Nietzsche Suffered From Extreme Pelvic Floor Dysfunction
His many health issues, if not all, were probably caused by his tight loins.
Friedrich Nietzsche, the great German philosopher, almost certainly suffered from severe pelvic floor dysfunction. His struggles with digestive upset are famous, but the root cause was never discovered by him or others… until now.
Nietzsche’s constipation and numerous other health issues can be primarily explained by extreme hypertonicity (tightness) of the pelvic floor. Nietzsche relentlessly searched for a cure, often trying peculiar diets. But I assert that his numerous health problems were not downstream of his diet, the climate, or whatever else, but instead entirely downstream of his pelvic floor dysfunction. Correcting his pelvic floor dysfunction would have been likely to alleviate his chronic constipation, which could have relieved many, if not all, of his other health complaints.
What is the pelvic floor?
Nietzsche had a pelvic floor and you do too. The pelvic floor is a complex of muscles comprising your bottom. I am trying to be more serious for this article but they are best described as the trapezius muscles for your asshole. They are what you relax when you pee or poop (ideally), you feel them squeeze during orgasm, and for many men, they are far too tight all of the time. If you’ve ever tried to kegel, you’re flexing a part of your pelvic floor.
NOTE: Don’t kegel young man. It’s very unlikely that you need to tighten your pelvic floor. If anything, you need to reverse-kegel. Practice mind-muscle-connected relaxation of this muscle complex unless you want to end up like Nietzsche in the bathroom department.
Nietzsches Biggest Complaint
Nietzsche’s health complaints are famous. He was never particularly healthy as a young man, and his health challenges followed him for life, worsening with age. He complained of migraines, vision issues, insomnia, back pain, and, chief among them, bowel / digestive issues.
If anything can be said definitively about Nietzsche’s health, it is that he was a lifelong constipation sufferer.
“Nietzsche’s digestive troubles were a constant torment, with bouts of nausea, vomiting, and irregular bowel movements that left him weakened and unable to work for days. He often attributed these to poor diet or the strain of his intellectual labors, seeking relief in everything from vegetarianism to warm climates."
— Curtis Cate, Friedrich Nietzsche (2005), p. 237
It is my belief that his chronic unresolved constipation was caused by his hypertonic pelvic floor dysfunction. And that many of the other health issues that he suffered from were caused by the chronic constipation, just as they are today. Just as they always have been.
“When the belly is obstructed and the residues of food are not expelled, they become putrefied, and this putrefaction spreads to the rest of the body, causing fevers and other disturbances.”
— Hippocrates, Regimen in Acute Diseases, Section 9
Defecation Then
Nietzsche lived from October 15, 1844, to August 25, 1900, spending his entire life in continental Europe. Much is known about the bathroom habits of that time. He would’ve defecated in two main ways.
The first was using an outhouse-like structure, where the defecator would sit on a bench with a hole cut out to allow stool to pass into a pit below. One would position the anus above this hole and proceed to defecate. Each bench was unique, being a handcrafted item. Maybe they were similar in height to chairs of the time, around 17-19 inches off the floor. It’s possible that defecation benches were lower to assist bowel release, but it’s unclear to me if optimal defecation height was understood by those where and when Nietzsche lived and traveled.
Nevertheless, Nietzsche is estimated to have been 5’8”. Modern science suggests the optimal toilet height for a 5’8” man is about 12-14 inches, because this allows the knees to be 4-6 inches above the hips.
If these benches were similar height to chairs of the time, not ideal at all. But even if the benches were lower than chairs of the day, it’s easy to adopt improper posture and lose any semblance of proper technique when seated on a cold wooden bench atop a landfill of human feces with the threat of wolves lurking in the dark just outside the door. Doubly so if one has never been taught the right technique in the first place.
Regardless, Nietzsche would have also made extensive use of chamber pots. Better, right? Squatting naturally. Not so fast. Extensive squatting, without pelvic floor awareness, particularly for prolonged periods, often leads to increased pelvic floor tension as the user strains to push the stool through the rectum and out of the anus.
As Nietzsche's constipation advanced, he was likely squatted over the chamber pot—literally willing himself to power out the fecal matter that plagued him. All to no avail, and much to his own destruction, unbeknownst to him.
Defecation Now
Indeed, research shows that incorrect squat-pooping techniques can worsen hypertonic pelvic floor conditions. The viral squatty potty, which helps users to find the correct posture for defecation actually worsened pelvic floor dysfunction in some users who continued to strain while pooping even while using the squatty potty.
The squatty potty is meant to ease transit for the user by enabling better relaxation. But when a user fails to read the instructions and maintains improper defecation technique, aided by the the increased leverage of the squatty potty it only worsens their condition. Thus, the bathroom habits of the time likely only served to exacerbate hypertonicity in Nietzsche’s pelvic floor.
