| THE BEST MEDICINEf- LAUGH! FIRST DOSE There are always two ways to look at everything, I guess. My wife and I were sitting at a table at my high school reunion last October, and I kept staring at a drunken lady swigging her drink as she sat alone at a nearby table. My wife noticed me staring and asked me, "Do you know her?". "Yes", I sighed, "She's my old girlfriend. I understand she took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear she hasn't been sober since." "My God!" says my wife, "Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?" Got a Joke? E-mail it to us: frontpage@collectivewizdom .com |
| THE BEST MEDICINE- LAUGH! SECOND DOSE Last night, my friend and I were sitting in the living room and I said to her, "I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle. If that ever happens, just pull the plug." She got up, unplugged the TV, and threw out my wine |
Bowel Movements Indicate Your Overall Health
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January 26, 2008
By Susan M. Callahan, Associate Editor and Featured Columnist
Bowels movements are not easy to think about, for most of us.
Most of us would rather have root canal than discuss them with
our doctors.
But did you know that your bowels are great indicators of your
overall health? Let's start with the look of them. If you have
small, marble-sized --what do I call them?--"contributions, that
could mean you are dehydrated.
Bowel movements need sufficient water, oil and sufficient bulk
fiber to come out the proper size and in the proper frequency.
Insufficient water produces small, hard marble-sized bowel
movements. Sufficient water and roughage produce soft but
formed bowel movements, about the size and shape of small
bananas.
What is that ideal frequency? It depends on what you eat. It
takes meat between 48-72 hours to make its way from your
mouth, through your stomach, intestines and out. It takes
most vegetables about 2 hours.
But, if you are eating a balanced diet, most doctors expect you
to void at least once per day, more if you're eating a lot of
vegetables and other foods with roughage.
Bowel movements vary in color and smell. If you are eating a
vegetarian diet, your stool and flatulence will smell somewhat
more pungent at first. This is because the bulky vegetables
interact with the bacteria in your intestinal tract differently than
meat,and also because the roughage "scrapes' away old fecal
matter. This is excellent for your colon even though it is smelly.
Extra iron in your diet or dark green vegetables (spinach, kale)
will cause black or dark bowel movements.
Constipation --indicated by straining without successful or
minimally successful voiding--- often increases as we age for a
number of reasons. The muscles in our rectum don't relax
when they should to allow easy bowel movement voiding.
Sometimes, the problem is that we are too sedentary. Exercise
helps you to void by helping the intestines to move the
contributions along.
Sometimes, our medications are at fault.
Many drugs or minerals slow down the passage of our stool
through the large intestine. Watch out for foods or drugs high
in iron, calcium blockers, antihistamines, opioids, high blood
pressure medications, anti-depressants, and antacids.
What if you are not voiding? How long can you go without
voiding before it's a sign of an emergency? Unfortunately,
there is no magic number that fits all cases. Simple
constipation is different from intestinal blockage.
Intestinal blockage means that the bowels cannot move
through because something is blocking them. This is a serious
medical emergency and requires immediate attention. See
www.mayoclinic.com. The Mayo Clinic lists the following
symptoms for intestinal blockage:
crampy abdominal pain that comes and goes (intermittent)
Nausea
Vomiting
Inability to have a bowel movement or pass gas
Swelling of the abdomen (distention)
Abdominal tenderness
Related Links:
Why Americans Read In Bathrooms-The Hidden Epidemic of
Constipation
The Color of Your Bowels--What It Means
Bowels -3 Keys to Normal Bowels
Exercises That Increase Bowel Movements
Diet and Exercise-A Simple Plan
Snoring Increases Your Risk of Stroke 67%
Six Pack Abs--Step By Step
Foods That Reduce Blood Pressure
Foods That Shrink Your Waist
Owning a Cat Reduces Risk of Stroke 40%
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