Although exercise is often prescribed for people with constipation, not many studies have been carried out to investigate the effect on the passage of food through the gastrointestinal tract. We, therefore, studied the effects of exercise on the gastrointestinal transit. Ten healthy men, with a mean age of 71 yr-old, participated in the study. Experiments were performed in 2 phases, one was 2-week rest with minimal physical activity and the other was 2-week exercise. Walking over 10,000 steps per day was applied for the exercise.
　Total gastrointestinal transit time, colonic transit time and mouth-to-cecum (small bowel) transit time were measured with carmine red, radiopaque-marker method, and breath hydrogen method, respectively. Exercise slightly accelerated the total gastrointestinal transit time, but not the small bowel transit. The colonic transit time was significantly accelerated from 19.5 ± 2.9 to 10.9 ± 2.9 h < 0.01). From these experiments, light exercise such as walking accelerates the colonic transit, and will be good for the people with chronic constipation.

DESCENTE SPORTS SCIENCE Vol.14/THE DESCENTE AND ISHIMOTO MEMORIAL FOUNDATION FOR THE PROMOTION SPORTS SCIENCE