In 983, the Holy Roman Emperor Otto II was severely constipated. Unwisely he swallowed quarter of an ounce of aloe vera juice – resulting in chronic diarrhoea. This in turn gave him such a bad case of haemorrhoids that he eventually bled to death.
Otto II sitting on the throne...
Like Otto, the little known English poet Edmund Smith (1672-1710) was foolish enough to attempt self-medication with predictable if fatal results…
He found himself
plethorick; and then, resolving to ease himself by evacuation, he wrote to an
apothecary in the neighbourhood a prescription of a purge so forcible, that the
apothecary thought it his duty to delay it till he had given notice of its
danger. Smith, not pleased with the contradiction of a shopman, and boastful of
his own knowledge, treated the notice with rude contempt, and swallowed his own
medicine, which, in July 1710, brought him to the grave.
(Samuel Johnson
– Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets 1781)
As this post shows, sometimes the cure can be worse than the disease, but constipation can also be a killer in and of itself. Constipation is what did Elvis in. The King suffered from chronic constipation from childhood, and finally shuffled off this mortal coil when--seated on the porcelain throne--his straining to move his bowels triggered a heart attack.
His constipation was caused by an inherited condition of the bowel, but his diet couldn't have helped much. One of his favorite dishes was a peanut butter, grape jelly, bacon and bacon grease sandwich.
Posted by: Constipation Cures | July 26, 2010 at 09:50 AM
Ouch, this was brutal - Too much of anything can be poison.
Posted by: Constipation remedies | October 18, 2010 at 07:58 PM
Natural remedy is always better than medications. And most importantly, prevention is better than cure.
Posted by: Haemorrhoid Treatment | November 06, 2010 at 01:33 PM