Diet for spastic constipation - table of recommended and prohibited foods

Spastic constipation is a common disorder of intestinal motility and evacuation function, which is caused by muscle spasms of certain areas of the large intestine.

Source: zapora.net

Spastic constipation in adults is a very common pathology, it is found in 30-50%, the incidence in children is slightly lower - 20-25%. Elderly people are more susceptible to spastic constipation. During pregnancy, spastic defecation difficulties are observed in 70-80% of women, and in 30% they persist in the postpartum period.

Causes and risk factors

The causes of spastic constipation in most cases are impaired intestinal motility and a weakened urge to defecate. Less commonly, the pathological process develops against the background of neurovegetative and endocrine diseases, intestinal neoplasms.

In most cases, to eliminate spastic constipation, it is enough to correct the diet and diet.

Risk factors include:

• taking certain medications (especially strong laxatives);
• pregnancy;
• Poor nutrition – excessive consumption of protein-rich or spicy foods, fiber deficiency;
• chronic intoxication of the body (including occupational hazards - contacts with mercury compounds, lead, etc.);
• artificial feeding in infants;
• presence of bad habits;
• lack of physical activity;
• excessive mental stress;
• violation of the daily routine, non-compliance with the diet.

What is atonic constipation?

Atonic constipation is associated with the inability of the muscular tissues of the rectum to function normally. As the force decreases, colon peristalsis weakens. This problem is faced by patients who lead a sedentary lifestyle.

Stable emptying should occur at least once a day. Constipation is a condition in which bowel movements do not occur for three days. In order to avoid this negative manifestation, you need to reconsider your diet, play sports and exercise. This type of constipation can occur due to a monotonous diet or negative habits such as drinking alcohol or smoking tobacco.

Constipation is caused by stress, exhaustion, sleep disturbances, inflammation or gastrointestinal diseases. This manifestation occurs in patients even more often than hemorrhoids. If you believe the statistics, this type of constipation is found in half of the country's population.

During treatment, it is necessary to identify the cause of the negative manifestation. Otherwise, constipation will manifest itself in the future with even greater force. In this article we will look at what atonic constipation is. Let's find out the symptoms and the causes of their occurrence. Let's consider treatment methods.

Types of constipation

1. Nutritional. It appears with excessive consumption of flour products and sweets. It is a consequence of an incorrectly selected diet.
2. Functional. Occurs with the development of psychological factors. It is formed due to a malfunction of the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for the motor activity of the colon and the defecation reflex.
3. Neurogenic. It is a consequence of a failure of intestinal motility. The main reason is prolonged abstinence from bowel movements, which may be associated with painful sensations.
4. Hypodynamic. It appears with reduced dynamics of movements. Most often it occurs among office workers and programmers who spend a lot of time at a computer desk. May be a consequence of the patient being in a supine position for a long time. This type of constipation occurs in bedridden patients, people with serious serious illnesses, the elderly and pregnant women.
5. Procrogenic. It appears in patients suffering from hemorrhoids and anal fissures. May occur due to decreased intestinal sensitivity.
6. Spicy. Resulting in intestinal obstruction. Accompanied by a gag reflex, increased gas formation and severe pain in the abdominal area.
7. Mechanical. Occurs in people with intestinal tumors. An additional reason for the development is the formation of scars in the colon, mechanical impact in the form of compression of the rectum.
8. Organic. It is a consequence of taking medications. It can form secondary to diseases or pathologies of the intestine.
9. Endocrine. Occurs due to a malfunction of the thyroid gland. It can form during menopause or diabetes.
10. Idiopathic. It manifests itself when there is a malfunction in the motor function of the intestines without obvious reasons that could provoke constipation.
11. Medication. It is a consequence of taking antispasmodics, antidepressants, painkillers and diuretics.
12. Spastic. It occurs due to prolonged intestinal spasms, which are influenced by emotional and mental experiences.

Peculiarities

1. In children. Constipation can occur in people of any age. Sometimes constipation occurs even in infants. In this case, it is necessary to give the child an increased amount of boiled water. The baby should be fed at certain hours. Older children need to change their diet. You should exclude sweets, baked goods, and foods containing dyes for a while.
2. In pregnant women. During pregnancy, a girl’s body may not cope with the necessary stress. In this case, a hormonal release may occur. The uterus begins to increase in volume and put pressure on other organs. Therefore, in 90% of cases, pregnant girls experience constipation. This problem can be solved by a gynecologist or therapist.
3. In the elderly. In older people, there is a decrease in intestinal muscle tone. Intestinal motility decreases. Constipation occurs in 50% of cases in people over 60 years of age and in 80% of cases in people over 70 years of age. At this age, it is necessary to carefully monitor your health and be observed by a professional specialist.

