CONSTIPATION.
Temporary non-action of the bowels as excretory organs, is entirely normal
under certain conditions, as (1) following diarrhœa or looseness, whether
caused by indigestion or physic, (2) throughout the period of a fast, (3)
for the mother, several days (varying from 3 to 10), at confinement,[38]
and (4) at such other times as “Nature finds it necessary to muster all
the energies of the system for some special purpose, momentarily of
paramount importance,” as in alarming sicknesses where, accompanied by
lack of appetite, the bowels remain closed for a considerable period of
time. In none of these circumstances should there be continued efforts to
excite action. In the last-named instance the lower bowel may need a
clearing out by free injection at the _beginning_, and whenever there are
fecal matters to remove; but when convalescence is established, the
appetite and strength have returned, food is taken and digested, the
bowels will act of their own accord. The practice of forestalling nature
in this matter by using physic or injections is often the cause of much
mischief——it is an impertinent interference in nature’s plans, and is
seldom useful. If the sufferer is never fed, except at convalescence and
when a _natural appetite_ has returned, and then only with plain,
wholesome food,——restricting the quantity to the present capacity for
digestion and absorption,——the evacuation of the lower bowel may be
awaited without any feeling of anxiety or alarm at its seeming tardiness.
Returning strength is the only needed physic.
[Footnote 38: The very common practice of administering purgatives or
injections a few days after confinement is not only unnecessary——it is
fraught with mischief and often with disaster. I have known of instances
where robust women were kept sick, and dangerously so, in bed for weeks in
consequence of the free use of oil administered by the physician
(according to his invariable practice) on the third and succeeding days.
At her next confinement, one lady who had suffered as above, having lived
hygienically during the gestation period, suffered very little pain, was
on her feet, washed and dressed her baby, and had a natural movement on
the second day. In another case purgation was attempted on the third day
and, oil not acting promptly, the total results of profuse injections at
intervals for the next three days, was, on the _sixth_ day, to bring away
about a _teaspoonful of strawberry seeds_, the residue of berries eaten on
the previous day. It is evident that the food was well digested and
absorbed into the circulation, and that no fecal matters were secreted;
hence no occasion for the bowels to “move,” in the common understanding of
the term. In cases where women approaching confinement are troubled with
constipation (entirely unnecessary if they will live properly), the lower
bowel should be evacuated by the aid of free injections prior to delivery;
but succeeding that event nature may well be left to herself for a time.
Nature, however, does not have a fair chance where patients of this class
are overfed; hence, and hence only, the necessity for “aiding” her in
moving the bowels.]
In case of severe constipation, injections——internal baths, so to say——may
be employed in emergencies, but infrequently and with extreme care, lest
they aggravate the evil and provoke others. Although in no sense as
injurious as purgative medicines, which inevitably impair the nutritive
organs, still enemas should never be depended on for daily movements.
Next to a correct dietary, with liberal exercise in the open air, one of
the best aids in promoting regular action of the bowels is, in my opinion,
passive exercise——kneading of the bowels for say five minutes or more
before each meal——and the more active exercise of, say, imitating for a
few minutes the arms-and-body swinging motions of a mower in the
hay-field; spending another few minutes in hopping up and down, twice on
each foot alternately, while “keeping time” by slapping the thighs and
swaying the body to the right and left; stooping and rising, bending
forward and back, etc.; twisting the body around, first one way and then
the other, with the hips as the pivotal point (at stool this last greatly
facilitates the ejective process), etc., etc. Sedentary persons, and all
who feel “chilly” at times, will find, upon trial, that a few minutes
devoted to such exercise, occasionally, or whenever the need is felt, will
be far more satisfactory than extra garments, or hovering about the fire:
it sets the blood a-tingling in the veins and warms a body up.[39] (See
Consumption, for general regimen as to diet, air, exercise, clothing.) If
for a time the bowels are willful in the matter of demanding rest to
complete a process of healing going on in the diseased glands when there
has been distention and irritation, or until a reformed dietary shall have
strengthened the general system when, from any cause, it has been
under-nourished, and there is, consequently, no action for two, three, or
even four days at a time, it need occasion no alarm, and the novice will
be surprised to see how natural a movement will finally reward his or her
patience in awaiting the call of nature, instead of badgering her into
unnatural activity. It must be remembered that it is _good health that
ensures daily movements_, and not _daily movements good health_. Indeed,
when produced by hook or crook, as is often the rule with infants, and
adults, even, they do much harm. Daily purgations or injections are made
necessary only by gross feeding; and if the latter abuse be persisted in
it may be best to move the bowels frequently at all hazards. Under the
influence of this combination, however, the small intestines are often so
disordered as to impair, even destroy, their power of assimilating food,
and together with the colon, or large intestine, become so torpid as
almost to require the use of dynamite to move them.
[Footnote 39: William Cullen Bryant,——a most worthy model, mentally,
morally, and physically——thus explains how he had “reached a pretty
advanced period of life without the usual infirmities of old age.” Next to
his abstemious and mostly vegetable diet, and pure moral life, we may well
agree with him in the belief that his wonderful preservation was largely
due to his custom of going to bed early and early rising, and “for a full
hour, immediately upon rising, with very little encumbrance of clothing,
taking a series of exercises, designed to expand the chest, and at the
same time call into action all the muscles and articulations of the body,”
followed by a bath “from head to foot.”——_Hygiene of the Brain_: $1.50[C]
New York, M. L. Holbrook.]
[Footnote C: This most valuable work contains letters from a score or more
of eminent men and women who have lived to advanced age, descriptive of
their living habits. The similarity of their mode of life is a feature
worthy of remark.]
