Constipation can really stop you in your tracks and ruin your quality of life until you find something to give you relief. It can affect your ability to sleep, make it painful and uncomfortable to sit down, you won't feel like eating anything and will wreck your ability to concentrate. So how do you cure it? Well we discuss the top solutions below:

Laxative pills

These are what most people will use when they experience constipation, they are easy to take and easy to buy over the counter at any shop that sells basic medicine. There are basically two types, you have the kind which are irritants and will try to get your bowel to contract and help force things out, then you have stool softeners which we will discuss in a minute.

The irritants are usually effective for most people, and you need to give them about 12 hours to work so you are probably best taking them first thing in the morning, or at night, but if you have hard stools then they might not work and may cause more discomfort.

Stool softeners

These are aimed at people who suffer with hard stools and they try to soften them up so you can pass them easily. You can buy them in little gel caps, or more often in a bottle which you then take doses of throughout the day. This works by allowing more water into your intestines so it can saturate the stool and start to loosen it and break it up. Stool softeners don't work as quickly as the irritants so it may take a few days for them to kick in fully, but they are the best option if you have hard stools.

Lubricant

Your third choice is a lubricant like prune juice or something like that which can coat the inside of your intestines and help transit through. A lubricant is great if you use it alongside one of the irritant laxatives described earlier, then as the laxative kicks in and makes you push then the lubricant helps you out.

Laxative tea

Most of the laxative teas on the market use senna in them to help in the same way as a laxative pill to irritate the intestinal wall and force movement. In actual fact senna is used in some laxative pills that are on the market as a natural alternative to the chemicals, but when you have it as a herbal laxative tea then you can get a bigger dose that you would in a small pill, and as it is a liquid it gets absorbed by your system a lot quicker.