Symptom
management
highlight: Bowel
issues
by Rachel Adelson
It takes guts
A good bowel program
can get the G.I. tract to
relearn reliability.
“And the trouble doesn’t neces-
sarily go away during periods of
remission. It’s a symptom inde-
pendent of disease activity.”
That’s because damage to
nerve cells makes it harder for
people to feel when it’s time
to go, and then to let go. The
unhealthy results can include
constipation, impacted stool and
what are euphemistically called
“accidents.” Beyond bloating
and discomfort, people may
strain and get hemorrhoids. And
beyond that, chronic inflam-
mation from impacted stool is
linked to colon cancer.
How it’s supposed to work
Bowel function is primarily a
neuromuscular activity: Things
move along triggered by signals
such as food intake leading, in
turn, to the physical response
of waste elimination.
Digestion gets the
party started in the
mouth, where teeth
(the hardest parts
of us) and salivary
enzymes begin
breaking down
food into some-
thing the body
can use. Muscles
propel the mash-
up to the tummy,
where an acid
bath churns away
some more. On to
the small intestine,
which is awash in
enzyme-rich juices and
emulsifiers. This part of
the gut absorbs critical nutri-
