Constipation occurs in patients confined to bed, in invalids, and in elderly persons. Constipation developing within a short period may be caused by a tumor or other bowel obstruction. It may be caused by the impaction of fecal material either because of neglect or after barium has been administered as part of an X-ray examination of the stomach or intestines. Constipation may result from poor habits of living, such as inadequate water intake, irregular time for bowel movements, or from unfavorable mental attitudes.
Doctors say that before treating constipation, its cause should be known. Sometimes cancers or other tumors in the intestinal wall or outside it, or adhesions, strictures, or displacements of the bowel, bring on constipation because of partial obstruction. To detect such condition requires medical training. The bowel itself may not be at fault; but improper action of the liver, gallbladder, or endocrine glands may result in sluggish intestinal action. Reflexes from a diseased rectum may affect the bowel higher up. All such conditions require careful study by a physician.
According to medical experts, a common cause of constipation is insufficient bulk in the diet. When a person consumes milk, cream, butter, eggs, flesh food, refined cereals, and starchy vegetables, nearly all his food is digested and absorbed, leaving little residue; but if he eats freely of fruits and green vegetables, a large residue of cellulose remains undigested and unabsorbed, which helps make the bowels act normally.
Neglect to answer the call of nature is another common cause of constipation, according to medical experts. Normally, when the fecal mass comes in contact with the mucous membrane lining the rectum, a message signaling need for evacuation is sent over the nerves to the brain. Habitual failure to give heed to such messages ends in obstinate constipation. Among school children, and some who work in offices or other public places, the call to evacuation is frequently put off.
Symptoms of constipation include, besides inability to evacuate, a feeling of fullness in the lower abdomen, a sensation of dullness, or even moderate pain in the head. Many people think these symptoms are caused by poisons formed in their bowels and absorbed into their blood, but doctors assure such symptoms seldom result from poisons. They are caused by irritated mucous membranes and by reflexes from nerve endings in the intestinal tract.
To prevent constipation,
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