How to prevent constipation?
In earlier sections we have seen how the constipation affects people, causes of constipation, diagnosis of constipation and its treatment. If you have gone through these sections it is very clear that it is not good for anyone to suffer from constipation. Suffering from constipation and after that treating it is much better than preventing constipation itself. It will reduce the physical, psychological and financial trauma to people. So, here e ill discuss about how to prevent the constipation.
Like any other discussion it will good to discuss this thing prevention of constipation under some main headings:
- Eating healthy food including fibrous diet.
- Maximum physical activities and minimal sedentary lifestyle.
- Encouraging healthy habits.
- Treating underlying cause of constipation if any.
- Avoiding self medications.
- Guidance for proper toilet training.
- Availability of adequate toilets and sanitary facility at public places like schools and offices and bus, train stations.
The above categories of efforts may seem too simple as most of them, you may already know but their significance is to be magnified here. The simple steps prevent potentially hazardous problem it seems. The question and problem may seem difficult the answer is as simple. The simple things are difficult to follow at times.
Table of Contents
Eating healthy food including fibrous food:
Fruits are helpful to prevent constipation.
Fruits
Eating healthy food including fibrous food is the first thing everyone promotes when it comes to constipation. The fibrous food holds water in the intestinal lumen and makes the stool softer. It is such a simple mechanism of prevention and cure. The sufferers of constipation may also know this is so simple solution, but no one seems to be caring for further queries like what are ingredients of the healthy fibrous food? Well let us see here
· Fruits: Most common misconception among people is healthy food means tasteless food. So wrong they are! Fruits really yummy and fresh which attracts everyone’s attention with their nice fresh appearance and good smell is the solution. Let it be citrus fruits or fruits like banana, mango, oranges, grapes, apple, watermelons, and many more. They are loaded with their freshness with good taste and smell with lots of healthy fibers. Everyone should consume locally available fresh fruits daily in their diet as a rule. Addition to this benefit, fruits also have many vitamins and antioxidants that prevent many illnesses including cancer. Fruits naturally contain good amount of water and less number of calories so it may also help in some people who want to reduce their weight.
Vegetables are useful in preventing constipation
Vegetables
· Green leafy vegetables: Certainly few people like these. Green leafy vegetables are magic to prevent the constipation. More you consume them more they will help you. Green leafy vegetables contain large amount of healthy fibers that are essential to keep your digestion healthy. These also contain good amount of vitamins and minerals. Green leafy vegetables are rich in iron content. They are especially good when they are consumed in a form of salads. Those who complain about taste well there are many ways to cook the food to make it tasty and there are many variety of green leafy vegetables too if you don’t like one. Like fruits everyone should daily consume locally available fresh green leafy vegetables especially in form of salads.
Intake of adequate amount of water is helpful to prevent constipation
Water
· Adequate amount of water: Those who don’t want to suffer constipation should consume adequate amount od water daily. Adequate amount of water and fluids intake makes people less vulnerable to constipation.
· Less amount of animal milk: Do you drink a lot of milk daily, you are likely to suffer constipation. Yes you read it rightly. More the amount of animal milk you consume more the constipation. In infants and adults alike this important factor to look for. May be, replace your daily dose of milk with daily dose of fruits and green leafy vegetables.
Maximum physical activities and minimal sedentary lifestyle:
When it comes to healthy lifestyle very few can tell what does that mean! Well everybody should have healthy lifestyle. Many think healthy lifestyle is difficult but in fact healthy lifestyle is essential to enjoy all available resources you have.
· Daily exercise: Those who have their daily exercise are less likely to suffer from constipation. Everybody should exercise at least for 5 days a week.
Daily exercise is heplful for preventing the constipation.
Daily exercise
· Most of you may be thinking exercise can only be done with costly recurring subscription to gym! That is far from being true. Many activities do not need costly equipments and maintenance. Walking, jogging, cycling you can do on way to to your workplace. Truly not using cars and luxuries like elevators make you healthy in a cheap way.
· If you can afford you can play football, basketball, swimming and long tennis and badminton. These games definitely help you in providing you your daily dose of exercise.
· There are so many ways you can increase your physical activities.
· Everyone should have brisk physical activities daily for at least half an hour. Here brisk is subjective term. The capacity of briskness develops over 2-3 months. All those who aren’t used to activities should take their personalized physician’s advice then.
Encouraging healthy habits:
Like all healthy habits about eating and lifestyle suggested above, certain amount of time is required for above to show their results. Till that time you should be motivated to follow those habits. This is the most difficult task to do.
· You should be preferably in a company who already follow these habits.
- You should encourage other also to follow these healthy habits.
- The children and old age adults are age groups that need to be encouraged specifically as they suffer the most.
- Support from family and friends is needed to overcome the problem of consistency in maintaining these habits.
- School and teacher too can play an important role in case of children to help them.
Treating underlying cause of Constipation:
As we discussed earlier the constipation is just a symptom and not a disease. Many times apart from unhealthy eating and sedentary lifestyle there are underlying causes of constipation. In case of such cases above measures won’t help unless the underlying cause is treated. Medical advice should be sought as early as treatment of underlying cause not only helps to reduce the constipation but also helps to reduce the other associated symptoms. The medical advice and if needed investigations help confirm the diagnosis of underlying illness. The instruction given by your medical practitioner should be followed as much as possible.
Avoiding self medications:
Many medications are advertised and are available without prescription in many places. They are used without proper medical advice and can be harmful rather than helping the people. Some medications are damaging as well habit forming making person addicted to those.
Not only medications used to treat constipation but also medications used to treat other diseases are to be used with medical advice. The person should report to doctor if any side effects. There are so many medications that cause constipation as their side effect. Simple medications like over the counter cold and cough medicines, pain killers, food supplements can make the constipation worse. Laxatives which are used to treat constipation may themselves prove harmful to user if not used under proper medical guidance.
Guidance for proper toilet training:
Wrong practices in toilet training can really increase the problem of constipation. Toilet training at pre-mature age for such training makes the process very difficult in the future. Children may develop toilet phobia and the process becomes long term difficulty needing long term medical follow up. Pediatricians’ advice should be sought before starting toilet training. Proper counseling of the parents and child is needed during this stage.
Building public toilets
Availability of adequate toilets and sanitary facility at public places like schools and offices and bus, train stations:
In countries where no sanitary facilities are available it becomes a major problem. Adequate number of clean toilets should be available in school. The cleanliness should be maintained and observed by designated staff. Children if are hesitated to use those toilet they develop habit of stool holding and this habit can cause them to suffer from constipation. Children should be encouraged to use those facilities when they need it. Similar facilities should be available at public places like schools, offices and bus and train stations.
So above all are some tips to prevent constipation. These steps are at personal level, at family level and at community level. As we know health is responsibility of everyone we should all try to seek it.