'Stay At Home Constipation' Is Making It Hard for Some People to Poop Right Now—Here's Why
This is what can happen when your daily routine is disrupted.
Thanks to COVID-19, we’ve all had to figure out a new normal. Working from home, social distancing, and spending so much time indoors has changed day-to-day life in various ways. Those changes include our toilet habits. And that's given rise to a new term, “Stay At Home Constipation."
Understanding why some people are becoming constipated during lockdown begins with the circadian rhythm—a natural process in the brain that regulates the sleep-wake cycle and repeats more or less every 24 hours. The colon has its own circadian rhythm that’s easily disrupted by a lack of physical exercise, poor sleep, changes in eating schedules, and stress.
Of course, staying at home because of a global pandemic will likely affect each of those elements. “When we’re at home sitting around and not staying active or engaging in our usual routine, colonic motility (the process by which the colon sequentially contracts to propel feces along) decreases, causing constipation,”.
Even after viewing the the video on solution for constpation and If all else fails and your quarantine constipation continues, call your doctor for advice. You may not even need to leave your house and break local social distancing guidelines. “Nationally, clinics are moving towards telemedicine to meet the demands of their patients who should remain at home,”
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