This is a term that I’m sure you all are familiar with. Mothers of toddlers tend to use this word a lot! Constipation is infrequent bowel movements or difficult passage of stools that persists for several weeks or longer. Constipation is generally described as having fewer than three bowel movements a week.

To understand why you get constipated you have to understand how exactly stool forms in your body. You may be thinking that it’s pretty straight forward, you eat, the food gets digested, and you poop. Well, that is the basic outline but a lot more happens in the process.

How Does Stool Form

I am going to make this as easy as I can but this is where your 9th grade science will come in handy.

You eat food, and it reaches your stomach, no real digestion takes place in your mouth. When it enters the stomach it comes in contact with digestive enzymes and stomach acid. Then it enters the small intestine where it comes into contact with more digestive enzymes and bile. Most of the nutrients start to get absorbed from this chyme and the stuff that remains is indigestible fiber and bacteria, what we call poop.

Poop will now make its way from the small intestine to the large one, to the colon and finally defecated out of the body. It all sounds pretty simple then why is it that some people poop everyday while others are almost always constipated?

Speed. Speed or motility in the G.I tract is what will determine whether you spend minutes on the toilet or hours.

There are nerve endings throughout the walls of your intestines. These nerve endings create muscular contractions called peristalsis. Peristalsis is involuntary constriction and relaxation of the muscles of the intestine or another canal, creating wave-like movements that push the contents of the canal forward. As your stool moves along the intestine it starts off with a lot of water. If the process takes the perfect amount of time then you will have the perfect poop. If the process happens too fast then you will face diarrhea. If the process is too slow, too much water will be absorbed and you will end up with constipation.

Ways to Treat Constipation

Constipation is not something that will go away on its own. You have to help your body digest food quickly and ensure that proper peristalsis takes place. Some common treatments for constipation include,

Various types of exercise programs

Different diets including high fiber, low-fodmap, the elimination diet etc

Prunes

Drinking up to a gallon of water per day to try and “flush poop out”

Biofeedback therapy

Acupressure and acupuncture

All these and the added laxatives and herbal medicines are all rubbish as they will not help treat your constipation. Instead they may cause added diseases. So the real question is are you going to be stuck with constipation forever? No. You just need the right prebiotic.