1 Premature stomach digestion
2 Neutralization of the bile by excessive acid
3 Eating too much starchy food
4 Flesh-eating
5 Sedentary habits or lack of proper exercise
6 A diet too refined—lacking in roughness, cellulose or "fodder"
7 The use of sedatives, stimulants, and narcotics, such as tea, coffee, liquor, tobacco, and drugs, especially of the alkaloid group
While most of these are direct causes, the primary cause, however, goes back to superacidity—premature stomach-digestion.
In cases of superacidity the liver is nearly always more or less inactive. Just why this is so is not definitely known, but in the opinion of the writer it is caused by the neutralization of bile by the excess of acid. Be this as it may, nearly all cases of superacidity are accompanied by intestinal congestion, commonly called constipation, or by intermittent diarrhea and constipation.
CONSTIPATION—THE REMEDY
Laxative drugs an offense to the body
It is believed by the medical profession, and generally accepted by the public, that certain drugs act upon the alimentary tract with beneficial effect in cases of intestinal congestion. This is untrue. The facts are the intestines act upon the drug. The drug is an offense to Nature, and when it is taken into the stomach and passed on to the intestines, the body-fluids are severely drawn upon to neutralize the poison, and to cast it out. The result, therefore, of taking poisons, miscalled "laxatives," is that each time the act is repeated, the liver and the peristaltic muscles are weakened, and rendered more and more abnormal, and less and less able to perform their natural functions.
Suggestions for the relief of constipation
That system of treatment which has been prescribed for fermentation will, in most cases, relieve constipation. The treatment should be varied, however, according to the age and the occupation of the patient, governed by the season of the year, or the foods available at the time of treatment. If diagnosis of the patient reveals the fact that constipation has been caused primarily by overeating, the quantity of food should be reduced, and the articles changed so as to include a generous quantity of cellulose (coarse foods).