speciality

Constipation is defined as having a bowel movement fewer than two to three times per week. With constipation stools are usually hard, dry, small in size, and difficult to eliminate. Some people who are constipated find it painful to have a bowel movement and often experience straining, bloating, and the sensation of a full bowel.

Usually, constipation could be caused by

• Life style --not eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, lack of exercise
• Emotion changes: depression & anxiety, 
• the use of certain types of medications and dietary supplements, such as: antacids, Iron supplements,
• Narcotics, tranquillizers, sedatives, Ibuprofen, Naproxin Sodium,Laxative abuse
• changes of the structure of the colon or rectum

From Chinese Medicine prospective, there are four reason to cause constipation:

• Heat induced constipation: accumulation of internal heat injure the body fluid and this in turn lead to constipation.
• Qi stagnation: energy get stuck and transit slow. 
• Qi, Yin or body fluid deficiency: especially for elderly people or new moms who lost a lot of blood, they have constipation due to less body fluid. This condition just like in real world: if there is not enough water in the river, the boat can not move any more. 
• Yang Qi deficiency: Yang Qi in our body has function to warm up the body. If Yang Qi is insufficient, cold will gel in the interior, causing the impediment of intestinal movement. 

The practitioner will check patients' pulse, tongue, ask questions and make diagnosis with different pattern. And then use acupuncture needles and herbal medicine to correct the imbalance. 

Chronic constipation symptoms should be treated. If we keep ignoring it , the harmful bacteria and toxins present in the feces will be reabsorbed into the bloodstream and will lead to long term harm to our health.

• Ninety patients who had chronic functional constipation (CFC) were treated with acupuncture.  Three cases were cured, 6 cases were remarkably effective, 23 cases were effective and 20 cases were ineffective after 1 month of treatment. The total effective rate was 67.7% (61/90).
  More: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20214063
• The study want to find the efficacy of a Chinese herbal  medicine (Hemp Seed Pill) for functional constipation and the result shows that this herbal medicine is safe and effective for this problem.
  More: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21045817