Fact of the day

In a small study of 21 healthy adults, a 20-minute treadmill walk significantly increased bowel sounds, an indirect marker of gut motility, within 1 to 2 minutes of finishing the walk.

Study design

Study

Journal

Sci Rep

Evidence

preliminary

⚠What it shows: Early days: a small lab study in 21 healthy adults that used bowel sounds as a stand-in for gut movement, so it cannot say whether walking actually relieves constipation. Nobody in the study had bowel problems, and the recording stopped 15 minutes after the walk.Study · Sci Rep