Constipation Research Analysis

Human Effect Matrix

The Human Effect Matrix looks at human studies (it excludes animal and in vitro studies) to tell you what supplements affect constipation

Grade	Level of Evidence [show legend]
	Robust research conducted with repeated double-blind clinical trials
	Multiple studies where at least two are double-blind and placebo controlled
	Single double-blind study or multiple cohort studies
	Uncontrolled or observational studies only

Outcome	Magnitude of effect ? The direction and size of the supplement's impact on each outcome. Some supplements can have an increasing effect, others have a decreasing effect, and others have no effect.	Consistency of research results ? Scientific research does not always agree. HIGH or VERY HIGH means that most of the scientific research agrees.	Notes
Senna alexandrina	Strong	Very High See all 6 studies	Due to the strong laxative effect, constipation is greatly reduced with supplemental Senna Alexandria. Has been noted effective against regular, postpartum, and opioid-induced constipation and appears to not require a context-specific cause of constipation (ie. reliable) but appears to be associated with more cramping than placebo.
Ziziphus jujuba	Minor	- See study	A decrease in the symptoms of constipation has been seen with the water extract of jujubes; which may apply to fruit consumption but may not apply to isolated supplements (due to the polysaccharides being the active ingredients)
Lactobacillus reuteri	-	- See 2 studies

All comparative evidence is now gathered in our A-to-Z Supplement Reference.

The evidence for each separate supplement is still freely available here.