One of my longevity heroes is Bernardo La Pallo who died in his sleep, aged 116, having never suffered a days’ illness in his life.
I’m sure you’ll agree with me there can hardly be a finer role model for us than Bernardo in our joint quest to avoid blighting our golden years shuffling from doctor’s offices to hospitals and back. So what is Bernardo’s number one health recommendation?
Keeping your colon clean.
Which makes complete sense because, unless you’re getting rid of the remains of your digested food on a ‘regular’ basis, this will putrefy, creating toxins which will be reabsorbed into your bloodstream from your colon causing all sorts of mayhem in your body ranging from headaches to death.
Think that death from constipation is an exaggeration?
Think again…
Several scientific studies now show beyond all reasonable doubt that these toxins – if they hang around long enough – get reabsorbed into the bloodstream and end up causing havoc.
This is particularly so with female breast tissue where excess oestrogen having been dumped by the liver on the assumption it will quickly be jettisoned out the back door but then gets held up because of the slowness of your bowel movements so it ends up being reabsorbed by breast tissue.
But, although similar studies have not been conducted on the male prostate gland, it is not such a quantum leap to expect a similar deleterious effect, because both the female breast and the male prostate are both organs that secrete fluids.
It’s also interesting to note the position of the prostate right up against the bowel and the fact that should cancer present, it is usually found to start in the area next to the bowel wall.
Contrary to popular belief, there should not be any straining involved when pooing, because not only is that a sign that your poo isn’t sufficiently spongey to absorb all the nasties you want rid of, but it can also cause you considerable harm – even to the extent of bringing on a heart attack!
It’s true. A study conducted by Harvard University Medical School found an increased risk of a heart attack when straining to pass hard poo.
Even if you don’t suffer a heart attack one of the widespread conditions caused by trying to expel hard poo is haemorrhoids – or piles. These occur when the poo is so hard it acts like a plunger forcing the veins that line the wall of the anus down and – if this is repeated often enough – the veins end up hanging down outside the anus like grapes.
In even more severe cases they can cause a hiatus hernia where the abdomen wall high up near the diaphragm, bulges out like a balloon.
Even if you do poo at least once a day, it’s also important to realise the ‘transit time’ is just as important, because it is quite possible to have a daily bowel movement and yet still be constipated because you’re expelling food that was eaten days ago. The way to check your transit time is to eat some beetroot and then keep a watch on when your poo turns pink. An elapsed time of between 24 and 36 hours is about right.
How do you speed up your transit time?
Simply eat more plants, because that is the only place where you will get the fiber necessary to bulk up your poo so it becomes smooth and spongey and can be passed without any strain, flushing out those toxins as fast as possible. It’s also just as important to drink sufficient pure water to help the fiber expand into a spongey material and so act the way you want it. Get in the habit of drinking two or three glasses first thing in the morning to combat the dehydration that your body will have experienced during sleep and also get your bowels ready to rock and roll.
Then drink the other three glasses at convenient times during the day.
Don’t be surprised of, once you eating a decent amount of plants and drinking enough water you find the need to ‘go’ more than once a day. That’s good, because ‘superpoopers’ – as the reseach shows – reduce their risk of cancer.
‘Superpooper’ isn’t that a song by ABBA?
Scientific sources: