EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CONSTIPATION
What Is Constipation?
Being constipated means your bowel movements are tough or happen less often than normal. Almost everyone goes through it at some point.
Although it’s not usually serious, you'll feel far better when your body is back on target.
The normal length of your time between bowel movements varies widely from person to person. Some people have them 3 times each day. Others have them just a couple of times every week.
Going longer than 3 or more days without one, though, is typically too long. After 3 days, your poop gets harder and harder to pass.
What Are the Symptoms?
You may have:
• Few bowel movements
• Trouble having a movement (straining to go)
• Hard or small stools
• A sense that everything didn’t begin
• Passing fewer than three stools every week
• Having lumpy or hard stools
• Straining to possess bowel movements
• Feeling as if there is a blockage in your rectum that forestalls bowel movements
• Feeling as if you cannot completely empty the stool from your rectum
How is Constipation Treated?
After serious illnesses are ruled out, a medical aid of the patient who is acutely constipated involves a mixture of enemas and laxatives, preceded by manual disimpaction of stools if necessary. This then is followed by an elective evaluation of the causes of constipation.
Avoiding constipation altogether is simpler than treating it, but involves equivalent lifestyle measures:
• Eat more fiber (at least 30g per day is suggested for adults. See foods below).
• Drink many fluids every day (at least 8 glasses of water per day).
• Exercise regularly.
• Go to the toilet once you have the urge. Don’t wait.
Constipation and intense, chronic abdominal pain
If you’re constipated, experiencing some abdominal pain is common. Often, it’s just the result of needing to have a bowel movement or a a buildup of gas.
Intense, constant abdominal pain, however, could be an indication of a more serious condition that demands immediate medical attention. These include:
· perforated intestine or stomach
· intestinal obstruction
· appendicitis
· pancreatitis
· mesenteric ischemia (blockage of blood flow to the intestine)