Before you set out to gain more fresh air or try other methods of relief, it would be wise to know which type of constipation you have. There are three forms of this malady which can complicate arthritis:

Insufficient expressing of the excrement.

Insufficient quantity.

Evacuations of abnormally dry and hard stools.

The best way to check on your degree of constipation is to examine daily stools.

Continued evacuation of abnormally coloured stools should cause an arthritic to consult his doctor. Lienteric stools containing much undigested food usually signify profound intestinal disorder.

If an arthritic discharges watery or serous stools, it may be due to nervousness, enteritis, or cholera. Pus-like stools may arise from ulceration along the digestive tract or from the rupture of an adjacent abscess in the bowel.

Lastly, arthritics should know that black, red, or bloody stools are danger signals. They are caused by internal haemorrhages, haemorrhoids, or by the use of drugs. Any of the above signs should cause you to seek medical attention promptly.

Other symptoms of constipation include fatigue, coated tongue, headaches, instability, nervousness, and bad breath.

Halitosis often results from excessive putrefaction in the colon. Sharp odours begin to arise in the colon and the air cells in the lungs begin to expel the toxic aromas. Decaying processes caused by over-indulgence in cake and sweets lead to unfavourable changes in the breath. Free use of citric juices and soda pop can raise havoc with the digestive tract itself and cause it to degenerate. This also results in foul breath.

Skin blemishes can be evidence of constipation. They appear when toxic materials have become stagnant in your body.

Why are we devoting so much space to this problem of keeping regular? Because both arthritis and constipation can be caused by the same mistakes. And either ailment can be caused by the other.

Therefore let us continue our examination into this vital subject.

A Leading Doctor’s Opinion

The greatest work we have ever read in regard to constipation is a report in the Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine by Dr. A. A. Fletcher of Toronto, Canada.

Dr. Fletcher mentions the experiments of Dr. R. McCarrison on sluggish monkeys. McCarrison reported that when he put monkeys on a bacteria free diet, high in starches, their colon lost muscle tone and the membrane degenerated. The bowel changes in his experimental animals were structurally and causally of the same nature as those found in human victims of chronically constipated arthritis.

Because the diets were sterilised, bacteria as a cause of arthritis was ruled out. These tests also condemned high starch intake in constipation. It was important to rule out bacteria, because until then rheumatologists were bacteria conscious. They thought that arthritis was caused by infection.

Dr. Fletcher also reported that when Dr. R. Pemberton restricted “inferior-type” starches in the diets (like cake and sweets) of his human arthritic patients, their bowel actions were better, especially if vitamins were added to the diet. The doctors felt that a high starch diet precipitated border-line vitamin deficiencies. And that during the state of malnutrition the body was more susceptible to germ invasion.

Dr. Fletcher’s findings made it clear that more than one vitamin is deficient in the constipated person. Any diet which brings on constipation shows a multiple vitamin deficiency. The doctor stated, however, that it is predominantly a vitamin B deficiency which causes the bowel to break down and to lose its digestive action.

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Rocky Mountain spotted fever is a severe infectious disease with chills, fever, prostration, and a hemorrhagic rash. It is caused by a Rickettsial organism and is transmitted by wood ticks. A disease called Brazilian typhus is identical, as are Mediterranean fever, South African tick-bite fever and Kenya fever.

Rocky Mountain spotted fever is largely a rural disease; it has been found in every state in the United States except Maine and Vermont. It occurs chiefly during the warm months of the year when the ticks are active. Indeed the only insects known to spread the disease are the ticks. These include the wood tick, the dog tick, the lone star tick, and the rabbit tick. The tick attaches itself to an infected animal and transfers the infection to man.

Two to fourteen days after being bitten, the illness comes on abruptly with chills, fever, severe frontal or occipital headache, pains in the muscles and joints and sensitivity of the eyes to pressure and to light. Nausea, vomiting, constipation, nosebleed, a mild cough and similar symptoms appear, along with a fever which will rise rapidly from 103 to 105 degrees.

A rash is characteristic. It develops two to six days after the onset of the illness, usually first around the wrists and ankles and then spreading to involve the entire body surface. Several crops of the rash may appear, one after the other. Sometimes the rashes become hemorrhagic. The damage may be so great that gangrenous changes occur in the skin on the tips of the fingers, the toes, the earlobes and even on the soft palate. Secondary to these infections may be pneumonias, hemorrhages of the stomach and intestines and kidneys and serious inflammations of the eyes.

Vaccines have been prepared which are used to immunize people against Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Fortunately, chloromycetin, aureomycin, terramycin and para-amino benzoic acid have proved to be beneficial in Rocky Mountain spotted fever. The condition was formerly much more severe than since the new antibiotics have been developed. Once from 12 to 25 per cent of those infected died of the condition but it seems likely that with the new antibiotic drugs something less than 5 per cent of deaths will occur.

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The endocrine system is very important, especially with regard to acne. To help the endocrine system, in order to achieve the correct hormonal secretions and balance, it is essential to take evening primrose oil and certain vitamins. Walking, jogging and breathing exercises are also helpful. There are twenty or more little nerve centres situated in the solar plexus, with nerves extending to the different organs of the body, so deep breathing is relaxing as well as stimulating. Little veins accompany the nerves, carrying the blood to the different parts of the organs. Breathing exercises are good for minor hormonal disturbances, and, by consciously breathing deeply into the solar plexus, immediate contact is made with the different nerve centres, sending the nerve energy through to open up congestion, giving arteries a chance to force red blood and natural heat into the body and on to the various locations that may have been isolated. Try placing the left hand first on the solar plexus, then cover this hand with the right, and you form a magnetic ring. Breathe in and out slowly. For those of you who would like to develop this concept further, more detailed advice on breathing and other exercises can be found in my books Stress and Nervous Disorders and Body Energy. Such exercises are excellent as a general promoting influence for the nervous system.

The nervous system is made up of two parts; the involuntary and sympathetic systems. The more you can relax this busy hormonal housekeeping, the more you relax the nerves, and the skin will flourish. A little time, effort and thought, will go a long way towards overcoming unwanted acne problems.

Now I turn to a very much bigger problem, which can be equally persistent, but much more difficult to control. This is Acne rosacea, a chronic disease of the skin affecting the fleshy areas of the face, the nose, cheeks, chin and forehead, occurring in both sexes, usually in middle life. This condition is caused by neurovascular instability, endocrine disorders, gastro-intestinal conditions, food problems, infections, alcoholism, allergies, and various other factors. I remember that Acne rosacea was once briefly mentioned in a Gloria Hunniford programme on BBC Radio 2. When we discussed this problem I had no idea of the hundreds of letters that would reach me from people looking for an answer to this particular problem. Although over the years I have seen quite a number of cases in my practice, I did not realise that there were so many sufferers, hence the reason that I decided to set aside a section for it in this chapter.

In recent times our eating habits have changed considerably and this is probably the reason behind the large number of Acne rosacea cases, and I have had many requests for help from people who had previously attended skin clinics and dermatologists and yet had not found a cure. I have achieved my most notable successes by concentrating on clearing the lymphatic system. In doing so I have discovered that severely inflamed cases cleared especially quickly. For all of us it would be wise to give some consideration to the lymphatic system, which performs a miraculous job, much of it during our sleeping hours. Considering its influence and importance, I will try to explain why the lymphatic system is under such threat.

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