Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Constipation - A Sign of Poor Digestive Health

By Sue Thompson

Do you have regular bowel movements?

Good digestive health is basically characterized by regular elimination. Constipation usually indicates that there is a more serious medical condition involved. Over 95% of health problems begin in the digestive system and in many cases the cause is often traced to constipation.

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.

Traditional Medicine and Holistic Medicine have contrasting explanations about constipation.

Traditional Medicine describes constipation as the passage of hard and dry stools. It believes that frequency of waste elimination depends on each person's level of metabolism. Thus, a person with a high metabolism moves his bowels more often than a person with a slow metabolism. And since we all have different levels of metabolism, our frequency of elimination also differ from each other.

Holistic Medicine, on the other hand, prescribes one bowel movement for every meal eaten everyday. According to practitioners of holistic medicine, a healthy digestive system in its best condition goes through the complete cycle of digestion to excretion within 12 - 18 hours. If the food stays in the body for more than 18 hours, the rotting food will cause a build up of toxins that will eventually enter the bloodstream. This unhealthy condition then puts a person at a higher risk for other health-related problems.

You can eliminate constipation by doing the following:

1) Drink lots of water to rehydrate your digestive system. Your daily intake of water should be one ounce for every pound of your body weight.

2) Engage in a regular exercise regimen. This need not be extremely strenuous but challenging enough to get your blood pumping. This increased blood flow will help facilitate elimination.

3) Take a good daily fiber supplement that consists of 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.

If you are suffering from poor digestive health, a naturopathic medical practitioner can help you find the right supplements, point you to healthier alternatives, and give you reading materials to better assist you in managing your health condition. - 15343

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