Constipation: Causes, Symptoms, Treatment, and Prevention

Have you ever experienced passing stool fewer than four times a week? If your answer is yes, you surely had dry and hard bowel movements in those days. This condition is known as constipation. Often pregnant women experience constipation problems but it can also be caused in anyone due to change in their routine or diet. Sometimes some medications also cause constipation. 

In this article you may learn about the actual causes, symptoms, treatments and ways of prevention of constipation. So read on to learn all you need to know about constipation!

What is Constipation?

This is the most common digestive condition affecting a large number of people around the world. This number of people suffering from constipation are doubling every passing day and the major reason is the imbalance or inadequate nutrition. However, it usually affects the old age people living with age 50 or above. 

Less than four bowel movements in a week is the major sign of constipation. This is a common digestive problem that makes your stool hard and dry that cannot pass easily through your intestine parts. The dietitian and nutritionists have proposed the definition of constipation as ” the passing of dry,hard bowel movements.”

How a person poops it also depends on what they eat and what lifestyle they follow. So how you poop is not a fixed phenomenon. Pooping wars vary from person to person. Sometimes, you pop several times a day while on other days you may poop only two to three times a week. However, your poop pattern is always different from others, that’s why it is unique. But when you get strayed too far from your pattern, it gets abnormal and then the problem starts. 

Medical experts suggested that you go to the toilet when you feel a slight desire to poop because resistance to pooping for a longer duration can convert your constipation as a chronic condition. More information about constipation, include:

• You pass your stool with difficulty and the princess becomes painful for you.
• The stools you pass are very hard and dry.
• After pooping, you don’t feel relaxed and feel a sensation of not completely emptying your bowels.

Is Constipation a Common Condition?

You are not alone in the world who is experiencing constipation problems. This is the most common digestive health concern that affects a large number of people around the world. So don’t take it seriously as a fatal disease but yes it can cause some other fatal disease. Therefore, its treatment or management should be on your priorities. A large number of people suffer from this condition. Most people come to their healthcare provider with the complaint about this gastrointestinal disease. Around 3.2 million people in the country, every year report complaints about irregular and dry, hard bowel movements. Their healthcare provider helps them to ease the bowel movements.

Causes and Symptoms

What are the Causes of Constipation?

The deficiency of water in your colon is the actual cause of slower passing of stool through your rectum and colon. Sometimes, due to some digestive issues, your colon starts absorbing more water from the wastes reached there. Therefore, you feel it difficult to push out through your rectum, the last opening of your large intestine.

If you want to understand the phenomenon of dried stool, let’s start from back history. In normal cases,the food you eat goes through your alimentary canal, also known as the digestive tract. It leads your food to the stomach and then the small intestine. Here the essential nutrients are absorbed in the small intestine. Then the partially digested food is transferred to the large intestine and adopts a form of undigested waste known as poop or stool. When the poop stays in the colon for some time, the lining of the colon starts reabsorbing the water content of the stool, which turns your pop into a very hard material. Thus constipation occurs and stool moves very slowly and painfully through your colon. In addition, constipation also causes slow movement of food through your alimentary canal that provides more time for your colon to reabsorb more water from your wastes. This dry, hard poop is much more difficult to push out through the rectum.

Several factors play role in causing constipation but the most common include:

Certain health conditions, lifestyle, and use of some medications that affect your digestive system indirectly. Lets try to understand these causes comprehensively!

Health Conditions

Some health conditions that directly affect your digestive ability and are thought to be responsible for constipation include:

• Pregnancy.
• Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
• Intestinal obstruction.
• Obstructed defecation syndrome. (the condition caused by explained or unexplained factors create problems in smooth pooping).
• Endocrine problems, such hypercalcemia, hypothyroidism, uremia or diabetes.
• Colo-rectal cancer.
• Multiple organ diseases, like scleroderma or Lupus.
• Diverticulitis.
• Structural defects in the alimentary canal, such as imperforate anus, fistula or volvulus.
• Neurological disorders, like multiple sclerosis, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, and spinal cord injury.
• Outlet dysfunction constipation, a condition that causes problems in the coordination between your muscles and pelvic area. This causes difficulty in defecation of poop.
• Lazy bowel syndrome, a condition causes poor contraction of your colon that may lead to retention of stool.

Lifestyle Factors

There are a lot of lifestyle factors that affect the digestive health and especially cause constipation but the most common are:

• Stress.
• Living a sedentary life.
• Lack of fiber in your diet.
• Dehydration (not drinking enough water).
• Resisting the urge to poop instantly.
• Using large amounts of foods containing cheese or milk.
• Changes in your routine life, such as sleeping and waking at different times, travelling to other areas or eating abruptly at different times.

Medications

Several medicines are recognized as the root problem of constipation, including:

• Anti-nausea medications, such as ondansetron.
• Antidepressants, like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
• Anti Seizures medications, such as gabapentin and phenytoin.
• Anti-allergy medications, like antihistamine.
• Pain killers, including common narcotics like oxycodone or codeine.
• Pills for making up iron deficiency.
• Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as naproxen and ibuprofen.
• Psychiatric drugs, including olanzapine or clozapine.
• Medications used for controlling blood pressure, like beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers.

So it is advised to ask your healthcare provider before using a medication for other health problems because unchecked use of some medications can cause constipation. You should discuss your concerns openly to protect your digestive system.

