Water, Constipation, Dehydration, and Other Fluids

Written by Debra Fulghum Bruce, PhD

• What Causes Chronic Constipation?
• How Can I Prevent Dehydration?
• Will Drinking Water and Other Fluids Cure Constipation?
• How Much Fluid Is Enough to Ease Chronic Constipation?
• Besides Water, What Other Fluids Can Help Keep Me Hydrated?
• Are There Fluids I Should Avoid?
• More

If you’re looking for a simple way to ease chronic constipation, drink plenty of fluids every day. Staying well-hydrated can be a key part of your plan to “get things moving” again.

Water is important for your digestion. It keeps the food you eat moving through your intestines, and it keeps your intestines smooth and flexible, too.

Dehydration is one of the most common causes of chronic constipation. The food you eat makes its way from your stomach to the large intestine, or colon. If you don’t have enough water in your body already, the large intestine soaks up water from your food waste. This makes you have hard stools that are difficult to pass.

There are other causes of chronic constipation too, including what you eat, traveling, medicines, irritable bowel syndrome, and pregnancy.

Watch the amount of fluid you drink, listen to your body, and drink more liquids during exercise and hot weather.

You get dehydrated when your body gets rid of more fluids — usually through sweating or going to the bathroom more than normal — than it takes in. Drinking too little water during exercise, hot weather, or daily activities can also cause your body to use up its stored water.

Extra fluids help keep the stool soft and easy to pass, but drinking more liquids does not cure constipation.

When it comes to thirst, most experts say you should let your body be your guide. The Institute of Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board suggests that women get 91 ounces of water each day from foods and drinks and men should get 125 ounces. Remember, this recommendation includes the fluids that you take in from your food.

In general, for healthy, average people, 8 cups a day is a good goal. Talk to your doctor about how much water is good for you.

People with some medical conditions may need to drink less than that. Others may need more than 8 cups a day.

Vegetable juices, clear soups, and herbal teas are also good sources of fluids. Fruit juices, while hydrating, contain a lot of unneeded sugars

Stay away from alcohol. It is a diuretic, which gets rid of water from your body and leads to dehydration. Caffeinated drinks like coffee, tea, and colas are also diuretics, but as long as you drink moderate amounts, they probably won’t cause dehydration.

© 2022 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved. View privacy policy and trust info

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Water, Constipation, Dehydration, and Other Fluids

Written by Debra Fulghum Bruce, PhD

• What Causes Chronic Constipation?
• How Can I Prevent Dehydration?
• Will Drinking Water and Other Fluids Cure Constipation?
• How Much Fluid Is Enough to Ease Chronic Constipation?
• Besides Water, What Other Fluids Can Help Keep Me Hydrated?
• Are There Fluids I Should Avoid?
• More

If you’re looking for a simple way to ease chronic constipation, drink plenty of fluids every day. Staying well-hydrated can be a key part of your plan to “get things moving” again.

Water is important for your digestion. It keeps the food you eat moving through your intestines, and it keeps your intestines smooth and flexible, too.

Dehydration is one of the most common causes of chronic constipation. The food you eat makes its way from your stomach to the large intestine, or colon. If you don’t have enough water in your body already, the large intestine soaks up water from your food waste. This makes you have hard stools that are difficult to pass.

There are other causes of chronic constipation too, including what you eat, traveling, medicines, irritable bowel syndrome, and pregnancy.

Watch the amount of fluid you drink, listen to your body, and drink more liquids during exercise and hot weather.

You get dehydrated when your body gets rid of more fluids — usually through sweating or going to the bathroom more than normal — than it takes in. Drinking too little water during exercise, hot weather, or daily activities can also cause your body to use up its stored water.

Extra fluids help keep the stool soft and easy to pass, but drinking more liquids does not cure constipation.

When it comes to thirst, most experts say you should let your body be your guide. The Institute of Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board suggests that women get 91 ounces of water each day from foods and drinks and men should get 125 ounces. Remember, this recommendation includes the fluids that you take in from your food.

In general, for healthy, average people, 8 cups a day is a good goal. Talk to your doctor about how much water is good for you.

People with some medical conditions may need to drink less than that. Others may need more than 8 cups a day.

Vegetable juices, clear soups, and herbal teas are also good sources of fluids. Fruit juices, while hydrating, contain a lot of unneeded sugars

Stay away from alcohol. It is a diuretic, which gets rid of water from your body and leads to dehydration. Caffeinated drinks like coffee, tea, and colas are also diuretics, but as long as you drink moderate amounts, they probably won’t cause dehydration.

© 2022 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved. View privacy policy and trust info

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Intestinal constipation: causes, treatment, diet

Every person faced the problem of constipation at least once in his life. If difficulties with bowel movements are observed regularly, then the pathology has acquired a chronic form. In chronic constipation, bowel movements occur less than 3 times a week. At the same time, the chair itself is rare and hard. A constipated person spends more time on the toilet than usual. In the process of defecation, the straining time increases.

