Headaches Due to Constipation

Constipated people don't give a crap! ~ Anonymous

Well, they would if they weren't so full of it themselves! In case you're frowning upon my assumed impertinence, let me tell you that I meant every word in the previous sentence in their literal, and not figurative, sense. When constipation and headache team up against you, that's a genuinely mean combination you're left to deal with!

So, do headaches due to constipation really happen or is it just a coincidence that both occur together? Well, if you ask people who suffer from chronic constipation, they'll tell you for sure that there's nothing coincidental about headaches and constipation happening together! In fact, one begets the other.

The more days that go by without bowel movements, the worse the headaches get. Talking about the headaches alone, those induced by constipation are quite sharp and are felt along the temples and forehead.

These headaches can be so severe at times that it becomes difficult even to keep your eyes open, let alone trying to read or watch something! Along with the temples and forehead, the pain may also radiate along the jaws and behind the ears so that you feel like you're wearing a heavy iron helmet with inward facing spikes that bite into the temples.

Like hell there is! If you've ever gone through a period of constipation that lasted anywhere between 4 - 7 days, you couldn't have possibly missed that heavy-headed, dull feeling throughout the day when gravity refused to cooperate with you in the morning. So, why does constipation cause headache? Rather, HOW does constipation lead to a headache?

You see, the stool that we pass on a daily basis is the waste material that remains after the body has taken all the nutrition and useful stuff it wants from whatever we've eaten throughout the day. What would happen to the trash we take out of the house at the end of each day, if the garbage van were not to show up for the next couple of days?

Filth and stench would engulf the entire neighborhood! Not only that, additional trash would accumulate at the end of each passing day and that would just contribute to the bacterial buffet that's left out there!

Now, taking bowel movements into account, if the waste material doesn't get evacuated from the body each day, coupled with the additional food intake and resultant waste production, the body can be equated to a landfill.

Similar to the dumped garbage at landfills, this filthy waste inside the body emits a lot of harmful gases and chemical toxins that lead to a general feeling of physical unease. The gases rise and go to the head, causing those toxic headaches. They act like toxic fumes that travel internally and affect all organs they touch.

Constipation is also a sign that the body is not sufficiently hydrated and we all know that dehydration leads to headache. The difficult stool that refuses to pass out of the body further absorbs all the water it can from intestinal walls, leaving the body even more dehydrated. All these add up to the nagging headaches.

The best way of getting rid of constipation-induced headaches is to get rid of constipation itself, which is the root cause of all this trouble. A lot of home remedies for constipation and resultant headache are there that can treat constipation and, over time, restore normal bowel movement conditions.

Drinking lots of water is of utmost importance as most cases of constipation happen due to inadequate consumption of water. Drinking lots of water is all the more important when eating fiber rich foods as dietary fibers absorb a lot of water when they reach the intestines. In such a situation, not drinking enough will only worsen your constipation.

For instant relief from constipation, milk of magnesia works just fine. If the headache becomes too unbearable, you can take any analgesic that is commonly used against headaches. More often than not, the headache will disappear within minutes after you've dropped your consignment!