From time to time, everyone has trouble going, and for more than 4 million Americans, constipation is a chronic problem. Everyone is different. Anything in the range of three a day to three a week is perfectly normal. If you feel constipated, chances are you're getting too little exercise, eating too little fiber, and not drinking enough fluids, says family practitioner Anne Simons, M.D. an assistant clinical professor of family and community medicine at the University of California's San Francisco Medical Center. Fiber adds bulk to the stool, which also helps stimulate peristalsis.
Fluids spur digestion and help keep stools soft enough to pass comfortably.
One reason is that colonic peristalsis loses some of its oomph in the elderly, says David Schaefer, M.D., Ph.D. of the Digestive Diseases Center of Apple Hill Medical Center in York, Pennsylvania. In addition, many older people don't get adequate exercise, and their sense of thirst loses some of its edge, so they drink less than they should. It alters your regular toilet rhythms, and diet and exercise habits. Travel by air is also dehydrating. Irritable bowel syndrome .