Causes

The main causes include:

• Incorrectly selected diet. A person may consume large amounts of fried foods and too little fiber. It is necessary to exclude carbonated drinks, strong tea and alcohol from the diet, which strengthen the intestines.
• Sedentary lifestyle. In most cases, constipation occurs in office workers who spend too much time at the computer in a sitting position. Therefore, such people need to increase physical activity, start playing sports or simple physical exercises.
• Taking medications. Constipation can occur after taking antibiotics, antidepressants and other medications.
• Psychological reasons. Constipation is caused by stressful situations, nervous breakdowns, overexertion, depression, and insomnia.
• Gastrointestinal diseases. Constipation can cause tumors, fissures, fistulas, and narrowing of the intestinal lumen.

Symptoms of spastic constipation

The main symptom of spastic constipation is delay and difficulty in defecation. The patient requires significant tension in the abdominal and pelvic floor muscles. In addition, it is noted:

• feeling of incomplete bowel movement after bowel movement;
• bloating (may be accompanied by palpitations, pain in the heart area);
• sharp pain and/or a feeling of fullness in the lower abdomen (usually disappears after passing gas or defecation, practically absent during night sleep);
• decreased appetite.

Patients with spastic constipation are advised to drink plenty of fluids.

Feces often take the form of small hard lumps (the so-called sheep feces), in addition, feces can be ribbon-shaped, cord-shaped, bean-shaped, and an admixture of mucus is often found in the feces. With spastic constipation, a small amount of feces is released.

In addition, patients complain of weakness, fatigue, increased irritability, and persistent headaches. The color and appearance of the skin changes, the skin acquires a yellowish tint, becomes pale, flabby, and loses elasticity.

Characteristics of the pathology

In gastroenterology, there are two types of constipation: spastic and atonic.

Atonic constipation occurs in cases where the influence of the nervous system on the intestinal walls is disrupted . Muscle relaxation occurs, peristalsis decreases, and the intestinal lumen increases, which makes it difficult to remove feces.

Spastic constipation occurs in cases where there is spasm of smooth muscles . In this case, the intestinal lumen decreases and an obstacle to the movement of feces is created.

Constipation is a buildup of stool in the intestines

The difference between these two types of difficult bowel movements is as follows:

1. With atony, the intestinal wall relaxes, and with spasticity, tension occurs. Therefore, the second type of constipation is accompanied by severe spasmodic pain in the abdomen.
2. Spastic constipation is usually a short-term phenomenon. It occurs after nervous overstrain, in emotionally labile people. Atonic constipation has a chronic course. In this case, the difficulty of emptying continues for a long time. The formation of dense stool usually occurs over a period of six months or more.

Causes of pathology

The causes of problems with stool can be divided into the following groups:

1. Wrong lifestyle:
   passion for refined products, depleted in dietary fiber and plant fiber;
2. low fluid intake;
3. unbalanced food intake;
4. physical inactivity (lack of motor activity);
5. frequent restraint of bowel movements associated with professional characteristics.
6. Neurological problems:
   disruption of the nervous regulation of the intestinal wall (Hirschsprung's disease);
7. multiple sclerosis;
8. neurasthenic state;
9. suffered a stroke;
10. spinal or brain tumors;
11. mental illness.
12. Endocrine reasons:
    hypothyroidism;
13. obesity;
14. diabetes;
15. menopause;
16. decrease in calcium levels in the blood.
17. Digestive diseases:
    irritable bowel syndrome;
18. pancreatitis;
19. peptic ulcer,
20. inflammation of the small and large intestines;
21. tumors;
22. hemorrhoids and anal fissures;
23. gastritis with reduced secretion of hydrochloric acid;
24. intestinal dysbiosis.
25. Temporary reasons:
    pregnancy;
26. change of place of residence (“travelers’ constipation”);
27. lead and mercury poisoning;
28. eating foods that thicken stool;
29. stress;
30. taking certain medications;
31. long bed rest.

How to get rid of constipation - video

Features of spastic constipation in children

The normal frequency of bowel movements in children varies depending on age. In newborns who are breastfed, the frequency of bowel movements usually corresponds to the frequency of feedings (6-7 times a day). By the time complementary foods are introduced (4-6 months), the number of bowel movements is reduced to twice a day. In formula-fed babies, bowel movements usually occur once a day. Children from the second year of life normally have bowel movements once or twice a day. If bowel movements occur more rarely, the child may be constipated.

Source: malyshzdorov.ru

Until the age of six months, the consistency of a child’s stool is normally mushy; from six months to two years it can be mushy or formed; after two years, the stool is formed. The presence of constipation may be indicated by hard stool or frequent bowel movements in small portions of formed stool.

