In the clinic, we often encounter this kind of disease, although the disease is not heavy, but the scope of a wide range of people, from the elderly, down to children, whether working outside the workforce, or idle home retirees, are more or less suffering from it. The disease is often committed once every three days, a slight disruption in the rhythm of life, it will relapse and aggravate. So, today we will talk about the culprit that makes everyone suffer – constipation.
Proper understanding of constipation
When it comes to constipation, I believe that everyone has experienced, the symptoms of light, will not affect the daily life, eat some bananas, drink some honey to moisten the intestinal tract, you can easily relieve; while the symptoms of heavy, visible prolonged toilet time, defecation difficulties, or even sweating like rain and no help. These manifestations are very common clinically, while true constipation refers to reduced frequency of bowel movements (<3 times per week), dry and hard feces or difficult defecation, etc. The duration of the disease is usually more than 6 months.
Many people in life have this understanding, think constipation is not a serious disease, risk going to the doctor seems to hurt, so self-management, drink some honey, eat some fruits and vegetables, and some coarse fiber food, it can help defecation. At first, it seemed to work well, but gradually, the symptoms did not improve more obviously; so they resorted to drugs, mostly bitter-cold laxative products, also at first effective, but later had to rely on drugs. Severe cases can be complicated by hemorrhoids, anal fissures, etc., seriously affecting the quality of life.
Therefore, although constipation is common, but should not be underestimated, the correct understanding of the disease, to take active and effective treatment measures, only the right way.
Constipation common classification
Constipation is generally divided into organic constipation and functional constipation, organic constipation is mostly due to organic lesions inside and outside the intestinal tract, so clinical attention should be paid to the high, colonoscopy can be investigated; functional constipation is more common in clinical practice, so I focus on the following. Functional constipation according to the pathogenesis can be divided into slow transmission type, exit obstruction type and mixed type of 3 categories. First of all, let me clarify a concept with you. As we know, feces is the unabsorbed food residue, which is generally passed through the large intestine and expelled from the anus. Therefore, the path it passes through is: colon – rectum – anus in order.
1, slow transmission type constipation
It is the most common type, mainly due to the slow propulsion of intestinal contents and delayed emptying caused by colon power disorder. If the intestine is compared to a conveyor belt, then the entire formation and discharge of feces can be regarded as the transmission process of transporting goods, such as the conveyor belt due to ageing, insufficient power or loss of lubrication between the gears, there will be goods stagnation, difficult to reach the destination, and this type of constipation.
2.Exit obstruction type constipation
This type and slow transmission type relative, but the lesion site is not in the colon, but in the anus, rectum; mainly refers to the defecation outlet near the tissue, organ function abnormalities and defecation difficulties. In short, it is just like driving on the highway and encountering a toll booth in front of you, because of the increased supervision of the toll booth, so that a large number of vehicles are stranded, and exit obstruction occurs.
3.Mixed type constipation
This type has both the above two types of respective pathogenic characteristics, visible colon, rectum, anus three dysfunction.
Functional constipation diagnostic criteria, must meet two or more of the following.
1. straining to defecate (at least 1 out of every 4 bowel movements)
2. Lumpy or hard stool (at least 1 out of every 4 bowel movements)
3.Sense of incomplete defecation (at least 1 out of every 4 bowel movements)
4, anorectal obstruction and/or blockage (at least 1 in 4 bowel movements)
5. Need for manual manipulation (e.g., finger-assisted defecation) to facilitate defecation (at least 1 out of every 4 bowel movements)
6.Passing less than 3 times a week
Little to no loose stools without laxatives, insufficient conditions for diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome Symptoms have been present for at least 6 months prior to diagnosis, and the above criteria have been met for the last 3 months.
Dangers of constipation
Long-term constipation not only increases the psychological burden, but also seriously endangers the health of the organism.
1. Hemorrhoid formation
Long-term constipation, forceful defecation, etc. easily cause the rectal plexus under the rectal mucosa and the skin of the anal canal to expand and varicose to form a venous mass, which is commonly known as hemorrhoids.
2, aggravate cardiovascular disease
Constipation with cardiovascular disease in elderly patients, because of excessive force during defecation, easy to accelerate the heart rate, increased myocardial oxygen consumption, sudden increase in blood pressure or even lead to blood vessel rupture or blockage and induced cerebral hemorrhage, angina pectoris, etc.
3, aggravate the psychological burden
Emotion and constipation are closely related, for example, anxiety, depression and other emotions can easily cause abnormal intestinal dynamics and sensation, thus triggering constipation; at the same time, because patients suffer from long-term disease, seriously affecting the quality of life, so the psychological pressure increases.
4.Ventral hernia formation
Due to excessive force during defecation, the intra-abdominal pressure increases sharply, easily causing intra-abdominal organs and small intestine to protrude to the body surface through the weakness of the abdominal wall, forming a ventral hernia, mostly seen in the elderly.
5.Other
Because the evil stagnates in the large intestine, the internal qi does not pass, and if it does not pass, it is painful, so we can see abdominal distension and abdominal pain; the large intestine belongs to Yangming, and the stomach is also sick, so the stomach qi is not in harmony with the lowering, so we can see distention and fullness of the abdomen and loss of appetite; the stomach does not lower the turbidity will cause the spleen not to rise the clear, so we can see dizziness, palpitation, shortness of breath and other symptoms because the qi and blood are not able to nourish the body.
Constipation over laxatives, be wary of colon nigrosis!
Many patients with clinical constipation are in a hurry to seek medical help and take laxatives, which can lead to colon melanosis.
Colonic melanosis is a representative non-inflammatory lesion characterized by pigmentation of the colonic mucosa. There are various causes, but frequent use of laxatives is the main cause of the disease, especially anthraquinone-based laxatives such as rhubarb, senna and aloe vera are common drugs that induce the disease. Although colonic melanosis is a benign reversible disease, it cannot be cured in the short term, and its relationship with colorectal cancer and colonic adenoma is not certain, so clinical attention should still be paid to it, and laxatives should not be taken blindly.