Chronic Constipation

How is it different from acute and severe constipation?


Chronic constipation often misspelled cronic constipation, is a term I notice , often confused with severe constipation and acute constipation.We'll look at these three terms linguistically.


Chronic: " A chronic illness or disability lasts a very long time." That's why chronic constipation is also called long-term constipation. Chronic is the opposite of acute.


Acute: " An acute illness is one that becomes severe very quickly but does not last very long." Acute constipation is recent onset of severe constipation that needs urgent medical attention because a serious illness may be the underlying cause.


Severe: " Severe (is) to indicate something bad or undesirable is great or intense."


Here are three examples. See if you can identify which one is which:


1. A woman has been suffering from periodic constipation for more than two years. She complains to her doctor a few times about it and he decides to examine her thoroughly. He inspects her entire large intestine with a special instrument. He also gets her to swallow a barium solution to take an x-ray of her upper intestinal tract. The tests results: nothing unusual.


2. A 68-year old man who leads a sedentary lifestyle, regulary takes laxatives perscribed by his doctor as he suffers from constipation for a few years. During a 2-day period, this man has great difficulty in his bowel movements. What happened is, he has a cold and is taking over-the-counter medicine. He takes more laxatives but this worsens the constipation symptons : abdominal pain, bloatedness and he can't pass gas. Finally he can't bear the pain anymore and goes to a hospital where he is operated for bowel blockage.


3. I like to take a certain natural detoxification drink sometimes to "clean my system". Usually I drink one packet before sunrise. Within an hour, I go to the toilet quick and comfortable. This drink has the same effect on my brother, a constipated heavy smoker who adamantly refuses vegetables.


Therefore I was amazed to read about a lady who took a packet of the same stuff but nothing happened. She took a second packet, still nothing happened. She took a third packet...ah finally "something" happened. She was in great ectasy and phoned her husband immediately about it. Apparently, she had problems of having one bowel movement in a week.


Here are your hints in indentifying symptons of chronic constipation:



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