Word: bargen
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Dates: during 1949-1949
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Some of the patients on whom Dr. Bargen tried methylcellulose had taken, as they said, "barrels of laxatives," and were still constipated. One 6g-year-old woman had been taking daily doses as long as she could remember. A girl of 19, her mother testified, had taken a laxative nearly every day since early childhood. Methylcellulose straightened them...
...modern theory of a "colon corrective" is expounded by the Mayo Clinic's Dr. J. Arnold Bargen in the current Gastroenterology. Dr. Bargen recommends methylcellulose, which will correct either constipation or diarrhea. It can also do much, he says, to repair the harm done by laxative chemicals. Dr. Bargen concedes that "constipation is probably the most common of all physical complaints." In modern smooth diets, often deficient in fruits and vegetables, most food is absorbed in the small intestine and not enough bulk reaches the colon to cause automatic muscle contraction (peristalsis). The thing to do, says Dr. Bargen...
Methylcellulose, Dr. Bargen found, is a bulking substance which can be taken handily in tablet form. In lukewarm water or in the digestive tract it forms a suspension of "innumerable tiny translucent gelatinous particles 0.5 mm. or less in diameter." It goes through most of the digestive tract unchanged, but loses water and turns to a bulky jelly about the time it reaches the colon. Dr. Bargen checked on its progress at regular intervals-through abdominal openings in patients who had had intestinal operations...