Did Everyone Else Have This Issue?
Bad pooping habits don’t necessarily create pelvic floor dysfunction. Our toilets in the west today are suboptimal and not everyone here has pelvic floor dysfunction.
In some, there is an onset of constipation (from diet or sickness for example) that initially strains the pelvic floor. This then goes unnoticed by the sufferer and remains indefinitely. Direct injury of some kind could occur as well. In todays era many zoomers are giving themselves pelvic floor dysfunction from improper training in the gym that creates certain muscle imbalances. Others initiate the cascade thru unwise internet behaviors. A general lack of knowledge about the pelvic floor land many a man in this state thru a variety of means.
The key is that the constant clenching is initiated at some point and then as it sets in, the sufferer no longer notices that it’s even happening. The sufferer loses sight of this. Their mind-muscle-connectedness fades as they forget what it feels like to release. It can get progressively worse as time goes on. Failing to relax the pelvic floor causes it to slip away from ones mind. Sometimes, it can get so bad that the person begins to notice and may seek medical treatment, but often your loins just go dormant and the person forgets altogether.
His Other Habits
Nietzsche was a prolific writer and spent long stretches seated writing. Excessive sitting is widely recognized to contribute to hypertonic pelvic floor dysfunction. Not much more to say here. One good reason to check in on your own pelvic floor health, do you sit as much as a great german philosopher? Probably more.
On several occasions Nietzsche mentioned to others that he believed his bouts of creative output seemed to worsen his condition. This makes sense, it was exacerbating his pelvic floor dysfunction because he was spending many uninterrupted hours hunched over pen and paper.
Nietzsche also appears to have been under enormous stress throughout his life, no doubt a product of his genius, life circumstances, chronic health issues, and more. Chronic stress is known to worsen hypertonic pelvic floor conditions. That we store chronic stress in the pelvis isn’t even really very much disputed by the normiest of normies.
In all cases, it’s a bit of a chicken and egg problem. I’m not too concerned with determining how Nietzsche developed pelvic floor dysfunction so much as I am concerned with identifying that he did indeed have hypertonic pelvic floor dysfunction. And it was definitely not helping his bowel issues, and might have actually been the cause of them.
What About Walking?
Long walks, when done with awareness of the pelvic floor, can help alleviate hypertonicity. However, there’s no evidence Nietzsche was aware of his issue.
As any sufferer can attest, it’s entirely possible to walk while keeping a hypertonic pelvic floor clenched, especially if the dysfunction is so severe that the person isn’t consciously aware of the clenching.
Excessive walks without pelvic floor awareness may have provided temporary relief by increasing blood flow and movement in the area. But, this is far less effective than walking with intentional unclenching in mind. Reason being that working out the pelvic floor via walking only to then allow it to strengthen further without due care for its relaxation afterward is akin to giving oneself DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) of the pelvis over and over.
Nietzsche’s famously long walks likely worsened his condition in the long term, while only occasionally providing immediate constipation relief. A pattern that, if noticed, could be confusing and maddening to a deep thinker desperately trying to find relief.
Why Constipation
We know that Nietzsche complained of many different types of GI issues, why the fixation on constipation? Well, it’s been consistently noted in research and anecdote that resolution of pelvic floor hypertonicity very frequently cures constipation. It’s also been further noted that curing constipation, improving bowel transit time and gut motility, often leads to resolution of other upstream issues. Conditions like SIFO, SIBO, Candida, IBS, many other bowel disorders, and even coated tongue often resolve after constipation is resolved.
This is to say nothing of the many non-gut related issues that can be cured after resolution of chronic constipation. As citation for this claim I refer you once more to Hippocrates.
Intimacy
I am not a Nietzsche expert and would defer to
, and others to opine on the validity of the incel claims. But if there’s any truth to them, pelvic floor dysfunction could help explain certain aspects of it.Constipation leads to cascading GI problems, which are known to disrupt endocrinological function, which could lead to altered body odor, impaired pheromonal production, and much more.
One particular issue is the link between coated tongue (and attendant halitosis) and constipation. A coated tongue makes intimacy challenging for the object of one’s affection. If there’s even a kernel of truth to claims about Nietzsche’s alienation from women, this could help explain some of it.
Furthermore, if he had pelvic floor dysfunction he definitionally had some degree of sexual dysfunction. Chronic clenching of the pelvic floor makes it harder for the penis to remain erect, as it pinches off the cycling of new blood. While a deep clench can offer a short temporary boost to the phallus, as any man can attest, permanent clenching is antithetical to proper sexual functioning.
