Good health you, my dears! No matter how refined and poetic natures we would not be about once a day or a little less often, something happens to us that we prefer not to show to anyone and about which we will not tell anyone once again.

I'm talking about defecation, that is, about the moment when our body removes accumulated toxins. So, today we are talking about what defecation is, about its varieties and about the problems that may be associated with it.

Translated from Latin, “defecation” is the disposal of feces, cleansing the rectum, the process of defecation that occurs through the anus.

Normal bowel movements are from two times a day to once every two days. With a more frequent process, they speak of diarrhea, and with a rarer process, they speak of constipation.

The consistency of your stool will also change, from watery with diarrhea to very hard, almost stoney with constipation. Moreover, in the latter case, it is such that it may well injure delicate mucous tissues and even break the intestines, provoking peritonitis.

If your frequency of bowel movements is disturbed or you observe a change in consistency, then this is almost always a sign of a malfunction in the gastrointestinal tract.

Some important numbers

The amount of stool that will make you want to go to the toilet: 25 milliliters or more. This indicator is called the threshold of rectal sensitivity.

But your internal anal sphincter is able to relax even if 10 milliliters of feces press on it.

A constant urge to defecate will occur if there is at least 220 milliliters of contents in your intestines.

But your intestines are also able to withstand the amount of up to 280 milliliters. Although for some this threshold is slightly lower: from 110 ml.

If any deviations from the above norms are observed during anorectal manometry, then this is a sign of a pathological condition.

In addition, each person during a bowel movement displays up to half a liter of gas. But in patients with flatulence - up to 3 liters and even more.

Such a gas mixture is 90% nitrogen, and the rest of its components are oxygen, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, etc.

The desire to visit the toilet arises at the moment when the feces from the sigmoid colon pass into the rectum.

A person can consciously control this process from one and a half to two years. It is worth mentioning that, depending on age, the normal frequency of defecation may vary.

An infant up to 3 months old, feeding only on breast milk, can defecate from 5 to 40 times a week, for artificial people this number is reduced to 20 times. A child up to a year can poop up to 28 times, up to 3 years - up to 21 times. Babies over 4 years of age can have 3 to 14 bowel movements.

The most common and well-known positions for defecation are squatting and sitting. Most often, the choice of position will depend on the type of toilet and mentality.

How do we defecate?

If the pressure in your intestines has increased to about 45 cm of water, you begin to feel like visiting the bathroom.

The moment you sit on the toilet, two of your sphincters: the inner and outer ones relax, peristaltic movements begin in the rectum. The muscle that lifts the anus contracts and shortens, and as a result, stool is ejected.

In addition, during defecation, the muscles of the diaphragm and abdominal muscles work. Their well-coordinated cooperation during straining increases our intra-abdominal pressure to 220 cm of water column.

By the way, did you know that 1 out of 10 patients with a heart attack received their pathology during bowel movements and excessive stress? And 3 patients out of 100 had a stroke this way.

The process of defecation is managed by our central nervous system. Control from the involuntary act of defecation is also provided to us by the spinal cord at the level of the lumbosacral region.

But the cerebral hemispheres, the hypothalamus and the medulla oblongata are responsible for the consciousness of the process.

Proctologists say that there are two types of defecation: one-stage and two-stage.

Moreover, the first type is recorded in approximately 7 out of 10 patients. Two of them will have a two-moment, and one will have a mixed or indeterminate.

In the first case, it works, which in 2-3 contractions gets rid of the contents of both the sigmoid and rectum. All this lasts about 4 minutes.

In the two-stage version, the contents of the rectum come out first. However, the feeling of incomplete emptying does not disappear, and then you begin to strain the abdominal walls.

In this case, it may take about 10 minutes for the feces from the sigmoid colon to pass into the rectum and leave their "shelter".

The contents can also come out in several portions, and the time spent in the toilet is increased in this way up to half an hour.

If we talk about what is best for your health and intestines, then this is, without a doubt, such an act of defecation that allows you to achieve maximum efficiency in a short time. That is, one-stage defecation is preferable.

The longer you sit on the toilet and strain the muscles of the anus, the more likely you are to encounter in the future. This becomes especially harmful for those who already have proctological diseases. That is why this variety is considered as a pre-pathological condition.