STRAINING at stool is, beyond a slight degree, abnormal, or is made
necessary only by abnormal conditions, which render defecation difficult;
it tends to perpetuate and increase the difficulty, and should not be
practiced ordinarily. The congestion and engorgement of the blood-vessels
in the region of the rectum and anus from various causes, as retained
fecal matters, or irritation and congestion of the genital organs (which
two causes act and react upon each other), produce hemorrhoids (piles),
and this complaint is aggravated by the straining referred to. In such
cases resort must be had to cool or tepid injections for a time. One
effect of deep breathing, from either exercise or habit——filling the lungs
in such a manner as to press the diaphragm downward——is to cause regular
pressure on the bowels, which aids in exciting their vermicular motion,
and facilitates the action, both of the small intestines as digesters, and
of the lower bowel in its secretory and excretory functions. The
“movement,” when natural, consists of _waste matters secreted from the
blood_ by the glands of the colon, and not, as is popularly supposed, of
food substances, at least not to any considerable degree. When it does
(and I am bound to say that this is the rule, rather than the exception),
it is because the person has eaten at least _that much_ more than he
ought. A good rule for many who suffer tortures of mind because of
constipation would be: mind your own business and let your bowels mind
theirs. Strive not to _have_ movements, but rather to _deserve_ them. That
is, attend to the general health by living hygienically, and the bowels
will, if given _regular opportunity_, move when there is anything to move
for! With infants or young children, a little excess of food will, at
first, occasion a little looseness, or increased action, usually;
deficiency in diet would cause constipation. The remedy in either case is
plain: a little less food in the one case, a little more in the other. The
first symptom, looseness, could not result from deficiency in diet, that
is, if the deficiency related to quantity solely——the quality being plain
and digestible. Tanner had no movement during his fast; Griscomb’s
experience was similar, and Connolly, the consumptive, who fasted
forty-three days, had no movement for three weeks, and then the temporary
looseness was occasioned by profuse water-drinking, which in his case
proved curative. In common life, it is rare indeed that constipation is
the result of a deficient diet, although it often arises from lack of
nourishment consequent upon excess, or an unwholesome variety of food, or
both. Usually it may be regarded as the “reaction” from over-action. The
not uncommon experience, in regular order, is this: Excess in diet,
diarrhœa, constipation, physic or enema, purgation, worse constipation,
more physic, and so on. The term reaction here means simply that the
organs involved having been irritated by undigested food, and having by
means of increased action cleared away the obstructions, now seek
restoration by the most natural method, as the name itself implies——rest.
What are commonly called diseases are in reality cures; and the common
practice, with drug doctors, of
“CONTROLLING THE SYMPTOMS,”
is like answering the cries and gesticulations of a drowning man with a
knock on the head. If when these intestinal disorders arise, or have
become serious, their chief cause——over-feeding——be kept up, the next of
nature’s remedies may be inflammation of stomach or bowels, or both,
followed, perhaps, by _dysentery_, which is the most serious phase of
constipation. These are very alarming symptoms, and demand entire
abstinence from food until they are considerably abated; pure water should
be given freely, and, when possible, exercise to some degree in the open
air; tepid water injections, followed by gentle kneading of the bowels for
a few minutes, occasionally, to promote the circulation in that region,
thus favoring the cleansing and healing process. The appearance of a
little fresh blood, even, following this treatment, should not excite
alarm; on the contrary, it is, _per se_, a favorable symptom. This special
phase of the subject is treated more at length in the author’s work
entitled “How to Feed the Baby.”
A very common mistake with the laity, and often enough made by physicians
in diagnosing this complaint, is that of considering a comfortable daily
movement conclusive proof that the bowels are not constipated. Few people
have tongues that are entirely clean, and a coating there indicates,
unmistakably, a worse one of the stomach and intestines.[40] The
daily——perhaps semi-daily——action is the result of purgation often, though
they would scorn the idea of taking physic——the quantity or quality of
their food being such as to cause a degree of indigestion and consequent
irritation sufficient to produce purgative effects. While this condition
can be endured, all seems to be going along well. There is, to be sure,
more or less of acidity, sour stomach, eructations of acrid matters (see
the Salisbury theory in article on Consumption), flatulence, headache,
neuralgic or rheumatic pains——more or less in number of the scores of
ailments so common as to be considered almost normal——but not immediately
any serious or alarming complaint. But, after a time, longer or shorter,
according to the constitution of the individual, the movements become less
satisfactory——irregular and not as profuse as common, and are passed with
some difficulty, perhaps. Next to the mistake of resorting to drugs in
these cases, is the quite common one of swallowing special kinds of food
for the same purpose, and there, is some question as to which of the two
evils is the least. An excessive quantity of rye mush, wheaten grits, or
oat groats, with a generous dressing of butter, syrup, milk, or honey to
wash it down in abnormal haste, will often purge the bowels like the most
drastic poison. Active exercise in the open air, taken in conjunction with
a proper diet, would prove curative; but in default of this the case goes
from bad to worse, until in spite of all the efforts made, the
constipation becomes more and more obstinate, various symptoms increasing
in degree and new ones appearing, until there almost certainly follows a
severe “attack” of some sort: whether this be typhoid, bilious, rheumatic,
or scarlet fever, erysipelas, diphtheria, or what not, depends upon the
age, surroundings, and diathesis of the patient.
[Footnote 40: See chapter on Consumption.]
All such attacks may be called Nature’s kill-or-cure remedies when, as a
last resort, she is forced to adopt “heroic treatment”; but aid her in the
Natural Cure and she is most kind.
* * * * *
NOTE.——Attention is called to the notes following Consumption,
and Bright’s Disease.