GLUTEN AND CONSTIPATION

Image by Scott Bauer, U.S. Department of Agriculture via source:<a href="http://www.public-domain-image.com/free-images/food-and-drink/bread/breads" title="Breads public domain image">Breads</a>

What is Constipation

Constipation is sporadic and difficult passage of stools. Normal bowel movements vary from one person to another. Most people have a bowel movement every day while there are some who do not have it every day instead they have it every alternate day or once in two days. As far as an individual passes soft stools, three or more times per week, his bowel movements are said to be normal.

Constipation is characterized by infrequent bowel movements less than three times a week or hard and difficult passage of stools or an inability to pass stools after much straining and pushing.

Why Constipation is Bad...

Constipation is one of the most common though lesser known symptom of gluten intolerance. Constipation does not only mean gut pain, fewer bowel movements and/or related symptoms, but it also indicates serious dysfunction in the body’s ability to digest nutrients and eliminate toxins. This toxic build-up in the body eventually affects the immune system and may give rise to a host of other health problems.

How Gluten Causes Constipation

When gluten from a food enters the digestive tract of gluten sensitive or intolerant individuals, the protein fraction of gluten catalyses the defence system of such individuals to release alleviated amount of abnormal antibodies, which attack the lining of the small intestine causing it to atrophy and erode.

The lining of the small intestine contains small finger-like projections called microvilli. These microvilli densely populate the small bowel. As the food passes through the small intestine, the microvilli help to absorb the nutrients from the food into your blood stream.

In gluten sensitive or intolerant individuals the antibodies created by gluten attack these villi, as a result the villi gradually wear down and if corrective measures are not taken on time they are eventually completely destroyed.

As the microvilli are reduced in the gut, the food passes through the small intestine less processed and with far less the nutrients absorbed. 

The further the food moves along the gut, the small intestine anticipates more and more food and nutrients to be processed, digested and absorbed by your body. At the point when the parts of your intestine anticipating the food to be processed to a specific degree attempts to process this food this later part of your small gut rather either pass the sustenance totally without further processing or it assimilates what little it can- usually only the water...

This leads to the formation of hard stools that are difficult to pass.