April 14, 2005 – Irish researchers have just demonstrated the effectiveness of a strain of bifidobacteria in relieving symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
In a trial involving 77 subjects with IBS, the effects of two strains of probiotics (a bifidobacterium, Bifidobacterium infantis and a lactobacillus, the Lactobacillus salivarius) to those of a placebo1. The results indicate that bifidobacteria were found to be significantly more effective than lactobacilli and than placebo in relieving all of the symptoms associated with this condition. The researchers report that its rate of effectiveness (20% to 25%) is at least comparable to that of tegaserod and alosetron (10% to 20%), two synthetic drugs whose effectiveness is known to relieve symptoms of IBS.
According to the results of this study, the bifidobacteria would have the effect of regulating the inflammatory reactions of the intestinal mucosa. It was observed that at the end of the treatment, the subjects who had taken the bifidobacteria showed normal blood levels of cytokines, proteins responsible for the regulation of the immune response, while in the subjects of the two other groups, the levels of these pro-inflammatory proteins were high. What makes say to the researchers that an inflammatory process could well be at the origin of IBS.
Although more research needs to be done on a larger number of subjects, these results could lead to a curative treatment and no longer just symptomatic of the disease if it turns out to be true that an inflammatory process is at the origin. affection.
For the purposes of this trial, subjects were given daily doses of 1010 active cells Bifidobacterium infantis (strain 35624) for eight weeks. The beneficial effects were felt from the first week of treatment and peaked after the second week. No significant adverse effects were observed in the treated subjects.
A functional disorder of the digestive tract, also known as “irritable bowel syndrome”, IBS affects one in five people in Canada, particularly women, and is the subject of 30% to 50% of gastroenterology consultations. Conventional treatments provide symptomatic relief at best. No synthetic drug acts on the etiology of the disease, that is to say on its primary cause.
Pierre Lefrançois – PasseportSanté.net
1. O’Mahony L, McCarthy J, Kelly P, Hurley G, Luo F, Chen K, O’Sullivan GC, Kiely B, Collins JK, Shanahan F, Quigley EM. Lactobacillus and bifidobacterium in irritable bowel syndrome: symptom responses and relationship to cytokine profiles.Gastroenterology. 2005 Mar; 128 (3): 541-51.