Basic study of occurrence frequency of bowel sounds after food ingestion

The human bowel produces bowel sounds characteristic of digestive activity. The changes in digestive activity of the bowel are reflected in the frequency and intensity of peristaltic action, and indirectly in variation in bowel sound. Approaching this process in reverse, we detected changes in bowel sound to capture variation in digestive activity of the bowel, aiming to develop a quantitative monitoring technique to trace the cause of the bowel sound variation back to a difference in consumed foods, to compatibility between the food and the individual, or to the health of the individual´s digestive organs. In order to collect the basic data for developing such a technique, we carried out two experiments. Experiment 1 was an examination of frequency of bowel sounds after ingestion of easy-to-digest food in a complete fasting state. Experiment 2 was an investigation of how the bowel sound frequency changes according to the difference in foods eaten. Foods considered good for digestion as well as foods bad for digestion were used in Experiment 2. The results of the two experiments suggested that the frequency of bowel sounds is affected by health conditions or disruption of lifestyle rather than by differences in foods ingested.