What Can You Do If You Get Constipated?

If you are constipated then it can bring your life to a grinding halt until you find a solution. It can affect your ability to sleep, make it painful and uncomfortable to sit down, you won’t feel like eating anything and will wreck your ability to concentrate. So what can you do about it? Below we discuss the 4 main solutions that people use:

Laxative pills

I think these are what most people will use the first time they get constipated, there are lots of different brands on the market and you can buy them from any store that sells basic medical supplies. There are basically two types, you have the kind which are irritants and will try to get your bowel to contract and help force things out, then you have stool softeners which we will discuss in a minute.

The irritant is what most people choose, and they take about 12 hours to kick in so make sure you time them correctly, I like to take them in the evening so I can go first thing in the morning before work. If you have hard stools blocking your colon though then an irritant might not work and just cause discomfort.

Stool softeners

These are aimed at people who suffer with hard stools and they try to soften them up so you can pass them easily. You can buy them in little gel caps, or more often in a bottle which you then take doses of throughout the day. This works by allowing more water into your intestines so it can saturate the stool and start to loosen it and break it up. Stool softeners don’t work as quickly as the irritants so it may take a few days for them to kick in fully, but they are the best option if you have hard stools.

Lubricant

The third option is to get something which can help to lubricate your insides and that will make the transit of your stools a lot easier. A lubricant is great if you use it alongside one of the irritant laxatives described earlier, then as the laxative kicks in and makes you push then the lubricant helps you out.

Laxative tea

You’ll find that most laxative teas on the market at the moment have senna in them which acts as an irritant like many of the pills, and helps to encourage movement. In actual fact senna is used in some laxative pills that are on the market as a natural alternative to the chemicals, but when you have it as a herbal laxative tea then you can get a bigger dose that you would in a small pill, and as it is a liquid it gets absorbed by your system a lot quicker.