Walking exercise improves bowel preparation before colonoscopy

Research question Can gentle exercise improve the quality of standard bowel preparation before colonoscopy?

Answer Yes. Patients who walk intermittently while taking bowel preparation solution have cleaner bowels than patients who sit still.

Why did the authors do the study? Poor bowel preparation is a leading cause of failed colonoscopy. Animal studies have shown that exercise can enhance bowel movement. These authors wanted to find out if gentle exercise would help patients clear their bowels before a colonoscopy.

What did they do? Three hundred and eighty three outpatients from South Korea took part in a single blind randomised controlled trial of standard bowel preparation for colonoscopy with or without gentle exercise. …