Coprostasis causes the development of intestinal colic, flatulence, and a feeling of pressure in the anal area. When the mucous membrane of the anal canal is injured by dense feces, an admixture of blood in the form of scarlet streaks is detected in the stool. After a long delay in defecation, encopresis (paradoxical fecal incontinence) sometimes occurs in children.

Against the background of spastic constipation, secondary colitis, proctosigmoiditis, enteritis, the formation of fecal stones, hemorrhoids, and rectal fissures can develop.

Common symptoms of spastic constipation in children include nausea, anorexia, pustular rashes and acne on the skin, and anemia.

Is it possible to do an enema and how to administer it correctly?

Enemas, of course, are very effective and quickly help with constipation, however, there are also a lot of contraindications to their use and you should not often resort to unnatural methods of bowel movement. To do an enema, you need to make a choice, since there are several options:

• Hypertensive enema - for its implementation, magnesia or a concentrated saline solution is used; this is considered a microenema, since the volume of liquid does not exceed 50 ml. How to get rid of constipation at home if there is no magnesium - you can take 2 teaspoons of ordinary table salt and dissolve it in 100 ml. water, use a syringe or bulb to inject 50 ml. solution into the rectum.
• An oil enema is the safest; to carry it out, you need to heat 20-50 ml in a water bath to 37C. sunflower, olive, apricot oil. If desired, you can dilute it with water and also make a microenema with a syringe. The effect of this procedure will be only after 8-12 hours.
• Cleansing enema is the most popular procedure, which requires an Esmarch mug and 1.5 -2 liters of water at room temperature, the water should not be too cold or too warm. For constipation, it is usually recommended to do only 500 ml. and immediately go to the toilet to empty the rectum of solid feces, and only then introduce the remaining 1.5 liters of water.

For more information about the types of enemas and how to properly do an enema for constipation, read our article.

Diagnostics

To diagnose spastic constipation, a collection of complaints and anamnesis, an objective examination, instrumental and laboratory examination are carried out.

On palpation, pain is detected along the intestine. The relaxed cecum and the spasmodic sigmoid colon are well palpated, and sometimes fecal stones in the sigmoid colon.

The following instrumental methods are used:

• sigmoidoscopy (visual examination of the mucous membrane of the rectum and some parts of the sigmoid colon using a sigmoidoscope);
• irrigoscopy (x-ray examination of the large intestine with the introduction of a contrast agent into it);
• fibrocolonoscopy (endoscopic examination of the inner surface of the large intestine).

In some cases, an ultrasound examination of the stomach, pancreas, liver, and intestines is performed; plain radiography of the abdominal cavity, enterocolonoscintigraphy (with its help, intestinal motor function is assessed). Children with spastic constipation may require consultation with a neurologist with echoencephalography and electroencephalography.

Laboratory tests are prescribed: stool analysis for dysbiosis and helminth eggs, coprogram, general and biochemical blood test.

Differential diagnosis of spastic constipation is carried out with intestinal diseases with similar symptoms, including intestinal obstruction, which, in turn, can be a complication of acute myocardial infarction.

Treatment of spastic constipation

In most cases, to eliminate spastic constipation, it is enough to correct the diet and diet. Patients are prescribed a diet high in fiber and fermented milk products.

During pregnancy, spastic defecation difficulties are observed in 70-80% of women, and in 30% they persist in the postpartum period.

It is recommended to include in the diet dishes from vegetables and fruits in pureed or pureed form, ground dried fruits, boiled meat and fish, low-fat broths, kefir, natural yogurt, curdled milk, cottage cheese, wholemeal bread, biscuits, durum pasta wheat, herbal tea, fresh juices.

Fiber content in food:

*Note: Numbers less than 1 are rounded to the nearest 0.5 g.

Patients with spastic constipation are advised to drink plenty of fluids. You should limit or completely eliminate the consumption of fresh bread, sweets, sausages, salted fish, fatty meats, mushrooms, legumes, milk, cocoa, smoked and canned foods, spices, and alcoholic beverages. During an attack of spastic pain, it is recommended to refrain from eating.

Antispasmodic drugs may be prescribed to relax spasmodic intestinal muscles. After relieving intestinal spasms, mild laxatives (including in the form of microenemas) are used to gently remove feces. In some cases, cleansing enemas are indicated, and the temperature of the solution should be moderate, since the introduction of cool liquid can aggravate the spasm of the intestinal muscles. Oil enemas, oil-water mixtures, mint or lemon balm decoctions are also effective. Treatment of spastic constipation can be supplemented with warm baths, paraffin and pine compresses on the abdominal area.

If the patient has high psycho-emotional lability, sedatives and/or tranquilizers are prescribed.

For spastic constipation, herbal medicine can be used (infusions and decoctions of mint, wild flax, horsetail, yarrow, fennel, licorice root, calamus root, St. John's wort, tansy).

Elderly people are more susceptible to spastic constipation.