A Movement you can get Behind! WARNING: We're going to be talking about poop so if you're not interested in it, skip ahead to #2 - there's a joke there but I'm classy enough to toilet it go. My recently retired colleagues tell me that one constant through medical practice over the years has been constipation concerns. It's tough to define what constipation means because a "normal" bowel routine is usually considered to be anything between 1 BM ever 3 days to 3 BM's every day. It's more about what's typical for your body. Your small and large intestine (colon) have small muscles that move matter along from top to bottom. The small intestine absorbs most of the nutrients from what you eat and the large intestine absorbs most of the water. Constipation happens when either a) the muscles stop moving as well or b) the stuff they're moving gets too hard to move or c) there is a blockage in the tube. What can stop the muscles from m...
Scott Selinger, MD, FACP musing on the questions you keep meaning to ask your doctor