| IBS and IBD In The News | |
'Good' Bacteria Controls Pouchitis
Reuters Health Aug 07, 2000| Other News | |
Italian researchers are reporting that high doses of probiotics can help inflammation in the small intestine known as pouchitis.
People who undergo surgery for ulcerative colitis may develop pouchitis. Symptoms can include more frequent and urgent bowel movements, abdominal cramping, bleeding and fever. Pouchitis usually responds well to treatment with antibiotics, but can recur in about two thirds of patients. The cause of pouchitis is unknown, but has been linked to low levels of bacteria normally found in the intestine.
Dr. Paolo Gionchetti and colleagues at the University of Bologna, Italy, tested probiotics as a treatment for pouchitis. A control group of twenty patients received a placebo, and another twenty patients with chronic pouchitis received probiotics. 85% of the probiotic group did not have symptoms during the 9 months of the study, but all twenty of the placebo group relapsed within four months.
Within 4 months of stopping treatment, all twenty patients in the probiotic group relapsed. Gionchetti maintains that long-term probiotic use is safe.
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Pelvic Pouch Surgery
Links to information about j-pouch and BCIR surgeries.Health considerations of Probiotics
Would you purposely put live micro-organisms into your mouth? Sure you would - especially if it potentially lowered your risk for colon cancer.
