![]() ![]() ![]() We are a society of nibblers and snackers, a chip here, a little piece of cookie there, consume and repeat. As strange as it may seem, many people actually don’t know what it is they consume throughout the day. If it does, get medical attention.The purpose of keeping a food diary is keep track of your nutrient intake. Diarrhea should not last more than 1-3 days from any of the above. Mild diarrhea can be waited out or over-the-counter medications like Pepto-Bismol, Imodium A-D, or Kaopectate may be taken. It is also normal as we age to have diarrhea from time to time - not because of aging per se, but because we can eat foods that "disagree" with us, ingest some infected food product, contract a "GI virus" or the intestinal flu, perform extensive exercise with rampant fluid consumption, or due to food allergies. Stool softeners may be used as recommended. Only your physician should recommend a laxative as these may be problematic in constipation. Exercise more than usual and even try some sit-ups to improve abdominal muscle tone. ![]() Eat dairy products in moderation, and avoid fried fast foods. Consume bread with whole grains and cereals. Eat foods rich in fiber including the old stand-by prunes. The home treatment of constipation is to tend to any of the known causes, for example, if one is not staying hydrated by drinking eight glasses of water a day, then do so. Some of the medicines that predispose to constipation are calcium channel blockers, narcotic pain meds, antacids containing calcium or aluminum, iron, anti-depressants, and overuse and/or abrupt stoppage of laxatives. ![]() These include: lack of muscle tone in the bowel and abdominal muscles, slowed peristalsis (involuntary contraction of the intestinal muscles), lack of exercise, immobility (sedentary life style or travel), inadequate fluid intake, too many dairy products, lack of dietary fiber (fruits and vegetables), and many medicines. This happens due to a number of factors related to age. Constipation is usually defined as less frequent bowel movements (two or fewer per week), straining at time of defecation at least 25 percentage of the time, often incomplete evacuation (meaning returning to complete the process in an hour or so), and a hard stool (Bristol Type 1 or 2). The most common thing to happen with age is that constipation is more frequent. What Bowel Habit Changes Come with Aging?Īs stated at the outset, as we age things change, and this includes bowel habits. (Dear reader, I know this is more than you want to know, but there is a reason to cover this as we age.) Consistency changes more than frequency in each of us. With apologies to all who find the Bristol Stool Chart (below) offensive (only the English would concoct such a device to communicate the non-mentionable), the normal consistency of stool is soft or firm (Types 2-4) and not brick hard or watery loose (Types 1 and 5-6). Thus is it is normal for humans to have highly variable habits, but each one of us tends to have a regular habit of bowel evacuation - most commonly, one per day and usually at about the same time of day. People have "normal" frequency of from three times a day (usually after each meal) to one every other day. Normal bowel movements are highly variable between individuals in terms of frequency and in terms of form (see the figure below). We eat and drink to sustain our bodies and after the digestive system extracts the necessary ingredients from our ingestion, the wastes are excreted as liquids in urine and solids in feces. The first thing to understand is that what goes in is supposed to come out - albeit in a very different form and with some nutrients missing. ![]()
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