How to Live Part 5

It is a good idea to consult a physician in regard to one's diet, and endeavor intelligently to follow his advice and not insist on one's own diet, selected from the standpoint of mere self-indulgence or custom.

Moreover, since many, without being aware of the fact, are affected with Bright's disease, diabetes, etc., in their early stages, in which dietetic precautions are especially necessary, it is well, even for those who are apparently in good health, to be medically examined as a preliminary to a rearrangement of their diet along the best lines.

CHAPTER III

POISONS

Section I--Constipation

If the human body be likened to a steam-engine, its wastes correspond to the ashes.

[Sidenote: Retention of Body Wastes]

The injury which comes from the retention of the body's waste products is of the greatest importance. The intestinal contents become dangerous by being too long retained, as putrefying fecal matter contains poisons which are harmful to the body. Abnormal conditions of the intestines are largely responsible for the common headache malady, and for a generally lowered resistance, resulting in colds and even more serious ailments.

Constipation is extremely prevalent, partly because our diet usually lacks bulk or other needed const.i.tuents, but partly also because we fail to eliminate regularly, thoroughly, and often.

Constipation, long continued, is by no means a trifling matter. It represents a constant and c.u.mulative tax which often ends in very serious consequences.

[Sidenote: Water-Drinking]

Free water-drinking when the stomach is empty, especially before breakfast, is beneficial in constipation. Free water-drinking at meals may prove constipating. Excess of water should be avoided by the very feeble or those suffering from heart trouble or dropsy.

[Sidenote: Laxative Foods]

The best regulators of the bowels are foods. Foods should possess sufficient bulk to promote the action of the intestines and should contain a due amount of laxative elements. Foods which are especially laxative are prunes, figs, most fruits except bananas, fruit juices, all fresh vegetables, especially greens of all sorts, wheat, bran, and the whole grain cereals. Oils and fats are also laxative but can not be used in sufficiently large quant.i.ties to produce very laxative effects without producing loss of appet.i.te. Foods which have the opposite tendency are rice, boiled milk, fine wheat-flour in bread, corn-starch, white of egg.

[Sidenote: Bran and Agar-Agar]

The use of wheat-bran in cereals, in bread, and even in vegetables is a preventive of constipation, as is also the use of agar-agar, a j.a.panese seaweed product. This is not digested and absorbed, but acts as a water-carrier and a sweep to the intestinal tract. It should be taken without admixture with laxative drugs.

[Sidenote: Mineral Oils]

Paraffin oil is especially good as an intestinal lubricant to a.s.sist the food to slip through the intestinal tube at the proper rate of progress, provided the oil is first freed, by long-continued shaking with water, from certain dangerous impurities. Many refined preparations are on the market for use in constipation. Underweight people should not use these oils unless properly prescribed by a physician.

[Sidenote: Avoiding Drugs]

It is advisable, in general, to avoid cathartics except under medical supervision, since certain drugs are often very harmful when their use is long continued and the longer they are used the more dependent on them the user becomes. Laxative drugs, even mineral waters, should never be used habitually.

[Sidenote: Enemas]

The occasional, but not habitual, use of an enema (with warm water followed always by a second enema of cool water, to prevent relaxation) is a temporary expedient.

[Sidenote: Ma.s.sage of the Colon]

Ma.s.sage of the abdomen, deep and thorough, with a creeping movement of the ends of the fingers on the left side of the abdomen from above downward, also promotes the process of defecation.

The normal man and woman should find no difficulty in having complete movements regularly two or three times a day by merely living a reasonable life, being careful especially to avoid overfatigue, to include sufficient bulk in the food, to take regular exercise, including, in particular, breathing exercises, and to maintain an erect carriage.

[Sidenote: Low Seated Water Closets]

High-seated water closets, so often found in inst.i.tutions, hotels and private houses, often favor constipation, as they do not permit of the proper physiological att.i.tude in defecation. They prevent the individual from exercising abdominal pressure so essential for this function. Such seats should be made much lower than they are, or the feet should rest on a foot stool, in order to attain the proper att.i.tude for thorough emptying of the intestine.

