The Operation of the Colon

How does constipation develop? Let us consider the operation of the colon. The residues of digested food empty from the small intestines into the large intestines in liquid form.Muscular contractions move the contents towards the rectum. As this motion occurs, the walls of the large intestine are constantly at work both absorbing moisture out of the contents that have settled there and absorbing waste material from the body into the colon.

The longer this material remains in, the more moisture is absorbed from it, and the more dry and pressed together it becomes. During a bowel movement, large, powerful contractions called mass movements force the contents of the rectum and lower colon through the anus. The liquid matter out of which the feces are formed may be either thin and watery in consistency or slimy in consistency. A slimy medium will be propelled by the muscular contractions at a slower rate than will a watery medium.

A slimy medium therefore has a longer transit time. Because it remains longer, it will have more moisture absorbed from it and be more packed together.

As moisture is absorbed from a slimy medium, the medium becomes sticky. As the medium is further dehydrated, it becomes gluey and glues a coating of itself to the walls of the colon as it passes through.

As layer after layer of gluey feces piles up, they often form into a tough, rubbery, nearly black substance.

Worth A Thousand Words

This accumulated material ranged from jelly-like to hard as truck tire rubber; clear to black as tar; fresh to morbidly old; fragments to 3- and 4-foot long ropes, and all with the odor that only speaks of very rotten things. Notice the mucus lining taking the shape of the bowel, complete with haustration, striations, strictures and diverticula.

This is truly an amazing phenomenon. Please note that these specimens are not from the same body. Old feces may build up in pockets and they may coat the entire length of the colon and small intestines as well. They do not pass from the body with ordinary bowel movements but require special techniques to dissolve the glue which binds them in the body” Jensen 141).

One Web site has written “Many people are constipated and don't even know it. They become so accustomed to feeling tired, bloated, irritated, overweight, etc., that they don't suspect that their health is in danger. Or they may be on medications to cover up such symptoms, never seeking the underlying cause. The slimy nature of matter found in the colon is due to the presence of mucoid material in what would otherwise be a watery medium. A stool formed out of mucoid material is a mucoid stool. A stool formed without the presence of mucoid material is a nonmucoid stool. Many conventional doctors are under the misconception that having a bowel movement every two or three days is sufficient and even "normal" for some. This is a dangerous fallacy!

Experts in autopsy state they have found that from 60 to 70 per cent of the colons examined have foreign matters such as worms and decades-old feces-stones. The inside walls of the large intestines are encrusted by old, hardened feces and resemble in appearance the inside of a filthy stove-pipe.

A person with a healthy colon should in fact have two to three bowel movements per day, or one for each meal eaten. Elimination should be complete, fast and easy. The stool should be light brown in color, long and large in diameter, fluffy" in texture and floating on top of the water. There should be no offensive odor and it should break apart with the toilet flushing. Going to the bathroom once every few days, sitting they’re straining for half-an-hour and passing black, hard "pebbles' that drop to the bottom is not only abnormal, it is also serious trouble waiting to happen” (Dr. Natura). If you're not eliminating approximately the same amount that you are eating, then what do you think happens to the remainder?

Mucus and Nonmucus Material

Because nonmucus material moves through the body quicker than mucus material, the bowels tend to move two to three times per day when the intestines and colon are in a nonmucus condition. The total quantity of feces per day is much greater than when mucus stools are present because the feces contain much more moisture and are correspondingly less packed together. Because the feces are nonsticky, a nonmucus stool passes out of the body very easily. The entire contents of a nonmucus bowel movement usually seems to just drop out of the body within seconds after one sits on the toilet. A healthy nonmucus stool is neither runny nor mushy. The feces are fully formed as they pass from the body, but due to the lack of any stickiness to hold them together, they may begin to crumble as they rest in undisturbed water.

A nonmucus stool will always break up into little pieces with a small amount of agitation, as when the toilet is flushed. Because of the longer transit time of mucus material through the body, bowel movements usually occur no more than once per day when mucoid.

Now we can understand why nearly every member of modern society is constipated. The average person has never had a nonmucus stool since he or she can remember and would think it strange if he or she did. Bowel function is widely considered satisfactory if there is one bowel movement per-day that passes from the body within ten minutes.

Anytime it takes ten minutes to complete a bowel movement, you are constipated! The feces are probably of a sticky, mucus nature and have left one more layer of residue inside the colon as they passed through. A bowel movement that takes several minutes to complete may also be due to the presence of much old fecal matter in the colon. This fecal matter can inhibit proper colon functioning and hinder the through passage of fresh feces.

