Relieving Constipation: A Home Remedy Compendium

Constipation can be cured. People, and doctors, who don’t suffer the condition often don’t understand the magnitude of the problem. But no matter how many ways you’ve tried for relieving symptoms, home remedy is often best.

Let’s look at the basics.

More than to any other home remedy, this condition responds to drinking more water. Be sure you drink at least 8 glasses of water a day. Dry stools are hard to pass. Drinking water is more important than any other change to your diet.

And for uncomplicated cases, the second most important home remedy is getting more fiber.

Fiber from fruits and vegetables is always more beneficial than fiber from supplements. That’s because fruits and vegetables offer fiber in small doses. There’s enough fiber to contribute to regularity but not so much fiber as to create its own clogs in your colon.

If you take a fiber supplement, always start with the smallest possible dose. It’s better to build up to taking enough fiber to increase regularity. Slowly increasing dosage helps you avoid problems with bloating and gas.

There are two types of fiber, soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber forms a gel when mixed with water. Insoluble fiber does not. Soluble fiber can form various nutritional byproducts in the intestine. Insoluble fiber passes through intestine intact.

Soluble fiber relieves symptoms slowly. Insoluble fiber relieves symptoms quickly. Both kinds of fiber are beneficial in chronic cases. There are also foods that help.

Everybody knows the fruity home remedy, nemesis, the prune.

Prunes are dried plums. Dried prunes are approximately 6 percent fiber, but prune juice (which is made from dried prunes) contains no fiber at all.

If you use prunes as a daily home remedy, symptoms disappears. Prunes work by providing simple sugars that draw fluid into the intestine.

The additional fluid makes stool softer and easier to expel. Prunes do not cause spikes in blood sugar, because their natural sweetening agents are fructose and sorbitol rather than sucrose, or “white sugar.” Too much sorbitol, of course, can cause diarrhea.

The infant’s home remedy for constipation is the four P’s, prunes, plums, pears, and peaches, plus a fifth fruit, apricots. Breastfed babies seldom develop constipation, but milk fed babies often do. Babies are most likely to develop symptoms when they go from breast to bottle, or from bottle to solid foods.

Some foods cause this condition if you don’t drink enough water, but are useful as home remedy for constipation if you do. Foods that contain inulin (a starch not to be confused with insulin), such as bananas, chicory, leeks, and onions, provide food for the helpful bacteria that live in the gut.

These bacteria are a kind of home remedy. Constipation is relieved as they form a mass that makes the stool easier to move, provided there is enough water available to soften it. When there is adequate hydration, inulin helps the lining of the colon absorb calcium. And when the colon absorbs calcium, the risk of colon cancer is reduced.

Calcium-rich foods and calcium supplements, however, often cause constipation. Home remedy approaches involve avoidance:

Try a few days without taking supplemental calcium. It may relieve constipation. Home remedy approaches for bone health aren’t limited to just taking calcium.

For optimal bone health, don’t forget it’s also important to get your vitamin K from dark leafy green vegetables you’ve cooked with just a little oil. It’s also important to your supplemental vitamin D, if (as is the case for most people living in the northern US, southern New Zealand, or Canada much of the year), you can’t get sun nearly every day.

And if you do take calcium supplements, try calcium citrate. This form of the mineral is easier on the colon.

Prescription drugs are the heavy artillery in the battle for relieving constipation. Home remedy approaches are simpler and far less likely to cause side effects. If your objective is relieving constipation, home remedy methods are almost always your best bet.

Also read our article about Constipation and Use of Mineral Oil