TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book. LITTLE BLUE BOOK NO. 1435 Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius Constipation and Its Correction by Exercise C. O. Benson (Instructor of Physical Education, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.) HALDEMAN-JULIUS PUBLICATIONS GIRARD, KANSAS Copyright, 1929, Haldeman-Julius Company PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CONTENTS Page Causes of Constipation 7 Exercises for the Prevention and Correction of Constipation 20 CONSTIPATION AND ITS CORRECTION BY EXERCISE Constipation or dyskinesia is one of the important influences in making people old before their time. The breaking down of the faculties and functions supposed to be due to old age is in reality due to the accumulation of waste and bacteria in the intestines. A habit of life which keeps the bowels clean will set “old age” back to the time when men will enjoy perfect health to the utmost limit of a normal span of years (at the present time the normal span is fifty-eight years). There are many people who think they are quite normal, though they never had a regular daily movement of the bowels without the aid of laxatives in years. Yet, these same persons will not let the gasoline line on their automobile stay clogged one day. The body is a very delicate organism and it must be taken care of in a thoughtful fashion. A poisoned night is spent if a day is missed without a bowel movement, for the body cannot carry waste a great length of time without serious injury to it. Under a normal life the bowels should move at least once a day without artificial aid. _Results of Constipation_ When food remains too long in the body it decays, putrefies, and develops into very active poisons. With this decaying comes a depressing feeling caused by these wastes being absorbed into the blood. Then, to make matters worse, this putrification retards the bowel action, thus keeping the poisons in the body. Thus, constipation results. Some of these poisons are not so harmful, yet others are very capable of infecting the body, and these enter the blood stream via the intestines and reach other organs where they may cause a chronic disease.