In The Venue

Everyone will have suffered from constipation in our life ones or many times. The survey by National Health Interview study shows that as much as 3 million Americans suffer from chronic constipation or frequent constipation. Constipation is not recognized as a serious disorder or degenerative disease, but people who get affected by constipation often feel that they have been bloated. They also feel that they feel sluggish and very much uncomfortable. Constipation by itself is very miserable but those people who suffer from it often experience very painful bowel movements that could be compounded by hemorrhoids that form due to the straining.

Medically constipation is defined as fewer than three times of bowel movement in a week and severe constipation or chronic constipation is defined as less than one bowel movement in a week. There are no medical reasons for having bowel movement every day and going without a bowel movement for two to three days would not cause any physical discomfort, but would have a mental distress for certain people. It is very important that we distinguish acute constipation i.e. recent onset constipation from that of chronic i.e. long duration constipation.

First we need to understand constipation it is important that we need understand how does our digestive system works. After we eat our food it gets grounded up in our stomach and gets digested. The liquid food passes through the small intestine and here the nutrients are extracted. The food then moves to the colon and here the water is removed from it and allows a stool to form. If much of water is extracted from the stool when it passes through the colon, it becomes hard and thereby difficult to pass leaving you constipated. This happens in people for several reasons. These would include not eating enough dietary fiber, lack of exercise, not drinking enough water or liquids, ignoring the urge to have a bowel movement and could be due to stress.

The other causes for constipation in people could include having a lazy colon that does not contract when required, food allergies that could cause the colon to contract, causing waste materials that slowly pass through the colon, or it could be mechanical obstruction that inhibit the movement of the waste materials. Several prescription drugs and certain neurological disorders could also slow down the movement of waste materials through the colon. The constipation could be brought by an abuse of laxatives that over time could damage the nerve cells in the colon and would interfere with its ability to contract properly.

Understanding the medical history and also performing a physical examination could evaluate the patients with chronic constipation. There are several tests that could be performed to evaluate constipation, but most of the patients would need only few basic tests. The other type of tests is done for those who have chronic constipation and for those whose constipation does not respond to simple treatments. The understanding about the medical history of the patient is very important and critical for many reasons, as it would allow the doctors to define the type of constipation. The history will also uncover medications and other diseases that could cause constipation. In these cases the doctors would change the medications or could treat for other disease that the patient is affected. Maintaining a dietary history by keeping a food dairy could reveal the food habits of the patient and helps the physician to recommend higher dietary fiber food during treatment.

The physical examination would help identify the disease that causes constipation. Blood test may be helpful for identifying any thyroid syndrome. The X-rays could reveal the amount of stool present in the colon and the severity of the constipation. A barium enema test is similar to x-ray which would detect any tumor development or other abnormalities could be detected with this test. The other studies like colonic transit studies, Defecography, Ano-rectal motility studies and Colonic motility studies are performed in severe situations and more detailed information is required about the type of constipation.

By having high intake of fiber diet with fruits, vegetable and whole grains would help you to keep the stool soft and help in smooth movement of stool. By drinking plenty of water is essential when you intake supplemental fiber. By eating prune or drinking prune juice would help in laxative effect. You should avoid sugar and other processed food and begin a regular exercising program for a smooth bowel movement. Avoiding allergic foods and by intake of probiotic like acidopholis will help improve the environment in colon. If all treatments fail then herbs like casgara sagrada, turkey rhubarb or other herbal combinations could be used to evacuate the colon. These herbs are less aggressive than the other commercial laxatives that are available in the market.