CONSTIPATION CAUSES

Medically reviewed by: Horia Marculescu, MD
Photo credits: Licenses / Author
Last updated: 27.07.2021

bacteria presented as constipation cause

Foods and Nutrition Causes

Eating bad food combinations (combination containing meat, sugar, flour, glucose, fruit, bread, cooked sunflower oil, milk products)
Eating fruit with other foods (fruits disturb the entire digestion process when combined)
Eating too much sugar, sugary drinks and sweets (sugar is hard to digest because it absorbs large quantities of water and damages intestinal lining)
Drinking often carbonated sugary drinks and carbonated alcohol (carbonated drinks irritate the intestinal tissues in the small intestine)
Eating too much sweets based on flour and oil (cookies, biscuits, bread, baked sweets)
Eating fast food without vegetables (meat, bread, potatoes and soda combined, transform as a sponge in the intestines, that absorbs all water around that area)
Eating hard to digest foods like cheese, meat and oil without vegetables (insoluble fiber helps move these hard to digest foods)
Not eating enough vegetables (soluble and insoluble fiber from vegetables are the best for a good intestinal transit)
Not eating fibers contained in fruits (fruits have to be eaten only on an empty stomach to extract all the vitamins and good fibers that help constipation)
Not eating food in intervals of 3-4 hours (this is the optimal time for any meal to be digested properly, especially meat)
Any snack eaten between these 3-4 hours intervals after a meal, disturbs the present digestion process of the food already eaten and forces it to move towards elimination or to stay blocked.

Read more about foods for constipation and how to eat them.

Psychological causes for constipation

Long periods of stress (school, college, examinations, admissions, jobs, social environment, medical issues)
Long periods of anxiety (family, school, jobs, medical issues)
Long periods of depression (career, emotional state, family, hobbies/interests, self-fulfillment, jobs, toxic family relationships, toxic love relationships)

Physiological constipation causes

Sitting on a chair for long periods of time 5-8 hours (studying, working, driving, being sick, facebook)
Not practicing sports on a regular basis (running, basketball, football, swimming, tennis, hockey, all kinds of sports)
Lack of walking and hiking (for people who can`t do sports, walking and hiking are the best ways to help intestinal muscle movement)
Lack of basic gymnastics (at least once a week: crunches, pushups, squats, stretching)
Being lazy (not having the mood for doing anything)

Read more about exercises to relieve constipation.

Medical causes for constipation

Irritable bowel syndrome (intestinal tissues irritation)
Intestinal issues after colonoscopy or enema (scratched tissues, lack of intestinal mucosa)
Intestinal irritation (after long periods of consuming alcohol, carbonated sugary drinks, sugary foods and hard to digest foods)
Intestinal obstruction
Digestive bleeding
Intestinal polyps or tumors (situated in the large intestine)
Hemorrhoids
Obesity (layers of fat compress intestines in different areas making it difficult for stool movement, water hydration and muscle movements)
Pregnancy (hormonal changes or having uterine compression on the intestines)
Slow metabolism and slow intestinal activities (most common to obese and elderly people)
Slow muscle hypotonia.
Lack of intestinal muscle movement (due to lack of exercise)
Lack of water in stool (elimination of water entirely)
Hard rotten stool blocked in the intestines for long periods of time
Diarrhea and heatstroke. (water elimination for long periods of time)
Frequent use of drugs (off the record: although some help constipation, the frequency of using them creates dependency and that`s extremely dangerous)
Body exhaustion (after sports, work, travelling)
Food poisoning (ropy foods eaten turn to rotten stool)

Symptomatic constipation causes

Ano-rectal affections: anal fissure, anal stenosis, prolapse, perianal abscess, rectocele, tumors.
Colonic affections: irritable bowel syndrome, diverticulosis, tumors, stricture, Crohn disease, ulcer-haemorrhage rectocolitis, colonic ischemia, tuberculosis, hernia, volvulus, endometriosis
Pelvic causes: pregnancy, postpartum, uterine tumors, ovarian tumors, endometriosis tumors.
Neuromuscular diseases: Hirschprung disease, autonomous neuropathy, Chagas disease, pseudo-intestinal obstruction, cerebral tumors, cerebral-vascular accident, tabes, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson disease, dermatomyositis, les.
Metabolic diseases: diabetes, uremia, hypercalcemia, hypothyroidism, feocrocitom.
Mental diseases: depression, nervous anorexia.

Medication causes

Excess of laxatives (can create dependency if we don`t use them properly)
Excess of anti-depressive medication
Excess of antibiotics
Allergy to certain medication

Natural causes

Air pollution.
Long periods of heat or drought.
Living in an noisy area. (leading to stress)
Chemical pollution. (forces our body to consume all reserves of minerals and vitamins)
Lack of green spaces (parks, woods, natural reservations where we need to visit from time)
Exposure to viral diseases and pest holes when living in a very dense area. (buses, trains,metro, subway, kindergartens, schools, high-schools, malls, hospitals)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

My name is Sebastian D., and I am the senior editor of constipationguide.com. With the help of my mentor, Dr. Horia Marculescu, I decided to create a practical guide to constipation relief.. read more