Complete Health can assist you in whole body detoxification, colon cleansing programs with Colonics. Dr Rispoli has 25 years experience as a Doctor of Clinical Nutrition.

Why is Constipation on The Rise?
The colon is responsible for removing toxins from all parts of the body, not just digestive waste. When the colon is functioning properly, it is normal and healthy to have a bowel movement shortly after each meal. However, with the typical modern diet of overcooked, processed and refined foods, chronic constipation and digestive problems are on the rise.

Causes Of Constipation: Stress - Lack of Water - Poor Diet Lacking Fiber - Antibiotics - Bugs in the Gut
Many people do not drink enough water, consuming primarily coffee, sodas, and sugar-laden fruit drinks. The caffeine and acids in coffee and sodas can dehydrate the intestines and promote the breakdown of healthy flora in the digestive tract, while the sugar in many of our foods and drinks feeds the unhealthy bacteria and Candida, leading to overgrowth of yeast. Mental and emotional stress, which are so prevalent in our fast-paced society, can also interfere with proper digestion and elimination all leading to constipation.

Laxatives are NOT the Answer
Unfortunately, when people experience constipation or digestive trouble, they often turn to laxatives for relief. Most laxatives work by irritating the colon wall so that it will contract unnaturally. Over time, these laxatives can become habit-forming, the colon becomes weak and will no longer move without this stimulation.

Colonics are the Answer For Stubborn Chronic Constipation
Colon Hydrotherapy is safe, gentle and effective and will not lead to dependency. In fact, the expansion and contraction of the colon as the water fills and releases will help to tone and strengthen the colon muscle over time.

What is Constipation?
Well, the digestive track of man is able to hold at any given time somewhere between three to five meals. That means if you've eaten three to five meals and haven't had a bowel movement in three days, your carrying around 9 meals of toxic substance. Once we go past three to five meals, the colon begins to expand. It can actually expand up to five times its normal size in order to hold more meals that are not being passed. This, however, produces a very bad situation because the longer the food stays in the intestinal track the more apt it is to begin to ferment, putrefy, rot and act as a breeding ground for bad bacteria, the likes of which can cause different arthritic conditions, immunological problems such as autoimmune illnesses which can be linked to allergies, chemical sensitivities and different types of rheumatoid arthritis.

Gluten Sensitivity and Toxins in the Gut Lead to Disease and Inflammation
When the bowel is full of old, rotting putrefying material people are more prone to have health challenges. These toxic chemical substances in the gut have been directly linked to arthritis, cancer and cancer of the bowel and many other illnesses and diseases. Primitive African people have very low toxinx in there colon, due to their high fiber intake.This is why they have such a low incidence of bowel cancer, cancer in general, heart disease, arthritis and many other illnesses. Gluten can cause inflammation and swelling of the intestines and can lead to autoimmune diseases.

Diseases Associated With Constipation
Toxins that are produced in the bowel along with different microorganisms such as bacteria, parasites, Candida Albicans, can produce
more symptoms, illnesses, and diseases than anyone can believe. We have seen arthritis, diabetes, hypoglycemia, muscle soreness and pain, osteoporosis, PMS, other reproductive disorders, chronic migraines, and all types of indigestion and digestion complaints clear up miraculously once the person started moving their bowels normally again! So, this leads up to our main question.

Bugs in the Gut Linked To Constipation
Parasites and the eggs of parasites can hatch in your intestines and grow, destroying friendly bacteria and can cause Candida albicans, a fungus, to grow out of control. These friendly bacteria can be destroyed by antibiotic use a well.

Symptoms of Candida Albicans Overgrowth
There are over 100 different symptoms possibly caused by this fungus. They range from allergies, asthma, arthritic complaints digestive complaints, brain fog, fatigue, spacings, inability to concentrate, skin problems, food reactions, the list goes on and on.
click here for more info on Candida).

What is A Healthy Functioning Colon?
A healthy functioning digestive tract should be able to have a bowel movement in ratio to every meal that is consumed in one given day. Now, this means if someone eats three times a day, they should have three bowel movements. If they eat one time a day, they should have one bowel movement. Simple math will show us, after one week's time, if someone consumes three meals a day that's 21 meals. Seven days times three meals. If someone has one bowel movement per day, at the end of the week that's one bowel movement times seven days equals seven bowel movements. Where did all the other food go? Most people have been misled into believing that when they have a bowel movement in the morning they are eliminating all the food from the day before. Nothing can be further from the truth. The reason for that is actual analysis and testing show that the average American has a transit time of at least 48 to 72 hours.

