A recent article published in Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity aimed to investigate the effect of physical activity and a low-calorie diet on constipation in middle-aged obese women. This study included 125 obese women, in the age-group of 20-40 years, with chronic constipation. Participants were randomly assigned to either Group A – 62 women who received a suggested protocol of physical activity, a low-calorie diet, and the routine standard care for constipation; or Group B – 63 women who received only the standard medical care for constipation and a low-calorie diet. Both groups followed the program for 12 weeks. The results revealed that there were no statistically significant differences in the baseline characteristics of patients in the two groups. After 12 weeks of intervention, both groups showed significant intra-group differences in all of the measured variables, such as Patient Assessment of Constipation Symptoms (PAC-SYM) and Patient Assessment Quality of Life (PAC-QOL) scores, except the BMI which showed a nonsignificant difference. Moreover, all of the measured parameters were significantly in favor of Group A, in comparison with group-B. Therefore, it was inferred that physical activity and weight reduction improve PAC-SYM and PAC-QOL scores in middle-aged, premenopausal women with constipation.¹

Reference

1. Tantawy S, Kamel D, Abdel-Basset W, Elgohary H. Effects of a proposed physical activity and diet control to manage constipation in middle-aged obese women. Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity: Targets and Therapy. 2017;Volume 10:513-519. doi:10.2147/dmso.s140250.