Coffee changes the intestinal microbiome and improves bowel movement

Researchers fed rats coffee and mixed it with gut bacteria in petri dishes in the lab. They found that the bacteria suppressed coffee and increased muscle motility, regardless of the caffeine content.

"When rats were treated with coffee for three days, the ability of the small intestine muscles to contract seemed to increase," said Xuan-Zheng Shi, senior author of the study and associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Texas. Interestingly, these effects are independent of caffeine, because decaffeinated coffee had similar effects to regular coffee."

Coffee has long been known to increase bowel movement, but researchers have not identified the specific reason or mechanism. The researchers examined changes in bacteria when fecal matter was exposed to coffee in a Petri dish, and by studying the composition of feces after rats ingested different concentrations of coffee for three days. The study also documented changes in the smooth muscles of the intestine and colon, and the response of those muscles when directly exposed to coffee.

The study has found that the growth of bacteria and other microbes in fecal matter in a Petri dish was suppressed with a 1,5 percent coffee solution, and the growth of microbes was even lower with a 3 percent coffee solution. percent. Decaffeinated coffee had a similar effect on the microbiome.