Determining the Role of Intestinal Microbiota Through Inflammatory Cytokines in the Occurrence of Constipation in the Elderly Referring to Hazrat Rasool Akram Hospital

Abstract

Constipation, which refers to difficult or incomplete and irregular bowel movements, is one of the common complaints of patients. According to the available articles, constipation is the most common digestive problem in the United States, which is more of a symptom than a disease. This problem is more common in women and adults over 65 years old. Considering that in the coming years, Iran's population will move towards old age, one of the biggest health problems of this population can be constipation. Currently, accurate statistics of constipation complaints are not available in Iran, and due to the nascent nature of the field of geriatric medicine in Iran, no study has been done specifically in this age group, but what is clearly known is that there are many patients with complaints. Constipation patients go to gastroenterology, internal medicine and surgery clinics and receive numerous drug treatments, and yet they still suffer from this problem. In all the studies conducted for the treatment of this disease, it is recommended to use a high-fiber diet, drink fluids, exercise, and change lifestyle. The results of the recent study showed that knowing the factors affecting the occurrence of constipation in the elderly population and measuring the frequency of these factors is very important and can be a guide to doctors and community health officers for appropriate and timely measures. In this study, which has been conducted for the first time in Iran, the high level of inflammatory cytokines in these people was an indication of the presence of more inflammation in the body of these people compared to people without constipation. In other words, elderly patients mostly have a decrease in activity and the above-mentioned reasons also increase the decrease in intestinal transit. It seems that this change has led to an increase in the growth of some bad intestinal microbial species, which themselves lead to the aggravation of constipation. The hypothesis of more supplementary studies is needed, which can be implemented in the continuation of this project, so that the group of prebiotics can be used in the treatment of functional constipation of the elderly.