What is a healthy bowel function?

Sometimes observing nature can give us an insight into the human condition. If you have a pet dog, you will notice that almost every time your dog has its meal, it will act on its digestive reflex message and do its business. Although the human anatomy is sufficiently different to our canine friends, studies show that 2 or 3 bowel movements a day are ideal.

Intestinal Transit Time. (ITT)

Constipation is actually quite a vague and inaccurate way to describe bowel function. More recently, the term intestinal transit time has been used. Put simply, intestinal transit time is the time it takes food to travel from coast to coast....that is, mouth to anus. Even if you have a bowel motion everyday, depending on your intestinal transit time, was it yesterday's meal that you eliminated, or was it a meal you consumed last week? A constipated digestive system therefore is one in which the intestinal transit time is too slow.

Studies of African tribes who have very high fibre diets and a healthy lifestyle show that their intestinal transit time is between 12 and 24 hours. We, in the West however, have ITT on average between 48 to 72 hours and it is not uncommon for people to have ITT up to one week.

Generally, most of the digestive processes and absorption of beneficial nutrients occur within the first 12 hours after consuming the food. Therefore, the slower the ITT, the longer the spent toxic waste matter sits in the bowel, putrefying and fermenting. The bowel is a semi-permeable membrane. That is, the toxins not only contribute to the ill health of the bowel, but can be reabsorbed into other tissues and into the bloodstream to be distributed systemically.

The average person has between 1 and 3 kg of unwanted matter stuck to their bowel wall which sits there putrefying, creating a source of toxicity, a breeding ground for pathogens and creating a welcome home for parasites. When the bowel becomes impacted and hardened with dry toxic matter, not only does bowel function become disrupted, but the bowel wall itself can be damaged.

This can lead to the bowel being stretched beyond its normal shape, ballooning and prolapsing, and the development of toxic pockets called diverticula. Diverticulitis is a painful and potentially dangerous inflammation of the bowel pockets.

Prolapses can occur on the pelvic organs. Many menstrual problems can be related to this structural problem. Prolapses can result in pressure being exerted on the pelvic organs which can impair blood supply and create a condition of stasis which can lead to ill health.

Colon Dysfunction





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