Study: Plums act as a laxative

Reference

Attaluri a, Donahoe R, Valestin J, Brown K, Rao SS. Randomized clinical study: dried plums (plums) vs. psyllium for constipation. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2011; 33 (7): 822-828.

Design

an 8-week, simply blinded, randomized cross-over study.

participant

forty clogged subjects, three of them male and the rest female, with an average age of 38 years

study medication

The subjects received either plums or psyllium to provide 6 grams of fiber for 3 weeks. After a week -long laundry phase, the therapy was changed.

target parameter

The test subjects led a symptom and chair diary every day, in which they recorded the number of complete spontaneous stool ducts per week, the general relief of constipation, the stool consistency, pressing, compatibility and taste.

most important knowledge

The number of complete spontaneous stool ducts per week (primary result of the result) and the stool consistency values ​​significantly improved ( p <0.05) for dried plums compared to psyllium.

effects on practice

plums function. This means that plums seem to cause exactly what everyone has always expected from them; They act as a mild laxative. Even if some would think that this effect is obvious, this study by Attaluri et al. The first clinical studies published in the specialist literature include people who demonstrate the effectiveness of plums.

The results of a clinical study from 2002, in which the effects of plums were compared with dried apples on factors that influence the bone density, "suggest that dried plums can have positive effects on the bones after menopause." act. 2

Two studies from 2010 indicated that plums could act as stool -soft. In both studies, the consumption of plums was compared as a snack with cookies. An article from June 2010 that appeared in the magazine appetite informed us that plums suppress the hunger more effective and create a feeling of satiety than sugar. Reduced more than sugar, and mentioned that plums tend to make the stool softer.

Only a few experienced practitioners or consumers will be regarded as new. Instead, most will be surprised that this study had to be carried out at all.

There is another article about plums that are worth mentioning. In the magazine of the American College of Nutrition in 2007, an overview article compared the effect of eating plums with the consumption of berries or other fruits on the antioxidant capacity (AOC) of the serum. While data from a series of clinical studies "showed that eating certain berries and fruits such as blueberries, mixed grapes and kiwis" increased the AOC value in plasma ", the consumption of plums or drinking plum juice did not change the measured values ​​of antioxidant capacity.

with the publication of the current study by Attaluri et al. The use of plums as a laxative has made the first step from a product from "old women" (OWT) to the area of ​​evidence -based medicine (EBM). Pendants of the EBM can now prescribe dried plum patients without being afraid of criticism. It should be pointed out that this current study has weaknesses: it was simple and not double -blind, the participants were mostly female, about the etiology of constipation of the participants is little known and obviously a study is anything but conclusive.

This new progress in medicine actually has something absurd. Only a few experienced practitioners or consumers will consider this data to be new. Instead, most will be surprised that this study had to be carried out at all; The effect of plums on the human digestive tract is obvious.

The attraction that many of us have on EBM, and our resulting wish to find support for therapies in published studies, meta-analyzes or-the sacred grail of all work- Cochrane reviews appears superficially, but can be an obstacle to the achievement of best patient results.

So far, the findings indicated that we use psyllium fibers, since they are more effective than sodium docusat. ^{6 But practitioners who are on anecdotes, common sense and the data obtained by OWT have always used plums to soften the chair and increase the stool frequency.}

This story about plums reminds, as my colleague Steve Austin, and when he wrote about breast cancer years ago, pointed out the difference between type 1 and type 2 errors in the statistics and how different medical professions attach greater value to avoiding one form. For a medical oncologist who prescribes chemotherapy, the requirement is to be sure that the medication has a benefit to cancer. You have to be sure that the medication will bring a benefit because the side effects are so large. ^{7 for naturopathic doctors, the non -toxic therapies, in this case plums, the requirements should be reversed. If there is a possibility that therapy helps, then we should be interested in trying it out: the classic "It will not hurt and it could help" perspective in practice.}

As far as plums are concerned, we can now prescribe them without hesitation; You have officially climbed from the unproven OwT to the trustworthy EBM.