March 05, 2020 7 min read
On 17 Jan 2018, in Brixton England, police were chasing a 24-year-old man.
His name was Lamarr Chambers. He was 24 years old.
During the chase, this man swallowed the drugs. Eventually, policed caught up with him but found no drug.
On arrest, Lamarr claimed that he was eating fried chicken. Unfortunately, the police did not believe him. As a result, they charged him for drug dealing.
In the UK, drug dealing is a serious offence. If Lamarr was convicted, he could face 25 years in prison, according to the UK Government. He was desperate.
We all know an old saying: "Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures". Lamarr was going to defy human nature.
What does it mean?
As a human, if he ate, he would poop. And if he pooped, the "drug" inside his stomach might come out.
If "the drug" came out, it would become the evidence used against him. The judge might give him a 25-year sentence if convicted.
So. he ate little, so he did not have to poop. This action was against nature.
The police believed eventually he would give up because it was too painful to hold back. So they placed him in a cell "near a special toilet".
To whom you don't know, "Special Toilet" had the control function.
It meant the police could retain what they wanted to retain - the drug.
In short, the police wanted to catch him in the act.
Lamarr was so desperate; he had been holding it for seven days before his first hearing. He refused daily medical checkup offered to him.
But that is not all
He even broke the record of 33 days. And kept going
But nothing happened, for some unknown reasons, he had the ability to hold. He did not "release".The police confirmed that he did not pass anything while in custody.
On the 47th days, the Crown Prosecution Service said it discontinued the drug charges against him because of "insufficient evidence".
Guessed what? He had still not emptied his bowels. The police started to worry about his welfare, so they released him from custody and taken to hospital for treatment.
You may wonder:
I heard you; I felt the same. So, I will tell you how it ended in a minute.
But before I do, I would like to share some of the expert's opinion.
Trish McNair, of the Primary Care Society for Gastroenterology said Lamarr might have found a way to release himself. He might hide inside his clothes.
Trish explained the bowel would empty on its own accord eventually because that was a natural reflex.
Think of it like this; a bowel is like a balloon. If you keep pumping water into it, it will break eventually.
So the next question would be: "If he did not eat, would he poop?"
Lamarr did consume some food. But even if he did not eat, his body would produce secretions, intestinal lining, bile, dead skin, cells that are mixed.
Even New York University Langone Health. gastroenterologist Ian Lustbader agreed
"Even with no food whatsoever, he said, the bowel is likely to produce a little bit of runny discharge. The intestinal lining produces mucous and fluids, so the suspected drug dealer's colon is not likely to stay completely empty".
"So there are three options; it empties by itself, it empties uncomfortably, or it just gets stuck and bursts internally." Trish continued
"You could give them medication to lubricate the bowel, but if this didn't work then get a manual evacuation which is where a brave nurse would put on some rubber gloves and pull it out.
"If a manual evacuation is not possible, then surgery may be the next option.
"In the long run, it can damage the bowel if it had been stretched, causing ulcers on the lining of the bowel. It can also cause long term scarring that could damage and affect the passing of poo in the future.
"For most people, they eventually recover from scarring, but the longer it goes on, the higher the risk of tears of the bowel."
According to BCC, although the drug possession charges were dropped, Lamarr was re-arrested for supplying drugs. He was released on bail so he could go to the hospital for treatment for NOT pooping.
According to BBC news, he could die as a result.
We did not know what was the result of treatment as the media did not release any news.
It reminded me of a personal story.
There was an old saying in my culture: If you can eat, poop and sleep, you have a good happy life.
Years ago, I used to live with a younger friend in a shared apartment, and he was a university student.
As a freshman, he was inexperienced. He often stayed up late for many reasons. Some were legit; some were just bad time management.
At 2 am, having instant noodles with energy-drink became a regular ritual for him. One assignment was due today, and the next one was up the next day, followed by a group presentation after that. Also, he had a regular part-time job too. His irregular eating habit took a toll on his body. He had been "borrowed" energy from energy-drinks and sugar, all for the sake of staying awake.
And you all know, borrowed energy must be repaid, just like debt.
He spent hours in the toilet because of constipation. And he still felt his bowel had not emptied. So he went back in again, but it was too "dried", he could not do it, so he was out of the door with a feeling of heaviness in his bowel.
I could not forget what he described. At one point, he was so afraid to push as "it felt like forcing glasses out of his butt. So sometimes, he just sat there, let the time passed, for hours.
Secretly, it was driving him mad. The stomach pain was so bad, and he felt like pressing his hand on his belly to empty it because he could not "clench" any more. He bought some constipation drugs (Sena was the name he told me). Sometimes, it worked, but quite often, it gave him diarrhea. The problem was when he stopped taking these drugs; he could not poop.
He told me he increased his fibre intake, ate a lot of green vegetables. It worked only if he took the drug.
On top of that, his sleep pattern was interrupted because of caffeine overload.
So he was not able to sleep well, eat well and poop well. He became cranky, sleep-deprived and walked like a walking dead zombie.
Surely he was not the only one who had these issues. In fact, many students have been facing these—even grown-up successful adult.
I knew his feeling because I experienced this before. So I gave him one thing that worked for me and many others: young Aquilaria leaves.
You may not hear of it before. It was not something new. Aquilaria leaves have been used in many traditional folk medicines to treat constipation and sleep issues.
Here are the scientific studies behind the claims:
In a Journal of Herbal Medicine 2017, multiple scientists from China and Japan showed that the Aquilaria leaves "have the ability to improve intestinal movement function (Li et al., 2013). Mangiferin and genkwanin-5-O-β-premeveroside found in ethanol extracts of both A. Sinensis and A. crassna, promote contraction tension of the small intestine in mice, resulting in increased number and weight of stool beads (Kakino et al., 2010; Kakino and Hara, 2016). "
Senna was a popular drug for constipation relief. It may work, but it may also cause severe diarrhea.
On the other hand, our Aquilaria leaves do what it is supposed to do. That is to help you spend less time in the toilet without the "runny" side effect. This is possible because of these two compounds "mangiferin and genkwanin 5-O--primeveroside", according to Japanese scientists.
Senna could stop your bowel working property if used long term. It means long term use of senna can stop your bowel working properly on its own. As a result, you could become dependent on it.
On the other hand, Aquilaria leaves could be used long term as a supplement along with your healthy diet. The good thing is once your healthy eating habit return, you could stop taking this leaf any time. Or you could continue with it. No addiction, no side effect.
The Aquilaria leaf contains magnesium.
In a study in Key Engineering Materials (2019 volume 797 page 199), scientists found that Aquilaria contains magnesium (in the form of chlorophyll). According to the sleep doctor, magnesium helps you sleep better.
You can see in the feedback of this leaf, many of our clients have good nights sleep.
Unlike any other tablets or supplements powders which might contain some unknown ingredients. Sometimes, it could be an issue because these unknown ingredients might react adversely to the medicine you were taking,
With agarwood tea, you know what you are consuming precisely: single ingredient: Aquilaria leaf.
Six hours drive from Ho Chi Minh City, there is an agarwood plantation of our family, where we harvest our Agarwood tea (Aquilaria leaves) from. We have been serving agarwood leaves to thousands of people.
And I am proud to say; my friend could finally sleep like a log and only spend 5 minutes in the toilet.
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