Intestinal System
The Body's Waste Disposal Plant

The lower bowel is like a city's waste disposal plant. While the digestive system breaks down nutrients so they can be distributed throughout the body, it also uses indigestible food fiber to absorb waste products and remove them from the body.

The intestinal system consists of the colon, or large intestine, and the rectum. The colon is generally understood as having three parts: the ascending, transverse, and descending colons. It is only five feet long but is about 2 1/2 inches in diameter, three times that of the small intestine. The colon forms a frame for the convoluted shape of the small intestine.

The Elimination Process

Undigested food in liquid form flows from the small intestine into the large intestine. There, most of the water content and mineral salts are absorbed back into the body. The semisolid waste remaining is still 60 to 70 percent water and 10 to 30 percent bacteria, with the rest being indigestible cellulose material, dead cells, and other waste materials.

The smooth muscular walls of the colon contract to move waste through it. This takes anywhere from 12 to 24 hours or longer, depending greatly on the amount of roughage present.

"Intestinal problems common to the Western culture are often solved by the addition of fiber to the diet. High-fiber foods include bran, prunes, psyllium seed or hulls, and other mucilaginous herbs."

Factors in Colon Health

People with diets high in refined foods (such as sugar and white flour) and low-fiber foods (such as meat, eggs, and dairy products) are especially susceptible to intestinal problems. Colonic and rectal disorders are much more common in America than in Africa, where the diet contains seven times more fiber than the average Western diet.

The colon works best when moderately full, and dietary fiber fills this need. Although fiber provides no nutrients to the body, it does help promote good health because it is able to remove certain toxic materials along with many times its weight in water, which is needed to help maintain bowel regularity.

Insufficient roughage leads to constipation or, at the other extreme, diarrhea. These ailments can also be caused by nervous stress.

Intestinal problems common to the Western culture are often solved by the addition of fiber to the diet. High-fiber foods include bran, prunes, psyllium seed or hulls, and other mucilaginous herbs.

Another factor in colon health is maintaining a good supply of beneficial bacteria such as lactobacillus acidophilus. While it's true that some bacteria cause disease, not all bacteria are bad and most are very beneficial.

The good guys are often referred to as the friendly flora. They thrive in every healthy human digestive system, particularly the colon.

Lactobacillus acidophilus perform a number of beneficial tasks there. For example, the bacteria produce digestive enzymes and assist final food processing. They produce important vitamins utilized by the body including vitamin K and the B vitamins (B₁₂, thiamine, and riboflavin). They also have an inhibiting action on the growth of harmful bacteria (and fungus), including putrefactive or coliform types (the unfriendly flora or bad guys) which produce flatulence and putrification in the colon.

When the colon is nutritionally supported with a diet high in natural fiber, other nutritional components, and healthy bacteria, it is able to function at peak efficiency.

Even Elmo knows that everyone should have
one good elimination for every meal eaten!

Printer-Friendly Reference Documents:

Bowel Management Program

Inflamed Bowel Conditions

Anti-Gas (formerly AG-C?) is a Chinese combination that relies on ancient tradition to nutritionally support the elimination system. It contains agastache herb, magnolia bark, shenqu tea, crataegus fruit, oryza seed, hoelen plant, Panax ginseng root, pinellia rhizome, saussurea root, gastrodia rhizome, citrus peel, atractylodes rhizome, cardamon fruit, platycodon root, ginger rhizome, and licorice root.
Stock No.1869-9 (100)

Herbal Pumpkin? is a food supplement that provides a wide range of ingredients?pumpkin seeds, black walnut hulls, cascara sagrada bark, violet leaves, chamomile flowers, althea root, witch hazel bark, mullein leaves, and slippery elm bark.
Stock No. 915-2 (100)

LBS II? is a lower bowel nutritional supplement. The ?II? means it has been improved. It is one of Nature's Sunshine's top selling products, and it's gentle, too. Included are cascara sagrada bark, buckthorn bark, licorice root, capsicum fruit, ginger root, barberry bark, Turkey rhubarb root, couch grass herb, and red clover tops.

Stock No. 993-5 (100)

Stock No. 998-6 (270)

Nature's Three? gives you the benefit of several types of fiber, with each performing a different function for overall health of the bowel. Both soluble and insoluble fiber are contained in the formula. This is a combination of psyllium fiber, oat fiber, and apple fiber. Each serving furnishes 2,000 mg of dietary fiber?1,000 mg of soluble fiber and 1,000 mg of insoluble fiber.
Stock No.1345-0 (12 oz.)

All Cell Detox? (formerly Special Formula #1?) is a nutritional supplement to aid the liver and intestinal system as they work together with related systems of the body. It is called special because it is a unique blend of many powerful nutrients. Included are gentian root, Irish moss plant, cascara sagrada bark, golden seal root, slippery elm bark, fenugreek seeds, safflower flower, myrrh gum, yellow dock root, parthenium root, black walnut hulls, barberry bark, dandelion root, uva ursi leaves, chickweed herb, catnip herb, and cyani flowers. Stock No.1078-2 (100)

Spleen Activator (formerly UC-C?) is another Chinese combination that performs several services for the body at the same time, especially enhancing the digestive, immune, and energy centers. It contains adaptogenic herbs. The full formula includes Panax ginseng root, astragalus root, atractylodes rhizome, hoelen plant, dioscorea root, lotus seed, galanga rhizome, pinellia rhizome, chaenomeles fruit, magnolia bark, saussurea root, dang gui root, citrus peel, dolichos seed, licorice root, ginger rhizome, zanthoxylum fruit, and cardamon fruit.
Stock No. 1880-8 (100)

Intestinal Soothe & Build (formerly UC3-J?) is a nutritional supplement formulated to soothe and strengthen any part of the bowel system. It contains slippery elm bark, marshmallow root, plantain leaves, chamomile leaves, rose hips, and bugleweed herb.
Stock No.1105-8 (100)

Bifidophilus Flora Force? (a milk-free formula) contains a higher amount (2.5 billion) of acidophilus than NSP's Acidophilus Flora Force formula, plus it offers 1 billion Bifidobacterium longum per capsule, for a total of 3.5 billion friendly microoganisms per capsule.
Stock No. 4100-2 (90)

CLT-X? is considered a moistening formula by the Chinese. Included are slippery elm bark, marshmallow root, dong quai root, ginger root, and wild yam root.
Stock No. 1207-7 (100)

When the body wants to cleanse itself, giving it proper nutrition makes cleansing a lot easier. To assist, LB-X? contains dong quai root, cascara sagrada bark, turkey rhubarb root, golden seal root, capsicum fruit, ginger root, barberry bark, fennel seeds, and red raspberry leaves.
Stock No. 1226-3 (100)

Magnesium helps the body regulate nerves and muscles, which, of course, involves intestinal activity. According to recent studies, American diets are nearly always lacking in this mineral, since it is lost in cooking and processing. Without it, calcium cannot do its job.
Stock No. 1786-6 (180)

Constipation Regulation is for relief from occasional constipation and to aid in regulation of intestinal function.
Stock No. 8707-3 (1 fl. oz.)

Detoxification is for the temporary relief of minor symptoms of headache, vomiting, nausea, achiness, and joint discomfort associated with exposure to mercury, arsenic, and other pollutants and toxicants.
Stock No. 8940-3 (1 fl. oz.)

Parasites is for the relief of minor intestinal symptoms associated with parasites, such as bloating, abdominal pain, flatulence, and diarrhea.
Stock No. 8735-6 (1 fl. oz.)