The Complete Home Guide to Herbs, Natural Healing, and Nutrition

eating trends and accompanying lack of exercise continue. When

combined with other colon diseases, it is already the second largest cause

of death in Britain. When the colon starts to become clearer and cleaner,

the symptoms of the disease begin to ebb away slowly, layer by layer.

Remember, if you do not cleanse the colon, your other organs and

systems will not be able to cleanse their wastes either, and an

autointoxication situation can easily arise, causing extreme ill health.

Check whether close relatives, especially older members of your family,

have bowel problems. This way you will be able to see if your own

tendencies might be hereditary. As always, prevention is the key. The late

Dr. Bernard Jensen, a well-known American herbalist, has written many

books on the bowel; they are worth searching out, not least for their

photographs of autopsies showing the variety of distorted colon shapes

found in the deceased. These distortions were caused by old fecal matter

piling up by the pound, creating pockets, narrowings, balloonings, and so

forth.

In these balloons, old fecal matter slowly becomes part of the bowel

wall itself, hardening and impacting, layer upon layer, encouraging

viruses, bacteria, and fungi to take hold and thrive, with opportunistic

parasites also setting up home — all draining the entire body of health and

vigor. The ensuing strain on the colon walls also causes thinning and,

where the wall has become too thin, fl uid bowel matter can slowly seep

into the rest of the body. It is not only toxins that can cause bowel

problems. Benefi cial microbes in the colon can become dangerously

pathogenic if they escape from their regular environment.

Many common viruses and bacteria lurk in bowel pockets of both men

and women. Candida is commonly found in the bowel pockets of women

in particular, and can often stubbornly proliferate when parasites are

present. Whenever ballooning of the bowel wall occurs, narrowing before

or after the affected area results. These strictures then make it diffi cult for

fecal matter to pass through. Very often the result is fecal matter being

dumped into the existing balloon or pocket after attempts to negotiate

the stricture have failed. What little fecal matter does get through is often

very watery and thin, and this is the form in which diarrhea sometimes

presents itself, especially if it comes after years of constipation.

162 The Complete Home Guide to Herbs, Natural Healing, and Nutrition