[Sidenote: Number of Defecations]

Observations on the manlike apes show that they defecate three or four times a day. Few of the human family have such ideal movements. Millions are conscious of some shortcoming in this regard, and doubtless millions more suffer from some shortcomings of which they are not conscious. Many believe they have free movements when actually they are suffering from a sluggishness in the r.e.c.t.u.m and other parts of the lower intestine. A rectal examination often reveals unsuspected fecal residues.

[Sidenote: Establishing Proper Habits]

The natural instinct to defecate, like many other natural instincts, is usually deadened by failure to exercise it. Civilized life makes it inconvenient to follow this instinct as promptly as, for instance, a horse does. The impulse to go to stool, if neglected even five minutes, may disappear. There are few health measures more simple and effective than restoring the normal sensitiveness of this important impulse. It may require a few weeks of special care, during which cold water enemas at night, following evacuation by paraffin oil injection, may be needed.

It would be an excellent rule to visit the closet immediately after the noon and evening meals, as faithfully as most people do after the morning meal, until the reflex is trained to act at those, the most natural, times for its action.

Before leaving the subject of intestinal poisoning, we may here again mention the importance of avoiding the poisoning which comes from too much protein. This poisoning is probably due largely to the decomposition of protein in the colon.

[Sidenote: Use of Sour Milk]

One proposed method for reducing this decomposition of protein is through the use of sour milk. Lactic acid, the acid of sour milk, const.i.tutes a medium in which putrefactive germs do not thrive. Hence, if sufficient sour-milk germs can be kept in the intestines to constantly manufacture lactic acid, putrefaction will be reduced. But, as Professor Rettger and others have shown, the mere swallowing of a little sour milk or of sour-milk tablets is seldom sufficient. The "good germs" swallowed die of starvation before they do much good. To keep them alive and enable them to multiply, we must feed them. The free use of milk and of milk sugar, a little raw starch, or partially cooked cereal such as Scotch brose (oatmeal cooked only ten minutes) will feed the germs.

[Sidenote: Evidences of Injury]

The odor and character of the stools are indicative of the extent to which our diet is injuring us. The odor is less offensive if the diet is low in protein and thoroughly masticated.

Section II--Posture

One of the simplest and most effective methods of avoiding self-poisoning is by maintaining an erect posture. In an erect posture the abdominal muscles tend to remain taut and to afford proper support or pressure to the abdomen, including the great splanchnic circulation of large blood-vessels. In an habitual slouching posture, the blood of the abdomen tends to stagnate in the liver and the splanchnic circulation, causing a feeling of despondency and mental confusion, headache, coldness of the hands and feet, and chronic fatigue or neurasthenia, and often constipation.

A slouching att.i.tude is often the result of disease or lack of vitality; but it is also a cause.

[Sidenote: The "Consumptive Stoop"]

There is some reason to believe that "the consumptive stoop" leads to tuberculosis partly through the lowering of resistance resulting from the poisoning produced by a chronically relaxed abdomen.

Many persons who have suffered for years from the above-named symptoms have been relieved of them after a few weeks of correct posture, sometimes reenforced by the artificial pressure of an abdominal supporter and by special exercises to strengthen the abdominal muscles.

Lying face downward with a pillow under the abdomen presses the blood out of the congested splanchnic circulation.

[Sidenote: Breathing and Posture]

Breathing exercises are also very useful for correcting the chronic evils of bad posture. Exercises taken when lying on the back, by raising the legs or head, strengthen the abdominal muscles. Slow, deep breathing, through the nose, while lying on the back, with a weight on the abdomen, such as a bag of sand--2 to 4 lbs.--is beneficial.

[Sidenote: Standing and Walking]

In walking, the most common error is to slump, with the shoulders rounded, the stomach thrust out, the head thrust forward, chin up, and the arms hanging in front of the body. To those who walk or stand in this fashion, let it be known that this is the "habitus enteroptoticus,"

or asthenic droop. It is characteristic of those with weak muscular and nervous systems.