Bowel movement

“ Too tight external sphincter (rectum) muscle, stricture, tumors, etc. Bending of the womb on the bowel.
Defective Worm-like Bowel Movement.—Irregular habits of living head the list causing this defective action. Everyone should promptly attend to Nature's call. Some people wait until the desire for stool has all gone, and in that way the "habit" of the bowels is gradually lost. Everyone should go to stool at a certain regular time each day, and at any other time when Nature calls. ”

“ After his death, it was found that certain folds of the lower bowel were so large as to meet across the lumen of the bowel, making shelves and pouches in which fecal material gathered, preventing the movement of all material above.
In the Orient, it is said that many people, especially of the better class, do not expect to have movements of their bowels every day. Some of them, indeed, do not encourage intestinal evacuations oftener than once a week, sometimes even more seldom. As their diet is more largely vegetable than ours, this is all the more surprising. ”

“ We have consequently a condition in which we have a daily movement but not a complete emptying of the bowel. The character of the stools from such a bowel must necessarily be more or less of a semi-liquid consistency, because the intestine, being coated with a hard dried out layer of old fecal substance, is prevented from absorbing the liquid part of the fresh fecal mass passing through it. This condition may exist for a considerable time, but it will slowly undermine the health and vitality of any person in whom it exists. ”

“ If any part of the digestive function is deficient, impaired health, or mental and physical inefficiency expressed in the form of indigestion, is the result. If [Pg 304] the bowel is at fault, constipation is the usual consequence. A perfectly healthy living machine must maintain a perfect digestion and regular bowel movements.
The Function of the Stomach is to mix and churn the food, and to add certain ingredients to the mixture so that before it is carried into the intestines it is (as far as it is the stomach's duty to render it) ready to be absorbed into the system. ”

“ The small calibre of the bullet is alone responsible for the favourable results observed.
7. The danger or otherwise of an intestinal injury depends mainly on mechanical conditions; for instance, the fixity of the ascending colon, and its comparative freedom from a covering of small intestine capable by movement of diffusing any infective material, account chiefly for such favourable results as are seen when that segment of the bowel is implicated. ”

“ The necessity for the use of the enema would cease to exist were all food ingested perfectly transformed and entirely consumed in tissue-building. But continued excess in supply creates imperfect functioning of the digestive organs. Natural bowel movements depend upon food perfectly digested or chemically changed, and the waste products from this process are always fully eliminated. ”

“ The retention of fluids, transuded serum, bile, intestinal juices, and partly-altered food is hurtful. Decomposition sets in and gas is developed, which by distending the bowel causes great suffering and increases the inflammation. The movements of the intestine are not entirely under control; the patient must be fed; digestion and assimilation involve the activity of inflamed parts. The stomach can be made to do most of the work, but the sympathy of action is so close between the stomach and intestines that one cannot function without the other being excited into activity. ”

“ If this is not attended to, and several days, perhaps a week, pass by without the bowels being relieved at all, pain in the head, a foul tongue, and an increased degree of fulness and tension of the abdomen, are experienced. These symptoms are followed, in all probability, by thin watery evacuations, attended with pain, weight, and pressure about the lower bowel; they become frequent; and the female at last, finding that the bowels are not only open again, but even loose, takes chalk mixture. ”

“ The Stools.—When the diarrhea is chronic in character, the character of the stools indicates the seat of the inflammation. When there is a great deal of undigested food found in them the upper part of the bowel is more affected; when the stools contain more mucus than food the lower bowel is the chief seat of the trouble. The frequency and fluidity of the stools impose a great strain upon the entire body, causing a progressive emaciation and anemia.
The treatment is similar to that instituted in acute attacks. The starvation régime cannot be carried out for a long period. ”

“ This lesion is most common in advanced life, and accompanies fatty accumulation and degeneration elsewhere. Its results would be constipation, distension of the bowel with gas, and sometimes symptoms of intestinal obstruction.18 A thinned and dilated bowel may easily be lacerated under unusual stimulation, as from a purgative. ”

“ The lack of a sufficiently vigorous flow of blood is followed by deficient secretion of digestive agents from the glandular elements involved, by decreased motility of the muscular coats of the stomach and bowel, and lessened adaptability throughout for dealing with even slight irregular demands on their powers. ”

“ Defecation, or the expulsion of waste substance from the bowel is accompanied by the contraction of the circular fibres of the said muscular coat, but when constipation has existed for any length of time, the accumulated matter adhering to the walls of the colon renders that organ partially, if not wholly rigid, hence the difficulty of evacuation; consequently, through disuse, the muscles become to a certain extent atrophied, and require stimulation to resume their natural function even after the colon has been cleansed. ”

“ The bowels move very frequently, often with little or nothing to pass. There may be pain with each movement. The blood may disappear in a few days, but the mucus remains, often in large quantity in each stool. ”

“ The neighbouring parts are involved in cartilaginous induration; the surface of the bowel is lobulated and ulcerated, its cavity is contracted, and the discharge is profuse, sanious, bloody, and putrid; there is frequent desire to void the contents of the gut, but in general nothing but flatus and puriform fluid is evacuated; when feces do pass, dreadful pain is excited, and continues for some time. The difficulty of voiding feculent matter becomes greater and greater, frequent attacks of ileus occur, and in one of them the patient expires. ”

“ The food over and over again is brought into closest contact with the intestinal walls by the swift kneading movement of the muscles. Thereby not only is the undigested food intimately mixed with the digestive juices, but the digested food is thoroughly exposed to the organs of absorption. Mall has shown that contraction of the intestinal wall has the effect of pumping the blood from the submucous venous plexus into the radicles of the superior mesenteric vein, and thus materially aids the intestinal circulation. ”

