lie contents nimself with taking aperients, the relief he thus obtains will beguile him into continuing on his old evil ways —eating unwisely, taking no exercise, and so on. Aperients to the lazy glutto.i are in the material world as dangerously easy as absolutions to the sinner in the spiritual world; and the man who imagines he can fill his belly to his heart's content provided he takes salts next morning will wake up one day to find himself suffering from one of the many jienalties Nature lias in store for the man who has not learnt to think and live physiologically. If we dismiss for a moment the short-cut, mechanical way of treating constipation, and consider how it may be prevented or treated physiologically, our first consideration should be our diet. The following lists of foods will show at a glance those which counteract constipation:—Green vegetables and fruit, particularly prunes, figs, plums, grapes, raisins, dates, ginger apples and poors; wholemeal, ryo bread and oatmeal; butter and butter-milk, cream and fat cheese; kofir or sour milk, coffee with milk; honey, jam, treacle, sugar, herrings, sardines, salmon and fat bacon, water, particularly when taken on an empty stomach in the morning. It will be observed that the list of foods counteracting constipation is what is commonly described as “a rich and varied dietary,” which means that if you want to gourmandiso on if you trail. So it is well to remember thut more persons die from over-eat-ing than from hard drinking—more’s the pity. In passing, it should, however, be noted that constipation is sometimes due to undorfeeuing, particularly in women. There are some general rules to follow: Eat slowly and chew well, even though the number of “chews” devoted to each mouthful does not reach tho imposing figure with which Mr Gladstone was credited. Ray periodic visits to tire dentist, who will treat septic conditions, such as pyorrhoea, which impair digestion. Do not neglect a call to evacuate the bowels; it may soon cease, and the propitious moment pass away. Allow time for the act; the human body does not work with the precision and rapidity of a penny-in-tlre-slot machine. Lack of exercise is a very potent cause of consipatioii. Tho paunchy business man with a full cargo of bacon and eggs may fondly fancy that he is taking all the exercise he needs as he waddles for ten minutes to the railway station, sometimes breaking into an ambling canter when lie is late. If ho is wise, lie will consult his doctor on this point, for grading exercises to the weeds of the individual is difficult, and when “sixty” tries to gambol like “sixteen” there is likely to be trouble. Indeed, some must perforce dispense with all but the mildest exercise, for their constitutions may be so enfeebled that when the day’s work in an office is done there is 410 store of energy on which to draw; mental work is bodily fatiguing. On the subject of exercise we should therefore be vety cautious, generalising on its far too frequent neglect, but; not venturing to counsel tho individual as to how much he shall disport himself. Having dilated on tho virtues of the physiological way and on the vices of the mechanically lubricating way of treating constipation, we must still confess that tire former is apt to be a counsel of perfection, and that we must sometimes humbly come down to taking aperients, at any rate occasionally. Which should be chosen? A doctor’s advice is often necessary, for tho patient is liable to be confused by the prodigal generosity wherewith he is met by the manufacturing chemist. There must be literally hundreds of preparations on the market. They cm be roughly classified according as they (1) Rromoto the movements of the bowels; example cascara. (2) Draw water into the bowels, thus liquefying their contents; example, Epsom salts. (3) Lubricate the lining of the bowels; example, paraffin oil. While drugs in tire first class are apt to make constipation worse than ever in the long run, bigger and bigger doses being required to obtain the same effects, the uperient which mechanically lubricates the bowels retains its action unimpaired, and is accordingly preferred s by many. In addition to diet, exercise and drugs, there are many other factors influencing the action of the bowels, such as massage, hydrotherapy, change of climate, enemas, find so pn. This is not tho place for a detailed discussion of these measures, and the purpose of these lines will have been fulfilled if the reader is -induced to look at constipation not as an isolated phenomenon, such as a cut finger or foreign body in the eye, but as a warning that in this respect we are not leading lives as healthy as those our reihote and savage ancestors were supposed to lead. The subject is full of contradictions, partly because what is one man’s drink is another man’s poison. For this reason an attempt has been made in this essay to keep to general principals rather than to dogmatise over details.