If there is one health problem all Americans have in common, it would undoubtedly have to be constipation. Yes, constipation!
More than 90% of Americans are constipated. Constipation plays a major role in obesity, which is an American epidemic these days.
Causes and Risk Factors
Constipation occurs when the stools are crowded together in the colon.
Medically speaking, constipation is defined as: Difficulty in passing stools or an incomplete or infrequent passage of hard stools. There are many causes, both organic and functional. Among the organic causes are intestinal obstruction, diverticulitis, and tumors. Functional impairment of the colon may occur in elderly or bedridden patients (persons) who fail to respond to the urge to defecate.
Now what causes the stools to become hard or hardened? Answer: diet in general and the Standard American Diet in particular, which contains excessive meat, dairy products, and starches. Cooking food can also contribute to constipation, as it destroys enzymes in fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts and grains.
It is the enzymatic activity of living (raw) foods that causes peristalsis. Peristalsis is the wavelike muscular contractions of the alimentary canal or other tubular structures by which contents are forced onward toward the opening (rectum).
Symptoms
Constipation is characterized by hard dry stools, straining at stool, painful defecation, abdominal distention, and hemorrhoids. And obviously enough, a protruding pot belly physically denotes constipation.
If you eat three meals a day and are not defecating three times a day you’re constipated! If you are sitting on the toilet for many minutes and straining while defecating and after defecating you only see a pea or pebble sized stool at the bottom of the toilet, you’re constipated.
Healing Options
Professional colonics and/or at-home enemas can also help to eradicate constipation.
Constipation can be reversed or eradicated by changing or modifying your diet by cutting out or cutting back on meats, dairy products and cooked starches and eating more raw fruits and vegetables and drinking more water. Movement (physical exercise) can also help.
Dietary Intervention
Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures above 118. A raw diet can help alleviate constipation.
The opposite of cooked food is raw food. Actually, raw foods too are cooked, but they are cooked by solar heat, not synthetic heat (stoves, microwave ovens, electric ovens, etc.).
Raw foods are solarized foods and therefore will transmit energy to your body, unlike cooked food, which makes you tired and fatigued and weighs you down.
Raw fruits and vegetables provide natural fiber. Fiber is great for colon health and counteracting constipation because fiber bulks up in the colon and becomes mucilaginous and sweeps the walls of the colon.
Hydration plays a major role in the bowel management. Water is a natural stool softener and helps to soften the stools and also to keep the colon lubricated. Because water is electrical, it also stimulates peristalsis just like raw fruits and vegetables. Also, water and enzymes work together! A lot of Americans don’t like drinking water. They unwisely drink more soda pop, beer, milk and artificially flavored beverages than water, which their body is dependent upon for optimal health.
Prune juice and plum juice are ideal in battling constipation. When the colon is constipated, it’s the equivalent of a clogging/stoppage in your sink. When your sink is clogged, you call a plumber. A plumber unclogs a drain just like plum juice unclogs your colon. In the word plumber we find the word plum. Here is wisdom!
Herbs are one of the most effective ways to treat constipation.
Cathartic and laxative herbs will greatly help to eradicate constipation. Herbs such as Senna (leaves/pods), Cascara Sagrada, Aloe Vera resin, Rhubarb, Mandrake, Bilwa, Glucomannan, Bibitaki, Buckthorn, and Jalap Root will stimulate and enhance peristalsis. Senna is a very powerful African herb that will greatly unclog the colon and reverse constipation. In fact, pharmaceutical-grade Ex Lax laxative now contains Senna.
Along with the herbs supra, fiber and mucilaginous herbs such as Psyllium Husks, Pamita, Fennel, Guar Gum, Acacia Gum, Oats, Irish Moss, Slippery Elm bark, and Kelp will help to eradicate constipation by constantly bulking up and sweeping the walls of the colon. Irish Moss is a very invaluable herb (sea weed, ocean herb) as it aids in the formation of stools. And unlike pharmaceutical-grade laxatives, you can’t become addicted to using an herb as a laxative or for laxative purposes.
Dherbs does not recommend taking a lot of Psyllium Husk by itself because many people have become clogged due to taking too much of it.
Constipation is 100% reversible/healable and there is a plethora of natural remedies and tools to assist you in overcoming the American epidemic of constipation.
Dherbs Solutions
DHERBS offers some wonderful and powerful natural stool softener formulas for the colon that will remedy or prevent constipation:
Thank you for reading.
Vincent Stevens is the senior content writer at Dherbs. As a fitness and health and wellness enthusiast, he enjoys covering a variety of topics, including the latest health, fitness, beauty, and lifestyle trends. His goal is to inform people of different ways they can improve their overall health, which aligns with Dherbs’ core values. He received his bachelor’s degree in creative writing from the University of Redlands, graduating summa cum laude. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.
