How laxatives work?
In: Biology
There are a variety of laxatives which work in different ways. Some soften stools, some cause bowel to spasm, others draw in fluids into the bowel.
There are a few ways. First, there are a few laxatives:
1) Bulking laxatives: these are things like metamucil. They make your poop bigger and heavier which stimulates the intestines with pressure.
2) Osmotic laxatives: The most commonly known one in this category is miralax. These pull water into your intestines to make poop more liquid
3) Stimulant laxatives: these are things like senokot. They trigger smooth contractions in your intestines
4) Stool softeners: This is your colace. It works by increasing the water and fat absorption of the stool so that it’s softer.
Some like psyllium husk are pretty just fiber, which makes the stool bigger and easier to push out.
Others are salts (most commonly known one is table salt), which are compounds made of a positively charged atom and a negatively charged atom. These compounds draw water to them, for complex chemistry reasons I don’t want to get into (I have no idea what they are), and some of them arent well absorbed by the body and sit in your intestines with the stool, which draws water to it and makes it liquid.
Others are stimulants, which are compounds that irritate the nerve cells in your butt causing a natural muscle movement known as peristalsis, which is where muscles contract in order to push stuff out your butt.
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