Monday
Aug012005
Probiotics, IBS, and IBD
Mon, August 1, 2005 at 08:45AM There have been two recent reports of clinical studies showing the benefits of taking probiotic supplements if you have IBS or IBD. IBS is irritable bowel syndrome, a distressing collection of symptoms related to dysfunction of the small and large intestines. It's one of the most common gastrointestinal diseases, affecting between 10% and 20% of US adults, mostly women.
IBD stands for inflammatory bowel disease, and represents two conditions - Crohn's disease, which affects the small intestine, and ulcerative colitis, which affects the large intestine. A probiotic has been found useful in the treatment of ulcerative colitis.
Probiotics are live but non-pathologic micro-organisms, i.e. bugs that don't cause any disease, but alter the balance of organisms that normally live in the intestines. See Probiotics Basics.
In IBS, a bacterium called Bifidobacterium infantis was effective. In ulcerative colitis, the bacterium E. coli Nissle was found to be as effective as one of the drugs usually used for this disease - mesalamine.
What does this mean? In future, we may have a range of bacteria that are helpful in different gastrointestinal diseases. In the meantime, I'm going to continue with my daily yogurt - it tastes good, has calcium but not much fat, and just MAY keep my 'gut bugs' nicely balanced.
IBD stands for inflammatory bowel disease, and represents two conditions - Crohn's disease, which affects the small intestine, and ulcerative colitis, which affects the large intestine. A probiotic has been found useful in the treatment of ulcerative colitis.
Probiotics are live but non-pathologic micro-organisms, i.e. bugs that don't cause any disease, but alter the balance of organisms that normally live in the intestines. See Probiotics Basics.
In IBS, a bacterium called Bifidobacterium infantis was effective. In ulcerative colitis, the bacterium E. coli Nissle was found to be as effective as one of the drugs usually used for this disease - mesalamine.
What does this mean? In future, we may have a range of bacteria that are helpful in different gastrointestinal diseases. In the meantime, I'm going to continue with my daily yogurt - it tastes good, has calcium but not much fat, and just MAY keep my 'gut bugs' nicely balanced.
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