Older adults who take laxatives on a regular basis could face a 51% higher risk of developing dementia compared to those who do not use them, a new study published in the journal Neurology suggests.
However, there are caveats to the study.
Titled "Association Between Regular Laxative Use and Incident Dementia in UK Biobank Participants," the study was conducted at the UK Biobank.
It's a "large-scale biomedical database and research resource containing in-depth genetic and health information from half a million U.K. participants," according to the study.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge, Harvard Medical School and other universities looked at 502,229 participants between the ages of 40 and 69 (with an average age of 56.5) who had no history of dementia.
Among those who said they took laxatives "most days of the week" over the last four weeks, 1.3% had developed all-cause dementia or vascular dementia after a span of 9.8 years.
Only 0.4% of those who did not use laxatives had the same outcome.
Vascular dementia is a condition that causes "problems with reasoning, planning, judgment, memory and other thought processes caused by brain damage from impaired blood flow to your brain," as defined by the Mayo Clinic.
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The study found no association between laxative use and the development of Alzheimer’s disease, which makes up 60%-70% of all dementia cases, per the World Health Organization.
Two of the most common types of over-the-counter laxatives are osmotics and stimulants. Osmotic laxatives work by attracting water to hydrate and soften the stool, while stimulant laxatives trigger the bowel muscles to contract.
The study found that osmotic laxatives had the strongest association with dementia risk, with a 64% increase.
"Constipation and laxative use is common among middle-aged and older adults," said study author Feng Sha, PhD, of the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in a press release from the American Academy of Neurology.
"However, regular laxative use may change the microbiome of the gut, possibly affecting nerve signaling from the gut to the brain or increasing the production of intestinal toxins that may affect the brain."
She went on, "Our research found regular use of over-the-counter laxatives was associated with a higher risk of dementia, particularly in people who used multiple laxative types or osmotic laxatives."
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Those who took multiple types of laxatives were found to have an even higher risk of dementia, with a 90% increase.
H/T Fox News (read more at FoxNews.com)
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