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Introduction
Every once in while I read a post on another blog that is so good that I don’t just sit back and think, “Now there’s a good post.” No, I sit back and think, “What an admirable, original post! I wish I had written something like that.” Sophie, who runs the IBS Tales blog, has just written that kind of post, on “Why self-diagnosis is so crazy.”
Listing Reasons
From time to time I see lists of IBS symptoms on web sites and blogs. Without giving it much thought, I say to myself “Perhaps For My Tummy should do something like that,” and then never write it. Of course I’m a procrastinator; that’s a perfectly good reason for not setting up a page with common symptoms of IBS. A second reason is wanting to think that readers come to this blog with some knowledge of what Irritable Bowel Syndrome is (or isn’t) and what the symptom picture is likely to be. A third rationale is not particularly wanting to specialize in either IBS-C (predominantly constipation) or IBS-D (predominantly diarrhea) or IBS-A (C and D are Alternating), nor discuss the specific forms that IBS takes–so I don’t discuss the typing of IBS according to current or historical symptom. It’s just IBS, and you know what kind you have, presumably.
Deepest Concern
AND the deep underlying ultimate reason is that I don’t want you, the reader, to diagnose yourself based on this web site. Use a lot of self-help measures, yes. Avoid things that don’t help, yes. Diagnose yourself, no. If that means you go get that colonoscopy your doctor says you need to have for a diagnosis, then this site will cheer you on and provide moral support–mostly metaphorical, it’s true. And for more encouragement on that path, of getting a real medical IBS diagnosis, read Sophie’s post.
Discuss
Do you have a strong reaction to this policy? See the “No Comment” link below–or if there’s been a comment, the link will have the number of comments? Click on that and a window will open that allows you to disguise your identity and tell us what you think.
January 17th, 2008
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Blog, Medical, general, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS Symptoms |
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The Second Brain
There is an actual physical finding in Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), that indicates that IBS is not “all in the head.” All in the nerves, maybe, but not all in the head.
The Three Nervous Systembs
To begin with, we need to understand that our bodies have three nervous systems:
- CNS - The Central Nervous System
- PNS - The Peripheral Nervous System
- ENS - The Enteric Nervous System, or the “second brain”
The CNS - Central Nervous System - consists of the brain and spinal column.
The PNS - Peripheral Nervous System - consists of the very long nerves that run along our arms and legs to our hands and feet.
The ENS - Enteric Nervous System - is the nerve tissue that lines our gut = the viscera = (mostly) small and large intestine.
And Serotonin
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that plays an active role in the activity of neurons in the brain (CNS) and in the gut (ENS) . This activity, to simplify it all, either speeds impulses along the nerve pathways, or (as lack of activity) slows down nerve impulses.
Motility and Serotonin
What do you suppose that would do for motility–the ability of the gut to move its contents along easily, nicely, and calmly to the desired end. That’s right. The role of serotonin and the balanced action of serotonin affects both the speed of thought and the motility of the gut.
“Chemical Imbalance”
Depression is the major chemical imbalance in the brain that reflects an unbalanced serotonin activity. Not exactly similarly, just in somewhat the same fashion, IBS (IBS-C and IBS-D) are in part the result of a “chemical imbalance” of the Enteric Nervous System (ENS), the nerves that operate your gut, which rely on serotonin to transmit signals from one nerve ending to the next.
Balancing Serotonin
That’s why a gastroenterologist (gut doctor) may prescribe a tricyclic antidepressant, not because she or he is treating your head or thinks you are depressed. It is, rather, because he or she wants to give your Enteric Nervous System (ENS) more serotonin to work with for a better-balanced ENS.
August 27th, 2007
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Medical, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS-C, IBS-D, Digesting Information, IBS Symptoms |
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The term Repressor-Sensitizer is a psychological term used to describe a certain kind of reaction to the discovery of symptoms or of illness. This kind of person, and I’m one, is accustomed to just keeping on keeping on, just hanging in there and getting it done. Until, that is, she or he notices signs of illness, or a usual test produces unusual results, or the doctor sends the person for a lot of dramatically invasive tests.
