The Anatomy of a Bowel Movement (And How To Cure Constipation)

Many of us take for granted our trip(s) to the porcelain throne each day as we rid ourselves of built up toxins and waste products via nature’s evacuation system. Or to put it more candidly, I’m talking about pooping. Everybody does it, but not everybody does it well.

We’ve all been in this second group of folks, at least at some point in our life, straining and struggling to get those rock hard miniature boulders out of our bottom end to finally provide us some relief. Ultimately, many of us still find ourselves falling short of the call of “duty”. This is no fun by any means, so what now? A pill? A powder? An extra gallon of water? A trip to the doctor’s office?

I’m going to outline the ins and outs of constipation, as well as what you can do about it, to help you navigate the human plumbing system in hopes of providing you with some much needed relief. After all, everybody deserves to feel good. As an added bonus, you’ll get the bragging rights of becoming a super pooper. Now how can you turn down that deal?!

Constipation – Definition and Prevalence

Constipation is officially defined as less than 3 stools per week using the Rome III criteria. The presence of hard stools, straining, and incomplete defecation is present 25% or more of the time. Constipation does tend to be a very subjective disease, however, as lack of agreement between patient and physician can occur when defining what exactly constipation means to each individual. Nonetheless, nobody wants to be constipated regardless of how many or what kind of stools are taking place so no sense in squabbling over diagnosis details.

Constipation is very common in the North America occurring in anywhere from 1.9% to 27.2% of the population, according to a systemic review of the literature [1]. The same holds true for our European counterparts where the reported median rate of constipation was 19.8% [2]. In the United States, all this backed up human stool translates into 2.5 million physician visits per year at an average annual cost of $7,522 per patient in direct health care costs to diagnose and treat it [3]. That’s some expensive clean up!

In contrast, the incidence of chronic constipation in poorer, less developed countries is very low. Reports from Asian and Eastern developing nations show prevalence rates for constipation anywhere from 2.6% to 3.9% [4,5,6]. It is important to note that these countries traditionally consume a diet high in fiber, unlike westernized cultures. This plays a huge role in the etiology of constipation as you will soon find out.

Other notable factors regarding the prevalence of constipation include the following [1]:

• Women are affected more than men – upwards of 3.77 times more
• Patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are more prone to constipation
• Elderly (> 65 yrs) have a prevalence rate upwards of 30%
• Individuals with lower education and lower socioeconomic status have higher rates of constipation (most likely due to poorer nutrition from lack of availability and/or higher cost of healthier food options)

The Anatomy of a Bowel Movement or Lack There Of

So what is a “normal” bowel movement suppose to look and feel like? Or better yet, what happens during an “abnormal” or constipated bowel movement?

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