Have you experienced trouble emptying your bowel? Is it painful and frustrating to expel feces every time you try to empty your bowel? Don’t worry what you are experiencing is constipation, a common problem of the digestive system. If you are wondering about constipation, what cause it or whether the myths about it are or true or not you can find it here as this article demystified constipation.

People who suffer from constipation experience difficulty in passing out stool, and most of the time it is because their colon has absorbed water that comes from the food that is in the colon. The feces become dry and hard when food moves slowly in the digestive tract.

The Truth About Constipation

We all heard a lot of things about constipation such as constipation can cause colon cancer and health problems, fiber is all that one needs to stop constipation, coffee and laxative can help stop the problem and constipation is experience only by older people only. Unfortunately, all of these are just myths, a boogeyman that scares us to take care and ignore constipation. So, what is the truth, below are things that you need to know about constipation.

Constipation is a common problem, it is painful and frustrating to experience but it is not cancerous and don’t cause asthma or arthritis. There is no concrete evidence yet that hardened stool produces toxins. Now when it comes to fiber, it is true that the fiber rich foods are good for the body especially the digestive system, but it is good for preventing constipation, not for relieving or treating constipation. Eating veggies, fruits, cereal, whole grain breads and other insoluble fiber foods can keep your bowel movements regular

Constipation should not be ignored since it is also a sign of other health diseases such as diabetes, poor thyroid gland or a side effect from taking certain medications. If you are constipated for 2 weeks or more, it is best to consult your doctor more so when you are also experiencing unexplained weight loss.

Coffee can indeed stimulate muscle in the digestive system, but it is not a solution. In fact, coffee can even make your constipation worse since it can also harden the stool. So, if you are constipated it is much better to stay away from coffee, alcohol and other diuretics drinks. Now for the myths that say it is normal to get a bloody stool when constipated, well, it is true that when straining sometimes there is blood but if its bright red blood, it means have damage the tissue of your anal lining. Black blood or maroon means you have bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract, and this is serious so better consult with your doctor.

Castor oil is a laxative, but it should not be used all the time as overusing can cause health problem. Laxative prevents your body from absorbing nutrients and can also damage the nerves, tissues and bowel muscles. It must be used only with doctor’s advice. Colon cleansing such as colon irrigation and enemas, on the other hand, can remove the hardened feces but it is not a good way to prevent constipation. If you are considering these procedures, it is best to get your doctor’s advice as colonic irrigation if done frequently can damage the colon.

By the way, constipation is a common problem. It is not true that only older people get constipated. Kids can also experience constipation especially pregnant and people who have undergone surgery.

So, what is the truth about constipation? Dairy products can cause constipation to people who are lactose intolerant. Some medications can cause constipation so if you take too much iron and calcium supplements as well as other supplements that bind stool your chance of getting constipated is high.

What Helps Constipation?

There are things you can do to help improve or prevent constipation such as below:

Relax

Relaxing can help improve your constipation since when the muscle relaxes the hardened stools can move easily. Take note, depression and stress can also trigger constipation so it is best that you also learn to relax.

Eat Fiber Rich Foods

Fiber is good for the body, and not eating enough can lead to constipation. Fiber is good to eat as you can prevent constipation not just improve it. So, eat more vegetables, fruits, cereal and other fiber foods daily, or at least 20 grams daily.

Prunes

Prunes, dried fruit is well known for preventing constipation. Prunes are packed with insoluble fiber, sorbitol a natural laxatives and dihydrophenylisatin. And the best thing about eating prunes aside from the fact that it helps prevent and improve constipation is that it also helps lower cholesterol. So, you get two benefits from eating one fruit and since it is safe to eat daily, taste great then making it part of your diet shouldn’t be a problem.

Water

Drinking lots of water daily is not just great for preventing dehydration but also help prevent and improve constipation. Drink the required number of glasses daily since water is important to the body.

Exercising

Exercising has a lot of benefits so you should exercise daily. One of the benefits of exercising is improving and preventing constipation and through exercise the body relaxes. The bowel movements become regular when you exercise daily and eat lots of fiber rich food.

Aloe Vera

The aloe vera plant is a well known for its many benefits. It is used to remedy wide range of diseases including constipation. The aloe vera juice can help the muscle in the digestive system relaxes, flushed out toxins and regulate bowel movements.

Forever Living Products, a company well known for producing aloe vera based product has come up with a drink that improves and prevents constipation. The Forever Living Aloe Vera Gel is wonderful to drink since it can restore regular bowel movements by helping free the digestive tract of toxins and bad bacteria.

Aloe Vera Gel drink is not a magic cure, also not a medication to treat constipation. What it does is help the body by cleansing the digestive tract to bring back regular bowel movement.

For more information about Forever Living Products, visit our website by clicking the link.