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Indy100 Staff
Nov 21, 2015
Holding in excrement can make your body forget how to poo. Is a sentence we just wrote.
Your body digests food by the use of smooth muscles which push food along your intestine, absorbing nutrients and water as it goes, and the rest is waste.
As Discovery News points out, if you hold in your faeces, you have an increased risk of constipation.
Constipation, which is the cause of 2.5 million doctor visits in the US per year, is when your body draws too much water out of the food in your gut, resulting in dry waste and blockages.
If stool has not been passed in three days, then you can count yourself constipated by official guidelines.
In addition, if you frequently try to hold in a bowel movement, there is evidence to suggest you are more likely to become constipated or lose full function in the muscles required to go to the toilet.
Laxatives may help, but dependency on them is a bad thing – studies show overuse can mean that the muscles in your intestine forget how to excrete.
So remember, eat fibre, drink water and try not to hold it in unless you truly need to.
Watch the full video, below:
More:Meet the woman who thinks we're pooing wrong
More:Here is Bill Gates drinking water made from human faeces
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