People’s Pharmacy: Beware regular use of mineral oil for constipation

Q. What are the side effects, if any, from prolonged use of mineral oil as a laxative? I eat lots of fruits and vegetables, but I still have problems with constipation. Mineral oil works well for me.

Friends tell me I should not take it every day. My doctor says to “slack off” but doesn’t tell me the reason why. Can you offer some insight?

A. Mineral oil (liquid paraffin) is sometimes recommended as a temporary treatment for the management of childhood constipation (Evidence-Based Child Health, Jan. 3, 2013). Side effects might include “abdominal pain, distention and watery stools.”

Daily use of mineral oil as a stool softener might impair nutrient absorption. There are concerns that fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K) might not be absorbed well if mineral oil is taken around mealtime.

You can find our eGuide to Controlling Constipation of value. It contains recipes for Power Pudding and pumpkin-bran muffins. Some people also find sugar-free gum helpful. This electronic resource can be found in the Health eGuides section of peoplespharmacy.com.

Q. I could not walk up or down the three steps to enter my home without assistance because of severe knee pain. My sports medicine doctor gave me three weekly platelet-rich plasma injections to the knee under guided ultrasound.

The results were astounding. Pain is gone. Crepitations (crinkling sounds) are almost gone. I can climb a flight of wood stairs with very minimal discomfort.

It’s been about two years since the injections, and during this time I have walked and climbed all over Egypt, Turkey and France. PRP also cured my agonizing plantar fasciitis after I had tried all sorts of treatments without success. Be sure the doctor uses ultrasound during the injections.

A. Platelet-rich plasma is prepared from the patient’s own blood and reinjected into the knee joint. A systematic review of 12 studies compared PRP injections and hyaluronic acid injections (European Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery & Traumatology, online, Feb. 14). HA is a natural anti-inflammatory substance the body makes.

In this meta-analysis, PRP injections were better for knee-joint pain compared with the HA injections. The benefits were detectable after six months and one year. This research appears to confirm your experience that PRP injections can help ease knee pain.

Q. I have been getting testosterone shots for years based on my wife’s complaint about my low libido. Yes, they do help. They help a lot!

My doctor didn’t think I needed them; he thought I was depressed. I objected loudly to that diagnosis, and I demanded a blood test before he cooked my noodle. Sure enough, I had low testosterone, like pre-teen levels of low.

The shots have not only helped with libido but also have gone a long way toward leveling my moods. My wife believes I’m calmer, more patient and much more focused.

A word of caution about getting the shots. It takes a while to figure out the dosage for each guy to get to a therapeutic level. Some men respond to low doses. I worked with the doctor as we determined my body simply needed to exist at the higher end of the normal range in order to get the benefits. Monitor your levels with blood tests.

A. The Food and Drug Administration does not approve of using testosterone shots for low libido linked to aging. That said, the American College of Physicians has issued guidelines recommending testosterone shots “to improve sexual function in men with age-related low testosterone” (Annals of Internal Medicine, Jan. 21).