Your digestive system is amazing and efficient most of the time. All your food and drinks are processed by flowing through more than 30 feet of intestines. In a matter of a few hours, nutrients are loaded into your bloodstream, while the waste material is separated and stored temporarily in your colon. Excess water that your body can use elsewhere is removed, and when you feel the urge to purge, you have a bowel movement (or BM, as my mother so politely said it!).

What if the urge never comes knocking, is infrequent, or it’s painful and difficult to pass the waste material or stool? That is what commonly is called constipation. The longer your stool sits in the colon, the more water keeps getting pulled out, making it dryer and harder and even more difficult to pass.

Constipation is a frequent GI complaint, especially among women, children, and those over age 65. Again, we don’t talk about it, but it can lead to various maladies, including bad breath, body odor, depression, headaches, hemorrhoids, indigestion, insomnia, gas, and fatigue.

Bowel cancer is the second-most frequent cancer among men over 50 (lung cancer is first). You’ll notice sudden changes in bowel habits (constipation or diarrhea), blood in the stool, or abdominal pain. Make an appointment with your physician if you have any suspicions.

Constipation most often is a result of insufficient fiber and fluids. Some medications, like painkillers and antidepressants, can cause constipation, as well as iron supplements.

Acu-Pros Hasten to Relieve Constipation

Believe it or not, the frequency and quantity of bowel movements differs from culture to culture. According to Don’t Forget Fiber in Your Diet, rural African adults pass 400-500 grams of stool daily, while the typical westerner passes about 80-120 grams. The time it takes food and drink to move through your bowels determine how often you have to "go." In rural Africa, transit time is one-and-a-half days, while people in western societies average three days. I believe that if you are eating and drinking regularly, a daily bowel movement is a reasonable expectation.

Oriental medicine categorizes constipation by your individual overall health. For instance, deficient yin symptoms include dry stools, thirst, dry mouth and throat (especially in the evenings), sore back and knees, night sweats, dizziness, and ringing in the ears. Effective treatments are available for this and other forms of constipation. It’s not unusual for patients to have overused laxatives in order to move their bowels. We generally begin treatments of acupuncture, lifestyle and nutritional counseling, perhaps herbal medicine to lubricate the bowel, stop intestinal spasms or atrophy and gradually back off the laxatives.