Can Constipation Cause Heartburn?

Numerous people that experience heartburn, feel that it is actually do to constipation. This is very likely, but in order to explain why this happens, we have to talk a bit about what constipation really is. Around 25% of the total population seems to experience it, and this disease does not discriminate by age as all types of people seem to get diagnosed with it.

Constipation is the process of eliminating digested food and exiting it out of the body through a bowel movement. When this doesn't go as planned, the person might experience straining, abdominal pain or other symptoms such as heartburn.

When constipation occurs, the speed at which the food is supposed by exiting is slowed down and this backs up everything else. Now you have a colon and the stomach which is backed up while there is more food being digested. This is exactly why heartburn might occur. Think of it as a backed up toilet and what happens when you flush it... not a pretty picture, but it is signifies the process exactly.

If this illness is allowed to take its course, the stomach might stop being able to absorb nutrients from the foods and that can lead to a major degradation of your health and well being. Heartburn is often triggered by stress, and I cannot imagine a person with long term constipation being balanced.

There are also other things such as the toxins (hormones and drugs in foods we eat, heavy metals, or even cholesterol) which now will have a hard time exiting the body. All of the things we eat contain some of these and it is very important to excrete them out of the blood system and then out of the body before they reach unsafe levels.

The optimal way is to have a bowel movement once a day. If you have to rely on additional fiber in your diet, laxative or a stool softener then you have constipation. It is very important to find out the cause of the problem and this can only be done by a qualified medical practitioner.

The doctor should screen you for both food allergies and hypothyroidism. There might be some psychological and neurological causes (not common) but food allergies can be avoided by following a simple elimination diet. If he simply wants to give you drugs, ask for the tests or switch doctors.

Some of the temporary (short-term only) relief can be found by drinking lots of water, moderate exercise, adding fiber to diet, taking flax oil, laxatives, magnesium, even suppositories or enemas. Most of the medication states how long the medicine should be taken for and you should not go beyond that time frame as most of them damage the kidneys and have many other harmful side effects.