Symptoms:
Stools are hard, dry, and infrequent. It is difficult to have a bowel movement.
Other symptoms may include abdominal discomfort, lack of energy, dull headache, poor appetite, and low back pain.

Cause:
—"Constipation" comes from the Latin, and means "crowded together."

The bowels should move daily, ideally, after each meal. When this does not happen, waste material moves too slowly through the large bowel. Elimination becomes painful, and toxins are reabsorbed by the system, placing an overload on the liver and kidneys. All waste in the body should be expelled within 18-24 hours.

A number of different physical problems are partially caused by constipation: bad breath, body odor, depression, appendicitis, fatigue, gas, headaches, hernia, indigestion, the malabsorption syndrome, varicose veins, obesity, insomnia, and the coated tongue.

Toxins, reabsorbed from a constipated bowel, can also result in migraines, chronic gas and bloating, thyroid problems, meningitis, and myasthenia gravis.

Constipation tends to be common during pregnancy.

Older people often have constipation because they are not drinking enough water.

Persons with spinal injuries may have problems with constipation, due to damage to certain nerves.

Treatment:
• Include enough fiber in your diet each day. Drink enough water. Get enough exercise, especially out-of-doors, so you get enough fresh air. Avoid poisonous substances and emotional tension. Relax, thank God for your blessings, and take time to be a blessing to others. Follow the advice in this paragraph, and many of your problems will vanish.

• As soon as you awake, start drinking warm water, a little at a time. By the time you are ready for breakfast, you should have at least taken a quart. Faithfully following this regime, you will tend to develop regularity in your morning bowel movement. This plan nicely starts the day off right.

• Then, after breakfast and every other meal, go outside and walk a little or a lot. Breathe deeply.

• The larger the amount of fiber in the diet, the larger and softer will the stools be.

• Eat smaller amounts of food at each meal.

Concentrated foods, such as meats, sugar, and cheese are excellent for producing constipation.

• Dairy foods, soft drinks, white flour, salt, coffee, alcohol, highly processed foods, and sugary foods should not be used, if you want to solve this problem.

• Iron supplements cause constipation. So do painkillers and antidepressants.

• All decongestants and antihistamines are drying agents, and may cause the stool to become dryer than it should.

• Eat prunes or figs. Flaxseed meal (best freshly ground) is helpful. Both will soften stools. Psyllium seed is also good, but take it quickly with a full glassful of water.

• When necessary, take cleansing enemas to relieve the load on the bowel. But the solution is better living, not reliance on enemas.

• A small, cold enema helps eliminate the enema habit. (See "Enema Habit, how to overcome.")

• There is always the possibility that, if constipation occurs too frequently, that cancer, or some other obstruction of the bowel, may be involved. Other symptoms of colon cancer include severe cramping; blood in the stool; a tender, distended abdomen; and very narrowed feces. But cancer can be present without these symptoms occurring.

• Alternate diarrhea and constipation may point to irritable bowel syndrome (which see).