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 the elder ones, women and children are commonly affected, at some time or other, almost everyone gets constipated during his/her life. Constipation prevalence studies reflect that roughly 15% of the population in the industrialized countries like US is affected with constipation, thanks to the western diet and behaviour patterns.

If you are healthy and not on any medicines, then constipation is not a serious problem, and can be remedied by just a few alterations in diet and lifestyle, but when neglected, 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?
The term constipation refers to less frequent or difficult bowel movements. The normal frequency of bowel movements varies from person to person. While some 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 and needs more strain to pass. Hence you are considered to be constipated if you are having any two of these:
You strain during bowel movements for more than one-fourth of the time
You are having hard stools for more than one-fourth of the time
You are having a feeling of incomplete evacuation for more than one-fourth of the time
You are having two or fewer bowel movements in a week.

How is constipation caused and how can it be overcome?
Though a lot of causes can be listed, the major contributors of constipation are:

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

Insufficient fiber in the diet:
Fiber rich foods do not have that much calorie for the colon to work overtime to process and absorb it; hence 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. Nonvegetarian foods are often found hard to be digested 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.

Insufficient water/fluid intake:
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 this baseline has to be increased to suit your needs. Liquids such as coffee and soft drinks that contain caffeine tend to have a dehydrating effect and needs to be avoided 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.

Insufficient exercise or activity:
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 as said in New Year Resolutions.

Stress, depression and lack of sleep:
In the modern lifestyle, these two have become inseparable with our lives. I overcome these two with good, sound sleep for at least eight to nine hours nonstop and I hope that should be the case with anybody. Set aside your worries, problems, anxieties, fears etc.; listen to some mild music if possible for a few minutes before sleep, and find time to sleep this much amount of time by altering your lifestyle, and I bet many of your health concerns are 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 above said factors could be contributing to your cause and if needed, consult your doctor if:

• Constipation is a new problem for you
• If you find blood in the stool
• If you are losing weight though you are not dieting
• If you have severe pain with bowel movements
• If your constipation has lasted for a fortnight or so

PS: Request medical attention in case of severe symptoms since there could be several other hidden causes which could only be diagnosed by a physician, but adopting the above said, first four lifestyle modifications should fetch you good results if you are healthy.

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