If You Rely On This To Poop, You May Be At Greater Risk Of Dementia
Here are safer ways to get things moving fast.
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July 25, 2024 Whether you're having a stressful week or are on vacation, we all need a little help getting things moving every now and then. Taking over-the-counter (OTC) laxatives is a quick, popular way to relieve constipation. But what are the side effects? One study tells us that regularly using laxatives may harm our health and increase our likelihood of developing dementia. Here's what to know.Laxatives and brain health
This study published in Neurology analyzed data from more than 500,000 participants from the UK Biobank with a mean age of 56. The researchers looked for connections between self-reported laxative use and specific health outcomes—in this case, all-cause dementia, Alzheimer's disease, and vascular dementia—about a decade later.
The results showed that 0.4% of participants who did not use laxatives regularly developed dementia, compared to 1.3% of participants who did regularly use laxatives. The researchers defined "regular" users of laxatives as people who used laxatives "most of the days" in the last four weeks.
This number—1.3%—might not seem huge. But when you consider the fact that $1.5 billion1 was spent on OTC laxatives in 2019 and that 40% of people1 with constipation are self-treating the condition with OTC drugs, it's a whole lot more substantial and concerning.
Why would these medications increase dementia risk?
You might be wondering what constipation has to do with long-term brain health. The answer lies in the microbiome-gut-brain axis hypothesis, which was first described as early as the 1930s.
This hypothesis states that there is a bidirectional relationship between the central nervous system, which involves the brain, and the enteric nervous system, which is the part of the nervous system that lives in the gut.
It postulates that there's a link between cognition and emotion (aka, what your brain is up to) and what's going on in the intestines (aka, what your gut is up to).
In other words, this is just another piece of evidence that the microbiome-gut-brain axis hypothesis is true and that it affects our health on a daily basis.
Safer ways to get things moving fast
There are plenty of other ways to support bowel regularity and comfort without needing to reach for laxatives. Here are a few science-backed tips for promoting gut health:
The takeaway
A study found a link between frequent over-the-counter laxative use and dementia.
If you experience regular constipation, you may want to consider lifestyle changes that can help, such as increasing your fiber intake, getting plenty of probiotics, and getting your body moving.