US researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, in Los Angeles, examined the effect of the fatty acid oleic acid, an end product of fat digestion, on gut transit time.

Transit time was measured in 45 patients with chronic diarrhoea and eight controls, following ingestion of an emulsion containing differing levels of oleic acid. Control subjects received emulsion alone and the remaining 45 patients with chronic diarrhoea were divided into three groups: 0ml, 1.6ml and 3.2ml of oleic acid.

Mean transit time was shorter in patients who received 0ml of oleic acid than the controls. However, transit times increased in length in the patients who received oleic acid, with the greatest increase in the 3.2ml group.

In the 18 patients who provided stool records, the recorded frequency decreased from seven to about five bowel movements per day with oleic acid treatment. Stool volume also decreased with treatment. The only adverse effect reported by subjects was that oleic acid produced a slight, temporary burning taste or sensation in the mouth or throat.

Dr Henry Lin, author of the study, concluded that oleic acid slows transit in a dose-dependent fashion by activating a nutrient-triggered inhibitory feedback mechanism in the small intestine, when taken before a meal.

Writing in Digestive Diseases and Sciences, Dr Lin said, "Our study patients presented with a wide variety of gastrointestinal disorders associated with abnormally rapid transit. Regardless of their diagnoses, many patients who previously had little or no response to traditional antidiarrhoeal medications responded to oleic acid with a slowing of transit and reduction of diarrhoea."

He said that the use of oleic acid to control postprandial symptoms and diarrhoea is immediate, with no real side effects and an associated improvement in nutrition.

　　From Healthy.net