Are stool softeners safe to take every night for easier bowel movements?
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Answers:
Gentle ones are. There are many laxatives that specify "not for extended use" (like Senna or Cascara Segrada, two natural laxatives that should NOT be used long-term).
The reason for those is because your body can actually get used to having the laxative and may actually NEED the laxative to have a regular bowel movement... that's when it gets dangerous if you run out.
Gentler laxatives like Psyllium Husks are very safe to use every day for the rest of your life, and you can stop whenever you'd like to.
Take something more natural, such as Flax Seed Oil (pills preferably) because chemical stool softeners can become required (in order to go) if you take too much too often.
Yes, my niece had a bowel obstruction a few years ago due to scar tissue and the dr told her to take them for the rest of her life in order to not put pressure on her bowel.
My husband also takes them everyday.
For the other answers, stool softeners are not laxatives...they do not make you go, they just keep it from getting too hard when you don't go for awhile.
Why take anything medicine-wise when you can buy the new yogurt available at most supermarkets that contains the specific bacteria that corrects constipation. It contains the only known yogurt bacteria that is capable of surviving stomach transit. The name of the yogurt is Activa or Activia, it comes in pleasant flavors. It is a serious cure for constipation with permanent results. It is considered 100 percent safe as compared to medicine and may have other health benefits. You only need to ingest one cup at a single sitting to achieve results. If you don't achieve results from it there is something more wrong than constipation, and of a much more serious nature perhaps with the nerve signaling system of abdominal tract which causes the intestines to contract rhythmically to move food substance through the body.
That yogurt called Activia does NOT work. Take a mild laxitive and you should be fine.
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