Causes of constipation

Intestinal constipation can occur for various reasons.

The first cluster of causes is associated with congenital or acquired pathologies of the large intestine:

• anal fissures
• polyps
• internal and external hemorrhoids
• tumors
• megarectum
• megadolichosigma
• atresia

The second type of causes of constipation include concomitant diseases of the digestive, endocrine and genitourinary systems.

There are also a number of causes of unknown origin, due to which the motility of the rectum and colon is impaired.

Functional constipation can be caused by malnutrition. Eating low in dietary fiber, as well as taking certain medications (diuretics, antidepressants, iron supplements, antacids, anticholinergics) interfere with bowel movements.

A few more causes of chronic constipation:

• wrong way of life
• “knocked down” day and night mode
• lack of physical activity
• low fluid intake (body dehydration)
• “inert” colon syndrome (slow movement of feces)

Special mention should be made of constipation during pregnancy – due to the internal pressure of the fetus, there may be a delay in bowel movement.

Treatment of constipation

People who have problems with bowel movements often ask themselves the question: what to do with constipation? Treatment of constipation, including chronic constipation, is aimed at eliminating the primary pathology that resulted in the problem, as well as changing lifestyle, diet, working conditions, etc.

For the treatment of constipation, a proctologist or gastroenterologist should be consulted. Frequent constipation can be a sign of serious diseases of the stomach and intestines, so we do not recommend self-medication: it would be wiser to make an appointment with a trusted specialist.

Qualified doctors of the Naedine Clinic will conduct a complete examination of the gastrointestinal tract, establish the root cause of the problem and choose the appropriate method of treatment.

Medications are widely used in the treatment of constipation. The type of medication, dose and duration of administration are calculated individually for each patient.

Diet for constipation

Doctor prescribes a special diet for constipation . It is necessary to eat foods rich in fiber daily, for example:

• wheat, oatmeal, pearl barley, buckwheat cereals
• vegetables (carrots, beets, marrows)
• wholemeal bread
• bran
• fruits and berries, including dried fruits (figs, prunes, dates, dried apricots, bananas, non-sour apples)
• vegetable and fruit juices
• fermented milk products (kefir, curdled milk, acidophilus)
• olive, sunflower, linseed, corn oil

Food should be taken 4 times a day. The amount of fluid consumed for constipation should be at least 1.5 liters per day.

The patient must “learn” to go to the toilet to empty his bowels in the morning. With the right treatment regimen, the patient will be able to walk “in a big way” every 1-2 days.

Sign up for a consultation with a proctologist at the Naedine Clinic by phone (8332) 32-7777 or through the online appointment form on our website!

Constipation – causes

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CONSTIPATION (CONSTIPATION, OBSTIPATION) – impaired bowel function, characterized by:

– decrease in the frequency of bowel movements – less than 3 times a week or more often, but compared with the individual norm, there is an increase in the time between bowel movements;

– a change in the consistency and shape of the stool – according to the Bristol scale of stool shapes 1 and 2, the type of stool is “separate hard lumps of feces in the form of “nuts” and “feces of normal shape, but with hard lumps”;

– difficulty in the act of defecation: the need for prolonged straining, a feeling of incomplete emptying of the intestine, the need for manual assistance with defecation (maintenance of the perineum, manual removal of feces).

Usually, the term “constipation” implies a duration of symptoms of at least 6 months. However, in the life of almost every healthy person there are situations that lead to acute constipation, for example, under conditions of severe stress or while traveling when the nature and diet change, under these conditions the stool may be completely absent, or it becomes rare and scarce, the total duration of this state up to 2 weeks, in the future, when returning to the usual way of life, the stool normalizes on its own.

“Symptoms of anxiety”, when you should see a doctor as soon as possible to exclude acute intestinal obstruction: acute constipation for the first time with the simultaneous appearance of severe pain and bloating in the abdomen, signs of intoxication (nausea, vomiting, fever), absence of gas discharge, presence of in the anamnesis of hernia formations of the abdominal wall, recent surgical interventions on the abdominal organs

Causes of chronic constipation:

• irritable bowel syndrome
• intestinal dysbacteriosis
• obstruction of the passage of feces through the colon: colorectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis), compression of the intestine from the outside by adhesions, tumors of the abdominal cavity and small pelvis;
• taking certain medications: iron, bismuth, antacids, antidepressants, diuretics, long-term use of irritant laxatives and others;
• endocrine diseases: hypothyroidism, diabetes mellitus, adrenal insufficiency;
• mental disorders: anxiety syndrome, depression, anorexia;
• neurological diseases: Parkinson’s disease, previous strokes, multiple sclerosis, tumors of the spinal cord;
• systemic connective tissue diseases: systemic scleroderma;
• some features of nutrition: insufficient amount of water consumed, frequency of meals 1-2 times a day, lack of fiber;
• proctological diseases: rectal prolapse, rectocele, anal fissure.