Constipation, a tricky usually underestimated health issue

Constipation, a tricky usually underestimated health issue

Initially, you may think constipation is not at all a “health issue”. Duh, it can turn out to be much more serious. I had been coping with constipation, since the day I was born. I always cried and strived to poop, and it appears to be that I am not alone. It is actually very common, and millions of people suffer from it and unfortunately, they do nothing about it. They think that one day this will be gone by itself; however, chronic constipation can be more loyal to you than your spouse. Constipation can have many causes, but It is usually genetic, ubiquitous in some families like mine, but rarely taken seriously. Actually, I never thought this was a critical issue until my dad was diagnosed with an anal fissure, a tear in the skin of the anal canal. He lost 30 pounds, ate nothing but soup for four months, did Botox treatment injection twice, and didn’t even ameliorate a little bit. Just one time of constipation led to an anal fissure, a common disease that around 1 in every 10 people is affected with at some point in their life, usually affecting children and young adults the most. My father couldn’t even sit appropriately; only with the help of my mother, he could sleep or sit. He would walk five hours a day so he could keep his mind busy, forgetting about the pain. We rarely saw him feeling good. He had to skip every ceremony, family gatherings, and lunches. He was intolerable and restless and made us restless too. In August, he finally gained the courage (he is scared of anything related to treatment) to undergo laser therapy and now he is feeling good as before.

Nonetheless, after this incident, I understood that a seemingly-trivial issue can turn into your biggest nightmare. You should pay attention and be alert to this issue because when it turns into an anal fissure or hemorrhoids, it gets hard to treat, and no matter how old you are, you are always at risk.

Here are a few tips that are actually scientifically proven and have helped me a lot to address this issue. After my fathers’ surgery, which lasted less than an hour anyway, I understood that I have to take care of myself and my bowels so that I can stay healthier.

You should do all of them simultaneously, each one is important in its own way and indispensable.

1. Chewing: Chew your food properly and many times. Help your stomach relax and facilitate the digestion process for it. I do not say chew your food till it tastes like garbage. Chew enough times so that your stomach does not tear itself (or your ass) apart to digest the food you ate. Try to put a mirror in front of you at the dining table so that you can supervise your chewing speed yourself whenever you lose control when you see and smell that your grandmother has made your favorite food. Or at least, ask others to warn you and slow you down whenever you lose the track of your chewing speed.
2. Physical Activity: Walk at least 30 minutes a day. I don’t say go to the gym or win a championship in the NFL. Just take a walk from your house to a nearby park or from your house to the restaurant you planned to go to with your friends. Even if you want to go to a nearby food center to order junk food, walking there would help your poor stomach. Working out in your own house can be useful too especially if you do sit-ups.
3. Drink lots of water: Drink whenever you feel thirsty, even just a bit. Do not drink water till your pee turns white or you basically go to WC every 10 minutes (you basically live there.) Do not forcibly drink water till you hate the most vital substance on earth. Try to drink water basically every hour or every two hours. Also, do not drink a lot of water at one time just to meet the needed amount of hydration especially before going to sleep. (you may wet your mattress, blow your bladder, or have to wake up to go to the bathroom at midnight; it is so hard.) Be careful! Sometimes we get thirsty but do not notice it at all or are too lazy to go to the refrigerator. Always have a bottle of water around.
4. Eat a lot of food with fiber or ones that help you poop: Olive, vegetables, fruits (apples, berries, pears, grapes, oranges, and kiwis), milk, yogurt, nuts, and seeds. (Basically, whatever a goat eats or produces; that is why they never have hardship when it comes to emptying their bowels.) Eggs do not have fiber!! However, it depends on your body which one you should choose. If some people are lactose intolerant or are allergic to grapes, they should not kill themselves just to cure constipation. Go to a dietitian or your mother to know what food you like and what is good for your body so that it will respond to it positively and effectively.
5. Do not eat junk food especially those with a lot of fat and oil like fried fries or fried chicken or drinks with sugar like coca-cola: A corny and impossible to do advice. I seriously do not believe in this one myself. However, when I started my treatment I swore that I would not eat any junk food for at least a month. Now I can eat junk food freely and I am feeling really good (because I do and pay attention to other tips). Bread and rice are not good to eat. Especially if you are like me from a middle-east country, it is impossible to not have rice or bread at your table.
6. Do not use laxatives or at least use the herbal ones like c-lax: They will make your intestine lazy. When you start your self-treatment, you can eat purgatives just to increase the frequency of your pooping. However, after a few weeks, you should abandon taking those.
7. Frequency of your defecation matters: A healthy human goes number 2 at least every other day. However, when you have chronic constipation as I had, you would go every week or every 10 days till basically, your stomach would blow and you just want to die of the pain and take a laxative so that you would go to the bathroom the next day. As I said before, you can increase this frequency by taking laxative pills but after a few days your intestine would become more active and you have to trust it to do its job on its own without exterior help.
8. I think the smell of your poop is important too: I do not know whether any scientific research has been done about this or confirms this statement, but whenever my shit smells like real shit, I know something is wrong. It shouldn’t smell that bad. LOL!
9. Do not procrastinate: When your tummy calls and tells you it is time for the toilet, just GO. Obey your mind as soon as it commands you.
10. As of last note, constipation will not magically be treated in a day. It takes weeks and you should always be careful about what you do and what you eat. Just one time of neglect can make constipation come back or transform constipation into another worse disease.

All in all, a scar on your anal can make you fall to the ground. We treat our body as a machine like it is its job and responsibility to handle everything. Well, machines need to be repaired, and one day will be out of use. The more careful you are using them, the longer they will last and the longer they stay healthy. And remember to be thankful for 3 things: The ability to sleep, eat, and poop.