# Can I use senna for 1 or 2 months without worrying?



## alpha66 (May 19, 2011)

Can I use senna for 1 or 2 months without habit forming????How long does it usually take for senna to make a person dependent on it???I need to use some stimulant for a while because of a surgery (fissurectomy) I got recently.


----------



## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Most of the "it makes your colon weak" stuff is from an older laxative that is no longer on the market.At usual doses there doesn't seem to be that risk with senna and as you heal up I think it should be OK (if you are taking huge doses like bulimics do during a purge that may be a different situation).You may also want to see if you need a stool softener or osmotic laxative to help keep the stool wet and easy to pass. Stimulatory laxatives may make even hard stool move along and I think consistency more than frequency would be more important as you heal. There is no risk from the osmotics as they don't even work the way that is theorized to cause problems.


----------



## alpha66 (May 19, 2011)

Kathleen M. said:


> Most of the "it makes your colon weak" stuff is from an older laxative that is no longer on the market.At usual doses there doesn't seem to be that risk with senna and as you heal up I think it should be OK (if you are taking huge doses like bulimics do during a purge that may be a different situation).You may also want to see if you need a stool softener or osmotic laxative to help keep the stool wet and easy to pass. Stimulatory laxatives may make even hard stool move along and I think consistency more than frequency would be more important as you heal. There is no risk from the osmotics as they don't even work the way that is theorized to cause problems.


Aren't all stimulantive laxatives on the market habit forming? That's what I heard from everywhere on the net.So you are saying that I can use senna forever without getting dependent on it later? Or without worrying that it will stop working someday???


----------



## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

I'm not sure how much on the web is liability lawyer speak or not.The hard data says the ones on the market at this time (like senna) do not seem to make constipation any worse than it would have gotten on its own. Some people do get worse over time but that seems to happens regardless of what they take.I'm not sure how good the data was for the laxative off the market, but since it had warnings they seem to just keep adding it onto all of them more just to be careful.That and if you do need them regularly you don't want to take them to avoid going to the doctor.Again, I'm talking normal doses, not mega dosing them to purge yourself. Although how much is from the laxatives and how much of the residual problems are just from disordered eating I do not know.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20107583 is what I refer to when I think the risk is overstated."There is no convincing evidence that the chronic use of senna has, as a consequence, a structural and/or functional alteration of the enteric nerves or the smooth intestinal muscle"


----------



## JODY23 (Jul 27, 2011)

Where can you purchase senna at? Are stool softeners habit forming or are they stimulant free? I don't know alot about laxatives because I hardly ever took any. When I missed a day or two, I just drank more water and eat more fruit and that took care of it.When I started having bladder problems(bladder retaining more urine than it should), I started have problems with constipation.I can't understand how bladder problems would cause constipation problems.Later on I got a prostate infection and was prescribed antibiotics(Bactrim). Are the antibiotics constipating?I know antibiotics kill both the good and bad bacteria in the colon, but I have always heard that antibiotics cause loose bowels.


----------