The following illustrations show how food moves through the gastrointestinal tract in a 24-hour period and what happens when the bowel doesn't eliminate on time.

It was revealed that this clogging up or constipation was due to the accumulation of mucus and toxemias in the system, which is caused by eating foods containing large abundance of mucus forming foods. The human mechanism is an elastic pipe system. The diet of civilization is never entirely digested and the resultant waste eliminated. This entire pipe system is slowly constipated, especially at the place of the symptom and the digestive tract. This is the foundation of every disease.

When mucus accumulation is abundant at any one particular location, there is pain or an uncomfortable felling. This pain is nature’s way of letting us know that something is wrong, this is our latent disease yet to be manifested. If mucus accumulates in the chest area; a cold develops, during the length of the cold, we expel great quantities of mucus, and feel unhappy instead of enjoying Nature's cleansing process. If the quantity of loosened mucus is great enough to shock the entire system, more or less, but still not dangerous, it may be diagnosed as Influenza.

If the eliminating work of Nature digs deeper into the system especially into that important organ, the lungs, so much mucus and poisons are loosened at once that the circulation has to work under great friction, similar to a dirty machine or an automobile running with its brakes set, The friction produces abnormal heat which is called fever, and the doctors call it Pneumonia, which is really a "feverish" effort on Nature's part to free this most vital organ from its waste. If the kidneys are called upon to eliminate this loosened mucus, thereby shocking this organ it is called Nephritis and you can see how this vicious cycle continues. In other words, whenever Nature endeavors to save a human life through her efforts to eliminate "feverishly," mucus and its toxic products, it is called acute disease.

THE FOLLOWING DRAWINGS ILLUSTRATE THE VARIOUS ABNORMAL SHAPES OF THE BOWEL IN COMPARISON TO A NORMAL BOWEL.

Notwithstanding the "help" of doctors, that are often injurious and dangerous to the patient's life, his vitality and especially his eliminating abilities are lowered, and Nature proceeds slowly. Under this handicap Nature cannot work efficiently, requiring more time, and the case is then called "chronic." The word chronic is derived from the Greek word "Chronos," meaning time. The average so-called "healthy" man of today carries continually with him, since childhood, several pounds of never eliminated feces. One "good stool" a day means nothing, but it’s better than none at all.

If you can imagine your entire pipe system being clogged, then you might begin to understand the enormously detrimental and physical consequences of a constipated colon. Constipation slows down food transit time. The transit time of food is defined by the elapsed time it takes for a meal to enter the mouth and then exit the rectum. The transit time of food should be less than 24 hours.

Constipation causes food transit time to slow down. Why is this a problem? When transit time slows down, petrified material stays in the colon longer, and toxins can enter the bloodstream through the intestinal wall. This can lead to autointoxication(Self-poisoning caused by endogenous microorganisms; metabolic wastes, or other toxins produced within the body, also called autotoxemia). This causes everything, from headaches to autoimmune disorders. Additionally, slow transit time can lead to a build-up of toxic material alone the intestinal walls.

This build-up reduces the absorption or good nutrients. This is called reabsorption(the act or process of absorbing again, as the absorption by the colon or kidneys of substances already secreted into the colon or renal tubules. This state deprives the body of nutrients that create "energy and vitality". Remember this equation “V = P - O (V equals P minus O). V stands for Vitality, P for Power and O means Obstruction. This is why so many constipated people complain of fatigue and depression. Every disease has its starting point in the colon. Every disease of the human body no matter what name it is called is constipation. It begins in the colon, which has never been completely emptied since birth, and spreads throughout the entire body clogging the small hairlike vessels of the body.

"Big Boss Man"

When the body was first made, all the parts wanted to be Boss.The brain said, "I should be boss because I control the whole body's responses and functions."

The feet said, "We should be Boss as we carry the brain about and get him to where he wants to go."

The hands said, "We should be the boss because we do all the workand earn all the money."

And so it went on and on with the heart, the lungs, and the eyes, until finally the colon spoke up. All the parts laughed at the idea of the colon being the Boss. So the colon went on strike, locked itself up and refused to work..

Within a short time the eyes became crossed, the hands clenched, the feet twitched, the heart and lungs began to panic and the brain fevered. Eventually they all decided that the colon should be the boss, so the motion was passed.

All the other parts did all the work while the boss just sat and passed out the feces!

Moral of the story: You don't need brains to be a boss - any colon will do.

Copyright © 1995-2003 Comedy Central. All rights reserved.

Return from Colon to Truth seeker home page