Sorry to run your day, but everything we know about constipation is a lie.
Okay, maybe not EVERYTHING, but it turns out that constipation is about way more than just how often you poop.
Although the ‘gold standard’ of pooping can be anything from three times a day to three times a week, the Zoe Study have debunked this in their latest podcast.
Talking on the podcast, gastroenterologist Will Bulsiewicz says that this definition is way too narrow and simple and doesn’t actually cover all the forms of constipation people can experience.
He explained to podcast host Jonathon Wolf: “I’ve had so many patients that I literally have to frame this to them like, ‘I need you to trust me on this’ because it’s hard for people to believe that they could poop every day and still be constipated, and in fact, there are many examples of how this can work.
“One of the issues is it could be that you’re having incomplete evacuations.”
If you’re only passing small nuggets of poo when you’re going to the toilet, Bulsiewicz warns that you’re not actually completely emptying your bowels.
And buckle up, because as Bulsiewicz shares, you can actually have diarrhoea AND still be constipated at the same time.
He explains: “It seems like they’re diametrically opposed and they’re not supposed to be connected in any way but believe it or not, severe constipation can actually manifest with diarrhoea - we call this overflow diarrhoea.”
For anyone eating while reading this, you’re gonna want to stop that right now.
″If you take this person who has overflow diarrhoea and you were to perform an X-ray and take a look inside what’s happening inside their body, what you would actually see is that they are severely constipated and they have a hard calm of stool. This calm of stool is actually backing up. It’s stuck.
“The solid stuff starts backing up. And then the liquid is the part that actually can sneak through. It gets through the cracks and the crevices, and it comes and descends down to your bottom. And then unfortunately, it explodes out as diarrhoea.”
The problem that comes next – as if explosive diarrhoea isn’t enough – is that people then try and treat themselves with anti-diarrhoea medication and in turn make their constipation even worse.
So, even if you’re going to the loo every day, it can pay to spend a little bit more time thinking about your bowel movements. Excuse us while we go find some fibre rich foods...