The truth is actually this

The regularity and the characteristics of bowel movement is one of the measures in determining a human being's overall health. A not so very charming concept, yet it is an undisputable basic truth and the faster you learn to accept this, the better you will understand why this came to be.

Have you ever felt sluggish, ungainly, bloated, or just plain uncomfortable, and it is rather difficult for you to figure out why you are going through such discomforts? Well, try hard to remember whether you have moved bowel during that same day. If you can answer that question with utmost accuracy that you did not, then the following explanations just might be the reason.

One of our body's biggest waste management spots apart from our skin, lungs, and kidneys is the colon. Being the final portion of our digestive system, the colon’s primary function is the reabsorption of electrolytes and water from the eliminated products during digestion before getting rid of them completely from the body. The whole digestion process may take from a minimum of six hours to a maximum of eighteen hours succeeding every meal. Hence, if a person has a healthy colon, he is expected to make at most three bowel movements every day.

If a person fails to get at least one bowel movement a day, then his stool will most likely remain in his colon and when this happens, it will stimulate a domino effect – the longer it stays inside, the more water reabsorbed. The effect of this is that it will produce harder stools, and when the stool is harder, it gets more difficult for the body to expel it, thereby causing you to strain. Occasional straining is not at all bad or harmful, but if it is being done every time you move your bowel, then it could result to even graver and more serious complications later on.

To prevent this, there exist three main areas that we all need to pay attention to; these are, exercise, water, and diet. There is a saying that goes “we are what we eat.” Though this is not entirely precise, it is not entirely false either. The kinds of foods that we ingest are the only things that our bodies can rely on for repairing tissues and building muscles. So, if we eat mostly unhealthy foods, then our bodies cannot possibly stay in its best shape as it ought to be.

We need to eat the correct mixture of vitamins, fats, proteins, minerals, and carbohydrates. We need to eat foods that are in its freshest state and avoid the types that are processed, canned, or smoked, like the ones sold on the grocery store shelves. More specifically, the colon requires a diet that is rich in fiber and low in processed foods and even red meat. Pair this with exercise and an ample amount of fluids – at least six glasses to ten in a day – and your colon will be good as new. As we have pointed out, a healthy colon means a healthy you.