The colon - a vital excretory organ
The colon being a vital excretory organ, particular attention should be given to intestinal hygiene. We distinguish between two types of constipation, also known as obstipation or intestinal under-activity. One time the excrements are strongly pressed together, another time old and hardened faeces stick permanently to the intestinal walls and won’t move any more. This means that you may suffer from constipation and diarrhoea at the same time, namely in the second case. But it is particularly important to know – and this can’t be emphasized too much – that it is not sufficient to have bowel movements only every two or three days. We should have bowel movements at least once or even twice a day, preferably one early in the morning and the other as a reflex to the midday meal. Because there are so many people who suffer from constipation, doctors consider it nowadays to be normal to have bowel movements once or twice a week. But this is not at all sufficient and in the long run it leads to serious inner poisoning.
The time which food needs from its ingestion through the mouth until its excretion through the anus is commonly named intestinal passage time. The shorter the passage time, the less the risk of putrefaction. The normal passage time of a healthy person is between 24 and 48 hours, which means that the remains will be excreted no later than 48 hours after your meal. The average passage time of a modern civilized person is, however, between 65 and 100 hours. The average time needed from the mouth to the end of the small intestine is about eight hours. This is the time it takes to decompose the food in the stomach and in the upper part of the small intestine and to filter all that the body can utilize out of the chyme. For the rest of the time, the food lies in the colon and gets thickened. Additionally, the faeces increase in volume as a result of bacteria growth. About a third of healthy stool consists of bacteria. The faeces from the small intestine should be watery and loose, which is commonly named non-mucoid stool (1) (after Dr. Gray).
But the faeces can also be mucous. In this case, they are propelled more slowly by the peristalsis, an involuntary movement of the colon, and therefore dehydrated and compressed more heavily. Then we have a mucous and solid stool which can result in a constipation. The mucous faeces get viscous and sticky, getting stuck on the intestinal walls. In the course of months and years, lots of such mucous and faecal layers result in a black, viscous, gum-like substance which lines the villus and intestinal walls. So it is avoided that nutrients can be absorbed in the small intestine and that toxins from the body can be transmitted to the colon. As often as not, these coatings are permanently existent in the small and large intestine. Old and slow-moving faeces can also accumulate in the bulges of the colon wall – in pockets – so that faecal material lies unmoved in the intestine for months or years and contributes not inconsiderably to a weight increase of the person concerned.
Non-mucoid or rather non-sticky stool passes quickly through the intestine and we have two or three bowel movements per day. The evacuation goes off quickly and easily, the stool is well-formed and we hardly need any toilet paper. It crumbles easily in the water. Mucous and sticky stool leads to at most one evacuation per day, but mostly to less evacuations, consisting of compressed lumps, knots or tubers. The evacuation goes off slowly by pressing strongly. Most people permanently have a more or less mucous and sticky stool. Laxatives are no solution, because they will irritate the colon and weaken it in the long run. Such irritations will only reinforce the peristaltic movements (wavelike contractions in the digestive tract). The free-moving material in the colon may be excreted but not the material which has been there for a longer time. After that the laxatives have been excreted, the colon will be as inert as before. Besides, the use of laxatives may result in a habit and eventually in an addiction. It is much more reasonable to loosen and evacuate the old faeces and then take food which produces less mucous or sticky stools. For removing remaining faeces from the colon, you can apply different methods of colon cleaning.
Constipation as the opposite of diarrhoea. It can temporarily occur in the form of a bacterial infection, for example when we travel to Southern countries and eat things which do not harmonize with our intestinal flora (2). However, a lot of people suffer from chronical diarrhoea which results in three or four quick evacuations. The cause of it is a chronical irritation of the colon walls. It is provoked by mucous and sticky substances contaminated by bacteria and parasites which line the colon walls and cannot be excreted. This situation can be solved by a series of colon cleaning programmes. In this way, the colon walls are laid bare again and the irritation stops because the worms and parasites disappear. The old remaining faeces and mucus is the only place where they can survive.
Just a few words about the colonization of the intestines with bacteria. Normally, the stomach and the upper part of the small intestine are free of germs. The colonization with bacteria begins in the lower part of the intestines. The intestinal flora should consist of lactobacteria (3) at 85 % and of E. coli at 15 % (4). With people of the industrialized world, this proportion is often the other way round. Lactobacteria are benign, healthy, so-called probiotic bacteria which colonize the intestines ideally in a large number. They allow us to have frequent, voluminous and loose stools. They produce lactic acid and keep the pH-value ideally at 5,8, thus in the acid area.
This acid milieu also prevails in the lower part of the stomach and in the larger part of the small intestine. Basic milieu, however, favours putrefaction in the intestines. It is caused by E. coli and often accompanied by the formation of gases or flatulence. This flatulence, however, can be avoided by a solid digestive system, even if the number of lactobacteria is not optimal.
In a solid digestive system, the digestive liquids flow in a sufficient quantity and the peristalsis works hard so as to reduce the intestinal passage time considerably. You will find out yourself if your flatulence was caused by the putrefaction of proteins (6) or by the fermentation of carbohydrates (7). The latter produces odourless flatulence whereas bad smelling flatulence is often a sign of putrefaction processes. In this case you can be sure that the proteins taken were not properly digested. This is probably due to the fact that you either have eaten too much of them or have taken them in the wrong concentration, or because – as just described – your digestive system is not strong enough to propel the faeces quickly enough through the intestinal tube.
Extract from:
Entschlackung, Entsäuerung, Entgiftung – das Praxisbuch zur Körperreinigung (purification, deacidification, detoxication – the practical guide for body cleansing)
Prof. a.D. Dr. Otfried D. Weise, Munich (Germany)
ISBN 3-442-14188-5
1 similar to mucus
2 microorganisms which exist physiologically in the human colon
3 lactic acid rods
4 an important part of the physiological human intestinal flora, optionally also pathogenes
5 The pH-value gives a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of water. The pH-range reaches from 1 to 14, whereas values under 7 are considered as sour and values over 7 as alkalic (basic). pH 7 means neutral.
6 egg-white
7 Along with fats and proteins, carbohydrates represent the three basic elements. Carbohydrates are mainly found in cereals, vegetables, potatoes and sweets, mostly in the form of sugar, e.g. glucose, fructose, lactose and cane sugar, or starch.
