I know, weird title for a post, right? But if you’ve read up on bowel irregularities such as IBS, or Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and other issues with the bowels not moving frequently enough, you may have come across one of the theories that is connected to constipation in people, and that is that people who are too sedentary, or in other words who do not move around enough, are often more prone to constipation. It makes sense if you think about it, because if you sit all day, you are not really “getting things moving” as they say.

I remember a couple of times in my life where I was bedrested for a while due to a surgery or some other factor out of my control, and it always seemed that I would be constipated and have bowel movements that were not “easy” to pass because they were not adequately moved around so they could pass through easily.

There are also other theories that you are not stimulating enough water through the bowels, since bowel movements rely on water to soak into the fecal matter from the bowel walls, and that inactivity also only aggravates this condition. Sitting for long periods of time or older people who are put on bedrest and are only allowed minimal movement are often prescribed laxatives and/or other medicines that help to loosen stool to help it move throught he bowel and digestive tract more freely to produce pain free bowel movements.

Maintaining healthy bowel habits is just another reason for working out and staying in shape - heck, just getting up and moving around a lot will do a world of good for the health of your colon and intestines, as well as for other parts of the digestive tract, all of which benefit from regular activity.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 1st, 2008 at 7:00 pm and is filed under Random Talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.