To relieve people who suffer from chronic constipation, researchers and engineers have developed a pill that vibrates and thus stimulates transit.
- We speak of constipation when the frequency of bowel movements is less than three per week.
- Between 3 and 5% of the adult population suffers from chronic constipation. That is to say, suffer from constipation for more than 6 months.
If your transit is often slow, even blocked… a pill which has just made its arrival on the American market could interest you. Once swallowed, this capsule does not release molecules but it begins to vibrate. The goal? Its tremors would help to stimulate the colon and thus relaunch the transit.
Constipation: a vibrating pill to activate the intestine
Called Vibrant, this drug-free tablet is intended for adults with chronic idiopathic constipation who have not experienced relief after taking laxative therapy for at least one month.
The capsule should be swallowed daily, preferably at bedtime. Like food, it travels to the stomach, then the small intestine, finally reaching the large intestine about 14 hours later. She then goes to work. The vibrations it emits stimulate nerve cells in the intestine. They help trigger peristalsis, which is muscle contractions that move food through the intestine. This accelerates the frequency of bowel movements.
“There are small vibrations for three seconds on, three seconds off”, explained Cathy Collis, commercial director of Vibrant Gastro, to CNN. Once the “work” finished, the capsule is expelled naturally with the stool.
Processing that speeds up authorized transit in the USA
The product’s effectiveness was assessed in a trial involving 312 patients with chronic idiopathic constipation. 200 volunteers were given the vibrating pill while the remaining 149 were given a placebo. 40% of those taking the tested capsule reported having at least one extra bowel movement per week, 23% said they had at least two more.
For the control group, the rates were 23% and 12% respectively. Additionally, patients who took the Vibrant pill reported softer stools and less bloating.
Dr. Eamonn Quigley, chief of gastroenterology at Houston Methodist Hospital, assisted the company in testing the product. He entrusted to CNN that a “minority” of patients reported feeling the vibrations.
“None of them felt it was uncomfortable. And none of them stopped taking it because of it”he specified.
In view of these results, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the American administration responsible for authorizing the marketing of drugs, gave its green light for the marketing of the pills in the USA last August.
