KBS1 ‘The Secret of Birth, Aging, Sickness and Death’ episode 989

“I realized I could even die from constipation”

At 10 p.m. on the 15th, episode 989 of KBS1 ‘The Secret of Birth, Aging, Sickness and Death’ will air ‘Warning signal from the body, constipation’.

Constipation is easily dismissed as a minor symptom anyone can experience. However, it can also be a sign of a serious disease that can threaten life. Some, out of embarrassment, rely only on laxatives seen in advertisements or on unreliable information on the internet, only to be found to have a severe condition that requires colon resection. This episode examines whether we truly understand constipation and whether we are receiving appropriate treatment.

In Korea, the prevalence of constipation fluctuates from 9.2% to 16.5%, depending on the survey criteria. Including patients not captured in statistics due to the perception that it is an embarrassing condition, the actual scale is estimated to be much larger.

KBS1 ‘The Secret of Birth, Aging, Sickness and Death’ episode 989

The bigger problem is that, even though constipation can be an unexpected warning sign, most patients attribute it solely to dietary imbalance or lack of exercise and try to resolve it on their own. For older adults as well as people of all ages, constipation can be a sign of a serious disease that significantly threatens quality of life.

On KBS1 ‘The Secret of Birth, Aging, Sickness and Death’, we look beyond simple defecation discomfort to reveal the hidden face of ‘constipation’ as a warning signal the body sends. The program aims to change the view that constipation is merely a habit-related issue and to encourage seeing it as a condition that requires careful management.

Seo Jeong-jin had to writhe from severe abdominal pain that made his belly swell. After frequent trips to the emergency room, he was diagnosed with intestinal pseudo-obstruction. Intestinal pseudo-obstruction is a disorder that shows symptoms of bowel obstruction even though the intestine is not physically blocked; if left unattended, it can lead to bowel necrosis and become life-threatening.

A condition that suddenly sent someone to the emergency room with severe abdominal pain and constipation was diverticula. In the past, Kim Chang-su fought through hour-long battles in the bathroom, feeling as if his intestines were being torn apart. His intestinal wall had diverticula, and one was tightly clogged with stool hardened like a stone. Through the experiences of patients who brushed it off as ‘just constipation’, we see how serious the consequences can be.

KBS1 ‘The Secret of Birth, Aging, Sickness and Death’ episode 989

Most chronic constipation cases are idiopathic functional constipation. ‘The Secret of Birth, Aging, Sickness and Death’ conducted detailed evaluations for constipation together with viewer participants. Through various tests, including colonic transit time measurement, the balloon expulsion test, defecography, and anorectal manometry, the program explains the three types of functional constipation.

Functional constipation is not a single disease: slow-transit constipation, defecatory-disorder constipation in which stool does not pass even with straining, and normal-transit constipation in which symptoms appear irregularly. Through cases of patients suffering from different types, we explore the world of functional constipation, where treatment strategies differ completely by type.

For Kim Mi-ae, the pain of constipation exceeded that of vaginal delivery. What helped her most was biofeedback therapy learned at the hospital. Biofeedback therapy is a training method in which patients use a monitor to see and practice proper contraction and relaxation of the anal and pelvic floor muscles. For patients with difficulty expelling stool, it introduces a retraining process that teaches breathing and bearing-down techniques during defecation, along with relaxation of the rectum and anus.

Because they are easy to purchase, many start taking laxatives without much thought. Do Sun-ok increased the dose as the effect waned, eventually taking up to ten tablets at a time. Side effects such as cold sweats and twisting abdominal pain appeared, and the condition of her intestine confirmed at the hospital was shocking: the folds had disappeared and the color had turned black. The program looks at the side effects of overusing stimulant laxatives and reviews the types and uses of various laxatives, including osmotic and bulk-forming agents.

KBS1 ‘The Secret of Birth, Aging, Sickness and Death’ episode 989

Constipation is no longer a problem to be ashamed of or to solve alone. Like diabetes or hypertension, it is a condition that requires lifelong adjustment and management tailored to the individual.

At 10 p.m. on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, KBS1 ‘The Secret of Birth, Aging, Sickness and Death’ will present sure solutions to escape the torment of relentless constipation and restore quality of life.