One of the most common health problems I see in practice is constipation and the associated issues of gut pains and difficulty having a bowel movement. Up to 1 in 5 people are regularly affected by constipation. People don't generally come to me to fix their constipation as their main complaint, but I find that constipation is usually partly responsible for or associated with their other health problems. Luckily constipation is often fairly easy to resolve!
Constipation is simply the difficulty in passing your bowel motions, usually associated with hardened faeces. It also can mean the infrequent passing of a bowel motion from every 2-3 days to several weeks as some clients have experienced. This is NOT normal!
What is a "normal" poo? While "normal" will vary from one person to the next, a "healthy" poo should be:
- done every day
- easy to pass
- complete (your bowel should feel empty)
- medium brown in colour
- shaped like a sausage (not small, hard pebbles, corn-cob, or runny or diarrhoea)
- having an inoffensive smell (no, you shouldn't need to deodorise the room or repaint the walls afterwards!)
A healthy poo means a healthy digestive system, and a healthy body!
Regular constipation is not only painful, but it can make your health worse when waste products are reabsorbed back into the body from the large intestine, causing toxicity, inflammation, skin conditions, bad breath, fatigue, and other symptoms. Constipation predisposes you to all colorectal disorders including haemorrhoids, anal fissures and even colon cancer.
Constipation can have many causes, including a lack of fibre in the diet, stress, slow digestive system, imbalance of gut bacteria, hormonal factors, dehydration, medications, lack of exercise or a combination of these.
To clear constipation and return to a "normal" daily poo, the causes need to be identified and addressed. Laxative medications will not fix the causes and can result in more digestive problems and a reduced quality of life.
If constipation is an issue with you, it's nothing to be embarrassed about to ask for help and return to health!
Constipation is simply the difficulty in passing your bowel motions, usually associated with hardened faeces. It also can mean the infrequent passing of a bowel motion from every 2-3 days to several weeks as some clients have experienced. This is NOT normal!
What is a "normal" poo? While "normal" will vary from one person to the next, a "healthy" poo should be:
- done every day
- easy to pass
- complete (your bowel should feel empty)
- medium brown in colour
- shaped like a sausage (not small, hard pebbles, corn-cob, or runny or diarrhoea)
- having an inoffensive smell (no, you shouldn't need to deodorise the room or repaint the walls afterwards!)
A healthy poo means a healthy digestive system, and a healthy body!
Regular constipation is not only painful, but it can make your health worse when waste products are reabsorbed back into the body from the large intestine, causing toxicity, inflammation, skin conditions, bad breath, fatigue, and other symptoms. Constipation predisposes you to all colorectal disorders including haemorrhoids, anal fissures and even colon cancer.
Constipation can have many causes, including a lack of fibre in the diet, stress, slow digestive system, imbalance of gut bacteria, hormonal factors, dehydration, medications, lack of exercise or a combination of these.
To clear constipation and return to a "normal" daily poo, the causes need to be identified and addressed. Laxative medications will not fix the causes and can result in more digestive problems and a reduced quality of life.
If constipation is an issue with you, it's nothing to be embarrassed about to ask for help and return to health!
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