Weight Loss Diets And The Link To Constipation
Throughout mankind’s history, obtaining high calorie and nutritious food has been a problem until only very recently. We are in an age where the opposite problem is true: too many calories and body fat. Dieting and exercise are the main means to combat the problem. While exercise can be applied broadly, trying a new diet is a delicate process of balancing and testing.
Dieting is defined as the active management in intake of food. The active dieter counts calories, and then substitutes or outright eliminates certain kinds of food items from every day diet. While this can help reduce weight, some people find that a side effect is unfortunately constipation.
One problem is that in the act of reducing food intake, the intake of essential fiber is also inadvertently reduced. This happens easily whenever we make changes to our routines. One solution of course is to return to the old diet, but this is usually not desirable as it defeats the purpose of dieting!
To address constipation in the dieter, he or she has several ways forward. In all of these ways, it is best to chat with a primary care doctor to make sure that good health practices are being maintained. This is not a trivial health problem as it involves subtle changes that can address problems in two areas: weight loss and constipation.
Luckily for people requiring relief, several non-medicated strategies and many medicated strategies are accessible. With respect to non-pharmaceutical methods, the first is increased fiber therapy. A plausible way to put into action this line of therapy is to increase fresh vegetables and fruits with the highest fiber. Prunes are a great possibility, contributing plenty of fiber but moreover sorbitol which has been suggested in some research to aid movement.
There are patients who are unhappy that the attention required in picking out high fiber foods is excessive. A widely undertaken approach is to give high fiber supplements a shot. Purified from special plants like the plantago, these supplements come in powder mixtures and are put into with liquids to form a drink. Doctors point out that the time given to this sort of intense fiber treatment often needs about ten to fourteen days for its complete effectiveness to be felt.
Many laxatives are currently on the market and in use by patients with constipation. Amongst the most popular are the well known osmotic laxatives and the stimulant laxatives. The designations were given accordingly to biological mechanisms of action. A favored laxative known as Macrogol is a type of osmotic agent, in addition to magnesium-based treatments such as milk of magnesia or citrate of magnesium.
Finally, natural remedies for constipation are available. One widely used one is the senna tea or herbal senna, which is high in anthraquinone compounds that have strong effects on colonic motility. A caveat is that even herbal medications such as senna must be taken cautiously with advice of a physician.
Some of this information was graciously granted by a site on relief for constipation. Extra resources provided for laxatives osmotic can be found here.
August 23 2010 07:29 am | natural remedies