What Does Bowel Transit Time Mean?
The word transit is simply referring to transportation time of the feces from the point it enters the mouth to the point it is actually eliminated in the bowel movement. If food is taking 48 to 72 hours to pass through our systems, there is no way that the bowel movement we are having in the morning is eliminating all the meals from the previous day. Now, this can fool you because some foods tend to move through your system faster than others. For instance beets, which can be used as a great marker for this experiment, usually will pass through within 18 to 24 hours. Salads and vegetables and particularly uncooked vegetables and raw fruits tend to move through faster. However, foods of lower fiber content like meats, refined grains and starchier foods tend to move through slower so you may see part of yesterday's meal in your bowel movement and be tricked into thinking that the whole meal was just passed. What actually occurred was some of the foods moved faster through your digestive tract than some other foods. This doesn't mean the entire meal was passed. On the contrary, it has defiantly been confirmed that it takes 42 to 72 hours for most Americans to pass, what we would refer to as, the average American meal.

Now, let me ask you this question, how often do you take out your garbage? Particularly, during the summertime? Now, let's look at the garbage for a second. The garbage can has a lid and in the garbage can it is dark and moist and we have a lot of old food scraps in there. During the summer, if the can is outside, the sun beats on it making it hot, so we have a dark, moist, and warm environment. Now, if you took out your garbage on Monday and then that night filled up the pail again and then left the pail alone until Thursday or Wednesday, what would you expect to smell when you opened up that pail? It certainly wouldn't be anything pleasant or anything to look forward to, of course not, it would stink. This is because the foods sitting in the garbage pail that are mixing with bacteria that were already present in the food are being allowed to putrefy. I don't think there are that many of us who would expect a garbage pail that has been sitting there for two or three days to be a very healthy environment. So, why would we ever think that our intestinal track would be any healthier if we allow garbage to stay in there for two or three days. A normal healthy person should have a bowel movement three times a day or minimum two times if he's eating three meals a day. If he is not, we call this a mild form of constipation. Now someone may have bowel movements three or four times a day, but if the bowel movements are liquidy or loose they won't be passing a lot of solid material and that would still be considered constipation.

Remember Constipation Means to Compact
This doesn't mean how many times you are moving. It simply means that things are being compacted in the bowel and the bowel is not fully evacuating, cleaning itself. Diarrhea in many senses can be a form of severe constipation. If one were to analyze the bulk weight of material released in every episode of diarrhea that someone was having over the period of a few days, they would find they are passing mostly water and not much solid material. Therefore, the solid material is staying in the bowel, so even though they have the appearance of moving a lot and cleaning themselves out, they're really not because it's not solid material, it's all water. Sometimes people can become so constipated that all that will come out is liquid and loose material. This is defiantly a form of constipation if someone is moving his or her bowels every two to three days or any longer than that. This is severe constipation. This is the type of situation that is a breeding ground for many illnesses and diseases.

Antibiotics Lead to Constipation
There are many causes of constipation. Very typically, antibiotics and other drugs can disrupt the friendly bacteria called acidophilus and bifidus, which live in our intestinal tract. These friendly bacteria help us to digest our food and help keep the intestinal pH at the right balance so that the bowels are able to move. When these bacteria are destroyed, the bowels can become too alkaline. Many times, the stool pH can go over 7.2, which is much more alkaline than it should be. When the stool pH becomes too alkaline, the bowels slow down and constipation is apparent.

Importance of Friendly Bacteria and Digestive Enzymes
Different enzymes known as brush border enzymes protect the barrier wall and help digest food and absorb vitamins and minerals. Unfortunately constipation can clog up the system and prevent absorption. At this point, we are unable to digest and absorb the vitamins, minerals, proteins and other nutrients from our food and we start developing many deficiency diseases that many of us read about in health and vitamin books.

What Can Disturb Friendly Bacteria?
Many things can disturb our friendly bacteria. It could be as simple as chlorinated water. Excessive intake of coffee, alcohol, and other drugs can also disturb the friendly bacteria. Friendly bacteria are very commonly disturbed by parasites. This may be horrible to confront and may be very difficult for anyone to want to believe, but people are picking up parasites all the time. We pick up parasites from our pets, from our water, from our food and even from each other. If the eggs from parasites are allowed to stay in our bodies too long, the eggs come in contact with certain chemicals, two of them are called propyl alcohol and benzene, these eggs are allowed to hatch and then parasites start to grow and multiply in our bodies. Many parasites can lay thousands of eggs a day. Once these parasites start to grow and mature, they disrupt the friendly bacteria, which then can lead, not only to constipation, but different parasite symptoms. Many authorities and experts now believe that over 90 percent of all Americans are affected with parasites and that parasites are actually the cause of 50 percent of the ailments and illnesses that doctors are commonly treating people for . Can you imagine that over 50 percent of all the ailments and illnesses that we are going to our doctor for are actually being caused by parasites living in our bodies as opposed to all these big fancy words and terms that are being coined in medical textbooks?

