Herbal Health

As with all symptoms, it is quite common for more than one factor to play a part in producing constipation. Once the cause(s) have been found, consider tackling them directly. It may be possible to treat a blockage by surgery, radiation or chemotherapy. However, the cost of doing so may outweigh the benefit if, for example, the treatment is unpleasant and has only a small chance of shrinking the growth enough to relieve the symptoms. If you either can’t or don’t want to get rid of the cause of your constipation— for example, because it is due to painkillers which you want to keep taking — you will have to tackle the symptom itself. Prevention is better than cure here. Don’t wait until you are really badly constipated before doing something about it.

I suggest for a start you consider taking some form of laxative regularly. Laxatives work by softening the motion and/or stimulating the bowel muscle—good examples include liquid paraffin, phenolphthalein, dioctyl sodium sulphosuccinate, danthron, lactulose, and senna. If you normally take laxatives anyway, you will need much bigger doses now than someone who is not used to taking them. Other ways of helping the bowels to keep moving are by taking a high-fibre diet (but not if you have a blockage of the bowel), drinking plenty of fluids and exercising as much as is possible and comfortable.

If these measures don’t keep your bowels moving easily, you may also need to use suppositories or enemas, with the help of a nurse. By the way, most nurses know much more about treating constipation than most doctors. I suggest that you ask a nurse for help if you have this symptom. This should be easy if you are in hospital. If you are at home, just ask your doctor to arrange for a nurse to visit you there.

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The role of female hormones

The fact that breast cancer is about 100 times more common in women than in men suggests a role for the female sex hormones.

Women whose first period occurred at a young age seem to be more at risk of developing breast cancer, as are those who have had their first child late (at 30 to 34 years old), and those who have had a late menopause. It seems that the longer a woman is exposed to her own female hormones – particularly oestrogen -the more at risk she is. Some diets which can lead to obesity, particularly those high in fats, can also lead to an earlier onset of menstruation. Thus girls in the well-nourished and high socioeconomic groups of the industrialized West, where the incidence of breast cancer is high, tend to have their first periods younger than those in areas of malnutrition where the disease is less common.

In pre-menopausal women, it is the ovarian oestrogen which is relevant, and this is produced for as long as menstruation continues. Breast cancer is less common in women who have had an operation to remove their ovaries in their 30s or 40s, before their menopause.

In the past, the doses of oestrogen used in hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may have been linked to a slightly increased risk if taken for longer than 10 years. HRT is now normally given as a combination of oestrogen and progestogen, and the drug doses are much lower. There is no evidence that modern HRT is linked with the development of cancer; in fact, some doctors continue to give it to women who have breast cancer.

Modern contraceptive pills – which also contain a very low hormone dose – have little apparent risk. They do, however, reduce the risk for endometrial and ovarian cancers. Fibroadenomas in the breast are also less common in women taking the low-dose contraceptive pill.

Smoking

Cancer cells may spontaneously develop at any time and are usually destroyed by the body’s immune system. As smoking suppresses the immune system, it is not surprising that all cancers are more common in those who smoke.

Other risk factors

Other risk factors have been suggested, but with less supporting evidence. For example, there may be a small, but real, link between high alcohol consumption and breast cancer. Stress, either the experience of it or the way it is dealt with, has also been implicated.

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