by Tara Kaifesh, category analyst, part of Monthly Retailer Category Tips
Check that your digestive health department is well stocked with products designed to help patients suffering
side effects from medications and to spotlight innovative new items in the category like those listed in the table below.
The gut is the largest immune system organ, containing up to 80% of the body’s immune cells. These cells help clear out the many pathogens that pass through it every day. The article linked above from the Cleveland Clinic lists sixteen conditions that may be indirectly linked to dysbiosis or unbalanced or unhealthy gut microbiome. You are an important resource for patients that may be dealing with symptoms of potentially important gut health issues. Consider offering a service to assist in assessing patients’ digestive health, including medication review, dietary triggers, nutrition and probiotics and prebiotics recommendations, and even outcome monitoring.
From the new digestive health items released in the past ten months — from October 2024 to August 2025 — the table below shows the products that received coveted HRG Stars from HRG’s New Item Review team:
| Product Name | Subcategory | Form |
| Her Florastor Balanced Benefits Digest + De-stress Probiotic Supplement 30ct | Biotic | Gel-Cap |
| Benefiber Prebiotic + Superfruit Powder 250gm | Fiber | Powder |
| Benefiber Prebiotic + Supergreens Powder 8.8oz | Fiber | Powder |
| Metamucil Supergreens Digestive Blend Powder 5.5oz | Fiber | Powder |
| Relesium GLP-1 Digestive Support Powder 6.35oz | GLP1 – Digestive Support | Powder |
| Replenza Powder 6.8oz Mixed Berry | GLP1 – Digestive Support | Powder |
| Replenza Daily Supplement 60ct | GLP1 – Digestive Support | Tablet |
| Fleet Mineral Oil Laxative Liquid 16oz | Laxative | Liquid |
| Dulcolax Laxative Liquid Gel 20ct | Laxative | Liqui-gel |
| Mirafast Soft Chew 30ct Peach | Laxative | Soft Chew |
| Fleet Stool Softener Softgel 25ct Stimulant Free | Laxative | Soft gel |
| Fleet Stimulant Laxative Tablets 25ct | Laxative | Tablet |
Depending on your department size, these items should be added to your assortment, or if you don’t have room, it might be an opportune time to do a space-to-sales analysis of your digestive health department to identify slow movers that you can replace with these trending new items.
When we reviewed the HRG Starred items by product type the breakdown is as follows. Additionally, we looked closely at the forms these products came in and that analysis is below.
| Product Type | Percent of stared new items |
| Biotic | 8.33% |
| Fiber | 25.00% |
| GLP1 – Digestive Support | 25.00% |
| Laxative | 41.67% |
| Total | 100.00% |
| Product Form | Percent of Form |
| Powder | 41.67% |
| Tablet | 16.67% |
| Gel-Cap | 8.33% |
| Liquid | 8.33% |
| Liqui-gel | 8.33% |
| Soft gel | 8.33% |
Common adverse side effects of the use of the popular GLP-1 medications are nausea, constipation, and diarrhea as noted in the summary of the Drug Topics podcast, “Wicked Good Cardiometabolic Chat: Practical Counseling Tips for GLP-1, Dual Agonist Therapies.” Anticipate the need for symptom relievers for those common digestive side effects for your patients on GLP-1s and be sure to pay attention to stock levels of those products. Check out the recently released HRG Starred items in the table above for newer products created to mitigate side effects to add to your assortment.