Symptoms of Constipation

Common symptoms of constipation include:

• Bloated and nauseated feelings.
• Having fewer than four bowel movements a week.
• Having a feel of not emptying your colon after a bowel movement.
• Stomach cramps or stomach aches.
• Difficulty in passing stool from colon and rectum.
• Dry, hard or lumpy stool.
• Painful passing of stool from colon.

Risk Factors for Constipation

Studies show that almost everyone experiences the problem of constipation at any stage of life. Thus it is a common condition that you may face several times during your lifespan but there are several risk factors that have a tendency to increase the chance of getting constipated frequently. These factors can make you more likely to become constantly constipated. The factors include:

• Changes in Hormonal Levels: At the different stages or ages of your life span you often experience dropping or increasing the levels of certain hormones. This fluctuation in the levels of hormones is a major risk factor for constipation. Therefore pregnant people and women after childbirth surfer more from constipation than normal people.
• Age: This is another important risk factor. People with age more than 50 usually like to spend an inactive life that has no more physical activity. This sedentary lifestyle leads to a slower metabolism and causes less muscular contractions in your alimentary canal. This is the sign of constipation.
• Brain disease or neurological disorders that affect the working of your digestive organs.
• Avoiding fiber rich food. Fibers help your food to move smoothly through your digestive tract.
• Consuming certain medications that interact with your digestive system functions.

Complications related to Constipation

Certain health conditions are directly linked with constipation. That means constipation is a root of some other health problems, including:

• An infection in your colon that makes your stool infected called diverticulitis. This infection happens due to trapped stool in your colon.
• Accumulation of too much poop in your anus or rectum, also known as fecal impaction.
• Tearing of the anal lining due to hard and dry stool movements while you’re trying to pass it from your colon.
• A damage to your pelvic muscles when you exert force on it to move your trapped, hardened bowel. Too much straining on pelvic muscles also causes uncontrolled peeing because urine in your bladder comes out when you exert force on your rectum or intestinal muscles to pass the hard stool.
• Inflamed and swollen veins in your rectum also increase the risk of hemorrhoids.

Sometimes, constipation is also associated with the toxin production in your body. This is because in case of constipation, your colon keeps the hard stool in it for a longer time that makes you feel uncomfortable. The trapped stool in your colon causes illness in your colon that makes the wall of colon weak leading to leakage of toxins in your body that is also known as a serious digestive condition toxic megacolon.

Treatment and Management of Constipation

Mild or less severe cases of constipation can be managed at home with ordinary treatment options. Starting with self-care is the key to success. If you want to relieve your constipation you have to concentrate on your dietary habits. This means you have to focus on your food you eat in routine and analyze what changes should be brought in your eating habits and routine. For your convenience, here are some recommendations that can help you relieve constipation at home:

• Consume a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables as your daily diet because they are rich in fiber. Fiber is the most important part of your nutrition that helps relieve constipation.
• Don’t eat high-fat poultry or dairy products including eggs, meat, and cheese.
• If you’re experiencing constant constipation, try to add more liquid in your diet. Drink five to six more glasses of water than normal routine 
• Protect yourself from dehydration for this purpose it is good to avoid caffeinated drinks like coffee and alcohol. Highly-sweetened juices and beverages also cause dehydration.
• Never keep your phone or any book along with you while you’re in the washroom. Because watching the phone or reading a book or newspaper while you;re pooping can cause interrupted bowel movements that can lead to severe constipation.
• Sometimes, taking over-the-counter laxatives or stool softeners can help you relieve constipation but it is effective for mild constipation. For severe cases you can use stimulant laxatives and mineral oil enemas.
• Try to add lean meat and low fat dairy products into your diet but strictly avoid the consumption of refined carbs, fried foods or processed edibles like bread or pasta.
• Don’t hold your urge to go to the bathroom. Excessively holding the urge can lead to complete and permanent blockage of signals from your colon to your grain to poop out and get relaxed.
• Consume high-fiber fruits like avocados, mangoes, oranges and berries along with bran cereals and prunes.
• Keep a food diary and note down every food after eating which you experience difficulty in passing stool.
• Engage yourself in regular physical activity.
• Make a suitable posture while sitting in the toilet for pooping. Try to squat and raise your feet while sitting for pooping. It will help you pass the stool more easily.

Prevention

Many health concerns are directly associated with constipation. That is why it is important to prevent it becoming a chronic problem. Because instant and frequent constipation can cause permanent damage to your digestive tract. To improve the digestion, assimilation and defecation process, you should:

• Drink around 12 glasses of water a day.
• Use magnesium supplement when experiencing mild constipation.
• Eat a well-balance diet containing all nutrients, minerals and vitamins.
• Don’t eat seeds of fruits because seeds make the diverticulitis more painful.
• Add a sufficient amount of fibers into your daily diet so that the fibers may relieve your constipation.
• Go to the toilet immediately to defecate your stool don’t wait or delay the pooping.

Conclusion

Hardened, solid stool lacks fibers and does not pass through your colon easily. The painful passing of dry, hard stool from your rectum also damages the lining of your colon that may lead to other digestive conditions. Therefore, don’t hesitate to talk about the difficulty in passing stool. If you experience the condition talk to your healthcare provider on an immediate basis. Take precautionary measures to avoid constipation but if it happens follow the ordinary treatment options to re get relieved. In case of severe constipation, use medications like laxatives or stool-softeners.