What is constipation, constipation statistics

It is very difficult to find an exact answer to what constipation is. Because many people mistake completely different diseases for constipation, such as hemorrhoids or anal fissures or stool retention. What are the statistics of constipation and how much more is a person who suffers from this disease alone?

How often do you have bowel movements?

Stool that passes every day is normal. That is, if you ate something within 8 hours after the act of defecation and then during the day you had an evacuation of feces, then you do not have constipation. What is constipation? This is when you do not have a bowel movement for 32 hours, that is, one and a half days from the moment you ate. So, studies say that a healthy person can have a bowel movement within this time, but the bowel movements themselves may not necessarily occur at the same time. How many times a day and how the bowel movements occur depends on what and how many times a day a person eats and how much water he drinks. And how he moves, of course, is also important.

Statistics on stool frequency show that stool that passes once a day is observed in 60-70% of people. Stool that passes more than once a day is registered in people up to 30% of cases. Those who have bowel movements less than once a day - such people are 5%. All this is the range of people who do not have such a problem as constipation.

That is, according to doctors' reviews and statistical data, performing an act of defecation less than once a day is normal for people who do not suffer from constipation. Only two out of three healthy men or women have a bowel movement once a day. And 95% of people have a bowel movement from 3 times a day to 3 times in 7 days.

So, bowel movements that occur less than once every two days can be considered a sure sign of constipation.

How long does a normal bowel movement last?

The duration of a normal bowel movement is a very important indicator of constipation. Many people, mostly women, complain to doctors that they cannot perform a normal bowel movement. They have to strain for a long time before emptying their intestines of feces. In doing so, they often strain their abdominal muscles and rectum, and earn themselves hemorrhoids instead of emptying their intestines normally.

Many people use a technique such as pressing with their fingers on the area above the perineum or on the area of the vaginal wall so that they finally have a bowel movement. Therefore, you need to know that normal straining should not be more than 10-20% of the time that it takes for the entire act. If straining takes more than a quarter of the time that the entire act of defecation lasts, then you may have constipation. Even if you get rid of feces every day.

[ 1 ], [ 2 ], [ 3 ], [ 4 ], [ 5 ]

Stool weight and its character

Whether everything is going well in your body, in particular, whether your gastrointestinal tract is working well, can be determined by the nature of your stool and its weight. If the stool is dehydrated, resembles pellets and is very hard, then the person is constipated. As for the volume of stool, people with constipation usually have less than a normal person with a normal digestion process. If there is little water in the stool, this means that the person is not drinking enough. In normal feces of a healthy person, water is up to 70% of the total volume, and in the feces of a person with constipation, water can be less than 60%.

The mass of feces may depend on the nation, race. It may differ among different people depending on what they eat. When a person eats more plant foods, the feces have a greater mass. When a person likes meat more, the mass of feces is much less. This depends on the specifics of the cuisine of each nation or person individually.

According to social research, the mass of feces varies widely among different nations. For those living in the UK and the US, the average mass of feces ranges from 100 to 200 grams. If the mass is less than 100 grams, constipation may occur.

In rural Uganda (a republic in East Africa), the stool mass is recorded to be in the range of up to 470 grams. In an adult living in India, the stool mass per day is slightly more than 300 grams.

The greater the mass of feces, the more water it contains, but the consistency of such feces is much softer, and they can be easily evacuated from the rectum. That is, the characteristic signs of constipation are a smaller mass of feces and a harder consistency compared to normal values.

[ 6 ], [ 7 ], [ 8 ], [ 9 ], [ 10 ], [ 11 ], [ 12 ], [ 13 ]

How to make a correct diagnosis of constipation?

To properly diagnose constipation, you need to work on this issue with your doctor. This is the only way to avoid confusing constipation with another disease and to determine its occurrence in time. To do this, you need to do at least two things. The first task is to see a doctor immediately after the symptoms of constipation appear:

• Irregular bowel movements
• Severe straining during bowel movements
• A feeling of incomplete bowel movement even after it has already occurred
• Pain during defecation

The second task is to answer all the questions the doctor will ask, trying to find out the exact picture of the disease. These may be questions about heredity - whether constipation has been in your family, about the symptoms of the disease, about what kind of lifestyle you lead and how physically active it is or, on the contrary, whether you lead a sedentary lifestyle.

It is important for the patient to know that constipation may have other symptoms besides those listed above. In addition to delayed bowel movements, there may also be a feeling of fullness in the abdomen, bloating, uncontrolled gas, nausea, vomiting, poor appetite, and a bad taste in the mouth. Let's analyze the main symptoms that occur with constipation.

[ 14 ], [ 15 ], [ 16 ], [ 17 ], [ 18 ], [ 19 ], [ 20 ]