Posted May 29, 2019: by Bill Sardi
Sleep: Trying to get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep may be frustrating. Modern humans are going to sleep two hours later than the daylight-darkness cycle. Prior to electric lighting, people slept for about 6 hours, awoke for about two hours, and then went back for a second sleep. Blue light emitted from electronic devices, even smart phones, or computer monitors fouls up melatonin secretion, the sleep hormone. Be aware. Blue light filters are available for computer monitors and eyeglass lenses. However, no one is mentioning that blue light filtering in the AM is counter-productive and impairs the dissipation of melatonin and could theoretically induce daytime sleepiness. Best to get some direct sunlight early in the AM to awaken fully refreshed and alert.
The focusing lens of the eyes loses about 1% of its transparency every year. By age 80 maybe 20% of ambient or artificial light reaches the retina and this alters the light/dark cycle and affects melatonin levels. Replacement of the cloudy natural lens with a clear plastic lens implant is recently reported to help restore the natural sleep-wake cycle.
Bowel movements: Here is a short course on constipation, an often neglected but prevalent topic of dry humor among older adults. The following information may be of acute interest to those individuals who take care of their elderly feeble loved ones. There is help for incontinence beyond adult diapers.
An often-quoted study shows that “normal” stool frequency ranges from 3 times a week to 3 times per day. How such a wide range is considered healthy is beyond comprehension. Normal is not necessarily healthy. People eating plant-based diets have bowel movements 2-3 times a day.
Almost everyone experiences constipation at some point in their life. About a third of senior Americans report this chronic problem. The Medicare-age crowd is on so many drugs that may make things worse. And younger adults taking OxyContin pain reliever are often constipated as well.
Dietary supplements can also produce constipation. For example, iron pills and calcium pills. Magnesium (like in milk of magnesia) or magnesium citrate supplements serve to loosen stool and counter the binding of calcium. Magnesium chloride helps to eliminate the odor of decomposing stool.
The longer that stool remains in the digestive tract the more water is absorbed away and stool hardens. Some elderly patients develop impactions that require a doctor to literally dig them out by hand, or a stone-hard mass of stool called a fecalith may get lodged in the colon that has to be surgically removed in an emergency operation.
Laxatives may or may not be helpful. This is because humans teach their brain to evacuate stool as the signal to poop is trainable. For example, when driving a car we suppress the urge to urinate and defecate.
The old semi-reliable advice is to add more fiber to the diet, but that doesn’t necessarily mean psyllium. Bran is worth trying and is often overlooked. Prunes also soften stool. In a crisis, polyethylene glycol (Miralax) can be taken. But we don’t want to become over-reliant on a drug. The brain control may be lost.
Bran also often remedies irritable bowel where both constipation and watery diarrhea occur. Also refer to topic #33 in this report about vitamin B1 as a remedy for chronic loose stool (diarrhea is forceful expulsion of stool due to infection whereas loose stool is just loss of control). Individuals who consume B1 blockers such as refined sugar, alcohol, tea or coffee, may develop loose stool and have no clue as to why. Vitamin B1 taken in its fat-soluble form as benfotiamine will correct the problem. Be aware, B1 supplementation requires adequate magnesium intake to be effective. Don’t take B1 supplements at the same time you drink coffee, tea, alcohol or sugary food.
Coffee, independent of its caffeine content, spurs on contraction of the small bowel and therefore movement of stool.
Supplementation with probiotics (Bifidobacter) often improves bowel frequency. Probiotics also improve stool consistency among patients with chronic constipation. Another interesting finding is the relationship between infection and constipation. Only recently investigated is the relationship between Helicobacter pylori, an undesirable bacterium that commonly infects the stomach of a third of the American population, and bowel frequency. This bacterium can induce gastric ulcers and shut off acid secretion that is required for nutrient absorption. Stomach acid also kills pathogenic bacteria that enters with meals as humans don’t consume sterile food. Eradication of H. pylori allays chronic constipation but requires problematic antibiotics. Daily supplementation with zinc carnosine (Polaprezinc) helps reduce inflammation and naturally kills off H. Pylori.
Pay attention to constipation. Stool that sits in the colon too long may develop putrefaction, a toxic effect.
Methinks a lot of nursing homes would benefit from the above information.
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