A new report details an ongoing shortage of laxatives, purportedly fueled by an aging population and gut health TikTok influencers.
It might be time for Americans to start eating more fiber. The U.S. is experiencing a shortage of laxative products, according to a report this week from the Wall Street Journal. One alleged reason for the short supply is extra demand from younger people—an interest apparently fueled by TikTok influencers touting the supposed benefits of laxatives for good gut health.
The shortage concerns polyethylene glycol 3350, the active ingredient in many laxative brands, such as MiraLAX. According to a report from the analytics company Pattern, cited by the Wall Street Journal, product searches for laxatives have more than tripled over the past year on Amazon, while fiber product companies have reported an significant increase in sales as of late. The outlet also interviewed both gastroenterologists and suppliers about the drug’s declining availability, who offered several long- and short-term explanations for the increased demand.
The average American is getting older, for instance, and older people are more likely to regularly suffer from gastrointestinal conditions like constipation. The pandemic also changed many people’s dietary habits for the worse, leading to an increase in eating unhealthy snacks and other foods more likely to cause constipation. And at least part of the demand might stem from TikTok fans tuning into #GutTok, filled with people offering folk remedies for any number of gastrointestinal health issues.
GutTok has been a trending topic on the social media platform for quite some time, with influencers claiming to know the best way to reduce bloating, improve mood, and even clear acne by improving your gut health. While some of the provided suggestions for a better gut are likely to be harmless at worst, such as drinking more water, other ideas can be actively harmful, and that can include an overreliance on laxatives.
Chronic laxative use can worsen a person’s constipation further, to the point where they need higher and higher doses to pass their stool. They can also cause long-term damage to the intestines and raise the risk of rectal prolapse, a condition where the rectum slips out of the anus. And acute side effects like dehydration or stomach cramps aren’t exactly a picnic.
Though the occasional laxative is fine, people’s gut health would be better served by sustained positive changes in their lifestyle and diet, such as eating more fruits and vegetables as well as getting plenty of exercise. Whether these changes are possible on a widescale level in the U.S. anytime soon is another question.
“It’s crazy to think that our collective bowel dysfunction problems have gotten so bad that we’re literally running out of stool softeners,” George Pavlou, President of the Gastroenterology Associates of New Jersey, told the WSJ.
Such an american problem to have, lol
Just eat some fibre and less junk. I eat only moderately healthy myself and haven’t needed laxatives in my life.
As another commenter mentioned, there’s plenty of medications and health conditions that can lead to constipation. Not sure how that’s their fault
Obviously I don’t mean for medical conditions, just that you cannot possibly have a nation wide laxative shortage without there being a huge subset of consumers that don’t need it for medical reasons but because their diet consists of way too much fat, salt, sugar and carbohydrates, not enough fibre to reasonably pass all that junk, and too little physical activity to keep the internals running properly.
If you eat less junk, you wouldn’t need as many medications. Again, choice
Ah yes, breaking my leg and ankle requiring surgeries and drugs - definitely related to my diet and not, y’know, stepping in a hole because the road was poorly-lit and washed out and then rolling down a hill. I was on medication for about a month that required the occasional laxative.
You can just say you’re incredibly ignorant of the reasons a lot of these medications are being taken, it’s ok
Its really not as easy to acquire fiber-dense foods in the US as one might assume. That shit costs money, and is a low priority for people who don’t have money.
Edit: my point of it being a low priority for most people who don’t have money stands.
Wtf, no. Bananas, carrots, beans, lentils, oats, celery, lettuce, citrus… fucking so many dirt-cheap fiber-rich foods. Even bodegas sell some of these.
It’s crazy how adding these foods into my diet helped me feel with more energy.
I used to not eat vegetables, not because they were expensive (which are not), i was just lazy at cooking them.
Fast forward to 4 weeks ago, I started to add some vegetables here and there, not only my poops slips out of me like butter, I feel with more energy during the day.
Those are not yummy in my tummy and require effort though. Remove like all the fruit and vegetables besides potatoes and deep fry it ok.
A giant bag of carrots costs $2. Maybe try a giant bag of beans for $2, or some fucking potatoes. People who eat shit to a large degree are choosing to eat shit, not forced to due to poverty. People load up on sodas, sugary cereals, juices, chips, processed cheese products, cookies, you name it, and those things are largely more expensive than healthier alternatives
Peas sure, but $2 ain’t even going to get you a small bag of carrots where I’m at, and I’m in a very LCOL area
2 lbs of carrots are $1.64 here in Austin, TX
A lb of dried red beans is $2.22 or you can get a can of them ready to eat for $1.27
When you say LCOL, are you referring to somewhere rural or a small town? Food and gas almost always costs more those places than in metro areas
I am in the number one or two HCOL area in the US and a bag of carrots at Aldi is like $0.79. At the local bulk market, it’s like $20 for a 40lb box of big dick carrots with greens and shit still attached.
This is complete nonsense. Eat vegetables with every meal and you will never have any issues. Vegetables are cheap and abundant year round in the US.
Around me, in a mid-sized city? Anywhere from 25oz for $3.66 to only 8oz for $3.48
Laxatives seem to scale weirdly well, with a pack of 24 at $1.65 (sennosides - plant-based, gentle, hobby pooping) or 25 tablets at $10.99 (bisacodyl - synthetic, medically serious, competitive marathon pooping)
It’s not too horrendous if you really like prunes, although I’ll be totally honest and say I’ve spent decades almost always in the kind of financial position where that $3.66 could best be served elsewhere than on one single can of snack food.
Everyone knocks Little Caesars til they need to eat for an entire month on a single $20, and lots of people are just grabbing whatever is easy to get and the most filling so they can trudge back to their miserable hovel in peace.
But I wouldn’t blame something like a laxative shortage on a generic food desert. If you can afford one, it seems like you can probably afford the other. For once.
Yeah that’s interesting to know. I haven’t delved too far in the article but I thought the gut health-related social media would have suggested foods like prunes, beans and other foods that make you shit more than it would recommend medication.
There are plenty of options that are part of a healthy diet that could be filling or as part of a snack.
P.S. A one month little ceasars pass (if I lived in the US) would cut my food budget by more than 75% but I’d gain 10lbs of fat every month.
Sounds pretty shitty, I don’t understand how people have trouble pooping though: Just drink lots of water and eat stuff with fiber.
How many people do you think are on opioids at any given time? Enough to cause a laxative shortage?
Three million US citizens and 16 million individuals worldwide have had or currently suffer from opioid use disorder (OUD).
-StatPearls Publishing via The National Library of Medicine
You know what, this map is a much better source for this (the CDC). https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/rxrate-maps/index.html#:~:text=The overall national opioid dispensing rate declined from 2012 to,than 142 million opioid prescriptions).
Now I understand the MAGA.
Stop eating meat and stick to whole foods. This is a manufactured problem
