Medicine: Who Needs Regularity?

Americans spend more than $148 million a year on laxatives, and most of it is money down the drain. In Today’s Health, an American Medical Association publication, Dr. Charles W. Hock estimates that 100 million Americans are laxative addicts, worry unnecessarily about “regularity.” Says Dr. Hock: “Oldfashioned habits, half-truths and incorrect beliefs, and today’s advertising have brainwashed the American public into accepting the idea that a daily bowel movement is a necessity for anyone. Your doctor knows nothing could be further from the truth.” Each person’s elimination needs vary, and regularity of bowel movements can be affected by such minor factors as diet changes, physical activity and emotional fluctuations—all of which are usually temporary, and will correct themselves without artificial assistance. Continued use of “elimination aids,” warns Hock, can make the bowel lazy and dependent on laxatives. Says he: “The public should be advised to leave their digestive and elimination systems alone.”