HEALTH NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 18026, 22 May 1930, Page 13

HEALTH NOTES.

CONSTIPATION. 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 is not going automatically to convert a nation from a C 3 to an Ai 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. But 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 soeptical 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. Fashionable Aperients. There are two very different ways—the mechanical and the physiological—of regarding and treating constipation. The first is alluringly simple. The inflintely 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 W'hich, like so many short cuts, is likely to lead its patrons astray. A distinguished specialist said once that in many cases his patients’ symptoms were due to their pills rather than to their constipation. According to the same authority, an idea of the enormous quantity of purgatives taken without medical advice can be gathered from the fact that the revenue derived in Great Britain from the stamp duty on patent medicines, a large proportion of which are purgative in action, was £13,629 in 1860, and reached the enormous total of £360,377 in 1914The latter sum correspondsapproximately to £2,600,000 spent by the public on patent medicines in the year. Effect and Cause. The inherent weakness of this mechanical attitude lies in the fact that it entails tinkering with an effect instead of getting at the root of a cause. Constipation may merely be a symptom, a sign of a thoroughly unwholesome mode of life. To content oneself with relieving constipation by aperients without the causes of it is like Introducing prohibition into a country with natives whose 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 he contents himself with taking aperients the relief he thus obtains will beguile him into continuing on his old evil ways—eating unwisealy, taking no exercise, and so on. Aperients to the lazy glutton 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 penalties Nature has in store for the man who has not learned to think and live physiologically. Study Diet. 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 which favour constipation and which counteract it. Favour Constipation—Cocoa, chocolate, tea, red wine, and other astringent drinks, excess of potatoes and rice (potatoes baked in their skins and eaten whole are not as a rule constipating), fresh milk (not always). Counteract Constipation Green vegetables and fruit, particularly prunes, figs, plums, grapes, raisins, dates, ginger, apples, and pears; wholemeal rye bread and oatmeal; butter and buttermilk, cream and fat cheese; kefir 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 gourmandise on it you can. So it is well to remember that more persons die from over-eating than from hard drinking—more’s the pity. In passing, if should, however, be noted that constipation is sometimes due to under-feeding, 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 the imposing figure with which Mr Gladstone was credited. Pay periodic visits to the 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-the-slot machine. A Potent Cause. Lack of exercise is a very potent cause of constipation. The paunchy business man with, a full cargo of bacon and eggs may fondly fancy that he is taking all the exercise he needs a.s he waddles for ten minutes to the railway station, sometimes breaking into an ambling canter when he is late. If he is wise he will consult his doctor on this point, for grading exercise to the needs of the individual is difficult, and-when “sixty” tries to gambol like “sixteen” there is likely to he 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 no Slore of energy on .which to draw; mental work is bodily fatiguing. On this subject of exercise we should therefore be very cautious, generalising on its far too frequent neglect, but not venturing to counsel the individual as to how much he shall disport himself. Having dilated on the. virtues of the physiological way and on the vices of the mechanically lubricating way of treating constipation we must still confess that the 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 the patient is liable to be confused by the prodigal generosity wherewith he is met by the manufacturing chemist. There must be literally hundreds of on the market. They can be roughly classified according as they (1) 'Promote the movements (peristalsis) 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 the first place are apt to make constipation worse than ever in the long run, bigger and bigger doses being required to obtain the same effects, the aperient which mechanically lubricates the bowels retains its action unimpaired, and is accordingly preferred 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, and so on. This is not the place for a detailed discussion on 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 remote and savage ancestors were supposed to lead. The spbject 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 principles rather than to dogmatise over detail!.