Laxatives are generally quite safe when taken at the recommended dosage. However, they can cause side effects and long-term use and overuse can lead to problems.
Articles on Bowel diseases
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The golden rule of gastroenterology is to always heed the ‘call to stool’ when the urge strikes.
One in seven Australians report symptoms of constipation, which might include hard stools, straining to poo, or having fewer than three bowel motions a week. These four things can help.
Anxiety around going to the toilet in a public place is a recognised mental health condition. We explored the thought processes behind shy bladder and shy bowel to better understand these disorders.
Constipation can occur when there’s a delay in digested food passing through your body and being expelled. It can also happen when your poo is too hard, often because it doesn’t contain enough water.
People who bloat don’t produce more abdominal gas than others but they might have problems getting rid of it.
New parenthood got our fluid dynamics experts thinking about what ends up in the diaper. They headed to the zoo and the lab to come up with a cohesive physics story for how defecation works.
For most of us, the form of stool we excrete can vary widely depending, in part, on what we’ve been doing.
The make-up of our gut is constantly changing and affects everything from our immune system and digestion, to our brain function.
Links have been made between the community of bacteria in your gut and depression, pain, stress and sleep. So what does the science say?
Pauline Hanson’s concern about the ATO installing squat toilets to cater for its increasingly diverse workforce has prompted debate about the best way to go to the toilet: sitting or squatting.
Beetroot, artificial colours, vitamin supplements, medications and illnesses can change the colour of your urine or bowel motions.
We’ve all experienced the abdominal cramps and the urge to get to a toilet – quickly! When the stomach and intestinal tract become inflamed, our bodies respond with the sudden onset of diarrhoea, associated…
New research is showing that emu oil has therapeutic potential for the treatment of a variety of common bowel diseases, as…
Top contributors
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Associate Professor and Clinical Academic Gastroenterologist, Western Sydney University
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Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle
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Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Sciences, RMIT University
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Post-Doctoral Researcher, University of Newcastle
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Ph.D. Student in Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
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Associate Professor at Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University
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Group Leader, Personalised Health, CSIRO
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Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Biology, Adjunct Professor of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology
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Lecturer, Nutrition & Dietetics, Curtin University
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Associate Professor and Clinical Psychologist, Swinburne University of Technology
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PhD Candidate, Swinburne University of Technology
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Honorary Professor, University of Newcastle
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Senior Lecturer in Psychology, The University of Melbourne
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Research Professor of Biotechnology, Head of Host-Microbe Interactions Laboratory, RMIT University