If you are working on relieving constipation, it is basic and important to ascertain what kind of constipation you are actually experiencing. By doing this, you are saving yourself from suffering the ill-effects of ending up with the wrong therapeutic measures to relieve the discomfort.
There are several types of constipation and reference books differ on how to classify them. Typically speaking, we have constipation that occur within a short period of time and one that last for a long time.
In the former group, we have the acute form and one example is psychosomatic constipation. As the name implies, the influential factors of the body that cause manifestations of constipation usually involve either internal or external stimuli that directly act on the individual’s psychological behavior. One concrete example is when an individual suddenly becomes constipated due to unfamiliarity of the place or surroundings or when he is under a tremendous pressure at work. When the pressure factor is removed, constipation ceases. Abrupt worsening of an acute constipation an individual is suffering may require urgent medical attention as a severe illness may be an underlying cause to consider.
The latter group is also referred to as chronic constipation. Chronic is a disability that lasts a long time or specifically more than three months. In this context, it is generally defined as a disability to maintain smooth bowel movements. Constant constipation is considered chronic and there are fundamentally 3 kinds:
Hypotonic constipation or atonic constipation. “Hypotonic” indicates decrease in abdominal muscle tone whereas “atonic” refers to complete absence of muscle tone. Weak or diminished abdominal muscles are not able to push the bowel to move as significantly as they should . This results to a characteristic bloated feeling on the person suffering this kind of chronic constipation. This type is usually caused by sedentary lifestyle, insufficient peristalsis may be due to illness or another disease, lack of dietary fiber and decreased fluid intake.
Hypertonic constipation or spastic constipation. Although hypotonic constipation involves slow peristalsis, hypertonic on the other hand entails accelerated peristalsis. This increased rate of peristalsis does not translate into an effective mechanism to propel bowel movement. Instead, the hyperactive abdominal muscle cramps produced cause pain. Without an efficient peristalsis, the stools stay in the colon where majority of water is reabsorbed and hard stools in the form of modest lumps or sticks as thick as pencils are produced. Eventually, this type could develop into a more serious intestinal problem called the irritable bowel syndrome.
Rectal constipation. When a person is too busy or distracted to be aware of nature’s call to evacuate, he is training his rectum to be unresponsive. Eventually, the rectum will not respond nor send signals to the brain even when it is full. Dried fecal material becomes lodged and manual extraction may need to be performed by a trained medical professional to avoid further bowel obstruction.
Another way of classifying constipation is according to their causes. For example, a healthy individual who has difficulty defecating is said to have functional constipation.
Functional constipation is defined to have no physical, hormonal or other biochemical trigger. It may have a neurological, psychological or psychosomatic cause and may happen due to poor diet and lifestyle.
The opposite of functional constipation is idiopathic constipation, which has an unknown origin and does not respond to standard remedy. When this mysterious constipation becomes infrequent and passing of stools challenging, it is then called chronic idiopathic constipation. Similarly, the sufferer experiences abdominal pain, discomfort and bloating.
Chronic idiopathic constipation is one of the most frequent disorders suffered by Americans. It affects women far more frequently than men and also affects much more older patients over the age of 65.
Lastly, chronic, severe and acute constipation are graded according to their degree of severity. Out of these three, acute constipation is the most dangerous. Severe constipation happens when an individual only has one bowel movement per week.
So, what kind of constipation do you have?









