Dry stools

　　1. Overwork and Mental Stress: Overwork and mental stress can suppress intestinal peristalsis and digestive fluid secretion, leading to poor digestion and constipation. It is recommended to get more rest.

　　2. Deficiency of Rough Fiber in Diet: When dining out, irregular eating habits, and neglecting balanced nutrition, the intake of rough fiber is often insufficient. It is recommended to eat more vegetables and coarse grains.

　　3. Insufficient Water Intake: When busy, people often forget to drink water, leading to dryness in the intestines and difficulty in excreting intestinal contents. Some people may even replenish water but still experience constipation issues. This is because the method of drinking water is incorrect; drinking slowly, the water is almost all absorbed into the blood and excreted through urine. It is recommended to drink more water, especially after waking up in the morning.

　　4. Prolonged Sitting: Prolonged sitting leads to a lack of physical activity, causing the intestinal muscles to become relaxed and the peristaltic function to weaken. Additionally, women naturally have weaker abdominal muscles, resulting in less force for defecation and a higher risk of constipation. It is recommended to engage in more physical activity, especially for office ladies.

　　5. Poor defecation habits: Due to busy work and tight morning schedules, some people do not defecate in time when they have a bowel movement, often holding it back, which makes the rectal sensory nerves become dull and leads to habitual constipation.

　　Although dry stools may seem simple, according to traditional Chinese medicine, the pathogenesis is quite complex, and chronic constipation may lead to symptoms such as prolapse, hemorrhoids, anal fissures, and even serious diseases such as myocardial infarction or stroke, which can threaten life. Therefore, everyone should not take constipation lightly in daily life and ignore the body's warnings. The following are some common diseases caused by constipation:

　　1. Disruption of gastrointestinal nerve function. During constipation, the retention of feces can lead to the absorption of harmful substances, causing disruption of gastrointestinal nerve function, resulting in loss of appetite, abdominal distension, bitter taste in the mouth, and excessive anal排气.

　　2. Formation of abdominal hernia. During constipation, due to excessive exertion during defecation, the abdominal pressure suddenly increases, and abdominal organs such as the small intestine protrude through the weak spots of the abdominal wall to the surface of the body, forming an abdominal hernia.

　　3. Inducing anorectal diseases. During constipation, the feeling of defecation difficulty, dry stools, can directly cause or exacerbate anorectal diseases such as anal fissures, proctitis, and hemorrhoids.

　　4. Formation of fecal ulcers. The harder fecal mass compresses the intestinal lumen, causing narrowing of the intestinal lumen and surrounding pelvic structures, obstructing colonic expansion, and causing pressure on the rectum or colon, leading to fecal ulcers, which can cause intestinal perforation in severe cases.

　　1. Sensation of remaining stool: The stool is not dry and hard, but there is always a need to defecate, and there is often a sensation of remaining stool after defecation.

　　2. Dry stools: Dry and hard stools, endocrine disorders, hard nervous system disorders, vitamin deficiencies, and other factors can also cause defecation difficulties.

　　3. Frequent defecation sensation: There is a frequent sensation of defecation, but only a small amount of mucus is excreted each time, which is known as 'heat stagnation in the lateral channels' in traditional Chinese medicine. It is often mistaken for diarrhea, and antibiotics or antidiarrheal drugs are used continuously, resulting in worsening symptoms.

　　4. Long defecation time: It takes several minutes, sometimes even ten or more minutes, to defecate after sitting on the toilet, as you cannot defecate immediately.

　　(1) Develop good eating habits: Drink plenty of water every day, consume foods rich in fiber and water. Also, eat more vegetables and fruits such as bananas, apples, and celery.

　　(2) Develop good defecation habits: Defecate once a day, preferably at a fixed time in the morning, do not sit for too long, no more than 5 minutes, and do not read books or newspapers while sitting on the toilet.

　　(3) Reasonable and moderate use of laxatives: For dry stools, a small amount of lubricating laxatives such as Mahen Zhibi Wan can be used, but they should not be used for a long time to avoid dependence on laxatives.

　　(4) Traditional Chinese medicine treatment: according to the etiology, medication is prescribed based on different symptom types.

　　(5) Positive physical exercise, frequent walking, running, practicing Tai Chi, and qigong can enhance gastrointestinal motility, prevent constipation, or improve constipation symptoms.

　　The examination items required for dry stools: rectal examination, abdominal X-ray, colonoscopy, and stool routine

　　Stool examination, should observe the shape of the stool excreted by the constipated person and whether there is mucus or blood adhered, rectal constipation is large, hard stool, due to often accompanied by rectal inflammation and anal injury, stool often has mucus and a small amount of blood adhered. When middle-aged and elderly patients often appear a small amount of blood, attention should be paid to colorectal cancer. For patients with spastic constipation, the stool is hard and granular like sheep dung. Patients with irritable bowel syndrome often excrete a large amount of mucus, but there are rarely red blood cells and white blood cells in the mucus.

　　Imaging examination

　　1. Rectal examination Should carefully observe the presence of external hemorrhoids, anal fissures, anal fistulas, and other lesions. During palpation, attention should be paid to the presence of internal hemorrhoids, whether the anal sphincter is spasmodic, whether the rectal wall is smooth, and whether there are ulcers or neoplasms.

　　2. Barium enema examination and abdominal X-ray Barium enema examination is of great help in diagnosing colon, rectal tumors, colon stricture or spasm, megacolon, and other lesions. It can also provide a comprehensive understanding of the motility function (peristalsis) of the colon. If multiple stepped liquid levels are found in the abdominal X-ray, it is of great help in diagnosing intestinal obstruction.

　　3. Colonoscopy Colonoscopy is of great help in diagnosing various colon lesions that cause constipation, such as colon, rectal cancer, intestinal polyps, and organic intestinal stricture. Combined with histopathological examination of living tissue, a definitive diagnosis can be obtained.

　　1. Eat more foods rich in fiber, such as various fresh vegetables, fruits, bamboo shoots, etc., to increase food residue.

　　2. Drink more water in daily life, which helps to soften stools.

　　3. Eat some foods with the effect of moistening intestines and defecation, such as honey, sesame, walnuts, milk, cream, etc.

　　4. When cooking dishes, you can add more edible oil, such as soybean oil, rapeseed oil, sesame oil, peanut oil, etc.

　　1. General treatment: Eat more vegetables, fruits, corn, soybeans, and other foods, increase the intake of dietary fiber, develop the habit of regular defecation, and strengthen exercise.

　　2. Aggressive treatment of primary diseases, such as perianal diseases.

　　3. Drug Treatment: Alternate the use of various laxatives and avoid the use of strong laxatives. Use osmotic laxatives, lubricating laxatives (such as paraffin oil), hypertonic laxatives (such as lactulose, sorbitol, etc.), and stimulant laxatives (such as castor oil, anthraquinone drugs, etc.) as appropriate.