How and why we experience constipation/diarrhea.
In: Biology
Constipation occurs when your bowel has trouble moving waste out of your system. Low fiber in your diet, dehydration, and lack of exercise are common causes.
The longer food is in your bowel the more moisture gets drained out of it making it harder to pass through your system. Eating more fiber keeps moisture in your poop, as does staying hydrated.
Certain medications also cause constipation, opioid medications for example are notorious for causing constipation.
The good news is it’s usually easily treated. Simple changes to your diet and fiber supplements will treat chronic constipation in most people.
Diarrhea is often caused by your bowel trying to get something out. Illness like bacterial or viral infections, eating bad food, or toxins and allergies can cause diarrhea.
It’s your bodies way of trying to get the bad stuff out of your system as quickly as possible.
It can also happen randomly and without apparent cause.
Medications like Imodium can stop Diarrhea but you have to consider that your body is trying to get something potentially toxic out of you, so you might be better off letting it happen.
If you get diarrhea or constipation frequently consult a doctor as they can be a sign of, or lead to, serious conditions.
It could be something like IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), or they could be a sign of more serious conditions like Bowel Cancer, bleeding, or diverticulitis **but before you freak out these are very unlikely**.
Even if you don’t have a serious condition changes to your diet or medication could give you some relief.
Undiagnosed allergies, and lactose intolerance for example can cause serious bowel problems and are very easily treated once you know you have them.
There are cells called enteroendocrine cells that hang out in the walls of your intestines. They do all kinds of things (I work on showing that some rare subgroups of them might even be able to synapse with neurons!) but one of their most important roles is telling the other intestinal cells whether to take water in or send water out, to maintain proper poop moisture levels.
They occasionally get confused (for all kinds of interesting reasons). One example: some bacteria intentionally make chemicals that resemble the ones that these guys use to signal “we need to send out more water” so that too much water gets sent out and you get diarrhea, which before toilets would potentially send the bacteria out to somebody else to infect more easily than solid poop.
Basically, if they mess up the signaling and tell the other intestine cells to take in too much water, you get constipated. If they do the opposite and send out too much water, you get diarrhea. It’s a tough job, especially when you have bacteria who evolved to confuse you! One potential cause of IBS is defects in these neurons which cause them to be very easily confused by different foods, and then wreak all kinds of havoc.
Constipation is a clogged pipe. For one reason or another your intestines are having trouble moving your waste through. Poor hydration and a low fiber diet often cause this.
Diarrhea is your body going “I don’t like what was eaten! Its bad! We need to get it out NOW!” It keeps extra water in your waste rather than absorbing it and your intestines work overtime to purge your gut of all its waste. Certain foods or food allergies will cause this depending on the person, as will various diseases that infiltrate in the gut or affect the gut, like many waterborne diseases or various food poisonings.
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