Then the ability to ignore small physical things that are not quite right goes out the window. Every shift and change in physical functioning gets noticed, felt strongly, and worried about. This is the shift from repressing bodily discomfort to becoming sensitized to every twinge–in your inner ear, in your kidney, and, of course, in your intestines.
I want to introduce the term ‘repressor-sensitizer’ in advance of a discussion next week of two very recent high-profile articles in the medical journal Gut. I think it helps to have the main term I’m going to use clearly in mind before reading my critiques of the Gut articles.
August 25th, 2007
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Medical, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Digesting Information, IBS Symptoms |
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Introduction
I had a friend who helped me startup a counseling center.
He was a neurologist, who said something that really stayed with me. He said “When I see a patient for the first time, I know within five minutes what I’ll find on examination, and how I’ll treat the person. The rest is interaction–teaching and listening.”
How can he know within five minutes what is going on with a patient? Here is a quote from a medical review article on IBS that lays it out. Knowing this information, and related information about other disorders and diseases, a doctor — all right, a good doctor — is generally quite clear on what to do next. It’s just that the patient, one of us, is still in the dark.
The Bullet
The doctor is practiced in knowing and reciting back “the bullet” - the briefest possible summary of a disorder or disease, and the briefest possible summary of a patient, his or her complaints and treatment. Here in the opening paragraph of a review article on Irritable Bowel Syndrome, is “the bullet.”
New England Journal of Medicine Article
Irritable bowel syndrome, a common disorder in which bowel habits are altered in association with abdominal pain or dis comfort, has a prevalence of 12 percent among adults in the United States and a similar prevalenceworldwide. By definition, no mechanical, biochemical, or overt inflammatory condition explains the symptoms. Validated, symptom-based criteria for the diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome are highly predictive in the absence of alarming symptoms such as weight loss, fever, and intestinal bleeding. The pain or discomfort experienced by patients with irritable bowel syndrome often leads to health care use and a decreased quality of life. Diarrhea is a symptom that often leads to medical consultation, since it can be inconvenient and, if associated with urgency, may be accompanied by fecal incontinence, an altered lifestyle (owing to frequent trips to the bathroom), and anxiety. Constipation may be associated with bloating, discomfort, and an altered body image. The quality of life was reported as impaired in people with irritable bowel syndrome who sought medical care but only marginally reduced in those who did not seek medical care. The therapeutic goal is both a reduction in the severity and frequency of symptoms and an overall improvement in the quality of life.
How Disappointing
After you’ve gone through various tests beyond a simple blood test, all the way to having a colonoscopy, to be offered a “therapeutic goal” rather than a “cure” is a disappointment. So you may begin to distrust the doctor.
Now
What do you think?
August 19th, 2007
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Medical, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS therapy, Digesting Information |
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An organization called NICE (National Institute for Health Information Clearance Exchange) is calling for comments on Standards of Practice in Medicine for Irritable Bowel Syndrome that are in development by the National Health Service. The comment period has started, and will end on October 11, 2007.
Mostly they want comments from so-called “Stakeholder” Organizations. This would be something like “People with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS),” if such an organization existed. Unfortunately, I doubt that there is much of any patient organization for IBS. That is why I hope that readers in England and Wales will check out the preliminary guidelines posted on the NICE site, and then submit their comments. Here is the link again in plain sight: http://www.nice.org.uk/page.aspx?o=448543
Thank you.
August 17th, 2007
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Blog, Medical, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome |
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Moderators in one of the IBS Forums often suggest trying Dannon Activia ™. I have not. That’s because lactose is sometimes a trigger for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)–and lactose is an ingredient in milk and milk products such as yogurt. Of course Activia ™ is a food–yogurt–and not a medicine.
Now comes this FAQ from the Chicago Tribune health reporter Julie Deardorff. On her blog she asks and answers this question about Activia and other probiotics:
Q. What’s the deal with yogurt?
A. All non-heat-treated yogurts do contain live active cultures, which include the bacteria used as starter cultures to make the yogurt [Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilis], Sanders said. “Yogurts may also contain added cultures, including probiotics. A wider range of health benefits have been documented for some of these added probiotic strains,” Sanders said. But “many of the organisms in yogurt cannot survive in the acidic environment of the stomach,” said Sri Komanduri, an assistant professor of medicine in gastroenterology and nutrition at Rush University Medical Center. “In addition, yogurt contains lactose, which can be a potent gastrointestinal irritant and may only add to the patient’s symptoms [if the person is lacatose intolerant].
