The gastrointestinal tract this over here, It is the gastrointestinal tract a system of organs where the food is supposed to enter over here through here and then ultimately end up leaving the body down there.
This should happen regularly but what if it doesn’t what if it doesn’t happen regularly. Join us now in this video to learn about five things that should and could be done in patients with constipation. It’s annoying almost all of us have been there at one point in our lives. This can cause bloating and even loss of appetite, going to the toilet can even cause abdominal pain but also anal pain. Because of all the straining. Furthermore, patients can experience a perforation of the gastrointestinal wall. So, The first thing you can do about constipation is figure out if you have it at all just because you didn’t have a bowel movement today. It doesn’t mean that there is something wrong. Constipation is medically defined as having less than three bowel movements a week and bowel movements that are hard to pass so properly. Defining constipation and analyzing it that way through evidence-based medicine is the first thing that we can do. The second thing is something that patient himself can do and that is a lifestyle modification and i know that sounds like a washed up phrase but here it really helps. It includes drinking more water, eating more fiber, but also working out and exercise but yes sadly, It is often the case that these lifestyle modification options are not enough and constipation still persists that’s why we should explain the remaining three things about constipation and what can be done about it. The third thing that can be done is to like this video and subscribe to this channel because a lot of people suffer from constipation and youtube and other platforms will simply not suggest our videos to them unless we get enough likes and subscriptions that’s just how their algorithms work. So, finally we get to the point where a skilled gastroenterologist should show his skills and knowledge. The fourth thing that can be attempted is a treatment with laxatives. Our gastrointestinal organs secrete a lot of water almost all the time. It starts with saliva in the mouth and almost 10 liters of water enters our stomach daily. Additionally, we drink water with our food but around 80 to 90 percent of this water is absorbed by the small intestine and the remaining 10 is passed on to the large intestine.
Large intest intestine attempts to absorb as much as water as possible and because of our small intestine. Our enlarged intestine absorbing all this water back into the bloodstream we don’t have to drink five or ten liters of water every day. So, This is exactly where we can try to use some hyper osmotic agent and those are substances attempting to hold back some of this water from being absorbed back into the bloodstream. This can create a soft stool that is easier to pass and this osmotic effect stimulates bowel movement but if you look closely upon an anatomical or histological examination of the gastrointestinal walls. You will see that they are made up of muscle tissue. This is important because the stool doesn’t simply fall out down. There, It has to be moved towards the anus by the contractions of the gastrointestinal walls. This is the second point where we can attempt to stimulate the nerves innervating the gastrointestinal walls to start and activate these contractions in a synchronized way. The inner lining of the gastrointestinal wall is made up of mucosa and subsubstances can irritate this mucosa and ultimately cause these contractions as well stimulating contractions of the gastrointestinal tract walls is actually done by a group of medication called stimulating laxatives but it should only be used if the first mechanism failed. That is the osmotic laxatives which attempt to hold the water over here and prevent it from being absorbed back into the bloodstream besides. These first two options to treat the patient with osmotic laxatives as a first line treatment as well as stimulating laxatives. There are also other options such as injection of enemas but also physical and surgical intervention but before we get to any of these scary treatments such as surgical intervention and before we even get to these conservative methods of treating constipation. I want to highlight one last thing, That is maybe the most important thing in this entire topic about constipation diagnostics and proper differential diagnosis. It is a must whenever we deal with a patient with constipation constipation can be caused by a whole variety of dangerous underlying conditions such as cancers or benign tumors. They might obstruct the gastrointestinal tract anatomically and therefore also obstruct the bowel movement. A damage of the nerves innervating the gastrointestinal wall or injuries of the spinal cord can paralyze the muscle tissue of the gastrointestinal tract. Ultimately, Hormonal problems that we cannot see easily such as diabetes mellitus and hypothyroidism can lead to constipation as well because of that it sometimes makes sense to even measure the patient’s thyroid hormones such as fd3 and fd4. If we suspect the possible presence of cancer or a tumor then a colonoscopy can be performed in order to examine and record the colon from the inside. But, When do we expect a presence of cancer there are specific red flags that should never be ignored but besides these specific red flags such as blood in the stool there are somewhat less alarming symptoms in signs that might indicate other causes as well. A skilled and a well-educated doctor should be able to recognize these signs and therefore organize these diagnostics in a proper way and the right direction we all can benefit from these videos. If you’re a medical doctor and you want to make videos like these then go to anatomsky.com but if you have more questions about constipation then go to symtomsky.com/help/constipation
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