How to Relieve Constipation
1. Eat Properly
Try to have a regular meal schedule and do not skip meals. Eat enough fibers (vegetables, cereals, wholemeal bread) to maintain bulk and soft stool. Drink enough fluid (plain or mineral water, tea) – have a glass of water at hand; if you can drink it with ease, it means you needed it. A good sign of proper body hydration is having at least 200 mL of urine every morning. What and how much to eat? Eat what makes your digestion smooth, does not cause excessive gas, is tasty and gives you energy.
2. Be Active
Be active to achieve a joy in your life. Activity may include physical work, study, being active among friends or in public, care about others, sport, and so on.
The role of physical exercise in constipation is debatable. Vigorous sport strain may cause more stress then relief and may aggravate constipation.
During and after a meal, the blood flow is redirected from the skeletal muscles toward the gut to provide oxygen and nutrients necessary for peristalsis. This means, less blood (and hence oxygen and nutrients) will be available for muscles, so the time after a meal is a rest time and not a time for exercising. Taking enough time for sleep and rest is necessary to relax and maintain smooth bowel movements.
3. Fight Against Bad Mood and Depression
Stress, like during preparing for an exam, changing a job, death in the family, may cause transient constipation, but try to continue with regular life and eating habits, if possible. There is a time for sorrow, but long-term depression slows down peristalsis. If you feel depressed, fight against depression and find if there is anything good you can do for others.
4. Maintain Regular Bowel Evacuation Habit
Natural squatting position during bowel movement provides the largest abdominal pressure and optimal angle between rectum and anus to push out the stool. Instead of squat WC, you can use about a feet (20-30 cm) high footstool when sitting on usual “English” WC. Stepping on toes does not help; during the bowel movement feet must be in a horizontal position.
Kegel exercises strengthen pelvic floor muscles that are often weakened in women after delivery.
5. Treat Eventual Diseases
If nothing of above helps, consider to have tests, like stool test for parasites or colonoscopy that may reveal diverticulosis, Crohn’s disease, polyps or other disorders.
When to Visit a Doctor?
In case of severe abdominal pain or distension, vomiting, rectal bleeding, raised temperature or general bad feeling, immediately visit a doctor, because of possible serious underlying process, like appendicitis. Constipation itself is not dangerous for health, but if despite appropriate food, symptoms of acute constipation persist for more than a week, an examination is recommended to find a cause.
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