Is "stool retention" a health killer? Do you really need to moisturize and clean it?

Nowadays, advertisements for health products are everywhere, and the word "stool retention" is often seen. Detoxification and beauty products are even more eye-catching, with the banner of "clearing stool retention, removing intestinal toxins, and moisturizing the intestines", making it difficult to distinguish the true from the false. Many people spend a lot of money to buy them, but in the end, not only did they not "detoxify", but they were "poisoned" and became "diarrhea". Because these "health products" contain laxative ingredients, they actually make you have diarrhea for a long time. How can you not lose weight?

So, how many laxatives are actually hidden in these “health products” that are only good for appearance? Let’s take a look[1].

Senna: The main ingredients are green tea, honeysuckle, cassia seed, lotus leaf, senna, honey, etc. Senna has a strong laxative effect and irritation, which can cause the large intestine to contract sharply, so diarrhea may be accompanied by abdominal pain. Senna is often used for surgical intestinal examination or to clear the intestinal contents before surgery or to treat acute constipation. It is generally not recommended for chronic constipation.

Aloe vera: a natural medicine for beauty, hair care and skin disease treatment. Shampoo, cosmetics, beverages, sunscreen, moisturizer, perfume and even toilet paper often contain aloe vera. Aloe vera seems to be able to cure all diseases, but there is not enough evidence for its specific efficacy and safety. Its active ingredients play a stimulating laxative role in the large intestine. The irritation is very strong. Excessive use can cause abdominal pain and pelvic congestion. In severe cases, it can cause nephritis and renal failure.

Rhubarb: Some health products for detoxification and beauty contain rhubarb, which can damage the liver. There are clinical reports that a hepatitis B patient's condition worsened due to taking Chinese medicine containing rhubarb, and died of sepsis and multiple organ failure. In addition, some scholars have proposed that long-term use of rhubarb laxatives can cause liver cirrhosis and electrolyte metabolism disorders.

Senna, aloe vera, and rhubarb are all irritant laxatives and should not be used for a long time. Frequent use of laxatives can cause drug-induced constipation. This is because the habit of using laxatives to relieve constipation will weaken the sensitivity of the rectal reflex. Even if feces enter the rectum in the future, it will not be enough to generate nerve impulses that lead to defecation reflexes, which will cause constipation.

In fact, "fecal impaction" is not that scary. There is no concept of "fecal impaction" in medical books. The term "fecal impaction" is a hype created by businesses, which has replaced the concept of "constipation" in medicine. Most constipation can be improved by adjusting diet, exercise and other lifestyle factors.

Generally speaking, "stool retention" is a short name for stool that is retained in the intestines for several days without being discharged. In recent years, due to the exaggerated publicity of manufacturers, the health hazards of "stool retention" have been maliciously magnified, making people shudder at the mere mention of it, and many consumers have been deceived.

From the perspective of the food digestion process, food needs to go through a series of processes to be converted into feces after digestion and absorption. After chewing and initial digestion in the mouth, the food enters the stomach through the esophagus. After being fully mixed with gastric acid and various digestive juices, it passes through the duodenum, jejunum, ileum, cecum, ascending colon, transverse colon, descending colon, sigmoid colon, and rectum and is excreted from the body. This takes about 24 hours to 48 hours. Therefore, feces stay in the intestines for a certain period of time before being excreted from the body, and there is a process from thin to soft. This is the natural process and law of feces formation. Therefore, every normal person has a certain amount of feces retained in the body.

For us, normal daily bowel movements are a physiological need of the human body. Generally speaking, it is best to have a bowel movement once a day, and a formed soft stool is best. Regular bowel movements every day are certainly a good thing, but there is no need to panic if you don't have a bowel movement for a day or two. The widely recognized medical definition of constipation is: no more than 2 bowel movements per week; sometimes there are fewer bowel movements, or difficult or unsmooth bowel movements; and there are often a series of syndromes such as rectal distension, long-term straining to defecate, incomplete defecation, abdominal distension and abdominal pain.

If you deliberately detoxify, promote early stool discharge through drug intervention or enema, it will lead to increased bowel movements and chronic diarrhea, and incomplete food absorption. If you do this for a long time, it will easily lead to intestinal disorders and cause a series of intestinal diseases. If you defecate more than twice a day for a long time, the food residue will not be fully absorbed, and the stool will be loose and soft. The repeated wiping of the skin around the anus and the residual loose stool will easily cause dermatitis and eczema. The end of the anorectum is prone to congestion of the hemorrhoidal veins and downward displacement of the anal cushions, which can cause hemorrhoids, anal canal inflammation, anal sinusitis, etc.

In addition, chronic diarrhea can easily cause intestinal mucosal edema and even glandular hyperplasia to form intestinal polyps, which may eventually lead to cancer. Therefore, for people with normal bowel movements, deliberately having a bowel movement to detoxify is harmful rather than beneficial to the body [2].

In addition, for patients with constipation, although habitual constipation can lead to the retention of toxins such as indoles and amines, thus causing abdominal distension, loss of appetite, poor sleep, dull complexion, and even polyp proliferation and cancer, the abuse of laxatives, especially contact laxatives (also known as stimulant laxatives), will aggravate constipation, because the anthraquinones in the ingredients of contact laxatives can cause carcinogens to accumulate in the intestinal wall, and even cause intestinal cancer over time. Therefore, for patients with constipation, bowel regulation should mainly start with physical exercise and adjustment of dietary structure to promote the self-recovery of the intestine. If laxatives are used blindly, although they can temporarily relieve constipation symptoms, they only treat the symptoms and not the root cause. Over time, they will increase the burden on the intestine and worsen the condition. Long-term use of laxatives can also lead to malnutrition, enteritis, and iatrogenic constipation [2].

In recent years, laboratory and epidemiological studies have shown that a high-fat, high-protein, and low-fiber diet may be associated with the development of colon cancer. This is because under such dietary conditions, more carcinogens are produced in the feces, and a low-fiber diet can lead to slow intestinal peristalsis and prolonged defecation time, which prolongs the contact time between carcinogens and the colon mucosa and increases the risk of colorectal cancer. Therefore, eating crude fiber, low-protein, low-fat foods and fruits can effectively improve constipation and reduce the risk of colon cancer.

In short, when you start to have symptoms of constipation, don't buy "health products" indiscriminately. The first thing you need to do is to change your lifestyle. There are three main points: first, don't be too refined in your diet, eat more fiber foods, such as corn, vegetables, fruits, etc.; second, drink plenty of water; third, do appropriate exercise.

References:

Fang Jian. Be careful not to detoxify and end up with diarrhea[J]. Jiangsu Health Care, 2017(04):41.

Wang Aihua. Laxative "detoxification" is not advisable [J]. Chinese Medicine Health and Wellness, 2017(08):21-22.