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Why are Laxatives So Bad?
Brought to you by a Biochem Major
*This post will be focusing on stimulant laxatives, as these are the most commonly abused type of laxative by individuals with eating disorders. Laxatives cause you to poop, so some of this information may be considered TMI, but I believe it is worth a read if you are worried about your health or losing weight.*
Many people who suffer from EDs falsely believe that they can avoid the absorption of calories through the use of stimulant laxatives. Unfortunately, laxatives do not work this way and can cause long term physical damage to the body and even life-threatening conditions.
What are stimulant laxatives?
Stimulant laxatives activate motor neurons in intestinal walls causing an increase in contractions and an increase of fluid elimination. This leads to an acceleration of stool movement. Stimulant laxatives are the fastest working laxative, likely why they are commonly abused.
What is the difference between pooping normally and pooping via laxatives?
Yeah, I know: this is gross, but it is essential that you understand that there is a difference! When you poop, you lose different types of electrolytes in different concentrations. Your body is totally capable of balancing out the electrolytes you lose from normal pooping. However, laxative use causes diarrhea, which causes you to lose larger concentrations of electrolytes. This becomes a problem when you abuse laxatives regularly; your body cannot keep up with this constant electrolyte imbalance.
What health problems can abusing laxatives cause?
Electrolyte Imbalances
↣ WTF is an electrolyte?
Electrolytes are salts that dissociate into ions (charged elements/compounds such as Na+ and K+) when dissolved in water. There are several types of electrolytes present in bodily fluids. Electrolyte balance in the body is critical to the successful functioning of vital organs.
↣ How does lax abuse cause electrolyte imbalances?
Laxatives cause you to rid your body of fluid at a higher rate than normal. When you abuse laxatives, you are ridding your body of fluid at an unhealthy rate, causing the electrolytes present in this fluid to also leave your body at an unhealthy rate. The most common type of electrolyte imbalance caused by laxative abuse is hypokalemia, or low potassium (K+) blood levels.
↣ What are the effects of hypokalarmia on the body?
Skeletal muscle paralysis (When you can’t contract your muscles normally)
Rhabdomyolysis (When damaged skeletal muscle breaks down very rapidly)
- Symptoms: muscle pains, vomiting, confusion, dark colored urine, & irregular heartbeat
- The breakdown of your muscles is a chemical reaction that has reactants and resulting products. One of the resulting products is a protein called myoglobin which is dangerous when in contact with the kidneys, causing kidney failure.
Nerve palsies (The loss of function of a nerve)
- Causes weakness or paralysis in the affected area
Hypokalaemia caused by laxatives can be worsened with the combination of the diuretic (make you pee) effect of caffeine and large fluid intake (for all you replacing meals with liquid).
Acid-Base Disturbances
↣ WTF are acids and bases?
Acids are substances that have a higher concentration of H+ protons and a low pH (below 7). Bases are substances that have a lower concentration of H+ protons and a higher pH (above 7). The human body must keep a blood pH range between 7.35 and 7.45 for your cells to function and to carry out metabolic processes. However, if you go out of the 7.38-7.41 range, normal functioning will already start to decline. At 6.9 or 7.8, you will enter a coma and at 6.8 or 7.9, you will die. Your body works very hard to keep the acid and base levels in your body balanced.
↣ How does abusing laxatives cause acid-base disturbances?
Acid-base disturbances go hand in hand with electrolyte imbalances. Understanding the connection is difficult without knowledge of what diffusion is and how this process works to achieve equilibrium in the body. Short story short, your body likes to be in a state of equilibrium (balance) where the concentrations of specific molecules inside cells is equal to the concentration outside of cells. With, hypokalemia the K+ blood concentrations are too low. This causes the K+ inside your cells to shift outside of your cells into your blood to help fix this electrolyte imbalance. This causes the cell to be hyperpolarized, which causes H+ located in the blood to shift into the cells. Since the concentration of H+ located in your blood decreases when it’s shifts to cells, your blood becomes more basic/alkaline and the pH increases. This is known as metabolic alkalosis.
↣ What are the effects of Metabolic Alkalosis on the body?
Early symptoms:
- nausea
- numbness
- prolonged muscle spasms
- muscle twitching
- hand tremors
As I have mentioned before, your blood pH must remain in a very narrow range in order for your body to function. At a blood pH of 7.8, you can enter a coma. The following symptoms are warning signs.
Serious symptoms:
• dizziness
• difficulty breathing
• confusion
• stupor (serious lack of mental function where an individual is unresponsive and only responds to pain)
Metabolic alkalosis can be worsened in combination with purging! With purging, you regurgitate some of the acid in your stomach. Along with the decreased acidity of your blood due to low potassium levels, you are expelling even more acid through purging.
I am a biochem major, not a bio major so I am only going into depth with electrolyte and acid-base imbalances. However, I have listed some of the purely biological damage laxatives can have on your body:
Bowel Disturbances
-inflammation & ulcers of the colon’s inner lining
-colonic neuropathy (weakness/pain from nerve damage in the colon)
-GI bleeding
-loss of control of bowel movements
-cathartic colon (loss of colonic myenteric neurons, atrophy of smooth muscle, loss of haustral markings, increased submucosal fat, fibrosis and hypertrophy of the muscularis mucosae)
Kidney Disturbances
-chronic kidney disease
-kidney tubular damage
-kidney stones
-kidney failure
I don’t care about my health. I only care about losing weight. Will using laxatives help me lose weight?
No. The “weight” you lose from using laxatives is water weight. As I have mentioned, laxatives cause you to have diarrhea, a result of increased fluid expulsion. By using laxatives, you are effectively dehydrating yourself. Laxatives work on a different part of your intestinal tract than where nutrient absorption has occurred. You already absorb all the nutrients in your GI tract before the laxative takes effect. You are not losing calories by using laxatives, you are losing water.
What’s the harm of using laxatives every once in a while?
Using laxatives every once in a while might not seem like that big of a deal. And you know what, it really isn’t bad to use laxatives if you aren’t using them excessively or over a prolonged amount of time. BUT: we are sick. We see that after we take a laxatives and poop that we have lost a pound. Brain pleasure centers activated!! This feeling is highly addictive and it is very difficult to stop using laxatives after seeing this small success. This behavior becomes positively reinforced, meaning you will want to repeat this behavior. You may be thinking “blah blah blah. I can stop whenever tf I want!” However, please keep in mind, the brain responds this same exact way as it does to other addictive behaviors like gambling and drug use. It should also be noted that dehydrating effect of laxatives causes oedema, of the buildup of fluid in tissues/swelling after laxative use is discontinued. This appears as bloating and apparent weight gain which reinforces laxative use.
Thank you for reading! Submit an ask if you have other requests ❤️
