The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-05-10
Constipation and Its Cure.

/
OF all the causes of headache, bill
| iousness, indigestion, the blues" and
other kinds of ''half-sickness," con-
stipation is far and away the most
common. 1t is also associated with the
most serious acute diseases to such an
extent that the physician is likely to
give "a cleaning out of the bowels
first consideration in his treatment.
Constipation is doubtless very much
on the increase in America. We are
becoming a leisure loving people SO
ra pidly that we are not accommodate
ing ourselves gracefully to the change.
The most common cause of constipa-
ton is want of sufficient physical
exercise. Elevators, self-starting auto
mobiles with too comfortable springs,
and labor-saving devices are remov-
ing for many people the last of the
regular and regulating natural exer-
cises.
The reduction in the amount of
physical labor and exercise has re-
duced appetities. Small appetities lead
to small meals of highly concentrated
foods. The intestinal tracts of man
kind were not designed by nature for
the limited amount of work that pres
ent demands put upon them. Even
our children, who get plenty of >exer-
| else thru their puppy like play, ex-
pect their meat and what few vege-
tables they eat without compulsion, to
What are we going to do about it?
Not take drugs, surely, but eat plenty
of food which will afford "roughage"
| to the system, cereals, fresh fruits,
and vegetables Foremost among the
remedies offered for constipation
comes the use of bran meal combined
| with water and eaten as a dry cereal.
| Plenty of exercise, fresh water, but
! termilk, and regular habits faithfully
carried out will cure most ordinary
cases of constipation. A day or two,
| however, is not fair trial of the
| remedy, it should be faithfully follow
| ed for at least a month. If good re-
suits are not then obtained a relia BILE
| physician should be constellation
| the patient may require surgical at
| tention. The thing to be avoided in
| all cases of constipation is the drug
! habit, for it soon becomes enslaving
and only aggravates the tropble.
| Physicians have little confidence in
the ability of most people to keep at
| exercises taken voluntarily and solely
for health's sake. therefore, about the
| best hope for people who have got
away from the necessity of making a
| living by physical work lies in estab-
fishing skating Kinks, toboggan slides,
volley ball courts, tennis courts, and
golf clubs, and other means of putting
] joy into lIfe-Saving exercise.
| Three times daily the stomach is
| gorged with a variety of food, but lit
| tie tnouSht or care IS gwen to the re-
| moval of the dead and putrid material
| accumulated and obstructing the elm
| mating organs. So-called auto-intoxi-
| cation is the result from which arises
a great variety of Affections, many of
which are transitory and readily re-
| lieved while others cause fatal changes
in the vital organs.
A shrewd English bishop whose
l parishioners were largely meat eaters,
| was accustomed when called to visit
the sick. to send by the messenger
three drastic cathartic pills. with
/ directions to the spiritually depressed
person to take them at bed time and
! that he would call at 10 O'Clock the
next day. You may be sure the min
| istrations of the bishop were of a char
acter to help both body and soul.
Il Quess ms and Answers.
Question: VIII you tell me in the
! Journal what the signs of hardening
| of the arteries are? Is it shortness of
! breath? can walk several miles, and
unless it is windy or cold. am all
right. My homework tires me and
I get short of breath at times If one
has that trouble what should they eat :?
/ Mrs. S. H
/ Answer: Oftentimes the symptoms
] of hardening of the arteries are not
| observable until some great stress is
I put on the blood vessels. such as great
emotion or an unusual physical or
muscular effort Shortness of breath
l might lead to- suspicion. Dizziness,