Healthcare, Health Insurance, Vitamins, Nutrition

To treat constipation, many people seek out natural laxatives. Natural laxatives are agents derived from natural sources used for treating the condition of constipation. There are a number of such agents, some of which are supposed to be taken like an herb and others like foodstuff. Broadly they can be categorized into two types: the herbal agents and the fiber supplement agents. One question for both consumers and entrepreneurs is the nature of the laxative market.

The starting point for knowing this market is knowing the prevalence of constipation, the underlying condition that necessitates use of laxatives. Constipation is estimated by academic researchers to afflict somewhere from 5 to 40 million people in the U.S. A large number don’t seek treatment, but those who do will spend over $600 million on laxatives. Therefore one expects that the potential market is a little bit over half a billion dollars and potentially more.

The first category of natural laxatives is the nutrient type which act by containing lots of insoluble or soluble dietary fiber. Flax seed is an example of a natural food that is made into flax seed laxative. Fiber is a sugar-like polymer molecule that’s differentiated by its ability to pass through the gut chemically unchanged. The human stomach and intestine doesn’t break down fiber nor does it extract nutrients from it. Many people have heard of bran muffins and bran cereals. Bran is the hard covering of grains that’s often discarded but can be kept as ingredients for its high fiber content.

To some degree patients can eat high fiber foods such as prunes and oranges, but it’s typical for a physician to prescribe an initial dose of 25-30 grams of fiber which is difficult to satisfy with regular foods but easy with such supplements.

The second class of natural laxatives encompasses all the herbal supplements. At present it’s dominated by three specific natural products: senna, aloe and cascara. Each comes from a plant that has been used by people living near or in the plant’s geographic habitat. In more recent years, federal regulations have put a stop to medications that specifically advertise aloe and cascara as stimulant laxatives due to safety fears.

One of the few remaining herbal remedies is senna. Senna is a middle eastern herb found on the eastern shores of the African continent and in the Arabia peninsula where it has been used for millennia. It’s active ingredient is a class of molecules known as sennosides. People often brew it with tea which produces a moderate to strong laxative effect.

The consensus is that constipation remains a large problem for many people, and represents a niche that is yet to be fully exploited. Because constipation is often a chronic condition that requires repeat treatment, many people find the notion of natural laxatives to be attractive. However, the long term consequences of taking natural agents remains unclear.