Anatomy And Physiology Of Digestive System: Nutrition And Constipation During Pregnancy

Anatomy and Physiology of Digestive System

Correlation between the digestive system and cardiovascular system:

• In order to function normally the human body need to transfer the nutrients throughout the body. In this regards the cardiovascular system and digestive system correlates in an effective manner.
• The digestive system helps to breakdown the food into small particles and after digestion the nutrients of the food absorbed and transferred to the blood. The digestive system helps to absorb iron required for the haemoglobin synthesis and it transfers adequate amount of water to the blood vessel in order to maintain the normal volume of plasma.
• The nutrients then absorbed by the alimentary canal and the cardiovascular system then transports the essential nutrients to all tissues in the body.
• In order to maintain the normal function of the body another important task is to provide adequate amount of oxygen to the body and remove waste materials and CO2 from the body.
• The cardiovascular system facilitate adequate transport of blood that carries oxygen and distribute it throughout the body, on the other hand the blood help to carry away the CO2 and waste materials from the cells.
• Furthermore, the cardiovascular system functions to maintain the speed of the digestion process by carrying some specific signal from the endocrine gland to digestive system (Sherwood 2015).

Eating, nutrition and constipation during pregnancy:

Eating and nutrition:

• Effective diet is important during pregnancy. Such diet is not related to weight loss, but encourage the pregnant women to build fine-tuning with the eating habit in order to ensure that she is receiving adequate amount of essential nutrients.
• Healthy eating contributes to the development and growth of the new born baby in an effective manner.
• Eating a proper amount of fruits and vegetables is very important during pregnancy as it contains vitamin c and folic acid. In case of a pregnant women it is necessary to intake 70mg of vitamin c per day and folic acid helps to prevent the risk of neural tube defects.
• The main source of energy for a pregnant women is carbohydrate. Thus, it is important to consume bread and grains to fulfil the requirements of carbohydrate in the daily diet.
• In order to develop effectively the baby needs a huge amount of protein. Thus, the pregnant women should intake proper amount of protein such as fish, egg. Meat, beans that contain vitamin b and iron.
• In addition, diary product is important to maintain calcium level and drinking plenty of water is also important (Wennberg et al. 2013).
• Furthermore, to meet the requirement of daily nutrients prenatal vitamins could be taken (Indrio et al. 2014).

Constipation:

• Constipation during pregnancy is a normal suffering that most of the pregnant women face. It has been found that the main reason of constipation during pregnancy is related to the increase in the progesterone level. Such increase in the hormone results in the relaxation of the smooth muscle of the digestive tract. Hence the food passes from the intestine slowly.
• Research has indicated that consume of fibre is less in case of pregnant women. Low fluid intake is also reported, especially during the third trimester. Such less intake of fibre and fluid also lay an important role in the development of constipation during pregnancy (Verghese, Futaba and Latthe 2015).
• In addition, some medication, for example, high level of iron, magnesium and sulphate also contributes to the consequence of constipation (Khambalia et al. 2016).
• Furthermore, in some rare cases hypothyroidism has been identified as the effective reason of constipation during pregnancy (Verghese, Futaba and Latthe 2015).

Nutritional recommendation:

• During pregnancy it is important to consume 25 to 30g of fibre per day. Thus, it is recommended to eat diet that contains high fibre such as fruits, vegetables, breads, grains, cereals, prunes and bran in order to complete the daily requirement of fibre.
• With increasing fibre intake it is important to increase the fluid intake during pregnancy. 10 to 12 cups of fluid is recommended. The effective combination of fluid and fibre would help to eliminate the waste material.
• Some additional over-the-counter products may be used, for example Metamucil in order to soften the movements of the bowel and get rid of constipation. However, it is important to consult with the health professionals before taking such over-the-counter medicines (Rungsiprakarn et al. 2015).
• Reducing the iron intake would help to reduce constipation. In this regards it is important to consult with the doctor and request the professional to provide any supplement for high iron containing prenatal vitamins (Kinnunen et al. 2016).

Further recommendations:

• Adequate physical activity is important for reducing constipation during pregnancy as it helps to eliminate waste materials through sweat.
• In some severe cases constipation leads to other health issues such as diarrhoea with blood, puss and mucus and abdominal pain. In this case it is important to take proper recommendation from health professional in an urgent basis (Rungsiprakarn et al. 2015).

References:

Indrio, F., Di Mauro, A., Riezzo, G., Civardi, E., Intini, C., Corvaglia, L., Ballardini, E., Bisceglia, M., Cinquetti, M., Brazzoduro, E. and Del Vecchio, A., 2014. Prophylactic use of a probiotic in the prevention of colic, regurgitation, and functional constipation: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA pediatrics, 168(3), pp.228-233.

Khambalia, A.Z., Aimone, A., Nagubandi, P., Roberts, C.L., McElduff, A., Morris, J.M., Powell, K.L., Tasevski, V. and Nassar, N., 2016. High maternal iron status, dietary iron intake and iron supplement use in pregnancy and risk of gestational diabetes mellitus: a prospective study and systematic review. Diabetic Medicine, 33(9), pp.1211-1221.

Kinnunen, T.I., Luoto, R., Helin, A. and Hemminki, E., 2016. Supplemental iron intake and the risk of glucose intolerance in pregnancy: re?analysis of a randomised controlled trial in F inland. Maternal & child nutrition, 12(1), pp.74-84.

Rungsiprakarn, P., Laopaiboon, M., Sangkomkamhang, U.S., Lumbiganon, P. and Pratt, J.J., 2015. Interventions for treating constipation in pregnancy. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews, (9), pp.CD011448-CD011448.

Sherwood, L., 2015. Human physiology: from cells to systems. Cengage learning.

Verghese, T.S., Futaba, K. and Latthe, P., 2015. Constipation in pregnancy. The Obstetrician & Gynaecologist, 17(2), pp.111-115.

Wennberg, A.L., Lundqvist, A., Högberg, U., Sandström, H. and Hamberg, K., 2013. Women’s experiences of dietary advice and dietary changes during pregnancy. Midwifery, 29(9), pp.1027-1034.