# Digestive Symptoms More Common in US Population Than Assumed



## Jeffrey Roberts (Apr 15, 1987)

Digestive Symptoms More Common in USPopulation Than Assumed WESTPORT, Jul 03 (Reuters Health) - Pain, bloating and diarrhea are morecommon and frequent in the US than previously recognized, according to thefindings of a population based study. With funding from Proctor & Gamble, Dr. Robert S. Sandler from theUniversity of North Carolina, in Chapel Hill, and a multicenter team sought todetermine whether olestra in potato chips really caused digestive symptoms orwhether there was already a background of common frequent symptoms."People had read the publicity and they expected that they might developsymptoms and when they did they attributed them to the olestragens," Dr.Sandler told Reuters Health. The group collected data on 2,510 subjects who completed telephoneinterviews. The subjects were asked to give estimates of the frequency,duration, severity and impact, if any, of digestive symptoms during the monthbefore the survey. "Among the respondents, 1,017 (40.5%) reported one or more digestivesymptoms within the month before the interview," according to the report in theJune issue of Digestive Diseases and Sciences. Dr. Sandler's group found that,more than 65% rated their symptoms as moderate or severe; 21.8% hadabdominal pain or discomfort, 15.9% reported bloating or distention and26.9% had loose stools or diarrhea. Additionally, more women (24.4%) than men (17.5%) reported abdominal painor discomfort. Bloating and distention, too, were more common among women(19.2%) than among men (10.5%). However, both men (26.7%) and women(27.1%) reported similar occurrences of diarrhea and loose stool, according tothe authors. The team also noted that symptoms were less common amongsubjects older than 60 years of age. Dr. Sandler and colleagues conclude that their data indicate that 40% of the USpopulation experience digestive symptoms each month. "Finally," they say, "thedata provide a context in which to interpret reports of digestive complaintsfollowing ingestion of foods and medications that are thought to producesymptoms." "The point is that people would eat olestra chips and get symptoms but thesymptoms were not due to olestra. Based on our survey these symptoms werevery common," Dr. Sandler added. Dig Dis Sci 2000;45:1166-1171.


----------



## JeanG (Oct 20, 1999)

Another good one, Jeff. Very interesting.







JeanG


----------



## cookies4marilyn (Jun 30, 2000)

Thanks for posting Jeff...This is very interesting given the fact that olestra is in those WOW potato chips and they have the "warning" on there about potentially explosive BMs and not making it, etc. It is a surprising outcome to say the least!!!







------------------"Cookies" alias Marilyn


----------

