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There is a nationwide progams of clinical trials for investigational drugs to treat Irritable Bowel Syndrome. As far as I know, they are unrelated studies. Contact information for the IBS-D Study is via website, and you get to choose a (fairly) nearby location. Here is the website.
For the IBS-C study, there is a phone number to call, 1-866-55STUDY. The letters instead of numbers irritate me; in numbers, it’s 1-866-557-8839. You will reach an operator probably located in Chicago, who will ask where you are, and give you some alternative sites and the distance from your zip code. The IBS-C study is also nationwide. If you decide to call and go ahead with the interview, you will be asked questions about symptoms, such as weeks with fewer than 3 bowel movements.
The way that clinical trials work is to divide study participants into those who get the IBS medicine they are trying out, and those who get a dummy pill or capsule or powder that looks the same. The person who gives it to you to take home with you doesn’t know whether it’s the real IBS medicine or the fake IBS medicine. What do you get out of it, if there’s a fifty-fifty chance you get the fake medicine? Well, on the other hand, there’s a fifity-fifty chance you get the real medicine.
What I think will be a tremendous psychological benefit for any study participant is that you will get to talk to someone who is interested in your IBS symptoms, and how it feels to be you with IBS. That person has no particular agenda about how you *should* feel. S/he just wants to know what is and what’s real. That can be an enormous boost–sure, it defines you according to the functioning of your large intestine (colon), but then we knew that already. The people running the drug trials *believe* you have IBS. Amazing!
July 9th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Medical, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS-C, IBS-D |
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It’s getting sexier by the minute!
The reason I have produced all the material below, about the role of PRObiotics and PREbiotics in IBS management, is to lay a foundation for discussion of Align ™, the new PRObiotic for IBS that has FDA approval and is supported by clinical trials. There is a lot of hype about Align ™ in the online community of people with IBS, and I want users and prospective users to know that both the PRObiotic such as Align ™ and the PREbiotic such as Heather’s Organic Tummy Fiber ™ should be used together. Using PRObiotic and PREbiotic together produces a SYNbiotic effect in managing IBS.
That means that you cannot drop the need to change to a higher-fiber diet “just because.” Just because, that is, there is now an over-the-counter pill that is designed and patented, researched and FDA-approved, only for IBS. You still need to increase your daily intake of a soluble fiber to between 30 and 40 grams a day to manage your IBS. Align(tm) or the NSI Probiotics, or other probiotic formulas do not work magically all by themselves–they need PREbiotics to provide the right environment.
The importance of using both is underlined in the following quote:
The main reason for using a synbiotic is that a true probiotic, without its prebiotic food, does not survive well in the digestive system. To enhance viability, not only on the shelf but also in the colon, the product must allow for much greater attachment and growth rate of the healthy bacteria in order to minimize the growth of harmful bacteria.
Without the necessary food source for the probiotic, it will have a greater intolerance for oxygen, low pH, and temperature. In addition, the probiotic will have to compete against other bacteria that will take over if its specific food source is not available. Therefore, a “symbiotic” product (probiotic + prebiotic = synbiotic) makes for a better choice.
http://www.innvista.com/health/nutrition/biotics/synbiot.htm
, accessed 7/8/07.
Below this post you will see a series of posts that are a primer on PREbiotics and PRObiotics in managing IBS.
July 9th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
fiber, Probiotics, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS therapy, Align, Digesting Information, Prebiotics |
2 comments
Briefly, it’s important to know what PREbiotics are–essentially, they are the kind of soluble fiber that stays in the gut without being digested. Because of that, they reach the large intestine and colon. And because of that they preserve the good bugs/bacteria–the PRObiotics–that would otherwise be destroyed before reaching the large intestine, where they are most needed. In our case they are most needed to control Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), which takes place in the large intestine.
PRObiotics are good bacteria, “bugs.”