Sanders also suspects many yogurts marketed as “probiotics” with added strains don’t contain enough bacteria to be effective or haven’t been studied. “I also bet there are many yogurts that contain probiotics that have little if any efficacy studies done on them,” she said.
What do you think? Has anyone tried Activia, ™ or do you know someone who has tried Activia? Is the advertising for Activia helpful at all in “normalizing” the tummy problems of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)?
August 2nd, 2007
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tummyblogger |
Medical, Probiotics, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS Triggers, IBS food, IBS-C, IBS-D, Digesting Information, Dannon Activia Yogurt |
4 comments
For My Tummy’s IBS-News
If you have been checking the IBS news, on this blog you will see that the top items (in today’s news, July 31, 2007) are about Zelnorm.
FDA Approves Investigational New Drug Status for Zelnorm
The FDA has approved the very strictly controlled and limited use of Zelnorm for women (not men) under 55, who constipation which in the past responded to Zelnorm, or who haven’t tried Zelnorm but for whom other therapies have been inadequate. See the Medical News Article, (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/78120.php ).
The Marketing of Zelnorm for IBS-C
Novartis, the makers of Zelnorm, as well as other remedies, has been aggressive in defining the population it serves. They are creating a need for their product where there was no apparent need before. I think that worked for the automobile, too! (;-)) The ethical question is about creating a wide pool of people who think they have Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) as the result of a television ad, and therefore need Zelnorm to treat this illness they hadn’t known they had. When does occasional constipation rise to the level of gastrointestinal disorder?
When Marketing Creates the Market
Let me quote (with permission) a good part of the article, and then give you a link to the whole thing:
Zelnorm, a drug that was approved in 2002 for short-term treatment of women with “irritable bowel syndrome” and in 2004 for chronic constipation for men and women under age 65, was withdrawn from the market in March 2007 after studies showed an increased risk of heart attacks and heart problems.
Zelnorm was also very aggressively advertised and promoted, particularly through infamous TV ads showing people with wavy lines and messages written on their stomachs. These ads, and the overall promotional campaign of which they were a part, didn’t just market Zelnorm — they also marketed “Irritable Bowel Syndrome” (IBS) as a condition, working to convince millions of viewers that they have “IBS,” rather than more conventional occasional and symptomatic digestive problems.
By the time Novartis voluntarily withdrew Zelnorm from the market in March 2007, millions of people had taken it, and certainly many who did not truly have IBS or chronic constipation. Novartis racked up $560 million in Zelnorm U.S. sales in 2006 - not technically a “blockbuster” (a term reserved for drugs with at least $1 billion in annual sales), but not too shabby either. As Ed Silverman at Pharmalot pointed out back in March:
The review showed that only 0.1 percent of 11,600 Zelnorm patients, or 13 people, experienced serious heart problems; one died. Of 7,000 placebo patients, 0.01 percent of the patients, or just one person, reported cardiovascular problems. In medical terms, the absolute risk of a serious problem was small, but the relative risk was high.
More than 2.6 million prescriptions were written for Zelnorm in 2006. If the 0.1 percent rate of patients holds true, that would mean that 2,600 of those 2.6 million had heart problems. It’s likely that, due to the aggressive advertising, a significant portion of those 2.6 million did not in fact have IBS. These patients were thus unnecessarily exposed to this heart attack risk - a risk that may be small, but even a small unnecessary risk is still unnecessary. This week, the FDA permitted Zelnorm to return to the market under a very restricted program. The FDA’s press release described it:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it is permitting the restricted use of Zelnorm (tegaserod maleate) under a treatment investigational new drug (IND) protocol to treat irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) and chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC) in women younger than 55 who meet specific guidelines.
