The Only Advice You Need About Constipation
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Constipation is annoying, painful, and, for the most part, something that can be easily prevented and remedied. What’s happening inside your body is fairly simply: In short, your colon has absorbed too much water, making your stools too hard to pass.
Why this happens is a bit more complicated, but the answer usually lies in your diet. The number-one cause is not consuming enough soluble and insoluble fiber, says Dr. Michael Camilleri, a gastroenterologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Soluble fiber traps water in your stool while insoluble fiber bulks it up. Together, they help waste move smoothly through your intestines and colon and, eventually, into the toilet. But when you don’t eat fiber-rich fruits, veggies, nuts, and whole grains on a regular basis, it’s easy to become constipated.
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You might also be dehydrated. “If you’re not drinking enough, you won’t have sufficient fluid left at the end of the digestive cycle to make your stool soft enough to push out,” says Dr. Lyla Blake-Gumbs, an internal medicine specialist at the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Integrative Medicine. The mythological eight-glasses-of-water-per-day prescription is usually overkill; however, if you’re racing from meeting to meeting or stuck on a long flight, it’s easy to go several hours without drinking or eating anything.
But even guzzling water won’t prevent constipation if your diet is lacking in fiber. “Unless you have fiber in your system to trap the water in your intestines and take it down to the colon, you won’t get the benefits,” says Camilleri.
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Although routinely eating right, hydrating, and obeying nature’s call (both our experts emphasized that you should go when you feel the need) will make constipation less likely, you’ll probably still get backed up from time to time. When that happens, a few natural remedies can help get things moving.
Embrace All That’s Cruciferous: Even if you’ve been doing a decent job eating fiber, if you’re constipated, you might need more. Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, and other cruciferous veggies are especially good sources and may be helpful, says Dr. Holly Lucille, a naturopathic doctor in West Hollywood, California. You can also take a psyllium fiber supplement like Metamucil, says Blake-Gumbs, which will bulk up your stools more quickly than food. But since psyllium sponges up water, you have to drink lots of fluids along with it or it can backfire and cause constipation.
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Prunes: Your grandma was right, prunes are high in fiber and also contain fermentable sugars that work like a laxative, says Camelleri.
Coffee: Caffeine triggers muscle contractions in the colon to help you go, and coffee is the healthiest, most potent source of this stimulant. Black and green tea are fine, Blake-Gumbs says, but you’d have to drink three to four times as much to match coffee’s caffeine content.
Magnesium: Magnesium citrate and magnesium hydroxide (milk of magnesia) are a special type of laxative that draws water to the colon rather than stimulating bowel movements. These tend to work fast.
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Yoga: Lucille says most forms of exercise stimulate the series of muscle contractions that move food through your system. Yoga is especially great because all of the torso-twisting motions help push things along and activate the nerves that make you have to go, Blake-Gumbs says.
Senna: Taken as a supplement or part of a tea like Traditional Medicinals’ Smooth Move or Yogi’s Get Regular, this leaf is an effective laxative. But don’t use senna for more than a few days, Blake-Gumbs warns, or your body will become accustomed to it and you won’t be able to poop without it.
Vitamin C: Because your body can handle only so much vitamin C, super-high doses can cause diarrhea. But if you’re constipated, this effect can work in your favor. Lucille recommends taking 1,000 milligrams three times a day to promote bowel movements.
By Melaina Juntti
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