The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

122 THE HEALTH BULLETIN.We have not appreciated in the pastthe relation constipation sustains tomany of the diseases of a chronicor constitutional nature. Diseases ofdegeneracy, which have been ascribedto various causes, we now know aredue chiefly to the toxins absorbedfrom the colon as a result of constipation.From cases which have come undermy observation during the past fewyears, I have been led to recognizeconstipation as the chief causativefactor where insomnia, thickly coatedtongue, bad breath and high bloodpressure are present, when a specificorigin is excluded, and when no historyof the free use of tobacco orother toxic substances exists.In fact,I have concluded that it is not theexcessive use of meats, tea, coffee,tobacco, etc., that is wholly responsiblefor arteriosclerosis, but toxinsof a more injurious and subtle naturedeveloped in the alimentarycanal, and especially in the colon.These poisons are likely to beformed as a result of the prolongedretention of waste substances whichreadily undergo decay. Not only domeats, tea, coffee, pepper and mustardtend to bring about these degenerativechanges by the toxins theycontain, but they favor constipationand the formation of poisons evenmore injurious. In chronic constipationwe have probably the chief factorof degenerate arteries, heart, liver,kidneys, thyroid glands, and otherglands of the body. There is strongreason to believe that it is largelyresponsible for the rapid increase inthe mortality rate from heart failure,apoplexy, diabetes, and Bright's disease.In diabetes and Bright's diseasethere practically always existsa history of constipation.There are many annoying disorder^of every-day life, among which maybe mentioned dyspepsia,, i headaches,drowsiness, melancholia, insanity,which may be due to chronic constipation.Appendicitis seldom occurs ina person whose bowels are regular.From the prolonged retention of theeasily putrefying wastes, a diseasedcondition of the mucous membraneof the cecum results. This latter extendsinto the mouth of the appendix,and an inflammatory condition is established.There is a probability thatcancer is in some cases traceable tothe toxins absorbed from a stagnantcolon.It would be difficult to conceive ofanything more defiling to the bodythan the decay within it of fish, oysters,rabbits, cheese, and other proteinfoods, and the absorption of theresulting impurities and poisons.Cells bathed in such a liquid becomediseased.A blocked-up city sewer is recognied as a source of danger and is nottolerated, but here we have a conditionthat is very much more offensiveand dangerous, and yet very little seriousthought is given to it.Over thirty per cent of the presentmortality is ascribed to thiscause by Prof. Eli Metchnikoff, whohas made a careful study of theinfluence of these poisons on the humanbody, and who believes this tobe the chief cause of early degeneracyand premature old age. His contentionis that by preventing the formationof these alimentary toxins, manmight be at his best at eighty years,be still active at one hundred andtwenty, and live to the age of onehundred and forty. He has beendriven to some conclusions whichr^ay seem almost absurd, and yet,reasoning from his viewpoint, theyare logical and conclusive.Chronic constipation is more commonthan is supposed. In extreme