In some instances, patients with a serious or life-threatening disease or condition who are not enrolled in a clinical trial may be treated with a drug not approved by the FDA. Generally, such use is allowed within guidelines called a treatment IND, when no comparable or satisfactory alternative drug or therapy is available.
In addition to the age and gender restrictions, the IND protocol for Zelnorm limits use of the drug to those with IBS-C or CIC whose physicians decide the drug is medically necessary. Patients must sign consent materials to ensure they are fully informed of the potential risks and benefits of Zelnorm.
For this population, the benefits of Zelnorm may outweigh the risks. But the aggressive ad campaign resulted in millions of people taking it for whom the benefits most certainly did not outweigh the risks.
And therein lies one of the main problems with Direct to Consumer Advertising of drugs: Drugs that may be important for a small subset of patients are instead marketed to all consumers, causing many people who don’t need the drug to ask their doctors for prescriptions for it, and for their doctors to prescribe them. By the time side effects that only surface after the drug has been on the market for several years have finally surfaced, millions of people who didn’t need the drug have taken it, and been exposed to that unnecessary risk (not to mention expense).
Vioxx is the most famous example of this. More than 20 million people took it, despite the fact that only 1-2% were actually at risk of the ulcers and gastric complications that Vioxx was designed to prevent. Vioxx was never any better at pain relief than pennies-a-pill over-the-counter ibuprofen. Its only advantage was a (somewhat) lower risk of gastrointestinal problems. But the majority of the 20 million people who took it did so not because they had ulcers, but because they saw the ads featuring Dorothy Hammill skating again after taking Vioxx.
. . .
Comment
The author of the blogpost goes on to suggest that there be a lengthy moratorium on direct to consumer advertising (DTCA) when a new drug is introduced, to allow for a sensible time frame for doctors to learn about the new drug and who will benefit.
The author concludes that:
Delays and moratoria might reduce the number of people who are exposed to such side effects, but they don’t address the core problems of DTCA in encouraging people who don’t need expensive and potentially hazardous brand-name prescription drugs to take them. Every other country [but] the U.S. and New Zealand has concluded that advertising prescription drugs directly to the public just doesn’t make sense, and thus [doesn’t] allow them. There’s no doubt that in the more than 50 other countries where Zelnorm is or was sold but without advertising, the number of people who took it, and who had heart problems as a result, was much lower.
The Link is here: the URI written out is http://prescriptionaccess.org/blog/?p=53.
The Problem for People with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
Many of us who have IBS take charge of our medical lives and find out what works for us. It seems to me that for society as a whole there would be a benefit in delaying the introduction of new drugs until doctors are more familiar with them. On the other hand, in the subpopulation with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), if we heard there was a new drug that the FDA had approved, and we couldn’t have because there was a moratorium, we would set the internet on fire - at least metaphorically.
The Question
So there’s a question: could you wait for a new drug to go through the limited use period when it wasn’t advertised or distributed widely? It would be much like the preliminary marketing of Align, although Align is not a drug, but a supplement that does have FDA approval. Some of us would have it, and some would not, and access would be well controlled.
Is that fair for a new drug? What do you think?
Related Posts
FDA Pulls Zelnorm
After Zelnorm
July 31st, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Medical, Probiotics, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS therapy, IBS-C, Align, Digesting Information, Zelnorm |
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“The doctors don’t know what’s wrong with me, so they say it’s IBS.”
“I’m fed up with the doctors who keep sending me for tests and don’t seem to find out what’s wrong. They don’t know anything more than when they started and they don’t understand that I’m in pain.”
And I read many more similar complaints on the forums.
Medicine starts with the principle “First do no harm.” Now that there are many tests for many ailments, that principle may mean that a doctor does not reach for a prescription pad until after many tests have been done.
Halfway through the testing you say “Do something!” So s/he tells you to start taking fiber, but not what fiber to take, or worse, says “Use Metamucil ™” of which there are many flavors and roughnesses, and citric acid, and artificial sweeteners like Aspartame ™, and perhaps other additives.
