The dailysciencedigest’s Podcast

Chronic Constipation Breakthrough — New Gut Bacteria Disease Explained

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Chronic constipation and gut bacteria: new constipation disease finally explained

Breakthrough discovery of “bacterial constipation” links specific gut bacteria to dry stool, intestinal mucus gut health, and treatment-resistant constipation.
Understand how Akkermansia muciniphila and Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron may be driving your chronic constipation—and what this means for future diagnosis and treatment.

What You'll Learn:

  • How chronic constipation can be driven by specific gut bacteria, not just diet, fluids, or motility issues.
  • Why Akkermansia muciniphila and Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron are implicated in a new form of “bacterial constipation.”
  • What intestinal mucus does for gut health, lubrication, and stool hydration—and what happens when it’s stripped away.
  • How co-colonised mice developed a 2.7-fold higher colonic transit time compared to germ-free controls, and why that matters for humans.
  • What the human data show: 71% of refractory-constipation patients carried high levels of both bacteria vs only 9% of healthy controls.
  • Why standard constipation treatments (fiber, laxatives, stool softeners) often fail when the underlying problem is mucus-destroying bacteria.
  • How this research could change future testing, diagnosis, and targeted therapies for chronic constipation and dry stool causes.
  • Practical questions to ask your doctor about gut microbiome and digestion if you have treatment-resistant constipation.
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    The dailysciencedigest’s PodcastBy dailysciencedigest