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COLLECTIVE
WIZDOM.COM
Real People (Sometimes Real
Names) Share Real Health
and Life Stories
WIZDOM.COM
Real People (Sometimes Real
Names) Share Real Health
and Life Stories
| THE BEST MEDICINEf- LAUGH! FIRST DOSE There are always two ways to look at everything, I guess. My wife and I were sitting at a table at my high school reunion last October, and I kept staring at a drunken lady swigging her drink as she sat alone at a nearby table. My wife noticed me staring and asked me, "Do you know her?". "Yes", I sighed, "She's my old girlfriend. I understand she took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear she hasn't been sober since." "My God!" says my wife, "Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?" Got a Joke? E-mail it to us: frontpage@collectivewizdom .com |
| THE BEST MEDICINE- LAUGH! SECOND DOSE Last night, my friend and I were sitting in the living room and I said to her, "I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle. If that ever happens, just pull the plug." She got up, unplugged the TV, and threw out my wine |
DIET AND FITNESS:
Intestines --How to Keep Them Healthy
February 9, 2008
By Susan M. Callahan, Associate Editor and Featured Columnist
Intestines are perhaps the most important and least
understood of all our body parts. Though this column has
highlighted the importance of bowels movements to our overall
health, most of us d o not have the foggiest idea of how the
intestines work.
Food travels from our mouths, through our throats and
pre-stomachs (pharynx and esophogus), worked on in the
stomach, then enters the long journey through the intestines.
This is where it gets interesting. All of the food we eat --all the
great vitamins, veggies, that delicious steak-- do not add a
drop of nutritional value to our bodies until they enter the
intestines. You might as well try to live on air than to do
without your intestines. Literally, without your intestines you
would starve of malnutrition.
The intestines are where nutrients are absorbed from food.
What's left over gets mixed with water, fiber and well, dumped
out the other end as bowel movements.
You actually have 2 intestines.
The "small" intestine is actually the longer of the 2. It's
between 20 and 23 feet ( 6 to 7 meters) in an adult but it is a
narrow tube, hence the name "small". The "large" intestine
actually is shorter --only about 5 feet (1.5 meters)--but wider
in circumference.
Food is broken down into nutrients --small enough to travel in
blood to your other organs --in the small intestines. It all
happens there. The small intestines use lots of water and
secretions from the liver, pancreas, and intestinal glands to
complete the decomposition of food.
That's "decomposition", folks, which is the same process that
happens when you leave food out on a kitchen table. An apple
"decomposes' turns brown, then, if left there long enough
would become mush.
Meat "decomposes" in your intestines. In essence, it rots.
Why do your bowels smell? It's because the intestines contain
bacteria ---germs--and the germs which makes food rot inside
your intestines, well, stink. Both intestines contain germs but
the large intestines --which is a storage house for the leftovers
after the small intestines decompose our food--can contain up
to 50% bacteria, undigested fiber and water. These are your
feces which you eliminate through your anus.
The journey through your intestines can be quick or long,
depending upon what you ate. It takes meat between 48-72
hours to make its way from your mouth, through your
stomach, intestines and out. It takes most vegetables about 2
hours.
Unlike we humans, most animals who eat meat have short
intestines, it turns out. Tigers, for example, have short guts,
about 4 times their length. We humans have intestines about 6
times our height.
By the way, even though animals such as tigers are
meat-eaters, they also know how to take care of their digestive
tracts. Many animals self-medicate. Scientists have observed
that tigers and other wild animals eat grass when they are ill, to
help with digestion.
So how do we keep our intestines healthy? Here are the Rules
for Healthy Guts:
1. Avoid Constipation. Constipation --indicated by straining to
void without successful or minimally successful voiding---often
increases as we age for a number of reasons. The muscles in
our rectum don't relax when they should to allow voiding.
2. Exercise. Sometimes, the problem is that we are too
sedentary. Exercise helps you to void by helping the intestines
to move the contributions along. Remember, the tiger is a
meat-eater but tigers are also supreme athletes. They move
constantly.
3. Watch your medications. Sometimes, our medications are at
fault. Many drugs or minerals slow down the passage of our
stool through the large intestine. Watch out for foods or drugs
high in iron, calcium blockers, antihistamines, opioids, high
blood pressure medications, anti-depressants, and antacids.
4. Drink Water. Your intestines can't work without it. Food
can't be broken down without it. Drink up.
5. Fiber. Bulk helps. That old adage about an apple a day
became an old adage because a lot of people survived to ripe
old age by following. Eat your apples, pears, celery, greens.
You know the drill.
T
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