Tips to prevent constipation
This increasingly common disorder today involves infrequent bowel movements with stools that are difficult or painful to pass. Constipation may make you feel generally out of sorts, and it can lead to other problems, such as haemorrhoids. It may be a symptom of an underlying intestinal disease.
Constipation
The last stage in the digestive process occurs in the colon, the major part of the large intestine. The colon is one and a half meters long and populated by billions of bacteria, yeasts and other micro-organisms, collectively known as intestinal flora. Some of these detoxify waste and prevent infection. A good balance of the micro-organisms helps prevent constipation as well as diarrhoea.
Prevention
Most of us can easily avoid constipation if we eat a high-fiber diet and avoid too many refined, processed, and fatty foods. However, adding fiber in the form of extra wheat bran to your food is not recommended; it can be irritating to the intestines. Oat or rice bran is a gentle alternative.
Rich Food
Make sure you eat plenty of foods that are rich in magnesium (prawns, nuts, seeds, beans, whole grains). If this is a problem, consult your doctor about taking a magnesium supplement.
Water
Drink at least six glasses of water-based fluids every day to make your stools softer, bulkier and easier to pass. Increase your intake if you are large or active or if the weather is hot. Fruit and vegetable juices can actively stimulate the intestines. You can buy many juices in the supermarket, but it is better to make your own juice and drink it straight away.
Massage may help
A friend can give you the following gentle abdominal massage, but ask to stop if you feel any discomfort. Rest both hands on the right side of the lower abdomen, then make big, slow, circling movements, moving the hands slowly upwards, beneath the lower left ribs, then down to the inside of the left hip bone. Slide the hands across to the starting point and repeat, moving in rhythmic circles for up to 10 minutes.
Self-massage
Make massage oil by adding two drops each of rosemary and sweet marjoram oils plus two drops of Roman chamomile oil to five teaspoons of sweet almond or a cold-pressed vegetable oil. (Omit rosemary oil in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy.) Massage the oil into your lower abdomen and then the small of your back using firm, gentle, clockwise strokes for several minutes every day.
Juices for regularity
These recipes, which are especially recommended for alleviating constipation, each make one large glass of juice. Drink up to three glasses a day. 1. Spinach juice: Juice a handful of fresh spinach leaves, a third of a cucumber and two tomatoes. Dilute with the equivalent volume of uncarbonated bottled or filtered water. You can substitute watercress for the spinach if you prefer. 2. Apple and grape juice: Juice two apples and 200 grams of grapes. You can substitute pear, or pineapples for the apples for variety.
