Asthmatic care - Food- Tobacco- Constipation-Chemical odors- Exertion causes and remedies for asthma

Food

 Eat moderately, slowly, never after 7 :00 P.M. If possible, the major meal should come at midday rather than in the evening. A 30-minute rest' period after dinner and supper is advisable. Overtaxing the digestion with excessive food encourages asthma.

Tobacco

 The patient with bronchial asthma should never smoke. Drink. Cocktails before dinner may provide relaxation and enjoyment. But drinking after dinner, late in the evening, may interfere with digestion, lead to abdominal distention, wakefulness, and asthma.

Constipation 

It is important for the asthmatic to avoid this, by drinking no less than six glasses of water daily and eating a fair share of fruits and vegetables.

Chemical odors

 Asthmatic attacks may be triggered or aggravated by such fumes as those from fresh varnishes and paints, moth balls, and dry-cleaning fluids.

Exertion

 Excessive -fatigue, mental or physical, from work or play, should be avoided. Patients who are subject to frequent bronchial infections should ask their doctor about taking antibiotics on a prophylactic basis during the months when they tend to get such infections. If there is obvious sinus infection, it should be treated. When asthma is severe enough to make the doctor worry about possible development of emphysema, the patient should learn exercises which have helped many asthmatics improve exchange of air. The exercises given below take patience. It may be necessary for the patient to receive instruction in them from a specialist in asthma. 

Definition of constipation

Here is the medical definition of real constipation:

A person has constipation when bowel movements are too hard to pass easily or are so infrequent that uncomfortable symptoms result. Constipation does not mean failure to pass a stool daily; this may be imaginary constipation. Hard movements that require straining can bring about rectal troubles such as hemorrhoids and fissures or may aggravate a hernia or the tendency to hernia. Constipation may cause uncomfortable symptoms such as nausea, heartburn, headache, or distress in the rectum or intestines, continuing until the stool is passed. 

Notice that we say uncomfortable rather than harmful symptoms; that are because these symptoms stem from nerve impulses to various parts of the body when the rectum is distended by retained fecal matter. They are not due to "autointoxication," or absorption of poisons from the fecal matter. It has actually been established that similar symptoms can be brought on when cotton is placed in the rectum after all fecal matter has been removed. Some people suffer more than others from these symptoms, not because of their imagination but because they are actually more sensitive. 

In imaginary constipation, the bowel movements are not difficult to pass; they cause no unpleasant symptoms; they simply do not take place as often as the individual thinks they should. Often, it is a mother or other relative who insists the movements should be more frequent. The fact is that bowel movements can be normal without being "average." While the "average person" has a movement daily, usually immediately after breakfast, countless people are normal even though they have more than one movement a day, or a movement only every second day, or every third, fourth, fifth, or even eighth day. 

People vary markedly in body makeup, type of intestine, eating habits, physical activity, and custom. By self-induced constipation, we mean the kind caused by one or more of the following: improper diet (eating the wrong things or eating too little); the use (that is, abuse) of laxatives, cathartics, etc.; irregularity in habits of elimination.

Modern living, with its strains, stresses, and sedentary habits, helps promote constipation; indeed, in some primitive languages there is no word such as constipation because the need for it does not exist. Functional constipation can also be caused by "sluggishness." As we have seen, after food has been digested in the stomach and intestines, the residue, a watery material, enters the colon. Water is absorbed in the colon; that is why the feces may become hard and difficult to pass if they remain too long in the colon. The stools are propelled along by a series of wavelike, peristaltic movements. Usually the waves are strongest in the morning, which is why it may be easiest to have a bowel movement before or just after breakfast. In some people, peristalsis is weak. 

This may happen with increased age, and some elderly people may require an aid to elimination. Mineral oil is the best remedy. But we think it wise to accept as helpful virtually any method that an elderly person has long used and found satisfactory -whether it is hot lemon water early in the morning or the enema that some elderly people believe has magical virtues. In such cases, the important thing is to watch for any sudden change in established bowel habits. How to Cure-and Prevent-Functional Constipation If you now do have constipation, there are certain things you can do to Cure it, and these same methods will also prevent you from becoming constipated. 

Gallblader and constipation

Fortunately, the gallbladder can be surgically removed when necessary; the body can get along well with- out it. Except for keeping your weight normal, there is nothing you need do about the everyday care of the gallbladder. Obesity increases the tendency toward gallbladder disease. Women who have had more than one or two children are somewhat more likely to suffer from gallstones; and in general, after age 40, about twice as many women as men have this problem.

 Once stones form, they cannot be dissolved; sometimes, how- ever, they pass spontaneously into the intestines. Your physician has methods of stimulating bile flow and of decreasing infection in the gall- bladder, and these measures may reduce the formation of additional stones. The best thing you can do for your pancreas is to avoid overweight, which predisposes people to diabetes.

 CONSTIPATION

 Many people suffer from constipation that is nonexistent, except in their imagination, or self-induced, or could be corrected or prevented with relatively simple measures. It is a fact-and this deserves emphasis-that constipation can be organic, that is, the result of some physical change. It can be caused by a tumor that obstructs the intestines, a stricture that narrows them, or some disease such as a hypothyroid condition. 

That is why it is important to consult your physician if you have constipation, especially if it has developed fairly suddenly. This is essential for middle-aged anti older people to make certain that if a cancer does exist, it is discovered in the early, curable stage.