What mechanism occurs in the body wherein opiates cause someone to be constipated?
In: Biology
Opiates slow down gut motility so food moves more slowly through the digestive system. The longer food stays in the colon, the more water gets removed. This causes constipation.
I’ve got a plate and screws in one knee and chicken wire betwixt one of my damned vertebrae. Lots of moist fruit, like cold oranges and berries helped with additional hydration and keeping things on schedule after a big surgery. That was something nobody warned me about, oh, by the way, you won’t shit right until you’re off them.
Pharmacist here. The same receptors that opioids target for pain in our nervous system are also present in our intestines. Here their role is not for pain, but to signal the intestines to move things along, ultimately resulting in a nice poop. When opioids act on these receptors in the intestines, it blocks this signaling resulting in things coming to a stop and subsequently constipation.
The best laxatives to treat this constipation are called stimulant laxatives, because they stimulate the intestines into moving again. These are available over the counter as bisacodyl or sennosides.
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