medicine

Constipation is something that is not spoken of enough in leading to long term consequences both mild (hemorrhoids) and severe (diverticulitis, colectomy)

Physician always trying to learn, passionate about healthspan and precision medicine.

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I think part of the problem is that even the clinical definition of constipation has diluted down to mean fewer than 3 movements a week

IMO if you're not shitting every day (with exceptions for outliers), you have a problem

Yup great point, it’s astounding how that can be considered normal for many

Im the guy that posted all those factory memes once

I forget where I read this, but the clinical definition for constipation used to be not having a movement every day

Once people began eating processed food and becoming sicker, too many people were failing this bar

Rather than acknowledging this, the definition was revised to be 3x a week (or 1 in 3 days)

The rule of thumb I have heard is 3 x 3, anything from 3 times a day to once every 3 days is normal enough to not really be a cause for concern. This of course needs to be evaluated within the context of the person's diet and general health profile.

For example someone with lactose intolerance will probably be going a bit more than once a day and someone on a diet probably a bit less than once a day on average. But importantly, much like there is no average fighter pilot, an average human does not exist.