Constipation and Natural Remedies for Constipation

According to a study involving 170 participants, psyllium, a dietary fiber treatment is a superior laxative when compared to docusate sodium. Participants received either psyllium (5.1 g twice daily) or docusate sodium (100 mg twice daily). At the end of a 2-week treatment period, pysllium showed a superior efficacy over docusate sodium (a common laxative) for softening stools (water content increased 2.33% for psyllium vs. 0.01% for docusate), and has a greater overall laxative effect. Total stool output for psyllium was 359.9 g/week vs. docusate which was 271.9 g/week. (1)

When compared with lactulose and other laxatives, ispaghula husk (also known as psyllium or Metamucil brand name) is a more effective treatment for simple constipation (more normal, well-formed stools and fewer hard stools) with less reported side-effects. In this open, multi-center study 394 participants were randomly assigned to receive either ispaghula (n=224) or other laxatives (n=170) for 4 weeks of treatment. (2)