INTRODUCTION Constipation is a significant chronic health problem all over the world (Denmark, 2010). It’s a gastrointestinal disorder which affects persons of all ages, different cultures, both sexes. But it is commonly prevalent in women, elderly patients and patients with concurrent psychiatric illness(Wing, Liu, & Frcpc, 2011). Constipation has an impact on quality of life (QoL), social functioning, working productivity and compromises the ability to perform daily activities. (Columbia, 2011) DEFINITION Constipation has various definitions and acknowledging the small differences between them as this helps in grouping the patients according to response the treatments (Basilisco & Coletta, 2013). A lot of physicians define constipation …show more content…
Fibrous food results in large, soft stools. Insoluble dietary fiber provides bowel movement and helps the bulk move through intestine. Insufficient fluid intake Fluids are most essential part of our daily life. Drinking fluids softens the stool and makes bowel movement easier. Poor bowel habits A person may ignore the urge to have the bowel movement and initiate constipation. Reasons as why people may do this is to avoid the use of public toilets, others are too busy in their works. This can lead to progressive constipation after a certain period of time. Children also might suppress the urge of bowel movement when they are undergoing toilet training or they go to some unfamiliar restrooms and this may lead to constipation in their later life. Pregnancy As there are too many hormonal changes, physical and mental stress during pregnancy, it can lead to …show more content…
RCTs of high quality (1946 to October 2011) and which reported stool frequency, stool consistency, treatment success, laxative use and gastrointestinal symptoms were considered for this study. It was concluded that dietary fiber intake increases stool frequency in constipation but obviously does not improve stool consistency, laxative use, treatment success and painful defecations (Yang, Wang, Zhou, & Xu, 2012). 117 patients with chronic constipation were chosen to investigate the effect of high diet fiber and fluid supplementation in functional chronic constipation. They were 2 groups in which both groups were given 25gms of fiber daily along with ad libitum for group 1 (n=58) and 2 liters of mineral water/day for group 2. Results were assessed in terms of bowel movement frequency and laxative use. Daily fiber intake (25g) can increase stool frequency and by increasing fluid intake (2 liters/day) the effect can be significantly enhanced (Anti, Pignataro, Armuzzi, Valenti, & Al,