Roles of Chinese Medicine and Gut Microbiota in Chronic Constipation.

Roles of Chinese Medicine and Gut Microbiota in Chronic Constipation. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2019;2019:9372563 Authors: Xu Z, Liu T, Zhou Q, Chen J, Yuan J, Yang Z Abstract Chronic constipation is a common gastrointestinal dysfunction, but its aetiology and pathogenesis are still unclear. Interestingly, the compositions of the gut microbiota in constipation patients and healthy controls are different. Various studies reported the different gut microbiota alterations in constipation patients, but most studies indicated that constipation patients showed the decreased beneficial bacteria and the reduced species richness of gut bacteria. Besides, the alterations in the gut microbiota may lead to constipation and constipation-related symptoms and the regulation of gut microbiota has a positive effect on gut functional diseases such as constipation. Microbial treatment methods, such as probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, and fecal microbiota transplantation, can be used to regulate gut microbiota. Increasing evidences have suggested that Chinese medicine (CM) has a good therapeutic effect on chronic constipation. Chinese medicine is well known for its multitarget and multimode effects on diseases as well as less side effects. In previous studies, after the treatment of constipation with CM, the gut microbiota was restored, indicating that the gut microbiota might be the target or important way for CM to exert its efficacy. In ...
Source: Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine - Category: Complementary Medicine Tags: Evid Based Complement Alternat Med Source Type: research