Remember that old commercial for Tootsie Roll Pop?

“Mr. Owl, how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop?”
“A – Three” answers the owl.

According to many health and fitness experts, the answer to the question:
“How many bowel movements should a person have a day?” it’s the same – “Three”

Many people consider it “normal” to have a bowel movement once a day and some people consider it “normal” and think they do well with one every other day. Even others that I have seen in my practice “normally” have only one bowel movement per week. This is one of those situations where I consider “normal” pathological. One should not live “normal” when it comes to health. Especially considering that most people suffer from some type of chronic degenerative disease and take medication. One must live optimally.

Let’s consider this:

– How many decent size meals does a person usually eat in a day?
– The usual answer is “3”

Now think about what should happen to all that food. Not just go away, done, change-or-gone, nothing up your sleeve.

No, the food does not disappear; it takes that amazing journey through the tube, from our stomach, churning into a paste and mixing with acid, then to the small intestine where it meets the enzymes from the pancreas and liver that arrive at it works breaking down food into nutrients primary. The small intestine is where the absorption of nutrients takes place. According to Bruce H. Robinson in Biomedicine, there are 21 feet of absorption tubing into the small intestine, with a staggering 2 million cubic centimeters of absorption surface. Of course, not all of that material will be absorbed and transformed into your human. Much of what is absorbed into the bloodstream is taken to the liver for processing and packaging. What is not absorbed will pass into the colon for elimination.

And this is where the problems can get worse. What if that food is not eliminated?

Here’s a simple word problem that you were never given in third grade:

Jane eats 3 plates of food a day. Every day she gets rid of the value of a plate, how many plates of food are left in Jane’s tube after one day? After a week? After a year? *

Judy eats 3 plates of food a day. Every other day she gets rid of the value of a plate, how many plates of food are left in Judy’s tube after one day? After a week? After a year? **

Many people would consider Jane’s case “normal.” With 728 plates of food on the body, guess what, Jane? You are probably fat. And, in fact, we are seeing an obesity epidemic in America. If that food doesn’t leave the body, it stays in the body. The colon is full of bacteria that go to work to break down that waste, creating toxins and sewage-like gases in the process. The body does its best to save what it can. It will transform everything it can into fat. It will deliver the toxins to the lymph and then to the liver for reprocessing. The toxins will accumulate in the lymph nodes, the liver and the lymph will want a place to store these toxins and if they are fat soluble toxins they will be stored in the fat. If they are water-soluble toxins, the body will retain more fluid.

This is a simple case of dirt accumulated within the human being. It becomes a breeding ground for disease. It places a huge demand on the cleansing systems of the liver and kidneys and the lymphatic and immune systems. This requires a great deal of energy just to survive in such a state. And it gets worse …

What happens when the liver is overloaded?

The blood becomes more acidic and toxic. Acidity in the blood causes the red blood cells to clump together, making the blood more viscous. Viscous blood does not flow as fast to the brain and muscles, which creates muscle tension and fatigue and leads to poor decision making. Toxic blood generates more free radicals that damage the vessels, put pressure on the heart, and require increased cholesterol levels to plug the holes in the vessels.

What Happens When Power Generators Are Overloaded?

The investment of energy to operate an inefficient metabolism creates energy deficits. Less energy available for tissue repair, less energy available for defenses. Less energy available for movement and creative thinking. This also creates a hunger craving for sweet foods. Sweet foods are known to stimulate me quickly. The body knows it. This creates a more acidic situation as the sugar oxidizes (burns). Over time, this leads to an overload of the insulin system. The cells become so swollen because there is less room to put in the cellular waste products due to the overloaded sewer system (the lymph) that they don’t want to accept more sugar, so you get insulin resistant cells.

So you can see that a real key to a healthy system is making sure the garbage gets out. That means, “Three bowel movements a day.” If you don’t have that magic number, you will need to do something different. To do? – I will speak in my next article.

* After a day? There are 2 dishes per value.
After a week? There are 14 dishes worth.
After a year? There are 728 plates of food.

** After a day? There are 3 dishes worth.
After a week? There are 18 dishes worth.
After a year? There are 936 plates of food.

Bruce H. Robinson, Biomedicine: A Textbook for Practitioners of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, p309.