If you want to know more about what complications in the work of the rectum you can get in connection with this, then study in detail the information here:

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to change the type of bowel movement, because it is produced in early childhood. But with a thoughtful attitude, some people can adjust this approach.

What feces are considered normal?

Normally, your stool looks like a sausage of a homogeneous and fairly dense consistency. If it is small and round, and also hard, this is a sign of constipation.

A more liquid state indicates diarrhea and the presence of inflammation in the intestines. Depending on what disorders in the body you have experienced, normal indicators of feces will also vary.

If your stomach can't absorb fat properly, then your stool will look like shiny putty. With spastic manifestations, you will see feces in the form of a tape or pencil.

Also, normal stools are brown with different shades, but they can vary greatly depending on what kind of food you eat.

• For example, milk and dairy products give a yellowish color, meat gives darker shades, beets and red berries - burgundy.
• However, the color of the feces may also indicate that some pathological processes have begun in you. So an almost black color will indicate possible internal bleeding, but depending on the part of the digestive tract, it can also be bright red.
• Inflammation gives green and frothy stools interspersed with mucus.
• Yellow stools with pieces of undigested food indicate that your pancreas is not coping with its functions. In addition, the feces will have a very unpleasant odor.
• Liver pathologies discolor stools or give them a grayish color.
• Severe gastrointestinal diseases also change the color and consistency of the stool: typhoid fever will make it look like pea soup, cholera for rice water, and dysentery for bloody porridge.

That's all for today, what is worth knowing about defecation. I am already looking forward to seeing you and your loved ones on the pages of this blog. tomorrow to tell a lot of interesting things.

Many people are familiar with the phenomenon of pain during bowel movements. Regardless of whether it is permanent or occurs from time to time, it causes fear and misunderstanding.

It becomes especially scary when the pain during defecation is supplemented by symptoms such as burning, changing its color, consistency, smell.

There are many reasons for painful bowel movements. This article discusses them in detail.

Don't try to diagnose yourself. Pain in the anus can have a completely harmless etiology, but it can also be the result of a life-threatening disease. It is important to contact a competent specialist and undergo a thorough diagnosis.

Importance of normal stool

Normally, each person should defecate 1-2 times a day. In the presence of various diseases and other reasons, this process can be disturbed: it can completely disappear or, conversely, become more frequent. In both cases, there are ailments during defecation, which can significantly complicate a person's life.

Violation of the frequency of defecation is already a symptom of a disease that requires consultation with a proctologist, surgeon, gastroenterologist.

At the first sign of acute pain in the rectum, an urgent need to visit a proctologist. Only in this case it is possible to guarantee the correct treatment and a favorable outcome.

Pain during bowel movements: the main causes

The causes of pain during bowel movements can be different, they depend on many factors. So, even such a banal reason as indigestion can cause it. An abundant amount of food, its poor quality, food that is not suitable for the stomach causes indigestibility of food. As a result, there are problems with defecation.

This situation is often observed when a person does not follow the diet, consumes an excessive amount of fatty, spicy foods. Eliminating foods that can cause indigestion from the diet can solve the problem. If a person continues to lead a normal life, the development of more serious complications is possible, which will have to be treated under the supervision of specialists.

It is a careful attitude to one's health that helps a person quickly get rid of pain in the anus or never know what it is.

If we talk about diseases, then most often the pain that occurs during defecation occurs when:

• anal fissure;
• subcutaneous and sciatic paraproctitis;
• inflammation of the rectum;
• acute form of hemorrhoids;
• colorectal cancer.

Let's consider each of these pathologies in more detail.

anal fissure

Damage to the mucous membrane of the rectum at the location of the sphincter - is accompanied by three main signs:

1. Strong pains.
2. Bleeding.
3. Spasm of the anal sphincter.

Painful sensations come during bowel movements, the attacks do not last long, about 20 minutes, however, they are so strong that they cause unbearable torment.

Subcutaneous paraproctitis

The acute form of this disease is characterized by the formation of an abscess under the skin in the immediate vicinity of the anus. Paraproctitis is often the cause of pain in the anus during bowel movements.

The most severe soreness in the anus is observed directly in the process of defecation.

Subcutaneous paraproctitis develops rapidly, accompanied by painful manifestations. You can recognize it by the following features:

• swelling of the perineum, redness and swelling of the skin;
• constant, rapidly progressive, aggravated during bowel movements;
• throbbing pain, indicating the transition of the disease into a purulent phase;
• rapidly increasing compaction in the anus (abscess);
• hyperthermia - the skin becomes hot to the touch;
• general malaise, fever.

