Symptoms of constipation

Do you suffer from stress, lack of energy, back pain or do you have a feeling of bloated stomach? Have you ever considered the possibility that constipation can be the root of the problem? Let's look at this state of the body - we learn more about the symptoms of constipation.

What is constipation?

It is important to determine and clarify what constipation is. According to Wikipedia.org, constipation is defined as a symptom of intractable intestinal tract. According to NDDIC, constipation is defined as a symptom, not a disease, in people who have bowel movements less than three times a week. With constipation, the stool is usually hard, dry, small in volume, and it is difficult to eliminate it from the rectum.

Now, hopefully, you have a better understanding of what constipation is, you also know that this is not a disease. But simply because constipation is not a disease, but a symptom does not mean that you should not take it seriously.

Statistics of constipation

Almost everyone heard or read, and maybe even personally experienced the occurrence of constipation, at least once during a lifetime. The National Digestive Diseases Research Center (NDDIC) informs that more than 4 million Americans suffer from frequent constipation, which is more than 2.5 million visits per year.

Facts about constipation

Although these are symptoms, not a disease, by definition it is extremely important that you become aware of these disturbing facts about constipation taken from various studies

• Prevalence: 3.1 million people
• Mortality: 121 deaths (2002)
• Hospitalizations: 398,000 (2002)
• Ambulatory treatment: 1.4 million (1999-2000)
• Recipes: 1 million people
• Disability: 30,000 people

[1], [2], [3]

Common symptoms of constipation

Recognizing that your health is the key to a long and successful life in all its areas, let's look at several sources that refer to constipation symptoms. So, you have constipation if you already have experience of two of the more signs or symptoms

• You have a chair less than three times a week
• You have a hard chair
• You experience excessive tension during defecation
• You experience a feeling of rectal blocking (as if the anus is impassable)
• You have a feeling of incomplete evacuation after defecation
• You need to use additional maneuvers to produce defecations, for example, put an enema or insert a finger into the rectum

You have two or more of the following symptoms for at least 3 months:

• You strain during bowel emptying more than 25% of the time of defecation.
• You have hard feces, which take up more than 25% of the time of defecation.
• Incomplete evacuation lasts more than 25% of the time from all defecation
• You have two or fewer bowel movements a week.

In total there are 32 symptoms of constipation, including these, and they are supplemented by difficult defecation, painful defecation, dry feces, small feces, stiff feces, lack of bowel movement, rare intestinal movements, straining during stool, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, weight loss , feelings of awkwardness during defecation, a feeling of languid, diarrhea, bloating.

If your stool is soft and easily exits the anal opening and happens at least 2 times a day, you do not have constipation.

[4], [5], [6], [7]

Diagnosis - constipation

In order to confirm the diagnosis of constipation, you should experience at least two of the following symptoms for at least 12 months:

• Hard or in the form of pellet stools that go for at least 25% of the time of defecation
• Strain during defecation, which last at least 25% of the time from the entire feces time
• It seems that you have not completely cleared the intestines, at least 25% of the time from the entire time of defecation
• Less than 5 defecations a week

[8], [9], [10], [11]

Note

Although constipation is not a disease, one must take its symptoms seriously, since constipation can be the root of the problem of the most common diseases. Additional symptoms may include abdominal pain, stress, lack of energy, back pain.

Once you can identify the root of the problem, the process of finding answers that work for the long term will become much easier, and in some cases can save lives.

Complications of constipation

Sometimes constipation can lead to complications that have their own set of symptoms. These potential complications include

• Hemorrhoids
• Anal fissures
• Rectal prolapse
• Fecal obstructions (congestion of feces in the rectum)

[12], [13], [14], [15]

Hemorrhoids and anal fissures

Hemorrhoids can be caused by tension during stool. Anal fissures (in the skin around the anus) can be caused by a stiff stool that stretches the sphincter muscles.

Both diseases - both hemorrhoids and anal fissures - can lead to rectal bleeding, which looks like narrow bright red bands on the longitudinal surface of the feces. Treatment of hemorrhoids can include sitting in a warm bath, packets of ice and applying special creams to the area that is affected. Treatment of anal fissures often involves stretching the sphincter muscle or removing tissue or skin in the area of the effect by surgery.

Rectal prolapse

Sometimes the intestinal strain during defecation causes a condition called rectal prolapse, which falls along with the feces to push the stool out of the body. This condition doctors qualify as a prolapse in the person of the rectum, which leads in most cases to the production of mucus flowing from the anus. In most cases, eliminating the cause of falling out, such as strong tension during defecation or cough, hospital treatment is necessary. Severe or chronic prolapse is the basis for surgical intervention to strengthen the muscles weakened by constipation of the anal sphincter or to correct the fallen part of the rectum.

Fecal squeezing

Constipation can also provoke stiff fecal masses in the intestines and rectum, and they sit there so tightly that normal bulking of the colon is not enough to push the feces out of the body. This condition - fecal compression - occurs most often in the elderly and young children. The compression of the rectum by the calves can be mitigated by mineral oil, which must be taken orally or by enema. After the rectal obstruction has already been mitigated by the feces, the doctor can remove part of the stool by breaking it. This is done by inserting one or two fingers into the anus.

[16], [17], [18], [19]