What are the causes of constipation and how to avoid it?
Anyway, did you know that 39% of men and 52% of women suffer with constipation? A lot of the time it’s caused by a low fibre diet of refined carbs along with lack of exercise and dehydration. Exercise promotes peristalsis – the movement of the bowels – as any runner will tell you! If you live on a high protein, low fibre, high refined-carb diet and don’t exercise you’re basically asking for it. There can be a few other causes of constipation such as pregnancy, where the hormones affect peristalsis; certain medication; stress; travel and some medical conditions.
It’s really important to keep healthy regularity here, otherwise you have food waste sitting against the walls of the intestines releasing potential carcinogens. Plus not going to the toilet makes people feel sluggish and bloated.
Related article: Your stomach is an amazing thing
Occasionally we get one or two people on our food plans who suffer from the dreaded lack of bowel movements, not very often though as our plans are high fibre, and don’t contain the types of food that cause constipation. it’s usually down to lack of exercise or some psychological cause such as stress or anxiety (our emotional state and our bowel habits are closely linked – again ask any runner who is about to race).
It’s important to remember that if you don’t go every day it doesn’t mean you’re constipated, the normal range can be three times a day to three times a week. Once a day is optimal, I’d suggest, but don’t worry unnecessarily. Just worrying can make it worse.
If you are a sufferer and want to know how to avoid constipation then try changing your diet and exercise habits, it’s a no-brainer really! If all else fails a little trick is to have a strong black coffee then find the nearest trampoline to bounce up and down on for a few minutes. Try it and see, works every time 😉
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