A Healthy Colon, A Healthy You

The fact of the matter is that the overall health of a human being can be measured in terms of the frequency and characteristics of bowel movement that he has daily. Not exactly your cup of tea? That, my friends, is a basic fact of life and the sooner you accept that, the easier it will be for you to understand why.

Have you ever experienced feeling sluggish, bloated, ungainly, or just uncomfortable, in general, but you just cannot quite put a finger on the reason as to why you are feeling such? Now try to remember if you were able to have a bowel movement within that day. The answer to that would probably be no and here is the reason why.

The colon is one of the body's major waste management sites, aside from the kidneys, lungs, and skin. It is the last portion of the digestive system and its main function is to reabsorb water and electrolytes from the waste products of digestion before eliminating them from the body completely. The entire process of digestion may take from as little as six hours to at most eighteen hours after each meal so with a healthy colon, a person is expected to have up to three bowel movements per day.

What happens if you are not able to have even one bowel movement in a day? The stool will stay in your colon, that is for sure, but this will trigger a domino effect – the longer it stays there, the more water is reabsorbed; the more water is reabsorbed, the harder it is going to be; the harder the stool, the more difficult it will be for you to expel it and the more you need to strain. Straining is all right if you do it occasionally but if this becomes a necessity with every bowel movement then this may lead to more serious complications in the future.

So how do we prevent this from becoming a cycle? There are three key areas that we need to focus on – diet, water, and exercise. We are what we eat. Although not entirely accurate, there is a morsel of truth to that. Our bodies rely on what we eat for energy and for building and repairing tissues and it utilizes only what we provide it with so if what we are eating is unhealthy then we cannot expect our bodies to be as healthy as it should have been.

Our bodies need the right combination of carbohydrates, fats, protein, vitamins, and minerals. As much as possible, these should be fresh, not dried, nor canned nor smoked like the processed foods we see on the shelves at the grocery store. The colon, in particular, needs a diet that is high in fiber and low in red meat or processed foods. This coupled with an adequate amount of fluid intake, six to ten glasses of water a day, and aerobic exercise can lead your colon to be fit as a fiddle. Again, if your colon is healthy, then more likely than not, so are you, too!

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