Inner Hygiene

Overview

Inner Hygiene explores the history of western society's concern for constipation as a serious threat to health, and discusses the extraordinary variety of preventive and curative measures that have been developed to save people from the presumed toxic effects of intestinal irregularity. The book examines the evolution over the last two centuries of the belief that constipation is a disease brought on by the unnatural lifestyle of urban, industrial society. Particular attention is given to the early twentieth century, when fear of "intestinal autointoxication" drove people to the frequent use of laxatives, enemas, mineral waters, bran cereals, yogurt, electrotherapy, calisthenics, rectal dilation devices, and various other remedies. The story is carried up to the present, detailing the growth of enthusiasm for dietary fiber, and demonstrating that many of the constipation therapies of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are continuing into the twenty-first. This book will have strong appeal to historians of medicine, American and European historians with an interest in health and popular culture, physicians and other health professionals, and laypersons concerned about diet and health.

Details

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published

2000

Pages

315

Language

EN

Categories

Health & Fitness / Diet & Nutrition / Nutrition, Health & Fitness / Diet & Nutrition / General, Medical / Gastroenterology, Medical / History, Medical / Public Health

ISBN-13

9780195135817