Lastly, sex can sometimes be a healthy release of the pelvic floor for healthy participants. Many men probably get most of their hip-loosening exercise from sexual activity. These motions can, in a person without pre-existing dysfunction, provide release and exercise to the pelvic floor. But sex can also worsen the condition in those with dysfunction if they are clenching all throughout sex without noticing. If Nietzsche was not having all that much sex, he wouldn’t have had much of a chance to make matters worse or better thru sex.
Psychological
People with chronic hypertonic pelvic floors often report anxiety, neuroticism, and other similar traits. I don’t know if it’s fair to call Nietzsche neurotic, but he was certainly keenly aware of the human condition, a world class noticer for sure. Our lexicon includes phrases “tight ass” and “stick in the mud” that typically portray a person who is too bound up. The term “anal retentive,” was used by Freud to describe a certain personality type. Nietzsche was known to be fastidious about grooming and daily habits. His work reflects the mind of an enormous thinker with a proclivity for deep introspection. Sadly it seems that the health of his loins escaped his notice.
Suppositories and Enemas
Nietzsche is known to have used suppositories and enemas to treat his symptoms. Some level of rectal dilation and relaxation is usually necessary for administration of these, but in a person with a hypertonic pelvic floor, a few brief moments of incidental dilation won’t have much sustained effect and may even worsen things, as the reflexive tightening during these processes further entrains the muscles to clench.
Without knowledge of his hypertonicity, this manual engagement and subsequent encountering of his own hypertonic pelvic floor seems not to have struck him as odd or out of sorts, unsurprising given that he had nothing to compare it to.
Rectal Dilation
What Nietzsche badly needed was to self-administer moderate rectal dilation with a foreign object.
The key to rectal dilation is not really the insertion as such. The important work comes after insertion. Practicing intentional conscious relaxation of the pelvic floor to recover enough mind-muscle-connection to the pelvic floor is the exercise. After initial progress is made, the sufferer can begin to consciously relax even when the object is no longer in place. And then eventually not even need to consciously remember to release, but just automatically do so, becoming fully recovered at this point.
What about Pelvic Floor Therapy?
An entire cottage industry within healthcare overcomplicates hypertonic pelvic floor dysfunction out of sheer greed. Anyone with an IQ of 75 and above can cure hypertonic pelvic floor dysfunction with a private practice of mindful rectal dilation. The solution for hypertonicity is incredibly simple and requires no medical expertise whatsoever. Noticing your loins is the answer.
As for hypotonicity (too loose), seen in many women after pregnancy, I have no interest and make no claims. But hypotonicity is rarely if ever truly implicated in constipation or general GI distress.
With just a few rectal dilation sessions, Nietzsche might have been able to unlock his true chad potential, but then all of us might have been much poorer for it today. But I have no doubt that Nietzsches powerful mind would’ve relished the task of re-establishing mind-muscle-connectedness with his pelvic floor had he been aware of his dysfunction. I can only stand in wonder at the beautiful aphorisms he might have penned about the wonders of resolving pelvic floor dysfunction.
Bowel disorders are easily treated
The healthcare industrial complex is wont to say that bowel disorders are complex when it seems to this author that most are not complex at all (more on this throughout the life of this publication). An at-home, nearly-free resolution to constipation is easily achieved with moderate rectal dilation used to train the sufferer to recognize and relax his pelvic floor.
Genuine resolution of constipation appears to re-order the functioning of the entire GI tract which usually resolves disturbances higher up the chain. Once normal motility is restored, the food consumed is free to move thru the tract in an optimal fashion, allowing conditions like SIBO, SIFO, IBS, Candida etc. to heal naturally.
When you’re all clenched up down there, the gut cannot function at the right pace. Your GI tract is a series of conveyor belts one after the other. In this analogy, the rectums conveyor belt is running slower than the rest due to friction emanating from the hypertonic pelvic floor.
The packages, the meals you consume, are constantly crashing into one another, building up in all of the wrong places. Restore the bowel-transit and gut motility by releasing the pelvic floor and watch as everything clicks into place rapidly.
Your GI issues are very likely to be pelvic floor related. Gastroenterology want to pretend that this is extremely complicated, but it’s not, just a little funny is all.
To Nietzsche
May you at long last find the relief you deserve sir.
To New Readers
I am just starting my writing career. While I will focus some portion of this publication, To The Cypress Tree, on pelvic floor health etc. (I have a suspicion that most GI issues can be successfully treated in this manner), I also plan to attend to many varieties of subjects that may interest you. Your subscription and/or follow would be very much appreciated.
I am @Cheirophilus on here and on X. But I’ve begun hanging out around here a lot more.
Thanks for reading.