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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Understanding Constipation: The Serious Health Risks

By Sue Thompson

Are your bowel movements regular? Do you often strain when you eliminate but to no avail?

An odd question but a very practical one. Good digestive health starts with having regular bowel movements. It has been found that over 95% of health problems start in the digestive system. In many of these, constipation has been identified as the main cause.

How frequent should bowel movements be? In a 24-hour period, the number of meals you take should equal the number of bowel movements you make. In other words, frequency of meals correlate with the frequency of bowel movements. If you do less of the latter, then you are constipated. Research shows that more than 65% of Americans are suffering from this health condition.

Holistic Opinion offers an entirely different view of constipation from that of Traditional Opinion.

It is defined by Traditional Medicine as the passage of small amounts of hard dry stool and states no rule regarding frequency of elimination. Traditional Medicine believes that frequency is determined by an individual's level of metabolism and therefore varies from individual to individual.

In contrast, Holistic Medicine says that frequency of elimination is determined by the number of meals taken. A healthy digestive system efficiently absorbs food and nutrients during intake and expels the toxic matter 12 - 18 hours later. Food that stays in the body for longer than 18 hours rots and develops toxins that are absorbed in the bloodstream which then leads to different sorts of health problems.

The good news is, it is actually quite easy to get rid of constipation. The tips outlined here will help you have easy and regular bowel movements.

1) Drink a lot of water to rehydrate your digestive system. The ideal daily water intake is one ounce for every pound of your body weight. Try to choose water over any other kind of drink.

2) Exercise regularly. Normal elimination results with the increased blood flow which happens when you exercise.

3) Take a good daily fiber supplement that contains ground flax.

4) Include Essential Fatty Acids like Flax, Borage and Fish Oils in your dietary supplements because these lubricate your digestive system and help ease elimination.

It is very important that we maintain good digestive health. We should make sure that our body is efficiently getting rid of waste matter through regular elimination. A digestive system that is constantly crammed with waste creates a toxic environment. This puts a lot of stress on the liver, lungs, lymphatic system, blood, skin, colon, and kidneys as these organs work in cleansing your body off these toxins.

When faced with a health condition such as constipation, it would be wise to consult with a naturopathic medical practitioner who can give you sound advice on supplements and healthy alternatives; even share reading materials that would be useful in helping you deal with problems caused by poor digestive health.

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