Constipation is one of the most common digestive problems in health facilities. The estimation of constipation cases in adults is around 16% and 33% in the elderly group. Women are known to experience constipation more often than men with a ratio of 3:1. Constipation can be a chronic disorder, severe, and inhibit daily activities and even worse can affect a person's quality of life.
What is Constipation?
According to the Indonesian Gastroenterology Association, constipation is a bowel disorder that is defined as having hard and dry bowel movements, characterized by irregular bowel movements and difficulty passing stools, or both. Although each person has a different bowel habit, some people go two times a day, while others go one time in two days, but if someone has fewer than three bowel movements a week is a sign that the person is constipated. Furthermore, the difficulty in defecating is the feeling of difficulty in defecating, the process of defecating is not complete, hard/small stools, long defecation time, or requiring manual maneuvers to remove feces.
Causes of Constipation
The colon’s main job is to absorb water from residual food as it’s passing through the digestive system. The residual food then is excreted in the form of feces (stool) through the anus. If stool remains in the colon too long, it can become hard and difficult to pass. A poor diet is often linked as a cause of constipation, although there are several other reasons as well, such as :
- Consuming low fiber diet
- Dehydration
- Low exercise levels
- Delaying the impulse to defecate
- There is a change in daily routine
- Effects of medication with certain drugs
- Pregnancy
- Elderly people
Tips to Relieve and Prevent Constipation
Changing your diet and increasing your level of physical activity is the easiest and quickest way to relieve and prevent constipation. Here are some other tips that you can do:
- Drink 1.5 - 2 liters of water every day
- Limit consumption of alcohol and caffeinated drinks, which cause dehydration.
- Consume fiber-rich foods, such as fruits and vegetables. Reduce consumption of low-fiber foods such as meat, dairy milk, and processed foods.
- Do moderate exercise for about 150 minutes every week
- Don’t delay the urge to defecate, and make time to defecate at the same time every day
Don’t ignore your body's need to defecate, because it’s a part of maintaining digestive health. However, if constipation has occurred and does not go away and you have symptoms; bleeding from the rectum, blood in your stool, back pain, a feeling that gas is trapped in your stomach, high fever, and unexplained weight loss, then immediately go to the nearest health facility.
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Sources :
Morres, D. & Biggers, A. (2021). What You Should Know About Constipation. Healthline.[online]. https://www.healthline.com/health/constipation
Perkumpulan Gastroenterologi Indonesia (PGI). (2019). Konsensus Penatalaksanaan Konstipasi. Jakarta: 2019