Treatment of constipation.—First ascertain the cause or causes, and remove them. One might as well expect to cure a burn, while pouring scalding water upon it, as to cure torpid bowels if the cause remains. Every person should establish the habit of
Regularity in securing evacuations.—The nervous system acts under the law of periodicity to a large degree in controlling the functional operations of the body. This tendency should not only be generally heeded, but utilized in regulating the bowels. A little intelligent care will generally secure a call for defecation at a specified time, which may be established to suit convenience, and which once established, should not be allowed to pass, except for the most urgent reasons.
The number of evacuations per day will vary with the quality and amount of food consumed, and the vocation and temperament of the person. If two evacuations each day is the rule, then one should be after breakfast and the second shortly before the regular retiring hour for the night. If only one evacuation each day is the habit of the person, then if convenient, let it be the hour before retiring, unless a satisfactory habit is already fixed at some other hour. There are few things that promote good, sound, refreshing sleep, like a thorough emptying of the bowels before going to bed.
If one would prevent constipation and its evils, this practice should be heeded; and if one would cure constipation, it should be enforced in connection with any other necessary measures, as follows: “Go to the closet at the appointed hour, sit for a few minutes, gently straining to effect a passage. The practice of forcing an evacuation by severe muscular effort is all wrong, and should never be indulged. Far better take an enema of water if necessary. The practice of sitting long at stool is also to be condemned. The bowels may be made lazy in this way, and it leads to waste of time, and to hemorrhoids. If not successful, go till next day at the stated hour if you comfortably can; then try again, and if you do not succeed, take an enema of water sufficient to produce the desired movement. The next day repeat this effort at the given time, and so continue.”
I am more and more convinced that all straining should be avoided. When the bowels do not move readily, wait a few moments passively for nature’s call, avoiding all anxiety in the matter. Should this method fail, then, by will power, press the sphincter muscles back by short, quick, and repeated movements. This will lubricate the rectum, force back the feces, and shortly after result in a satisfactory discharge of the bowels. A little practice will bring these muscles under complete control, and by this means a habit of constipation may be cured. This same course is also found very beneficial for piles.
Other simple measures will overcome constipation, especially if of recent origin or of mild form. Drinking one or two glasses of cold soft water before breakfast is often sufficient. Some eat ice for the same purpose. These are diluents, besides acting upon the nerves producing contractile effects of the muscular coats of the digestive tract.
With others, eating a raw apple or orange before breakfast is sufficient. Drinking a glass of water, into which a tablespoonful of bran has been stirred, is very efficacious for some. A lady in Iowa had had very obstinate constipation for years. Allopathic and homeopathic remedies had no effect. Exercise and the strictest hygienic living seemed equally of no avail. If, however, before eating her breakfast, she would eat half a cup of bran stirred in water or milk, the desired result would be obtained. This affords residuum for the alimentary canal, as well as mechanical stimulus to the mucous coat.
In long standing, obstinate cases, these simple remedies will not suffice. There must be an entire and radical change in diet as well as other rational measures used to overcome the conditions.
Our native wheat meets the need for this change, perhaps more fully than any other food, provided the whole of the grain is used. Such preparations of it may be found in varied and attractive forms, first among which, because almost everywhere procurable and easily prepared, is graham flour. Complaints are sometimes made against this excellent and nourishing food, that it is too harsh for delicate stomachs.
The complaint should rather be made against careless and ignorant millers, who put upon the market an article ground from their lowest grade of wheat, often, too, without proper cleaning. When the best wheat is properly scoured and prepared by a skillful miller, very few will find difficulty in its digestion. Rolled or cracked wheat, wheatlet, and flour of the entire wheat, are very useful in establishing a correct habit.