Constipation

You can usually treat it at home with simple changes to your diet and lifestyle.

Constipation. The stool is often hard and dry. First steps to help are lifestyle changes to diet fluid intake and keeping mobile discussed above. Constipation refers to bowel movements that are infrequent or hard to pass. You re losing weight even though you re not trying to.

Constipation has a variety of causes but is often the result of slow movement of food through the digestive system. About 4 in every 10 pregnant women develop constipation. Constipation is a new problem for you and lifestyle changes haven t helped. Constipation most commonly occurs when waste or stool moves too slowly through the digestive tract or cannot be eliminated effectively from the rectum which may cause the stool to become hard and dry.

If these do not work treatments are broadly the same but of course not all medicines are safe in pregnancy. Check if it s constipation. Some of the symptoms of constipation include lower abdominal discomfort a sense of incomplete evacuation the feeling that you still have to go after a bowel movement straining to have a bowel movement hard or small. This may be due to dehydration poor diet medications illness diseases.

The slower the food moves through the digestive tract the more water the colon will absorb and. Constipation is one of the most common digestive problems in the united states affecting around 2 5 million people. There s separate information on constipation in babies and children. Your pharmacist gp or.

This page is about constipation in adults. Blockages in the colon or rectum. Other symptoms may include abdominal pain bloating and feeling as if one has not completely passed the bowel movement. You have blood in your stool.

Chronic constipation has many possible causes. Constipation affects around 20 of people in the united states resulting in 8 million doctor visits per year 1 2 people may experience constipation due to the foods they eat or avoid their. Constipation is defined medically as fewer than three stools per week and severe constipation as less than one stool per week. It s likely to be constipation if.

Constipation is common and it affects people of all ages. It s defined as having hard dry bowel movements or going fewer. Complications from constipation may include hemorrhoids anal fissure or fecal impaction. The normal frequency of bowel movements in adults is between three per day.