Constipation consternation
In the splendours of Versailles, the Sun king, sadly suffered from poor bowel movement. This sorry state of affairs plagued him with hot flashes, bouts of vertigo and ruined his beauty sleep. And when the king was constipated, the whole court was similarly affected. To alleviate the royal discomfort, his physicians concocted a fearsome broth with lemon juice, senna, manna, mineral crystal and powdered scammony. A remedy powerful enough to turn his royal guts inside out.
The causes of this troublesome, but extremely common malfunction, include, among many others, poor diet and lack of exercise.
But, when Raymond stopped smoking and started reforming his dietary habits with more fruit, vegetables and whole grains, his new regime ended up having just the opposite effect. His bowels, in true French style, went on strike. The dear boy thought this was most unfair. He never imagined that his poor little gut bacteria, used to different food, would be unable to manage these newcomers.
Your microbiota is as unique as your finger prints and drastic changes in your diet tend to upset it.
Constipation is a signal that it isn’t working the way it should. So, if your Raymond plans to go healthy, he should do so gradually. It will give his lovely friendly bacteria enough time to get used to this revolution, without upsetting them too much. Probiotics could assist them in dealing with this new situation. All this should avoid a brutal intestinal standstill.
Constipation is no joke! According to an ancient Chinese proverb, “death starts in the colon.” Luckily, another equally ancient Chinese proverb says: “There are no diseases, but stagnation.” In other words: no stagnation in the colon, oh no! Occasional transit problems are easily fixed with a few prunes – 4 or 5 at bedtime –, a bowl of raspberries or sauerkraut juice. Beware: only the bravest of us can swallow the latter. The lily-livered sufferers can opt for beetroot juice, less violent but very efficient.
You can also attack refractory constipation with essential oils.
Take a lovely little dark bottle and fill it with 30 drops of basil essential oil, 30 drops of tarragon essential oil, 15 drops of ginger essential oil and 15 drops of fennel essential oil. Close the bottle tightly and shake it hard. Mix 2 drops of this magic potion with 1 teaspoon of honey and give it to Raymond 3 times a day.
This marvellous mixture can also be diluted in twice the amount of vegetable oil – sesame, almond, etc. Put the essential oils and the vegetable oil in a bottle, shake it, and massage 8 drops on the abdomen, drawing lovely little circles, twice a day for 5 days or less if all is well.
Other recipes to ease this digestive distress await you in:
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