Constipation Weak Pelvic Floor Muscles

Your pelvic floor is the group of muscles and ligaments in your pelvic region the pelvic floor acts like a.

Constipation weak pelvic floor muscles.

Pelvic floor dysfunction is the inability to correctly relax and coordinate your pelvic floor muscles to have a bowel movement. The bladder womb or bowel. Slow transit constipation can result in increased bloating and abdominal distension which can adversely affect the pelvic floor muscles. Constipation also creates more pressure on the bladder and urethra which may cause.

Normally the pelvic floor muscles tighten to hold your urine and bowel motions in. Pelvic floor dysfunction is the inability to control the muscles of your pelvic floor. In women weak pelvic floor muscles may lead to prolapse of one or more of the pelvic floor organs. The bladder womb or bowel.

Based on the principle of operant conditioning biofeedback provides auditory and visual feedback to help retrain the pelvic floor and relax the anal sphincter. Bowel muscles and movements the vast majority of movement within the bowels is a result of muscles contracting and relaxing. Constipation appears to be as important as childbirth in the development of pelvic floor damage. Once patients with pelvic floor constipation have these basic tools they can begin retraining the pelvic floor muscles with biofeedback.

Research has shown that upwards of 50 of people with constipation have concurrent pelvic floor dysfunction. Chronic constipation can cause stretching of the pudendal nerve due to prolonged and repetitive straining leading to pelvic floor weakness secondary to nerve damage. As a pelvic floor physical therapist the first thing i offer my patients is education. The pelvic floor muscles are then subjected to increased pressure exerted upon them and can weaken over a period of time.

In constipation the pelvic floor muscles are tight and overactive and do not know how to relax. In fact constipation is seen in 70 of patients who suffer with rectal prolapse. A long history of constipation can also weaken the pelvic floor muscles in both men and women. When you sit on the toilet the pelvic floor muscles should relax so that you are able to empty your bladder or bowel.

In some men the lower bowel can prolapse through the anal canal and bowel control can be affected. Biofeedback training is the treatment of choice. With constipation this weakness may be with the muscles of the bowel wall whereas with fecal incontinence the weakness lies in the pelvic floor muscles. Chronic constipation is frequently a cause of damage to the pelvic floor muscles and fascial support ligaments.