This kind of desperation is very familiar to me, since I’ve been going through a series of tests for something else in the past few months. Along the way we found out that I have reduced my cholesterol level from 276 to 167 (fantastic!), that my heart ultrasound and heart stress tests are both terrific, and my liver function by blood tests and ultrasound is normal. In the meantime, I’ve been desperate for the doctor to give me something that helps the primary complaint, of a peculiar kind of fatigue. And I insisted on getting a second opinion, only to find that he agreed with my doctor, on one level, and had a question on another. In the meantime, I continue without any what I would call medical help.
It’s the same situation with developing a diagnosis for IBS. The doctor is not going to prescribe before s/he has ruled out a number of problems.
In an ideal world, once that has taken place, there is one obvious medicine to prescribe that will take care of the problem. If the diagnosis is Irritable Bowel Syndrome, that is not the case. Here is what the ideal doctor will discuss with you when he or she has excluded all the other options and concludes that you have Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
A. Incidence of IBS symptoms in the general population and its relevance to the patient
B. Gastrointestinal physiology including gastrocolonic response, production of gas, gut sensitivity to certain stimuli, and possible
C. The potential impact of stress in triggering or exacerbating symptoms, with reassurance that symptoms are not psychosomatic
D. Any anxieties, including concerns about underlying disease and major symptoms
E. The need for the patient to accept responsibility for condition management
F. The recognition that no panacea exits, but that therapies can greatly improve quality of life and significantly reduce symptom severity
Well informed patients are more apt to make choices and changes in lifestyle and diet that can reduce the severity and the frequency of their symptoms. It is recommended that physicians discuss new information during patient visits, and build on previous information by disseminating any new educational materials that may have become available since the patient’s last visit.
The source of the above is a paper published on the Gastro-Enterology pages of the Johns Hopkins Institute. The paper describes a number of levels of consideration of the problems of diagnosing and treating Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
Realistically, your PCP is going to fall short on several counts in the just-quoted lists. I hope that s/he fulfills at least some of them. Where this blog can help is in the last two elements of the above list, which are:
“E. The need for the patient to accept responsibility for condition management [, and]
F. The recognition that no panacea exits, but that therapies can greatly improve quality of life and significantly reduce symptom severity [.]”
“Accepting responsibility for condition management” does not mean that the condition is your fault, or that if it is hard to manage, that you aren’t trying your best to manage your IBS. It does mean that you have a considerable role to play in achieving a greater degree of comfort in living with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
Also note that item “F” uses the term “therapies” rather than “treatments.” Does that make a difference? Let me know what you think.
July 23rd, 2007
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tummyblogger |
Gastrocolic Reflex, Medical, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS therapy, IBS-C, IBS-D |
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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
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Medical, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS-C, IBS-D |
one comment
For those who are interested in the claims for other probiotics besides Align, here is the copy writer’s description of the probiotic I use, distributed by VitaCost. It’s an example of the multiple probiotic approach rather than the single-strain approach. I’m not trying to sell this, or Align. Instead I’d like to provide information, and develop information, about the use of probiotics in IBS-C and IBS-D.
Daily support for healthy digestion!
May also promote optimal immune function.
How Does [deleted product name] work?
Probiotics, also known as “good bacteria,” are bacterial cultures which favorably alter intestinal microflora supporting a healthy intestinal balance.
Besides inhibiting the growth of harmful bacteria, these micro-organisms may help promote healthy intestinal activity, good digestion, and colon regularity.
Probiotics may offer the following benefits:
# Aid in healthy digestion and nutrient assimilation.
# Replenish colonies of friendly bacteria that may be destroyed by antibiotics and certain health complications.
# Counter overgrowth of “bad” organisms in the gastrointestinal tract.
# Enhance immune response (A large percentage of cells of the immune system are located in the digestive tract).
NSI® Probiotic 15-35 is a potent probiotic blend containing 15 different probiotics strains, with each strain offering its own unique health benefits. It also features a superior 35 billion colony forming units (CFU’s) in each two-capsule serving.
NSI® Probiotic 15-35 contains NutraFlora® FOS, a highly-concentrated complex of fructooligosaccharides, or naturally-occurring carbohydrates (also known as “prebiotics”) that are indigestible by humans but serve as food/an energy source for friendly bacteria in the intestines, helping to increase their numbers in the body.
