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.
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