Life's A Gas - A New approach to Diverticulitis, Flatulence and Gas Pains
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Life's A Gas - A New approach to Diverticulitis, Flatulence and Gas Pains
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Gas Power
Life's A Gas - A New approach to Diverticulitis, Flatulence and Gas Pains
We want to discuss a particularly grievous condition that plagues millions of people in our culture from midlife onwards. It is a condition known to be culture-specific, suffered by affluent Westerns more than by any other group of people. And its cause is said to be unknown to modern medicine. It's called diverticulitis.
Life's A Gas - A New approach to Diverticulitis, Flatulence and Gas Pains
Life's A Gas - A New approach to Diverticulitis, Flatulence and Gas Pains
Diverticulitis is a pain in the butt for millions of people, literally, since it involves the colon and rectum. What happens is that the wall of the colon, or large intestine, becomes weakened over time from increased pressure of unknown cause. The pressure within the colon causes weakened areas to pocket outwards, creating sacs for digested matter to secure and fester. These sacs are called diverticula. When you have these sacs you are said to have diverticulosis. When diverticula become infected and inflamed, the condition is called diverticulitis, which can be as painful as appendicitis and can lead to rupture of the colon wall, a very dangerous situation. The key issue complex in this condition is the creation of increased pressure within the large intestine. It is the force of this pressure that causes the sacs to form.
Knowing what causes the increased pressure, then, is considerable to the stoppage and treatment of this condition. At one time it was plan by treatment that the diet might be too high in fiber, causing a blockage of digestion and the increased colon pressure. But lowering the fiber of the diet did not significantly alter the condition. Then it was plan that too itsybitsy fiber prevented proper elimination, and high fiber diets were recommended. Unfortunately, this did not help the condition, either. Diverticulitis is also equally coarse among vegetarians as it is among meat eaters. While extra interest groups promoting definite diets present study supporting their dietary view as preventive of diverticulitis, there is contrasting study to balance it. So, the broad study on diverticulitis has been inconclusive concerning the cause of increased colon pressure that creates this terrifying condition. And in the absence of knowing the cause, treatment can merely offer pain relief with drugs, antibiotics for the infections, and surgical operation for particularly nasty, abscessed pockets. As for prevention, the current suggestion is to eat more fiber, development th bowels need to eliminate more frequently.
Of course, one thing was overlooked in the medical study on diverticulitis. The most coarse infer for increased colon pressure is not in effect a medical issue, but a cultural one. That is why treatment has missed it. Furthermore, this cultural institution causes the medical profession to suffer from diverticulitis to an even greater extent than their patients.
It all has to do with answering Nature when it calls.
We live in a community that trains us from birth to hold in our waste products. From the pressures of diaper training, to the pressures of using communal toilets at school, to the pressures of working without the option of taking needed potty breaks, or where a toilet is plainly not available, our culture has pressured us into retention it in. Of course, this creates pressure in the colon. After all, one of the simplest ways to growth colon pressure is to close the anal sphincter while the intestine is contracting.
Everyone has experienced this one time or another. maybe the urge came when you were complex in a communal situation that you could not comfortably stop plainly because you had to acknowledge Nature's call. Or it could have been while driving, and a rest stop or service center was nowhere to be found. Even if there was a suitable restroom, some people are uncomfortable defecating in a communal restroom and prefer retention it in until home. anything the reason, the fact is that our culture makes personal waste supervision an issue that is not all the time in effect resolved, promoting procrastination rather than elimination. The ensue is increased colon pressure and diverticula formation.
In expanding to retention in waste, there is the even greater question of retention in gas. The technical term for this is flatus retention. It's what most people are trained to do in public, from school days onward. This is why diverticulitis is more prevalent among professional, affluent Westerns, than among the poor of third world countries. The higher your status, the less accepted your flatus. It seems that poverty buys a right to pass wind when needed, while affluence creates the need for greater discretion. Yet, the sad fact is that the pressure of the fart must go somewhere. either pass wind or have your intestine blow up. The option is yours.
Now you can see why treatment says the cause of diverticulitis is unknown. A cultural taboo enshrouds this topic, preventing its unbiased and honest consideration. Interestingly, there was one article connecting diverticulitis with retention in gas. It was in the British medical journal, Lancet, in 1975. The article is entitled, "Flatus retention is the major factor in diverticular disease". But the data was ignored. treatment seems more comfortable prescribing drugs and surgical operation for diverticulitis than plainly telling people to poop and fart more often.
For those who suffer from diverticulosis or diverticulitis, you can accomplish your own self study. Over the next three months, note how often you feel the urge to eliminate, but find yourself choosing, for one infer or another, to hold it in. Pay particular attention to your need to pass wind, and how often you don't. Make every attempt to allow your body to do what it wants to do. If you have a partner, you may want him or her to try this self study at the same time.
Life's A Gas - A New approach to Diverticulitis, Flatulence and Gas Pains
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