Hi!
Why do our intestines have to be so long and twisted? What was nature’s reasoning for our poop to have such a long path to its destination? And basically, what is constipation?
It riddles me, why our poop doesnt just go straight to the exit, but it need to pass this weird meaty highway inside us 🤣
In: 4
> And basically, what is constipation?
Constipation is when there’s not enough water in your poop, so it becomes a solid lump in your colon that is hard to move. This can happen for a lot of reasons.
For instance, some drugs cause all your muscles to relax, including your intestinal muscles. This makes your food and poop move slower through your colon, which gives your colon more time to absorb water out of it. The end result is that when people take opioid drugs (like oxycodone, morphine, heroin, or fentanyl), they almost always get constipated.
However, constipation can also be caused by eating food that doesn’t agree with you, or just eating large amounts of dry food without enough fluids and fiber. In those cases, eating different food and drinking some fluids can help. Many older people take extra fiber supplements to “stay regular”, which just means to not get constipated.
Or it can be from a more serious medical problem, especially if it continues! In really bad cases, the colon can be paralyzed and unable to poop at all, so the poop has to be surgically removed. (Icky, yes, but it saves people’s lives.)
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