Other Causes of Chronic Constipation
Constipation can also be caused by nutritional deficiencies. This can cause under active adrenal and thyroid function. The adrenal gland acts like the fuel pump in the body helping fuel get into the cells. The thyroid gland acts somewhat like sparkplugs, helping the body burn up fuel and create energy. These two glands also stimulate the digestive system and it's very common to find constipated people with under active thyroid and adrenal function. Many times under activity of these glands will not show up on the standard blood test that our doctors will do as this under activity is being caused by mild nutritional deficiencies of vitamins, minerals and proteins which help these glands to work. This is when one needs to see a nutritionist to resolve the matter. Constipation can also be caused by a sluggish liver. This, again, may not show up on standard medical tests as it may not be a disease condition. The liver itself will not stimulate the digestive track to move and pass food along by releasing adequate amounts of bile which is a substance which helps us breakdown fats in our diet. Many experts now feel that almost everyone has gallstones even though they may not be symptomatic or necessarily need medication or surgery from their doctors. Gallstones can start accumulating in the gallbladder in the hundreds and hundreds or even thousands before the person may ever be symptomatic of it. I have seen the proof of this with my own eyes. I have had many patients do something that we call a gallbladder flush. This involves taking some simple every day household foods like lemon and olive oil and some basic herbs that flush the gallstones out of the gallbladder. I have had hundreds of patients do this and each one has reported seeing hundreds of stones pass and these were people who were never symptomatic of any type of gallbladder or gallstone problem. What we need to learn from this is that these stones could be in our gallbladder and could be causing the gallbladder and the liver to be ineffectively operating. This can be another cause of constipation.

What Can Improve Peristalsis?
Constipation might also be caused by certain vitamin or mineral deficiencies. Pantothenic acid is a B vitamin that helps encourage normal peristalsis in the intestines. Peristalsis is the wavelike muscular contraction of the colon in the small intestines which pushes food along, moving it eventually to the end of the colon where it is eliminated out of the body in normal bowel movements.

Three Basic Causes of Constipation:

The First is Lack of Water- when you are dehydrated the body takes water from the colon to hydrate cells, unfortunately now your cells are surrounded with toxic water! Drink more water!

The Next Reasons is Lack of Fiber and the consumption of too many junk foods that are low in fiber. Fiber, as we have all learned by now, is essential. It is a bulking material that helps us brush along much like a broom would. Nowadays, people are taking Metamucil that is essentially a substance called psyllium. Psyllium is a seed that contains an outer husk that absorbs water and gels and bulks up. When this is consumed, it acts as a fiber laxative.

Fiber adds moisture to the bowel and stimulates the colon to push fecal matter through. Foods low in fiber or junk foods cause the intestinal tract to secrete mucus to coating and protecting itself from these harmful irritating junk foods. Mucus buildup in the colon can also occur from taking drugs, too much alcohol or from having parasites or other harmful organisms in the intestinal tract. Once again, the intestinal tract is only trying to protect itself by secreting mucus in order to put a thin layer of protective fluid between itself and the harmful irritant substance. As time goes on, with the lack of water and fiber in the diet, the low fiber food mixes with the mucus and start to develop into a paste.

Eventually it hardens like plaster of Paris, becomes black and highly toxic. This material can build up, like we said before, like rust in a pipe. It is this material that is literally killing millions and millions of Americans. This material contains many toxic chemical substances, harmful bacteria, parasites and the fungus, Candida albicans, which can be damaging to our health. I have personally used Fiber Plus

Lack of Chewing or Enzymes is the Third Common Reason for Constipation. Chewing helps send signals to our digestive system that food is being consumed. Chewing acts like a stimulus to the digestive system, telling the stomach, pancreas and the liver all to make digestive juices and telling the intestines and the large bowel to push food along digestive tract. It is amazing when we realize how much more energy people have when they are able to get rid of these internal poisons that they are carrying around and producing every second from the dirty, toxic bowels that we have in this country.

The 5 R Gut Restoration Program is the solution (click here for more info)

It is our new Gut Restoration Program. It is important that your do it in phases as directed here. It involves disinfecting the bowel, killing harmful bacteria, fungi, parasites and their eggs, which can further injure the body and allow the constipation to persist. We want to kill these organisms.

We are having fantastic successeswith the use of Colonics, fiber, emzymes and probiotics, and in some cases almost miraculous results in our own practice. We hope this information benefits you.