Bowel Habit

Laxatives: Four Ways to Treat Constipation

Constipation is one of the commonest complaints in medicine, and the laxative shelf can look bewildering. But there are really just four types, each working by a different simple mechanism — add bulk, draw in water, stimulate the muscle, or soften the stool. Learn the four, and choosing the right one becomes obvious.

Antidiarrhoeals: Slowing the Gut — and When Not To

The most important thing about treating diarrhoea isn't the anti-diarrhoea drug — it's fluids, and knowing when a drug that stops the diarrhoea could actually be dangerous. The main drug is an opioid that never reaches the brain, and the one rule to remember could save a patient from serious harm.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Treating Symptoms, Not a Single Cause

Irritable bowel syndrome is one of the commonest gut conditions, yet it has no single cause and no cure — the bowel simply behaves abnormally, with pain, cramping and disturbed habit. So treatment is refreshingly logical: aim a specific drug at each specific symptom, using agents you've mostly already met.

The Gut Microbiome, Probiotics & C. difficile

Your gut is home to trillions of helpful bacteria — a hidden organ that antibiotics can accidentally devastate, sometimes with dangerous consequences. This is where the antimicrobial chapter comes back to bite, where 'good bacteria' become medicine, and where one of the strangest treatments in modern medicine — a transplant of stool — genuinely saves lives.