{"id":227387,"date":"2026-08-06T15:18:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T13:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microbiome-center.nl\/?p=227387"},"modified":"2026-08-06T15:18:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T13:18:56","slug":"16-abdominal-complaints-healthy-aging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microbiome-center.nl\/en\/16-abdominal-complaints-healthy-aging\/","title":{"rendered":"16: Abdominal complaints, healthy aging"},"content":{"rendered":"<style id=\"divi-off-canvas-hide-on-load\">\n[data-interaction-target=\"zwocqpy6qf\"] { display: none !important; }\n<\/style>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Abdominal complaints in chronic conditions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The majority of the Dutch, almost 10 million people, have one or more chronic conditions (1). More than 3.7 million Dutch people with an MDL disorder are known to their GP and the majority (2.5 million) concerns abdominal complaints such as abdominal pain and constipation (2). In many cases, chronic diseases are accompanied by abdominal complaints and this may be an indication that the microbiome plays a role. For example, abdominal complaints such as constipation, reflux, and diarrhea are more common with headache (3), migraine patients relatively often have IBS (4), and about half of all diabetes patients have abdominal complaints (5,6). Many patients are reluctant to talk about stomach complaints or experience things like abdominal pain, diarrhea, or constipation as normal due to years of habituation. It makes sense to ask about abdominal complaints, because this can quickly provide insight into whether the microbiome may play a role and that can give a new perspective to treat long-term complaints. Asking about stomach complaints fits in every consultation hour. Simple tools for this (such as the Bristol stool chart and a list of questions) are available at MC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Healthy aging with a unique microbiome<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A recent publication shows that a more unique microbiome correlates with better health in the elderly (7). Different cohorts were used and these showed that the uniqueness of the microbiome increases with age and that the extent to which this happens is significant. The degree of uniqueness was found to be correlated with certain metabolites that were associated with very advanced age in previous studies. In addition, the degree of uniqueness of the microbiome was directly correlated with several indicators of health in the elderly (drug use, self-perception of health, size of living space, walking speed). Taken together, this research provides fairly strong indications that the microbiome plays a determinant role in healthy aging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>References<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.volksgezondheidenzorg.info\/onderwerp\/chronische-aandoeningen-en-multimorbiditeit\/cijfers-context\/huidige-situatie\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.volksgezondheidenzorg.info\/onderwerp\/chronische-aandoeningen-en-multimorbiditeit\/cijfers-context\/huidige-situatie<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.volksgezondheidenzorg.info\/onderwerp\/maag-darm-en-leveraandoeningen\/prevalentie%23node-aantal-personen-met-mdl-aandoening-bekend-bij-huisarts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.volksgezondheidenzorg.info\/onderwerp\/maag-darm-en-leveraandoeningen\/prevalentie#node-aantal-personen-met-mdl-aandoening-bekend-bij-huisarts<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/j.1468-2982.2007.01486.x\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/j.1468-2982.2007.01486.x<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5056\/jnm.2013.19.3.301\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5056\/jnm.2013.19.3.301<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1046\/j.1464-5491.1999.00135.x\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1046\/j.1464-5491.1999.00135.x<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/003655200750024317\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/003655200750024317<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s42255-021-00348-0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s42255-021-00348-0<\/a>\u00a0(available as a preprint at \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1101\/2020.02.26.966747\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1101\/2020.02.26.966747<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div class=\"et_pb_section_0 et_pb_section et_pb_section--fixed et_section_regular et_flex_section et-interaction-target-zwocqpy6qf preset--module--divi-section--default\" data-interaction-trigger=\"7hv7hq8l9z\" data-interaction-target=\"zwocqpy6qf\" id=\"video_canvas\"><div class=\"et_pb_row_0 et_pb_row et_flex_row\"><div class=\"et_pb_column_0 et_pb_column et-last-child et_flex_column et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough et_flex_column_24_24 et_flex_column_24_24_tablet et_flex_column_24_24_phone\"><div class=\"et_pb_icon_0 et_pb_icon et_pb_module et_flex_module video_close\"><span class=\"et_pb_icon_wrap\"><span class=\"et-pb-icon\">\uf057<\/span><\/span><\/div><div class=\"et_pb_code_0 et_pb_code et_pb_module\" id=\"microbiome_center_video_iframe\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Abdominal complaints in chronic conditions The majority of the Dutch, almost 10 million people, have one or more chronic conditions (1). More than 3.7 million Dutch people with an MDL disorder are known to their GP and the majority (2.5 million) concerns abdominal complaints such as abdominal pain and constipation (2). In many cases, chronic [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"doelgroep":[106],"class_list":["post-227387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","doelgroep-practitioner"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>16: Abdominal complaints, healthy aging - Microbiome Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"16: Abdominal complaints, healthy aging - Microbiome Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Abdominal complaints in chronic conditions The majority of the Dutch, almost 10 million people, have one or more chronic conditions (1). 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