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Why Does Coffee Make Us Poop? Scientists Gave Coffee to Rats to Find Out
Gizmodo ^ | May 19, 2019 | Ed Cara

Posted on 05/20/2019 6:38:55 PM PDT by EdnaMode

A good chunk of regular coffee drinkers know that coffee isn’t just great at getting them awake in the morning—it also makes them get up and go poop. But while coffee’s laxative powers are well-known, it’s not clear why exactly this happens. To get to the bottom of this mystery, some scientists decided to do exactly what you’d expect scientists to: They gave lab rats some coffee.

Their preliminary results, presented this weekend at a research conference aptly named Digestive Disease Week, seem to reaffirm a suspicion that coffee’s poop-making prowess has nothing to do with caffeine. Coffee might also kill off bacteria found in our guts.

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston fed their rats a tiny cup of joe for three days straight, with different groups getting both caffeinated and decaf coffee. Then, the researchers checked the downstairs plumbing of the rats with a physical examination and probe, focusing on the muscles that contract and help guide food (and eventually waste) through the gut. Lastly, they also studied how muscle tissues from the gut directly reacted to coffee in the lab. Their results were clear: muscles in the small and large intestine were more able to contract post-coffee, meaning things could move faster along the gut.

[snip]

This study isn’t the first to suggest that the gut’s muscles are directly affected by coffee. As far as back as 1990, researchers found that healthy people who self-reported as coffee-poopers had more movement of their colon muscles after drinking black coffee than did those who said they never felt the urge.

(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Pets/Animals; Science
KEYWORDS: coffee; poop; rat; rats
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To: EdnaMode

Alfred E Neuman knows all about this...


41 posted on 05/20/2019 8:45:36 PM PDT by northislander
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To: DoodleBob
Dave's Site

42 posted on 05/20/2019 8:49:47 PM PDT by RedMonqey (Welcome to Thunderdome... America 2019)
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To: EdnaMode

Then he wants to see the wine list.

43 posted on 05/20/2019 9:01:58 PM PDT by MikelTackNailer (NRT, NewRome Tacitus, just don't call me late to dinner.)
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To: grame

You sound like my brother-in-law.


44 posted on 05/20/2019 9:03:35 PM PDT by Irish Queen (Not all cults are religious)
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To: RedMonqey
Here is a price guide.

I don't know what happened to my stickers but a few years ago I bought a poster with the classics. That satisfied my inner child, without having to pay a king's randsome.


45 posted on 05/20/2019 9:04:33 PM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s^2)
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To: Songcraft

“Better coffee a millionaire’s money can’t buy”


46 posted on 05/20/2019 9:41:27 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics.)
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To: EdnaMode

Caffeine is cholinergic: It promotes neuron activity and muscle contraction. The intestines are muscles.

Also, it is acidic and somewhat purgative. Many herbs and spices are somewhat (or very) purgative.


47 posted on 05/20/2019 10:51:24 PM PDT by YogicCowboy ("I am not entirely on anyone's side, because no one is entirely on mine." - J. R. R. Tolkien)
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To: grame

Yes. Water alone on arising tends to stimulate peristalsis.


48 posted on 05/20/2019 10:54:11 PM PDT by YogicCowboy ("I am not entirely on anyone's side, because no one is entirely on mine." - J. R. R. Tolkien)
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To: EdnaMode

This is insane. I have never had a sip of coffee in sixty six years. What kind of fool would even feel the need to study this among a myriad of other things?


49 posted on 05/20/2019 11:55:49 PM PDT by higgmeister ( In the Shadow of The Big Chicken)
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To: EdnaMode

actually coffee enemas were a thing in healthcare back at the turn of the twentieth century.


50 posted on 05/21/2019 12:48:40 AM PDT by Chickensoup (Voter ID for 2020!! Leftists totalitarian fascists appear to be planning to eradicate conservatives)
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To: EdnaMode

Stimulation same as a Red

Back when I was young

Get up

See a man about a donkey

Coffee and a wonderful Marlboro Red

Sprint to water closet to bomb Nagasaki


51 posted on 05/21/2019 12:51:12 AM PDT by wardaddy (I applaud Jim Robinson for his comments on the Southern Monuments decision ...thank you)
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To: Michael.SF.

Exactly what I envisioned. A line of rats patiently waiting in line at Starbucks for their latte’.


52 posted on 05/21/2019 1:17:20 AM PDT by broken_arrow1 (I regret that I have but one life to give for my country - Nathan Hale "Patriot")
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To: grame
Never had a cup of coffee in my 60++++ years.

Nor have I in my own 60+ years. I do have plenty of caffeine, however, in the form of tea and 5-hour energy shots.

No laxative effects here.

53 posted on 05/21/2019 3:14:32 AM PDT by The Duke (President Trump = America's Last, Best Chance)
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To: EdnaMode
The rats should sue. From 1998, 21 years ago....

Is coffee a colonic stimulant?

CONCLUSION: Caffeinated coffee stimulates colonic motor activity. Its magnitude is similar to a meal, 60% stronger than water and 23% stronger than decaffeinated coffee.

This so-called study was rat abuse!

54 posted on 05/21/2019 3:24:11 AM PDT by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds.)
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To: higgmeister
What kind of fool would even feel the need to study this among a myriad of other things?

The only fools involved are the people who gave these guys the grant.

55 posted on 05/21/2019 3:28:31 AM PDT by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds.)
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To: mewzilla

Back before I gave up eating fast-food, McDonalds was the best laxative there ever was.


56 posted on 05/21/2019 3:36:14 AM PDT by sgt_lau (Being tolerant to the most intolerant people on the planet is a losing proposition. Reject islam.)
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To: sgt_lau

Likely why you’ll never find any stopped-up rat there!


57 posted on 05/21/2019 3:39:37 AM PDT by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds.)
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To: EdnaMode

Coffee causes “blanditis”, a disease where everything you eat turns to $#!+....


58 posted on 05/21/2019 3:47:29 AM PDT by trebb (Don't howl about illegal leeches while not donating to FR - it's hypocritical.)
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To: The Duke

I think it’s the timing. First thing before you begin the day. When I start some 25+ years ago I drank or tried to 20 oz. I heard a man’s testimony about how once he started drinking the warm-hot water the first thing he hadn’t had the flu or a cold. Wow, that interested me because I was having strep about twice a year. But true to his experience, aside from the movement happening, I have not had the flu but once. But I decided I didn’t want to drink 20 oz of water first thing every morning so I stopped. Things seemed fine, I think my body was trained, but I went to visit my MIL in the hospital and 10 days later I had mono! Couldn’t work for more than 3 months, took a year to get my strength back. Specialist my doc sent me to said women over 40 don’t get mono! Well, I was back on the water regimen stat! Have been since. I try to convince many, only a few takers.


59 posted on 05/21/2019 4:14:49 AM PDT by grame (May you know more of the love of God Almighty this day!)
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To: wgmalabama

Not Mormon. Do they do this?


60 posted on 05/21/2019 4:16:24 AM PDT by grame (May you know more of the love of God Almighty this day!)
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