Ozempic is all the craze for weight loss right now, promising to help people shed pounds using nothing more than a weekly injection.
But its prohibitively high price tag — nearly $900 per dose without insurance — has many turning to ‘budget’ alternatives like laxatives, which can help people lose weight by speeding up the digestive tract and expelling food from the body faster.
But Dr Swrajit Sarkar, a nutritionist at City, University of London, said laxatives do not help people lose fat – they only get rid of water weight.
Dr Sarkar said: ‘While laxative use causes water loss, it does not lead to fat loss.
‘This means any weight a person loses from using laxatives is only temporary — and any water lost will be regained.’
Additionally, getting rid of too much water in the body can lead to a number of dangerous side effects, including muscle cramps, diarrhea and seizures.
With laxatives growing in popularity as a budget Ozempic, they have gone into shortage in the US (stock image)
People have been taking laxatives as a type of budget Ozempic, causing shortages nationwide
Laxatives are available in various forms, including stimulant laxatives — which produce more frequent bowel movements — and osmotic laxatives — which draw water into the intestine to ‘flush’ contents out faster.
While laxatives may be occasionally recommended in some situations, including to clear bowels for screening tests or help with constipation, taking them nearly every day for up to a week leaves patients at risk of the complications.
Laxatives are bought over-the-counter, with many pills costing less than 50 cents and their effects last two to 16 hours.
They’ve become so popular for weight loss that there was a shortage of them in 2023, with teens reportedly stocking up on the products.
Someone who has very frequent bowel movements will initially lose a pound or two because digested food and water have been quickly flushed out of the body, but they are not losing weight from fat and the moment they drink or have another meal, the lost weight is all regained.
And if someone takes too many laxatives too often, they can become dependent on them and be unable to poop without them.
Laxatives differ from how Ozempic causes weight loss, which is by mimicking hormones that diminish feelings of hunger and slow the movement of the intestines – making people feel fuller for longer.
While some may turn to laxatives to shed pounds cheap and fast, Dr Sarkar wrote of potential risks in The Conversation, revealing the four dangers people should be aware of when taking laxatives too frequently:
Muscle cramps
Dr Sarkar said laxatives can leave someone at risk of suffering from muscle cramps caused by dehydration.
Laxatives can cause muscle cramps, doctors warn (stock)
The human body is 60 percent water, and adults are advised to drink about 15 cups of per day to maintain this.
But when someone takes the over-the-counter medications, these cause the body to rapidly lose water by speeding up the digestive system — causing it to suck water from the body.
If someone doesn’t drink enough to replace the loss, it can cause dehydration.
This leads to cramping due to the lack of water reducing blood flow to muscles, depriving them of nutrients and oxygen needed to function properly.
Seizures
The ‘flushing’ of water out of the body caused by laxatives can also raise the risk of seizures, doctors said.
Water in the body contains electrolytes, which are vital for multiple biological processes and communication between nerves.
But these are quickly lost with each bowel movement, raising the risk of complications.
An electrolyte deficiency can lead to irregular heartbeat, confusion and even seizures.
Doctors from Decipher Your Health, a Canadian company aiming to educate the public about healthcare, warned about this serious complication.
In a video posted to Tiktok, an emergency medicine (EM) physician said: ‘[Laxatives] can cause issues where you drop certain electrolytes to such a low level you put yourself at risk of seizures, dehydration and death.
‘Any of these short-lived benefits of seeing the scale change by just a pound or two are just not worth it.
Seizures can occur because of a nutrient imbalance within nerves, raising the risk of ‘nerve excitability’ — or cells firing abnormal electrical impulses that trigger a seizure.
The imbalance also raises the risk of other complications including headaches, fatigue, nausea and numbness in the limbs.
Nutrient deficiencies
People who use laxatives are also at risk of deficiencies (stock)
Dr Sarkar also warned laxatives can cause nutrient deficiencies — including too few vitamins, carbohydrates and proteins in the body.
Foods provide hundreds of vitamins and minerals that are crucial to overall health and they are normally absorbed by the small intestine.
But because laxatives boost the speed at which food moves through the intestine, there isn’t enough time for the body to fully absorb the nutrients, which can lead to deficits.
One study suggests people taking laxatives absorb up to 12 percent fewer nutrients from their diets.
And 92 percent of Americans are already deficient in at least one nutrient.
Inadequate nutrition levels can lead to fatigue, hair loss, ulcers, poor vision, muscle wasting and stunted growth.
Diarrhea and stomach cramps
Laxatives raise the risk of suffering from numerous intestinal complications, including diarrhea and stomach cramps.
Some laxatives — such as stimulant laxatives — can irritate the lining of the gastrointestinal tract, leading to inflammation and diarrhea.
The over-the-counter medications cause more water to be flushed into the bowel from the body, which also raises the risk of diarrhea and stomach cramps.
Dr Sarkar said: ‘The reason laxatives cause diarrhea is because they work to move waste quickly through the intestine and secrete water into the bowel.
‘This can also, in turn, lead to an imbalance in mineral and salt levels in your body.’
