Constipation

 Print This Post

1.       Constipation is a very common lifestyle disorder within the digestive tract caused by an excess of undigested food and lack of lubrication due to scanty intake of fluids. Constipation is more than a troublesome condition. It is an insidious drain on the health of millions of people. Many people think they are constipated when in fact their bowel movements are satisfactory. For example, many people believe they are constipated or irregular, if they do not have bowel movement every day. For them, having bowel movements daily becomes an obsession.

2.       Regularity of bowel movement has now become a meaningless expression in describing or diagnosing constipation by the doctors. There is no right number of daily or weekly bowel movements. Normal bowel movements may be three times a day to three times a week – a wide range! It varies from person to person depending upon the individual’s constitution and body chemistry, dietary pattern/habits and lifestyle.

3.       Defecation is a taboo as a subject for polite conversation, far more so than sex, but most of us nevertheless wonder what qualifies as “normal” and what stool reveals about our health. People eating an Indian traditional diet with plenty of fibre-rich roods (wholegrains, pulses, fruits, vegetables) may defecate once or twice a day. Those who follow a typical Western diet with low fibre (meat and bread-based) may have as few as two or three bowel movements a week. Good health, therefore, does not normally require daily defecation. Some perfectly healthy people defecate only twice a week; others several times a day.

4.       Assimilation and elimination are the two basic needs of natural health. Elimination of waste matter from the body takes place in two phases – propulsion from the colon and expulsion from the rectum. Interference with any aspect of this process results into constipation, which may be described as the failure to evacuate stools from the body satisfactorily.

5.       In a nutshell, having a dry hard stool, having to painfully strain too hard for a long time for it to evacuate and having incomplete evacuation or a feeling of blockage/obstruction in the anus or rectum is certainly called Constipation – no matter  how regular or irregular bowel movements are.