Constipation - Dietary fibre.
.
Chronic
constipation can be treated and normal bowel movement promoted quite easily.
Here's how.
Chronic constipation is thought to affect a quarter of the population at some time.
It is more common in the elderly because the power of the bowel muscles diminishes with age
and they tend to take more medicines that have constipating side effects.
Also, women are much more prone to constipation than men. Probably due to a variety of factors,
such as hormone fluctuations during the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, lifestyle, anxiety, medications,
and a low dietary fibre intake. Also women are also more inclined to worry about not being "regular" taking
a variety of harsh laxatives which often make matters worse, instead of better.
Chronic constipation is sometimes called a modern disease or lifestyle disease, which is
caused by a lack of dietary fibre and a sedentary lifestyle.
It is actually not a disease but a condition.
In someone who is elderly or disabled or someone who leads a very sedentary lifestyle, constipation
may be a symptom of bowel impaction, a more serious condition in which feces are trapped in
the lower part of the large intestine.
Constipation is often linked to a variety of other diseases, e.g. bowel or colon cancer, diverticular
disease, appendicitis, and irritable bowel syndrome etc.
Solutions.
If you are constipated and experience difficulty or pain when passing stools, then the first
thing you need to do is to have a medical checkup. If your doctor gives you a clean bill of
health and can find no pathology, then it is up to you to retrain your body to become regular.
Curing chronic constipation.
The best chronic constipation cure is to increase
your dietary fibre intake, to drink more water (six to eight glasses) and to do regular exercise,
and eat a diet high in soluble
and insoluble fibers.
Soluble fibers include pectin, flax, and gums.
Insoluble fibers include psyllium and brans from grains like wheat and oats.
Fresh fruits and vegetables contain both soluble and insoluble fibers.
The following foods are rich sources of dietary fibre:
Hi-fibre Bran and All Bran cereals, fruit and bran cereals, muesli, rye bread, wholewheat pasta,
sweet potato, dried fruit, figs, oranges, grapefruit, apples, broccoli, Brussels sprouts,
cooked beans, lentils and split peas, nuts, samp
and beans, oats porridge, butternut, green beans, brinjal, bananas, wholewheat and brown bread,
potato, wheat biscuits, carrots, spinach, beetroot, cabbage, cauliflower.
Gradually increase your fiber intake.
You need to increase your intake of fibre gradually to give your body a chance to adjust to
the higher roughage content of the diet. Don’t start off by eating spoonfuls of wheat
bran four times a day - you will get stomach ache and winds. By introducing fibre gently and
slowly the microorganisms in your intestines learn to cope with the added bulk.
Water.
Drink six to eight glasses of water daily. The water helps the dietary fibre to swell and expand
thus increasing the bulk in the intestines which promotes bowel movements.
Exercise.
Chronic constipation treatment should also include regular exercise is always good for your health. If you are constipated, exercise can help
to relax and increase the blood supply to the intestines, stimulating peristalsis. Go for brisk
walks, cycle, swim or do aerobics to get things going.
Magnesium and Vitamin C.
If success is not achieved by all the above, a daily use of 500 mg vitamin C and 400 mg magnesium
often helps. If no bowel movement is achieved on this dose, increase the dose by 100 mg a day,
up to a maximum of 5,000 mg vitamin C and 1,000 mg magnesium. Use of preventive doses should
be resumed after relief occurs, and vitamin C should be decreased to the pre-diarrhea dosage
if you develop diarrhea.
Use these easy solutions to become regular once more and no longer suffer from chronic constipation.
One of the very important functions of a clean regular digestive system is the resultant control of intestinal parasites.
