How to Prevent Constipation? Causes, Symptoms, Remedies and Diet

Constipation, though a silent but major problem for many is one of the least topics that any would like to talk about. You might know it’s painful and frustrating to have this problem. Though it commonly affects the elder ones, women, and children at some time or other, almost everyone gets constipation during his/her life. Constipation prevalence studies reflect that roughly 15% of the population in industrialized countries like the US is affected by constipation, thanks to the western diet and behavior patterns. If you are healthy and not on any medicines, then constipation is not a serious problem. You can overcome with just a few alterations in diet and lifestyle. However, if you neglect it, chronic constipation could lead to fecal impaction which may even need surgical intervention to cure. In this post, let’s see how to prevent constipation with just some lifestyle and diet modifications.

What is constipation? What does constipation feel like? Symptoms

The term constipation, also called as costiveness refers to less frequent, difficult, painful bowel movements. The normal frequency of bowel movements varies from person to person depending on a number of factors. While some may have bowel movements thrice a day, others may have it only once or twice a week. Any span of more than three days without a bowel movement is too long that the stool or feces become hard, dry and will need more strain to pass. Defecation may be extremely painful. If you have these symptoms prolonging for months, then it is chronic constipation. However, it is just a tummy upset if it is only once in a while.

In severe cases where it is termed as fecal impaction, it leads to bowel obstruction. Obstipation or severe constipation is the stage that prevents the passage of both stools and gas. In general, when you are constipated, you may feel sluggish. You may feel like having a bloated stomach, an uneasiness in the lower stomach, associated with painful defecation along with hard stools and an incomplete emptying feeling after toileting. In short, you are considered to be constipated if you are having any two of the following symptoms:

• Straining during bowel movements for more than one-fourth of the time.
• Hard stools for more than one-fourth of the time.
• A feeling of incomplete evacuation for more than one-fourth of the time.
• Two or fewer bowel movements in a week.

What causes constipation?

Though a lot of causes can be listed, the major contributors of constipation are:

• Inadequate fiber in the diet.
• Insufficient water intake.
• Lack of exercise.
• Stress, depression and lack of sleep.

How to prevent constipation?

Increase fiber intake:

Fiber-rich foods do not have that much calorie for the colon to work overtime to process and absorb it; hence the colon tries to push them away the soonest possible, with a brushing effect on the walls of the colon. So eat a well-balanced diet with plenty of fiber. Good sources of fiber are fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole-grain cereals. Non-vegetarian foods are often hard to digest and cause constipation. Hence try to be more bowel friendly with vegetables and fruits, preferably non-cooked ones. Compulsorily add fruits and vegetables to your diet. Eat prunes and/or bran cereal.

Drink lots of water and fluids:

Lack of sufficient water intake stimulates the colon to resorb the water from stool in the colon to maintain the water balance leading to dry, hard stool. Hence drink at least three liters of water and other fluids a day unless restricted by your physician for some other medical condition. If you are a sort of person wandering in daylights, of course, increase this baseline to suit your needs. Liquids such as coffee and soft drinks that contain caffeine tend to have a dehydrating effect. Avoid them until your bowel habits return to normal or even some people may need to avoid milk and milk products, as dairy products can be the catalysts for constipation for them. Try warm liquids in the morning with an empty stomach to bring that urge.

So take care of the two major players, fiber and water; fiber and water help the colon pass stool.

Exercise regularly:

Lack of activity makes you lazy, so is your internal organs and bowel too. Hence to keep everything functioning normal, exercise regularly to keep yourself and your heart fit.

Sleep well:

In the modern lifestyle, stress and depression have become inseparable with our lives. I overcome these two with good, sound sleep for at least eight to nine hours nonstop. Find time to sleep this much amount of time by altering your lifestyle. Set aside your worries, problems, anxieties, fears, etc. Listen to mild music if possible for a few minutes before sleep. I bet many of your health concerns would have gone within a fortnight or so.

Apart from these major causes of constipation in a healthy person the other contributors could include:

• Pregnancy.
• An alteration of regular diet or routine as in traveling.
• Intake of large amounts of dairy products.
• Resisting the urge to have a bowel movement as in the case of hemorrhoids due to pain.
• Prolonged/overuse of stool softeners/laxatives over time weaken the bowel muscles.
• Hypothyroidism.
• Antacids containing calcium or aluminum.
• Medicines like opioids, iron tablets, antidepressants.
• Eating disorders.
• Irritable bowel syndrome.
• Colon cancer.

You may use a very mild stool softener or laxative such as Milk of Magnesia for very minor problems but do not use laxatives for more than a fortnight as laxative overuse can aggravate your symptoms.

Try to analyze yourself which of the aforementioned factors could be contributing to your cause and if needed, consult your doctor if:

• Constipation is a new problem for you.
• You have severe pain with bowel movements.
• There is blood in the stool.
• Constipation has lasted for a fortnight or so.
• You lose weight though you did not diet.

PS: Request medical attention in case of severe symptoms. Only a physician can diagnose several other hidden causes if any. However, adopting the aforesaid first four lifestyle modifications should fetch you good results if you are healthy.