Constipation

Causes and symptoms of constipation

Constipation is a generic term for disorders with bowel movement, including irregular defecation, troubled defecation and too hard and dry stool. Bloating, abdominal pain and feeling that the stool hasn’t come out completely after defecation are considered the symptoms too. Constipation can be caused by multiple reasons, including following:

• stress,
• insufficient intake of water or fiber in food,
• little or no physical activity, sedentary lifestyle,
• pregnancy,
• diabetes and other hormone-changing disorders,
• taking some medicines, including sedatives or antidepressants,
• neurological disorders,
• colon cancer and other abdominal cancers.

Untreated constipation may provoke various complications, like hemorrhoids, anal fissures or rectal prolapse. That’s why it’s important to get an adequate treatment before the disease will progress severely.

Treatment of constipation in Japan

Japanese government has concluded that around 24 male and 50 female in every 1000 of Japanese people suffer from constipation (平成22年国民生活基礎調査の概況). Currently, the treatment of constipation in Japan starts from searching for a reason of the disorder and improving lifestyle choices. Taking healthier diet and more water, regular exercising and managing stress help many patients to improve constipation naturally. When that doesn’t work, doctors recommend to take natural remedies and that’s insufficient too, go to the stronger medications.

Please keep in mind that laxatives like Pursennid tablets are considered as alternative only for acute constipations or before surgical procedures. For chronic constipation, using laxatives leads to worsening the situation in general, so other medicines are used in Japan, for example, the following:

• Goofice tablets, one of the most popular Japanese medicines for constipation, works as a bile acid transporter inhibitor, increasing the flow of bile acids to the colon and promoting moisture and electrolyte secretion to the colon,
• Linzess tablets promote water secretion in the intestine, reduce pain by decreasing action of colonic sensory neurons and activate colonic motor neurons,
• Vencoll combination tablets improve bowel movements and soften stool by absorbing more water.

Also, for a long-term treatment Bio-Normalizer and Lactis are recommended for their safety and effectiveness.