Ischial paraproctitis

This disease is accompanied by severe cutting pains that appear during bowel movements. This makes bowel movements painful, even impossible.

Sciatic paraproctitis is a serious disease characterized by a rapid course. If you do not contact a specialist in time, the consequences can be disastrous: a rapidly increasing body temperature and intoxication of the body.

Inflammation of the rectum

Acute proctitis is characterized by:

• pain in the region of the rectum, strong, throbbing, aggravated by defecation. Often she gives to the perineum and genitals;
• burning sensation, heaviness, foreign body in the anus;
• purulent and bloody discharge from the rectum;
• stool disorders: diarrhea or constipation;
• impurities of blood in the feces;
• frequent urge to defecate;
• fever, general malaise.

With the transition of the disease to chronic form pain becomes dull, aching in nature. Their mild severity of symptoms does not cause the patient almost any concern. But this does not mean that the disease does not need treatment.

Acute form of hemorrhoids

Pain with hemorrhoids in the anus is due to an exacerbation of the disease, characterized by the prolapse of hemorrhoids from the anus or their infringement. There may be pain after the act of defecation, while walking, in neglected forms - at rest.

Other symptoms of the disease:

• itching and burning in the anus;
• when defecating.
• feeling of a foreign body in the anus.

The most severe pain, patients feel when.

Rectal cancer

The most common symptoms of colorectal cancer are pain in the anus and red blood in the stool.

At the initial stage, pain during defecation is characteristic, which gradually increases, becomes permanent. With the development of pathology, pain appears in the lower abdomen, thighs, and genitals.

The presence of a strong pain syndrome indicates the advanced phase of the neoplasm.

Other reasons

The above reasons are the most common, but far from the only ones:

1. If pain during bowel movements is accompanied by diarrhea, pathologies such as colitis, intestinal polyps, diverticulitis are possible.
2. Problems with bowel movements in men can be caused by inflammation of the prostate. In this case, in addition to pain, there is discomfort and a feeling that the patient is sitting on a golf ball. Another characteristic of prostatitis is frequent and painful urination.
3. In women, painful bowel movements without bleeding may be due to pelvic inflammatory disease or an ovarian cyst.
4. In both sexes, painful bowel movements may be due to an inflamed appendix.

How to get rid of pain during bowel movements?

To eliminate pain after defecation, it is necessary to determine its nature. As you can see, there are many diseases that cause this symptom.

Problems associated with diseases of the anus are dealt with by a proctologist. Only a doctor can diagnose the disease and help get rid of the problem.

It is possible that in the process of diagnosis, it may be necessary to consult other specialists: a surgeon, a urologist, a gynecologist, a gastroenterologist.

Diagnostic methods such as ano-, colono-, gastroscopy will help to examine the mucous membrane of the rectum, identify hemorrhoids, fissures, benign and malignant neoplasms.

Laboratory diagnostic methods (blood, urine, feces, including occult blood tests) will help differentiate the pathology.

Treatment options for painful bowel movements depend on the diagnosis:

1. For constipation or diarrhea due to malnutrition simply enough to eliminate the provoking factor.
2. With hemorrhoids, anal fissure, proctitis and paraproctitis, conservative or surgical treatment is prescribed. The doctor chooses a treatment regimen individually, based on the severity of the symptoms and the degree of neglect of the disease.
3. If the patient is tormented by severe pain in the anus before, during and after defecation, in addition to the main one, symptomatic treatment is prescribed, aimed at reducing discomfort and facilitating the act of defecation.

Not the last role in the elimination of pain is played by the patient himself. It is very important to normalize the stool, by all means to avoid constipation and diarrhea. For this you need:

• carefully choose products for the daily diet;
• drink at least two liters of water every day;
• Eat enough fiber (contained in fresh vegetables and fruits), which helps to soften the stool.

If constipation is irregular, the doctor may recommend taking laxatives, however, for a short time, otherwise addiction to the drug may occur and the problem will only worsen.

What does the term "defaecation" mean, not everyone knows. It refers to the natural physiological process of removing undigested food residues from the body. Defecation can serve as an indicator of a person's health and lifestyle. Deviations from the norm appear due to food, infectious diseases or pathologies internal organs. How to distinguish an ordinary bowel movement from a hypothetically dangerous one?

