Vol. 34 | Vol. 34 (1) - 2023 | Gut health

Management of colonic dysmotility and constipation

by 25 January 2023

25 January 2023

Bowel habit

Gut motility

Probiotics

Functional constipation

Irritable bowel syndrome

Jing Cheng*¹ Arthur C. Ouwehand²
1. Scientist
2. Technical fellow
IFF Health & Biosciences, Kantvik, Finland

ABSTRACT

Gut motility is central to bowel function, and dysmotility leads to slow transit and constipation, which is associated with primary gastrointestinal and extraintestinal disorders. Gut transit time, stool frequency, consistency, and bloating are the main clinical outcomes of interest for dysmotility in constipation and are affected by age, gender, lifestyle, and medication use. Although dietary and lifestyle modifications and several lines of pharmacological treatments have been used to treat constipation, new long-term therapeutic solutions are needed to improve treatment satisfaction. To this end, the efficacy of probiotics in the management of constipation has varied. Future randomized controlled trials should thus be based on well-defined probiotic preparations with at least 2 trials, designed, and reported according to unified global standards.

Introduction

Bowel function is central to overall health, and a dysfunctional bowel can lead to constipation or diarrhea, both of which are often observed in functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs), such as functional constipation (FC) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). These disorders can overlap and have a high global prevalence (approximately 14% and 10%, respectively), and their management represents a growing public health burden on the clinical and community levels (1, 2).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jing Cheng is a Scientist at International flavors & fragrances (IFF), focusing on Clinical Research for probiotics and prebiotics targeting intestinal health. She holds a Ph.D. degree from University of Helsinki, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, specializing in data exploration of the roles of human intestinal microbiota in both nutritional interventions and therapeutic indications.
Arthur Ouwehand was graduated to be teacher in biology and chemistry in 1987.
He subsequently did his masters in biology at Wageningen University; specialising in microbiology and biochemistry (1992).
Arthur did his PhD in microbiology at Göteborg University where he worked on interactions between dairy proteins and probiotics and pathogenic E. coli (1996).
At the University of Turku he did his post-doc continuing to work on probiotic adhesion and working on other functional aspects of probiotics and the intestinal microbiota.
Since 2004, Arthur has been working for Danisco (now IFF) as Technical Fellow in Kantvik (Finland); working on the health aspects of probiotics and prebiotics, and the composition and activity of the intestinal microbiota. He remains, however, adjunct professor at the University of Turku for the Functional Foods Forum.

Challenges to bringing cell-based products to market

Latest issue

Vol. 37 (2) – 2026

View Issue

Content from magazine

“Content from the journal” features selected articles and in-depth insights from the agro-food and nutraceutical sectors, with a focus on research, data, and scientific innovation.

View all content

Management of colonic dysmotility and constipation

You may also like

Unprecedented challenges and opportunities for the food industry

Challenges to bringing cell-based products to market

Study shows that polyphenol-rich extracts can modulate the gut microbi...

What should be the best regulatory framework for Gene Editing