I have been taking Forlax for some time for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). I like that, but I would like to use the same product without additives such as sorbitol and sulfur dioxide. Is that possible?
Joris Bartstra, journalist with medical diploma
There isn’t to my knowledge, but I wouldn’t change if things go well. In irritable bowel syndrome you have annoying but harmless complaints for which no clear cause is found. A tricky point in treatment is that it is often not clear why something works or not. There is also a psychological component: the more you are involved with it, the more complaints you have, and of course vice versa. If I like something, I would therefore experiment as little as possible with something new. Every medicine has excipients. It cannot be ruled out that the excipients of the product you are using contribute to the beneficial effect, or that another product has other excipients that may have a negative effect. The main active ingredient of Forlax is macrogol: a substance that retains water, so that the stool remains soft. Forlax is the simplest macrogol preparation; there are also preparations (such as Movicolon) with extra salts or other laxative substances. Sorbitol is a sugary sweetener that occurs naturally in fruits and is also a bit of a laxative. Sulfur dioxide is a commonly used preservative. The amounts you ingest with a drug are negligibly small in addition to what you ingest with foods.
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