NutraFlora® has been shown in more than 200 studies to improve the absorption of calcium, magnesium and soy isoflavones, which may contribute to bone, immune and digestive health. NutraFlora® also provides added fiber. It’s known to be one of the highest-quality FOS’ available and is used in more than 500 food products worldwide.
NSI® Probiotic 15-35 is manufactured using the patented LiveBac® process for an improved probiotic shelf life, even at room temperature.
In addition, we utilize Viablend™ Gastric Acid Bypass Technology. Unlike enteric coated capsules, which can become brittle and crack or chip, rendering probiotics ineffective when exposed to gastric acids, our capsules deliver more viable organisms to the intestinal tract.
NSI® Probiotic 15-35 with NutraFlora® FOS is better because it:
# Each two capsule serving delivers 35 billion CFU’s and 15 different probiotic strains.
# Contains a high-quality “prebiotic” to nourish and sustain existing friendly bacterial colonies in the intestines.
In contrast, Acidophilus is a single formula probiotic, which comes without ad copy and is sold by the chain drug stores — at least CVS has several brands.
The problem is that here we cannot verify the claims, while the Align web site has lots of material at various levels. We can know that the claim of 200 studies is made for probiotics in general, because various NSI probiotic formulations use almost the same ad copy.
The NSI web site is http://www.gonsi.com/. I’ll write them today and ask them to specify the 200 studies–and provide abstracts.
June 29th, 2007
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tummyblogger |
Medical, Probiotics, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS therapy, IBS-C, IBS-D, NSI Probiotics, Online sources, VitaCost |
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I am a great fan of ordering what I need for IBS on the web. Orders placed with the Help for IBS website, and from Amazon.com, are particularly fast to arrive. In contrast, according to this thread on the forums that now call themselves Self Help for IBs, the process of shipping Align–the new probiotic from Proctor & Gamble–is much slower. The thread is here.
June 27th, 2007
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tummyblogger |
Medical, Probiotics, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS therapy, IBS-C, IBS-D, Align |
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Creating Buzz
I agreed, I believe, to receive free samples of Align, the Proctor & Gamble probiotic that’s currently showing up in ads on many web sites. It seems that personal blogs, such as ForMyTummy (this blog), Life in a Bathroom, and utenzi at Blogspot have received offers of free samples of Align. We are to take it and presumably report favorably on our blogs, or at least report and use the name Align.
Viral Marketing
This is a marketing strategy known as viral marketing–create the buzz using low cost means, the buzz will create desire, the desire will sell the product. Well, utenzi and I are participating in the buzz-creating.
To quote Utenzi Blog (link creation is failing me just now: the URI is http://utenzi.blogspot.com/2007/06/ibs.html) of June 8, 2007:
I had a comment on a post the other day from a person purportedly at an Ad Agency with an offer of a free IBS product from Proctor and Gamble. Of course the first thing you think with a comment like that is that it’s Blog Spam. However in this case the comment seemed legit since the Email address wasn’t hijacked and it was to a legitimate Ad Agency (Bridge Worldwide) with P&G as a client.
I had the same approach in the same way.
What is it?
Align is a single-bacterium probiotic that is lactose-free, but is based on milk protein. I have actually been taking a probiotic for six months that, now that I read the label, also has some of its 15-bacteria composite grown/made/based on milk protein, so I am fairly comfortable with the idea now.
The Free Two-Month Sample
My correspondent from the publicity agency—there’s a copy of her email here, as a comment—indicated that my sample would be shipped today. I am setting up a countdown to whenever I have it in hand. Then there will be a let-down before I can report, since I want to check with my doctor on the wisdom of abandoning something I know works, in order to try this.
The Align Web Site
The online site for Align is http://www.aligngi.com/.
They do much more than other probiotic supplements in laying a foundation of scientific studies for their product, and also provide supportive materials such as a 28-day diary, and a FAQ.
So while you and I wait to try it out, we can check it out. Also, if you check it out and want to try it, there are several $5-off coupon deals available on the web.
June 27th, 2007
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tummyblogger |
Medical, Probiotics, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS therapy, IBS-C, IBS-D, Align |
5 comments