“ Neglect to establish or continue a habit of daily regularity in defecation leads to the accumulation in the rectum of masses of feces. Resisting the desire to empty the bowel interrupts the necessary reflex acts, and finally the muscular excitability and response to the presence of feces are entirely wanting. The continued contact of fecal matter with the mucous membrane wears out its susceptibility; the over-distension of the rectum enfeebles the power of its muscular wall, as is the case when all hollow muscular organs—stomach, heart, bladder—are overstretched. ”

“ When organic defects are present in the colon, they may or may not prove seriously shortening to life; but, when, at the end of a fast, feeding is resumed, even a slight displacement of the lower bowel may retard elimination to such degree that absorption of fecal material proceeds so rapidly as to cause severe physical and mental derangement. ”

“ As the veins of the lining of the bowel become dilated they form definite bulgings within the bowel, and, at last increasing in size, escape through the anus when a motion is being passed. Growing still larger, they may come down spontaneously when the individual is standing or walking, and they are apt to be a grave source of pain or annoyance. Eventually they may remain constantly protruded—nevertheless, they are still internal piles because they arise from the interior of the bowel. Though a pile is sometimes solitary, there are usually several of them. ”

“ Erroneous teaching is responsible for the assertion that the continual use of the enema during a fast or in health will occasion weakness in a patient and lack of function of the colon, and that natural movements of the bowels will not again occur. In other words, that the patient will thereafter be compelled to resort perforce to the internal bath for bowel evacuation. ”

“ For example, a portion of protruded intestine sloughs, the feculent matter is effused, and, had not this adhesion to the neck existed, the gut might have slipped back into the abdomen, its contents would have escaped there, and a fatal result would have been the inevitable consequence. Still, notwithstanding the salutary effusion, the bowel may ulcerate at its upper part, and, giving way within the belly, produce rapid death. The bowel, where embraced by the stricture, is contracted and thickened, and dilated above. ”

“ As has been already noted, the exigencies of modern life are of such a strenuous nature that we do not find the time to devote to this function the degree of systematic attention which it demands in order to preserve a healthy condition of intestinal regularity. The bowel is simply a complex muscle controlled by an elaborate system of nerves of an involuntary type. In order to preserve the highest degree of efficiency of this complicated mechanism, it must be permitted to obey the laws nature endowed it with and which it must obey. ”

“ The nerve ganglia that lie in the walls of the intestines can be influenced mechanically by the contents of the intestines, when such are bulky, and also when they are fermenting; therefore, the bacteria, by promoting fermentation, also aid in peristalsis. The bulky condition of the bowel contents can be best induced by food of the vegetable kingdom through its cellulose contents, of which tissue the cells of plants or fruits are largely formed. When these irritating agents act on the nerve filaments in the intestines, the bowel will contract and expel its contents. ”

“ If there is constipation, overcome it by establishing the habit of making daily efforts to effect a movement of the bowels. Taking regular exercise by walking, and lightly percussing or kneading the bowels for five minutes daily, help to increase their activity. The habit of early rising favors the natural action of the bowels. Drinking a glass of water on rising exerts a [pg 577] beneficial influence. The food should be such as will excite the mucous secretion of the large intestines, and arouse its muscles to action. ”

“ A movement of the bowels each day is no proof of a clean and healthy alimentary canal. Sufferers from digestive troubles often assume that, because the bowels are regular in action, the evacuations are complete and sufficient, forgetful of the fact that, in most instances, but the rectum alone is relieved of its contents. ”

“ The mucous membrane of the stomach and bowel, less able to withstand the effects of irritation, even of a minor character, readily passes into a condition of chronic catarrh, while it frequently is the seat of small abrasions, haemorrhagic erosions, which may cause vomiting of blood and the appearance of blood in the stools. ”

“ The symptoms of this complaint are well known. There will be weight, heat, and a sense of fulness about the lower bowel, a frequent desire both to relieve the bowels and bladder; all of which symptoms are removed for a time if a discharge of blood takes place.
If the piles be without the bowel, they are constantly irritated by the friction of the parts in the ordinary motion and erect position of the body, and that to a painful degree during the period of the evacuation of the bowels. If exercise be taken in a carriage, the pain is much aggravated ”

“ And it is not at all strange that they should, since there is so much pressure from within, so much pressure downward, and so much pressure from without—all through the requirements of fashion, indulgence, and ignorance. But the stomach, upper portion of the duodenum, and small intestine, cæcum, the ascending colon, and especially the transverse colon and sigmoid flexure, are susceptible to various forms of displacement, inhibiting the ready flow or passage of food stuffs, gases, and feces from one segment of the digestive apparatus to another, until the vent is reached. ”

“ When internal piles have increased to any considerable extent, or have become inflamed, they produce not only itching at the extremity of the bowel, pain in the back, etc., but also a sensation of fullness in the rectum, as though some foreign body were present, and, on action of the bowels, there is a sensation as though a portion of the fæces had not been expelled. When the internal piles become large, they frequently come down with fæcal matter from the bowel, as illustrated in Fig. ”

“ All other forms of disease of the lower bowel will yield to treatment satisfactory to physician and patient, but I am sorry to say cancer cases are numerous, and up to the present time we have no cure for this dreadful disease. If you value health, if you desire to avoid future suffering and disease, be sure that the lower bowel is free from inflammation, for with such freedom you will escape the many symptoms of proctitis described in my treatise on diseases of the anus and rectum. ”