Constipation is not a disease, but is a symptom. It is a symptom of infrequent or hard to pass bowel movements. Constipation may last for a short time or long time. If you have constipation for long time, it may harm your health. In order to have gut health, you must get rid of 7 bad habits that cause constipation.
The harmfulness of constipation
1. Cause anorectal diseases
Constipated means the stool is dried and hard, difficult to pass the feces, therefore directly may cause hemorrhoid(痔疮), anal fissure(肛裂) etc.
2. Cause colon cancer
About 10% of serious constipation patients may have colon cancer.
3. Make you no appetite, bloating, with bitter taste etc.
4. Give affection to the brain function such as cause your memory decline or mental retardation.
5. May let you gain weight due to metabolic disorders.
6. Constipation may cause anxiety and lose sleep.
To avoid from health lose, get rid of 7 bad habits that cause constipation is a necessary.
The bad habits are
1. Over consumption of spicy food /junk food/fried food
According to an internet-based survey in China, 6318 participants especially office workers have chronic constipation (>1 symptoms including straining, hard stools, spent 6 to 15 minutes in defecating etc.)
Why do they have chronic constipation? Disordered eating routines, withholding stools and eating spicy food (the foods that contain ginger, cumin, pepper, turmeric, chilies, curry powder or other slices) is also one of the factor that cause constipation.
Junk food contains fat, a lot of salt and artificial taste and without nutrition. If over eating junk food which is lack of fiber for a week and yet never consume enough water, you may get constipated easily.
Fried food is oily, dehydrated, lack of fiber and also take long time to digest. It makes the stool dry and hard that reduce the bowel movements.
Good habit : If consume spicy, junk or fried food, drink more water again or a glass of lemon tea as well. Most important is consumed less is a wise choice. To improve constipation, steam or boiling cooking method is your priority choice.
2. Chocolate lover
People love chocolate. There are 3 types of chocolate i.e. dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate. Dark chocolate contains chocolate liquor( cocoa solids & cocoa butter) without sugar. Milk chocolate contains chocolate liquor, milk powder and sugar. White chocolate contains cocoa bitter, sugar and milk but no cocoa solids. Consumption of chocolate will make you good in mood. But chocolate with sugar and milk can cause constipation. Why?
Children after taken chocolate may get constipated because they have cowed’s milk intolerance. Actually the high amount of fat and sugars in chocolate makes the colon transit time is longer and also reduce stimulation of colonic mucus that resulted in constipation.
Good habit : Consume chocolate with the amount that you can stand for it.
3. Miss the golden time to poop
After small intestine absorb all the nutrition and water, the residue is called defecate which will go through big colon and excrete from rectum. Some people said the golden time to poop is in the morning or after taken breakfast, but actually this is the naturally effect of peristalsis of gastrointestinal. The fact is everybody will have their own defecation biological clock. The defecation time for people may in the morning, afternoon or at night.
People may asked, ‘ Does defecate in the morning is better than at night?’ Everyday as long as you follow your defecation biological clock to poop and keep as your daily habit, that is all right.
But most of the people may have the urge to poop in the morning, why? It is due to after a good night’s sleep and the peristaltic propulsion is stronger after having breakfast in the morning.
Good habit : Grasp the golden time to poop.
4. Consume too much dietary fiber
Dietary fiber help to increase stool bulk and stimulate the bowel movement. But if you eat too much fiber, it will let your constipation become worst. Why?
The excess fiber will makes the stool size too big which become a load for big colon take longer time to move out from your body. The big size of stool make you hard to poop. When you are constipated, try to reduce consumption of dietary fiber.
Take more fruits to help constipation relief. All people have different body nature. Guava(without eating the seeds), dragon fruit, apple, pineapple help to stimulate my bowel movement easily. So you need to examine your bowel reaction that which fruits that help your bowel movement.
Bad habit : If you only eat red meat but never eat any vegetables and fruits, you may easy to get constipated.
Good habit : Consume the necessary dietary fiber according to your age and your body requirement.
Recommended daily dietary fiber intake for
Aged. Fiber requirement/day
1-3 years. 14g
4-8 years. 18g
9-13 years. girls – 20g, boys – 24g
14-18 years. girls – 22g, boys – 28g
adults. women – 25g, men – 30g
pregnancy woman 28g
(Read also how to relieve from constipation)
5. Work and rest without regularly time
There is a study suggest that sleep irregularly may let people experience poor sleep quality and also insufficient sleep. Furthermore, a study shown that poor sleep quality will increase the functional bowel disorders symptoms in rotating shift nurses which means the FBD symptom were higher and severe among the rotating shift nurses.(FBD is a term that describes a problem with how your stomach and bowels function or work.) Morning IBS ( irritable bowel syndrome) symptoms seem to rise or fall in close association with the prior night’s quality of sleep as well. ( IBS with symptoms of constipation, abdominal pain, bloating and diarrhea.)
Good habit : Sleep regularly may let you have good quality sleep and help bowel movements in the morning.
How to sleep quality?
1. Sleep and get up at the same time every day. The recommended amount of sleep for adult is at least seven hours but not more than eight hours.
2. Listen to soothing music may help to relax your mind and get you fall a sleep naturally.
3. Avoid heavy meals, smoking, drinking coffee or tea before bedtime. Nicotine and caffeine may stimulate dopamine production in the brain and make you feel good high for some times that interfere your quality sleep.
4. Limit your day time naps from 15 minutes to 30 minutes only. Otherwise, long naps will affect your sleep quality.
5. Make your bedroom dark, quiet and cool. Choose the pillow and mattress that you feel comfortable. Therefore, good sleeping environment will make you fall a sleep easily.
6. Don’t drink too much water before bedtime in order to avoid frequent urination phenomenon.
7. Avoid excessive internet used to improve disordered sleep.
The use of the smartphone for chatting, online games and watching movie before sleep has become a new habit that affecting sleep quality.
A study concluded that overuse of internet could impair sleep quality. Why?
It is because people addicted to online games playing where make them sleep delays, irregular sleeping patterns and excessive day time sleepiness are associated with increased of waking-time tiredness. These make a vicious circle and physiological clock disorder that cause you can’t have a good sleep.
Good habit : Take part more in outdoor activities such as cycling, swimming, charity events etc. instead of addict to online games playing.
8. Exercise regularly for about 30 minutes will bring you healthy and also sleep better at night. Especially morning exercise may give a particular boost to deep sleep that make you attain a quality sleep.
6. Laxatives abuse
Laxatives are using for constipation relief. There are different types of laxatives such as stool softeners lubricant laxatives, hyper osmotic laxatives, saline laxatives and stimulant laxatives.
Saline laxatives such as magnesium hydroxide (Epsom salt) which increase bowel movement faster than other laxatives.
But too much depend on laxatives, your colon will need more quantities of laxatives to stimulate bowel movements. This will result in a lazy colon. (Lazy colon means without stimulant laxatives, the colon won’t move itself in frequently.)
For certain people, laxatives abuse will also give them with adverse effects such as dehydration, low blood pressure, fast heart rate and fainting.
Good habit : If you feel need to consume stimulant laxatives, just use adequate amount for a short period only.
7. Not drinking enough water
How much water do you need per day?
Divide your weight by 30. If you are 60 kilos, you should drink 2 litres of water per day. You also can press Water Calculator and get the answer.
Good habits : Drink a glass of warm water with Himalayan salt on an empty stomach in the morning. Salt water may absorb by colon to moist defecate and help to relieve constipation. Drinking green juices is another choice to promote bowel movements.