The Myth Of Using Laxatives To Lose Weight
It’s commendable that over half the people in this country would like to lose weight. Unfortunately, far too many people want to take shortcuts to weight loss rather than make the necessary adjustments to their diets and lifestyles. One of the most abused shortcuts is using laxatives to lose weight. The benefit of this method is purely a myth.
Laxatives do NOT break down the foods that one eats. What laxatives do is stimulate the bowel, which just puts you in some physical pain and gives the sensation of needing a restroom. The cramping induced by laxatives often expells the excrement under force. But, what you’re actually losing is your body’s supply of water. While it is true that by using laxatives you may drop a few pounds, what people don’t realize is that once our bodies rehydrate, the weight comes back.
Not only that, overuse of laxatives for weight loss can cause some serious health issues on its own. It can become impossible for a person to have a regular bowel movement without the aid of a laxative. The rectum is forcing out waste, it can often suffer skin tearing, which causes bleeding and the risk of infection that is caused by waste coming in contact with the open tears around the rectal area. A person can become severely weak and dehydrated, which will inhibit their ability to function.
Many people have said that it is possible to speed up weight loss and maintain that weight through the use of laxatives. These people are either lying or just don’t know what they’re talking about. In actuality, the use of laxatives as a means of weight loss is a form of eating disorder along the same lines as bulimia. The most notable difference is that bulimics use purgatives to encourage vomiting of the food and forcing the remainder of it down in a laxative action, while laxative abuse is typically more mild and does not include vomiting.
Of course, if a person uses laxatives for too long, it may cause that person to be affected by nausea anyway. Sadly, medical intervention will probably be necessary to wean a person off of laxatives once they start abusing them in this fashion.
Some people may claim that using laxatives is a good route to rapid weight loss. But what these people are really doing is spreading dangerous falsehoods and half-truths; the use of laxatives or other medications as a means to lose weight is ultimately detrimental to your health.
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