Abstract
The effects of a daily ingestion for 4 consecutive weeks of roasted tea containing 3g of galactosylsucrose (LS) on defecation were examined in 134 senile patients (30 males and 104 females with an average age of 82.0 years) living in a nursing facility. The 8-week experiment was divided into 4 consecutive periods: pre-ingestion period (2 weeks), ingestion period 1 (2 weeks), ingestion period 2 (2weeks) and post-ingestion period (2 weeks). During the LS ingestion period, defecation frequency and timing from 5.5 to 6.1 times per week (p<0.05) and from 3.7 to 4.1 days per week (p<0.01), respectively, as compared to pre-ingestion period. We investigated the influence of laxatives administration by dividing patients into 4 groups: Group I with patients who took a combination of a stimulating laxative and a saline laxative as a magnesium oxide, Group II where only a stimulating laxative was taken, Group III with patients on saline laxative, and Group IV with no laxatives at all. Consequently we found that LS ingestion increased significantly(p<0.05) defecation frequency in group I and III patients who took saline laxative, from 5.0 to 6.3 times per week and from 5.7 to 7.1 times per week, respectively, as compared to pre-ingestion period. Additionally, the effects of daily activity level were investigated by dividing the patients into 5 groups. Throughout the experiment, we found that defecation significantly increased (p<0.01) from 3.1 to 3.7 days per week as compared to preingestion period, especially in the group of patients who have a daily activity index of 1.1 (bedridden).These results demonstrated that the ingestion of a roasted tea containing 3g of LS in a day improved defecation in senile patients with constipation. They may suggest the possibility that LS could contribute to the improvement of QOL in the patients and reduce the burden of care workers.
