U of S Graduate Student Study Helps Seniors Combat Constipation

Posted September 11, 2003


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Thursday, September 11th, 2003 2003-09-09-PH

Graduate Student Study Helps Seniors Combat Constipation

Adding just four grams of ground pea hull fibre to daily menu options in
long-term care facilities can help relieve constipation, thereby improving
the health of residents and potentially reducing their medication expenses,
says a just-published study by a University of Saskatchewan doctoral
student.

As a result of the findings, the Prairie North Health Region centered around
North Battleford is adding pea hull fibre (made from the external coat or
hulls of yellow peas and which contain more than twice as much fibre as
wheat bran) to their care facility menus. The measure is part of an
initiative encouraging residents to reduce medication intake -- a response
to recent studies linking high medication use with decreased quality of
life.

The study, funded by the Saskatchewan Pulse Crop Development Board, was
published earlier this month in the Journal of the American Dietetic
Association (www.adajournal.org).

"The fibre intake of people in long-term care homes is extremely low," says
Wendy Dahl, a U of S pharmacy and nutrition graduate student who worked on
the study with pharmacy and nutrition professor Susan Whiting, undergraduate
Adrienne Healey, and associate professor Gordon Zello, as well as Sherri
Hildebrandt, director of food and nutrition services for LutherCare
Communities.

"The residents are not getting the fibre they need, and as a result, more
than 70 per cent of residents are prescribed pharmaceutical laxatives and
enemas," she said, noting it is the policy of many care homes to administer
an enema to a resident who has not had a bowel movement for three days.

"People who have few bowel movements don't feel well. They are bloated and
uncomfortable and don't want to eat anything, which can lead to further
health problems," says Dahl, noting that constipation can also result in
serious medical conditions such as hernias, anorexia, heart problems, and
gastrointestinal obstructions or inflammation.

In Saskatchewan, long-term care residents pay for their own constipation
medications, which can cost between $300 and $600 per year.

In a 10-week study, the team found that substituting ground pea hulls for
flour in three or four food items per day is a low-cost way to fortify foods
with finely processed fibre, significantly improving the frequency of bowel
movements.

Of the 114 residents who participated in the study, there was an overall
increase in bowel movements after menus were enhanced with pea hull, and the
most constipated residents showed the greatest improvement after pea hull
was introduced.

Using wheat bran to fibre enhance food turns baking products brown -- a
color some residents consider "poor man's food" because it reminds them of
what they had to eat during the war when white flour was scarce and costly,
Dahl says. As well, residents with dementia may not eat bran-enriched food.
"If a resident has brown flecks of bran floating in his or her cream of
wheat, it may appear to be bugs crawling in the food and it won't be eaten,"
she says.

Removed from the pea, hulls are cleaned and ground into a light-colored
flour-like powder that can be used in breakfast cereals and pasta -- perfect
for making cookies or white bread that is virtually indistinguishable from
non-fibre enhanced food.

Dahl thinks the best way to increase fibre is through baked goods. "Most
people eat two or three slices of bread per day, so if baked goods or even
bread alone was fibre-enhanced, it could increase fibre intake by several
grams."

She says it's possible to increase fibre intake by convincing people to eat
a diet that includes bran, "but people in the final years of their lives
should be able to eat things they like. For instance, if someone likes
shortbread cookies, why not enhance the cookies, increasing fibre and
letting people eat food they enjoy?"

Though the study was focused on care home residents, Dahl says pea hull
fibre is a great way for anyone to increase fibre intake. She expects it
will soon be available for commercial sale in one kilo bags.

-30-

For more information, contact:

Wendy Dahl
College of Pharmacy and Nutrition
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 655-1310 or 966-2179

Kathryn Warden
Research Communications
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-2506
kathryn.warden@usask.ca
www.usask.ca/research