Regularly irregular?

Monday 1st March 2010 9:14am

fibreThere are many reasons why people may find that their bowel motions become irregular, some temporary and some not. It is important to realise too that what is regular for one person may not be for another.

As a rule the transit time between eating something and the waste products from that meal being excreted is roughly 24 hours so it stands to reason that the “average” person will have one to two motions every day.

This assumes that the “average” person eats a balanced diet complete with adequate fibre. Many people, typically the elderly, eat diets that are very low in fibre consequently there isn’t much left over from their diet that isn’t absorbed. This means that their motions are often smaller, less well formed and often irregular.

Apart from the effect of advancing years and changing diet on regularity there are a variety of temporary causes of constipation including :

The biggest cause of temporary constipation is taking pain relieving products that contain codeine based analgesics. Codeine is widely available in low doses over the counter whilst higher strengths are prescription only. However even in the lower dose OTC products there is sufficient codeine to cause problems.

Codeine and many other pain killers act to slow the transit time through the gut as well as relieving pain. The longer waste products take to pass through the intestines the more water is pumped out of the contents making the motion both smaller, harder and therefore more difficult to pass.

The lesson here is that for most people who take even occasional codeine based analgesics should be looking to increase their fibre and fluid intakes in order to help prevent these unwanted side effects.

A natural way to achieve this is to drink plenty of water and take Herb Valley’s psyllium husks.

This information is not intended as a substitute for qualified medical advice. Please consult a properly qualified health care practitioner.