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.


  • TheMoose@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • eran_morad@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Wtf, no. Bananas, carrots, beans, lentils, oats, celery, lettuce, citrus… fucking so many dirt-cheap fiber-rich foods. Even bodegas sell some of these.

    • protist@mander.xyz
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      1 year ago

      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

      • Alto@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        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

          • Alto@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Suburban-rural area, ~45min from a major city. Carrots are just weirdly expensive here I guess, because pretty much everything else along those lines are stupid cheap.

            • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              Weird. What about potatoes and sweet potatoes? You can make really tasty baked potatoes in ~6 min with a microwave, or roast them in the oven for ~40 min.

              Beans should be really cheap pretty much everywhere, just soak overnight and then cook a big batch at a time. I used to eat salads for lunch at work, which was just spinach, cooked beans, dried fruit, and a healthy dressing. I’d usually add some kind of meat as well (e.g. Costco rotisserie chicken, or roasted port tenderloin), but that’s not necessary.

              I kept the beans in the office fridge and everything else at my desk, and picked up a bag of spinach on the way to work. If you don’t have a desk or fridge, you could just pack it to work each day, just don’t put the dressing on until you eat it so things don’t get soggy.

              • Alto@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                There is. Trust me, I am well aware of how to stretch your dollar for as much food as possible

        • socsa@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          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.

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            Yeah, I’ve never been anywhere that carrots and potatoes aren’t one of the cheapest cost to calorie foods.

            You can eat carrots raw, and potatoes are easy to cook in a microwave. In fact, I used to have “baked” potatoes for lunch at work and just kept some washed potatoes and butter at my desk. Prep is:

            1. Stab with fork
            2. Microwave for 6 minutes
            3. Cut open and add butter, salt, and pepper

            You can get fancy with other toppings, but that alone is a good meal. You can do the same with sweet potatoes, and it’s fantastic with cinnamon instead of salt+pepper.

    • socsa@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        And incredibly easy to grow, even in a planter hanging from a window sill. We planted lettuce a few years ago and we keep getting it without any actual work.

      • Nepenthe@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        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.

        • Rentlar@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          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.