The first bowel movement occurs in the womb. The born child produces it unconsciously. Meconium (the so-called original feces) is a black, tar-like substance. It is excreted from the mother's body naturally. Up to 2-3 years, children do not control this process and defecate at the first urge. After this age, a person can suppress desire.

To understand how the act of defecation occurs, let's turn to physiology. Let's go over the whole process step by step:

• crushed food enters the stomach and, under the influence of hydrochloric acid and enzymes, begins to break down;
• after a certain time, gruel (chyme) enters the small intestine, where nutrients are absorbed by its villi;
• chyme descends into the large intestine, where moisture is absorbed;
• the formed stool creates pressure on the rectum, the sphincters relax, and the person feels the desire to empty himself.

The process of defecation itself occurs differently in people. Approximately 70% do this with 1-3 tensions of the muscles of the abdomen and pelvis, the process itself takes no more than 5 minutes (simultaneous bowel movement). The remaining 30% take longer to empty their bowels, needing two or more stools.

Curious statistics: 10% of heart attacks and 3.5% of strokes occur during the second type of emptying.

This type of defecation is considered a variant of the norm, but creates the prerequisites for vascular and intestinal diseases.

Criteria for a normal bowel movement

Brief description of normal bowel movements: bowel movements with a frequency of 1-3 times a day to 2-3 times a week. The act occurs painlessly and does not affect the well-being of a person. To determine compliance with the norm, several criteria are important: color, weight, consistency, smell, etc.

Frequency

The number of bowel movements depends on the age, nutrition and individual characteristics of the person.

Children up to six months can go big up to 10 times a day, this is due to the type of feeding. Babies who feed exclusively on breast milk empty after each feeding, that is, after 2-3 hours. They may not have bowel movements for 5–7 days while maintaining good health.

Children who receive only mixtures poop 1-2 times a day. At 4–6 months, complementary foods are introduced and the frequency of bowel movements decreases.

For an adult, it is considered normal if he goes to the toilet 1-3 times a day. It is not a deviation if this happens after 2-3 days, but at the same time, normal health remains.

Consistency

The norm for this parameter is well-formed masses without impurities, 70% of which is liquid, and the rest is food debris, waste products of microflora and dead intestinal cells.

Deviation is considered:

Smell

The stool has an unpleasant, but not pungent odor. It results from the breakdown of fats and proteins.

The smell may be:

• putrefactive - with prolonged constipation or pathological changes in the intestinal mucosa;
• sour - with the abuse of foods (drinks) that cause fermentation, and intestinal infections;
• sharp, reminiscent of acetone - with severe stress on the liver, the release of bile, for example, with prolonged drug therapy or alcohol abuse.

It also happens that the feces practically do not smell. This happens with rapid contractions of the intestine and a short time for the passage of food through the gastrointestinal tract.

Colour

The color of the stool can vary from light yellow to brown in normal, depending on the food. So, for lovers of dairy products and infants, it is yellow, and for meat eaters it is dark brown.

What does a color change mean? A brief description of:

• white or very light - a sign of diseases of the pancreas or liver;
• light yellow stool appears with diarrhea and diseases of the gallbladder;
• bright orange - with an excess of beta-carotene and the use of products of this color (carrots, pumpkins);
• red or burgundy stools may indicate bleeding on the walls of the large intestine or simply that a person has eaten, for example, beetroot salad;
• green stool - one of the signs of dysbacteriosis;
• greenish-brown appears with an excess of iron;
• almost black feces - very dangerous symptom, which speaks of bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal tract, for example, in the stomach or esophagus.

Possible deviations

The most common abnormalities are constipation and diarrhea.

Constipation is a violation of defecation, in which there is no bowel movement for more than 2 days. Associated symptoms:

• abdominal pain;
• weakness;
• irritability;
• flatulence and severe bloating;
• sleep disorders.

Diarrhea - loose stools with a frequency of more than 5 times a day. Violation is accompanied by signs:

• nausea, vomiting;
• stomach ache;
• temperature increase.

Especially dangerous in an adult is diarrhea or constipation with high fever, blood, mucus in the feces. With such symptoms, it is better to go to the hospital. Medical assistance will also be needed in cases where these violations are systematic.

So, a normal toilet:

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