FRIENDLY BACTERIA DRAMATICALLY IMPROVED A DEBILITATING BOWEL CONDITION

Sunday, July 16, 2006

"'friendly' bacteria dramatically improved a debilitating bowel condition"

This is the first sentence from a July 7th Edinburgh newspaper article. The article goes on to read:

A team of researchers at Dundee University found that people with chronic ulcerative colitis, which can leave people virtually house-bound, experienced a "ten-fold" improvement when they were given probiotic bacteria along with 'prebiotics', which help to promote their growth in the gut.

The focus on correcting the intestinal microflora coincides with the rationale underpinning the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. Here are brief excerpts from Breaking the Vicious Cycle, Current Issues in Intestinal Microbiology, and the New England Journal of Medicine. Note the similarities.

(1) From the "science behind the diet":

The Specific Carbohydrate Diet is predicated on the understanding that Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn's Disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and gluten therapy resistant Celiac are the consequence of an overgrowth and imbalance of intestinal microbial flora.

(2) The March 2003 issue of the journal "Current Issues in Intestinal Microbiology" states:

"Convincing evidence from both animal models and the study of patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) implicates the intestinal microflora in the initiation and maintenance of the inflammatory processes in this condition." [bold added]

(3) Similarly, the August 8, 2002 volume of the New England Journal of Medicine explains:

"Accumulating evidence suggests that the luminal [intestinal] flora is a requisite and perhaps central factor in the development of inflammatory bowel disease."

source: Podolsky DK. "Inflammatory Bowel Disease." New England Journal of Medicine 2002;347(6):417-429.

So watch for more research focusing on the intestinal bacteria . . . and also ask why so much research money ignores it.