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Here’s the story. The FDA has announced it is going to require “black box” warnings on certain bowel cleansers prescribed by doctors for use by people preparatory to a colonoscopy. It turns out that in some cases, people who have used these bowel cleaners have suffered acute phosphate nephropathy.
Which is a fancy way of saying it damages your kidneys.
The bowel cleansers are known as oral sodium phosphate products or OSPs.
Urinary dysfunction expert, Dr. Janet Woodcock,
director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said though the injuries were rare, "In some cases, these serious adverse events occurred in patients with no pre-existing health factors that would have put them at risk for developing kidney injury."We cannot rule out, however, that some of these patients were dehydrated prior to ingestion of OSP products or they did not drink sufficient fluids after ingesting OSP products." Woodcock said in a statement.
So they’re hedging their bets. User error could have been a factor. Things are bad when you screw up a laxative. A whole new definition of pathetic. In this case, nephropathetic.
The FDA is saying that none of these products is bad when used in the lower laxative dose. The over-the-counter one I myself was instructed to use in my colonoscopy adventure, Fleet—which I still think is a good name for a fast acting laxative—was only a risk when used in the heightened dose used for bowel cleansing.
Bowel Cleansing. Sounds so gentle.
It’s not.
Bowel Explosion is more like it.
So it’s nice to know while I’m getting my bowel squeaky clean to save the Doc any unsettling close-ups of fecal matter, my kidneys are being destroyed.
“Well, Mr. Farmer, we have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is you’ll have to come in for dialysis twice a week.
“The good new is, no polyps. Your bowel is as clean as a sausage casing.”
America, ya gotta love it.
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