Mainly sedentary habits, errors in diet, overtaxed brains, the use of cathartics, and in women errors in dress.
Many persons, even some authors upon the subject, consider that constipation is the result of torpidity of the liver only, causing a lack of bile furnished for diluent purposes. While this is frequently the case, still there may be a diminution in the pancreatic juice as well as in the secretions peculiar to the intestines, causing a lack of moisture in the excrement.
There may, too, be lack of bulk in the residual matter to be acted upon by the fluids and impelled by the muscular coats of the intestines; which, again in their turn may want power to perform their peculiar function. In a sedentary life the weakness of these muscles is enhanced and respiratory power is lacking. All processes of digestion depend upon deep breathing, which stimulates action in the abdominal viscera. Any exercise that tones or develops the involuntary muscles of breathing is an incalculable adjuvant to all the functions of the body. The person of sedentary habits not only loses the advantage of exercise, but is usually engaged in some occupation that gives great strain upon the nervous organization. This takes away the nerve stimulant so essential to assimilative processes. Dr. James H. Jackson, in his admirable treatise upon constipation, in speaking of the effects of occupation, says:
“It is not the man or woman who lives regularly, eats temperately, and exercises the brain moderately, or even severely, if the habits are correct, and sufficient out-door air and exercise are had to oxygenize the blood and keep up muscular tone; it is not the muscle-worker, the agriculturist, the mechanic, the machinist; it is not the maid of all work, as a general thing. It is the brain-worker—the lawyer, merchant, doctor, banker, minister, teacher; it is the man who sits in his office or works in his store or shop in poor air and light, having little or no muscular exercise, who constantly thinks, is anxious, worried, careworn, a victim of the intense competition and excitement which modern business life imposes; it is the wife and mother who lives in the house all day, who is continually worried by household cares and anxieties, who is socially taxed and excited; it is she who idles away her time, passing it in in-door indolence, who dresses unphysiologically, eats badly, feeds upon sensational literature, and lives under the reign of her emotional and passional nature; it is the poor factory girl or seamstress, plodding away through weary days, in stifling air and on starvation diet, as of baker’s bread and tea, debarred from all out-door recreation; or the school teacher who barely earns her living, though she works brain and nerves, almost daily, to the point of exhaustion. In these classes, subject to unphysiological habits of work, want of recreation, unfavorable surroundings, irregularity in eating, sleeping, etc.—more from lack of knowledge than from necessity—are found the victims.”
Improper food, prominent in the causes of constipation, poisons rather than nourishes the body, inducing congestion of the alimentary canal by the irritation set up.
Highly seasoned food and stimulating drinks excite extra secretions when first taken, but the reaction or secondary effect of the overstrain is torpor, and consequently absence of secretion. Notably, too, we have the same effect from aperient drugs. Even the too free and constant use of salt causes a dryness of the intestinal canal, probably from the fact of its stimulating power. Nature daily attests this statement by the demand for drink after partaking of salted meats, fish, etc.
Food lacking in elements of nerve nutrition proves constipating; foods that are too concentrated are usually those that are highly carbonaceous, notably fats and sweets, as well as those abounding in starch. In these the insufficient residue fails to furnish the needed volume to fecal matter. The absence of water, too, furnished by vegetables and fruits, causes a dryness of the contents of the intestinal canal, which of itself is an impediment to their onward passage through the bowels.
Of these carbonaceous foods, pastry, cakes, hot bread and white flour bread stand prominent. As elsewhere stated, hot breads, starch, and all of the fats do not digest in the acid fluid of the stomach. Passing into the duodenum the alkaline bile and pancreatic juice emulsify and liquify them. If the quantity of these substances taken be too great there will be much the same result as the soap-maker gets when he puts in his kettle too much fat for his lye. The substances are not dissolved, and can not be taken up by the villi of the intestines for nutrition, and a concentrated mass lacking residuum passes into the excrement.
The prevalent, if not foolish fashion of using only bolted or white flour for bread, a flour abounding in starch and lacking in gluten, is largely the cause of indigestion and constipation. The gluten lies next the bran and contains the nitrates and phosphates which digest in the stomach and feed muscles, brain and nerves, while the bran itself furnishes residuum for fecal matter.
Another factor especially answerable for the recent increase of constipation, is the prevalent use of baking powder. This makes a beautiful, light, friable and delicious bread, requiring but little time or care in its preparation. If adulterated with alum, astringent effects follow. Even in a pure powder, we have an acid and an alkali, which, after chemical union has taken place, leaves a residual salt that has a depressing influence upon the nervous system. A sensitive person not accustomed to the use of bread from yeast powder, even if eaten cold, will in a few hours feel depressing influences, upon both mind and body.