Abstract
Objectives The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the ingestion of alkaline-reduced water (ARW) is helpful in improving the symptoms of diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Methods Twenty-seven patients (male, 25.9%; mean, 41.7 years old) with diarrhea-predominant IBS were randomly allocated to two groups. For eight weeks, the ARW group (n = 13) ingested at least 2 liters/day of ARW, while the control group (n = 14) ingested placebo water. IBS symptom scores (quality-of-life, abdominal pain/discomfort), stool form, and frequency were assessed before and after treatment via questionnaires. Results Eight patients (61.5%) in the ARW group and six patients (42.9%) in the control group indicated that their symptoms had improved in more than four out of the eight weeks of treatment (p = 0.449). The IBS quality-of-life score significantly improved from 57.2 to 30.8 in the ARW group; this improvement was significantly greater than the slight improvement from 48.7 to 42.2 observed in the control group (p = 0.029). The abdominal pain score improved from 1.8 to 0.9 in the ARW group and from 1.8 to 1.1 in the control group, with no significant group difference (p = 0.232). Conclusions Drinking ARW for eight weeks improves the quality of life in patients with diarrhea-predominant IBS.
Highlights
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional intestinal disorder accompanied by abdominal pain and bowel habit changes, without evidence of an underlying injury
The consumption of water was similar in the two groups (ARW group: 2,124 ± 900 ml/day; control group: 2,052 ± 648 ml/day, p = 0.834)
Numerous animal studies have investigated the ability of controlling the electrolyte balance or acidity of the drinking water to treat functional gastrointestinal disorders
Summary
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional intestinal disorder accompanied by abdominal pain and bowel habit changes, without evidence of an underlying injury. It is a very common disease, occurring in about 11% of people worldwide [1]. Improving symptoms through appropriate treatment is important; IBS lowers the quality of life and increases medical costs [2,3,4]. Patients with IBS suffer from anxiety, major depressive disorder, and chronic fatigue syndrome [5, 6]. Recent studies indicate that the intestinal microbiota is one of the important factors affecting the onset of IBS [11, 12]
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