Constipation Information

What Causes Constipation?

What causes constipation? I certainly want to know. That way, I can keep it from happening because being all stopped up is a painful, bloated, irritating and embarrassing condition. What causes constipation in the first place? Knowing the causes is the best way to keep from having to treat this nasty condition in the first place.

Constipation, by definition, is when a person has fewer than three bowel movements a week. Constipated stools are small, hard, dry and painful to express. Constipation typically involves bloating, feeling full, being unable to poop, essentially, and straining on that toilet for what seems like days to just pop out a little rabbit turd for all your efforts. In short, constipation, well, stinks!

What causes constipation? The most common cause is poor diet, a lack of hydration to help the bowels move smoothly and fiber to help the stools remain soft and passable. When the food is being processed for exit, so to speak, the colon absorbs water from the food wastes, forming the stool. Constipation occurs when too much water is leeched out of the fecal matter and there is not enough fiber in the matter to soften the stool up. As a result, the colon strains sluggishly to pass a hard mass that normally moves smoothly when the colon contracts.

With dehydration, the body will retain as much water as it can, which means the colon will in turn take all the water from the food mass (soon-to-be fecal matter). Think of being parched and you drink a sip of water. It's not enough to satisfy your poor, dry throat. Drink a whole cup of water, however, and you satisfy your thirst and then soon have to urinate. The colon uses water the same way. It will soak up all water out of fecal matter if there is not much hydration there, but it will take what it needs if there is ample enough hydration to form a solid waste while still keeping it moist.

Lifestyle plays a roll in constipation as well. Not being physically active can cause constipation more frequently because moving the body keeps everything in the body, including the digestive system, on track. Ignoring the urge to defecate also tends to increase constipation because the bowels will contract when they need to go initially, then become sluggish and the stool hardens as it "waits" for evacuation. Of course, changes in lifestyle, such as stress, traveling and not being able to poop on schedule, pregnancy and aging can also play a roll. But overall, constipation, which happens to everyone, is normally caused by not drinking enough water or having enough fiber in the diet.

Source:

http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/constipation/