Journal des probiotiques et de la santé
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Prophylactic Effects of Kefir-Fermented Milk on Constipation among Mentally and Physically Handicapped Persons

Miharu Ino, Mayumi Matsukawa, Yoshio Yamaoka, Katsuhiro Hanada and Chieko Fujii

Constipation is one of the most serious problems concerning the care of mentally and physically handicapped people in nursing homes in Japan. The major causes of constipation are related to their physical abnormality. Therefore, Glycerol Enema (GE) is used to treat constipation. However, the administration of GE not only causes mental and physical stresses to handicapped people but also causes physical damage to nurses. Therefore, we explored whether the probiotic effect of Kefir-fermented milk can prevent constipation. We selected eleven participants, who have suffered from severe constipation. They did not show Bowel Movements (BMs) without the administration of GE. Kefir was taken three times a day for three months, and the numbers of BM and GE were investigated. Here, we found that four of the eleven participants showed improvement in BMs without the administration of GE. This study was carried out with the highly limited number of subjects, our results implicated that the adding of Kefir to the daily diet of handicapped people might have benefit for constipation prophylaxis. For future, we must investigate with the larger number of subjects to understand the effect of Kefir for preventing constipation. Even though further investigation is required, our study suggests that to add the oral intake of Kefir would contribute to the reduction of the physical labor of nurses spending much time and effort for the administration of GE, and also contribute to an increase in the quality of life for handicapped people.