But PREbiotics are something different. They are foods, such as bananas, and elements of foods, such as fiber. The article calls them “fiber gums.” The most researched PREbiotic appears to be inulin. FiberSure ™ is completely composed of inulin. Acacia fiber is another PREbiotic that is a more complete form of the general PREbiotc term FOS or Fructo-Oligo-Saccharide. Additional PREbiotic fiber gums are guar gum, which is the major ingredient of Benefiber ™, and Xanthan gum. As the lore about IBS management has developed, these are also called soluble fibers.
Are you getting that MIGO feeling? Where MIGO stands for “My Eyes Glaze Over?”
Basic difference - PREbiotics are the unmixed, soluble fibers, plus some foods such as bananas.
PRObiotics are bacteria, pure and simple, or not so simple. Align ™ is a probiotic with a new, patented bacterium. The most usually researched PRObiotics have been lactobacillus and bifidobacterium (which an advertising person has apparently renamed “Bifidus Regularis (tm(?)).”) :-)
We have only been using the term “prebiotic” since its invention in 1995, by a Belgian scientist. Prior to that time–and probably for some time after that, too–I believe the term “soluble fiber” would have been used, at least when speaking about IBS in lay terms.
So when rice and bananas also calm the gastrocolic reflex, and then stay good all the way down, it’s not that they are “soluble fibers” per se. Rather, they are (or have a lot of) PREbiotics.
July 9th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
fiber, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS therapy, Digesting Information, Prebiotics |
no comments
If you can get past terms such as oligosaccharides–I bet you can–these two articles are recommended for understanding IBS.
PREbiotics
and
PREbiotic Substances
They are mashed up–summarized together–in the next post, above.
July 9th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
fiber, Probiotics, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS therapy, Digesting Information, Prebiotics |
no comments
Remember to drink water, and remember to drink MORE water!
It’s hot everywhere except Pacifica, California, according to my niece’s blog–and maybe a few other places.
July 9th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
general |
no comments
I have modified the following table, which provides a shorthand summary of this review article on PREbiotics and PRObiotics. There was a typo on the entries which are now Hyperlipedemia and Hypercholesterolemia.
TABLE 1. Strength of the evidence for improvement of body functions by probiotics and prebiotics [Just scroll down and ignore all the white space I can’t seem to fix]
|
Functional Effects
|
PRObiotics
|
PREbiotics
|
|
|
Lactose intolerance |
Strong (7, 33, 34) |
Unknown |
|
| |
Immunostimulation |
Preliminary (8, 12, 35) |
Unknown |
|
| |
Fecal mutagenesis |
Preliminary (10, 29, 36) |
Unknown |
|
| * |
Hypercholesterolemia |
No effect (37) |
Preliminary (25) |
|
| * |
Hyperlipidemia(13, 31, 38, 39) |
Unknown (37) |
Promising |
|
| |
Colonic flora |
Preliminary (36) |
Strong (2, 16, 31) |
|
| |
Calcium bioavailabiiity |
Unknown |
Promising (21, 22) |
|
[ * The typographical error in the original has been changed here.]
1 The classification of evidence
is the result of the evaluation, by the author [of the cited article], of the scientific data reviewed
in this article. It also relies on previous evaluations of the properties of
probiotics (28–30) and prebiotics (15, 31, 32).
The REVIEW ARTICLE source:
Prebiotics and probiotics: are they functional foods?1,2,3
Marcel B Roberfroid, in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 71, No. 6, 1682S-1687s, June 2000
© 2000 American Society for Clinical Nutrition
For the scientists who think this is too old an article–yes, as a review article it is too old. As a discussion of the issues that prevail in the discussions about PREbiotics and PRObiotics for management of IBS, it is useful.
COMMENT FREELY!
Feel free to recommend something else, perhaps something you’ve worked on or used more recently. Also, if you can document changes in information for this table, let me know. I promise to produce updates, as well as any further tables, in HTML, next time.
July 9th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Probiotics, general, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, FiberSure (tm), Digesting Information |
no comments
