LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

Diarrhea / Constipation / Irritable Bowel

CHECK FOR BACTERIAL FLORA IF YOU HAVE SEVERE DIARRHEA – (04-25-05)

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Lactobacillus and bifidobacterium in irritable bowel syndrome: Symptom responses and relationship to cytokine profiles

I saw a patient yesterday that I hadn’t seen in about three years.  She had pretty severe diarrhea predominant IBS and we ran Great Smokies CDSA.  For those of you not familiar with this test, one of the things it checks for is bacterial flora.  The sad part for this patient is that she showed this test to numerous providers and specialist she had seen since, and none said it had any value.  I apologized to the patient for the lack of current knowledge for her providers.

This article is a perfect example of how far behind clinical practice is.  Most clinicians are maybe just catching onto the idea of what probiotics, as a general term, are.  But the research moves on and we are now identifying the different physiological effects different strains have on the GI tract.  Once we are able to pin this info down, the therapeutic potential will definitely rise.

Read entire article here

WHAT ARE PROBIOTIC ORGANISMS GOOD FOR? – (05-16-05)

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Lactobacillus and bifidobacterium in irritable bowel syndrome: Symptom responses and relationship to cytokine profiles

Another article in a series of research trying to further elucidate exactly what probiotic organisms are good for what conditions.  The difference in efficacy rates in various studies on conditions like inflammatory bowel disease, diverticulitis and irritable bowel syndrome may be because the specific strain may not have been the best choice for that study.  As the specificity of probiotics for a given condition is identified, the therapeutic potential of this method of treatment will skyrocket.

Read entire article here

DO YOU KNOW THAT USE OF PROBIOTICS PREVENTS DIARRHEA? – (01-26-08)

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Use of probiotic Lactobacillus preparation to prevent diarrhea associated with antibiotics

Geez, sometimes I feel like all I do is rant and rave about how disconnected mainstream medicine is from the research, but it’s hard to see it otherwise. We still view antibiotic overuse as an issue because it can lead to antibiotic resistance. But this concern is greatly overshadowed by what happens to use when we destroy the bacteria that is supposed to be there (our normal flora). Along these same lines, using probiotics therapeutically for certain conditions is well supported in the literature.

In this particular study, even using relatively low levels of probiotics (in the 100 million range, where most good quality supplements have 16 BILLION or more..) had a striking effect on the side effects associated with antibiotic use in the hospital and an even greater effect on eliminating C. diff infections with antibiotic use. And compare these outcomes to the safety and cost of using probiotics. It’s a no brainer.

Read entire article here

PROBIOTICS FOR TREATMENT OF ACUTE DIARRHEA IN CHILDREN – (02-11-08)

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Probiotics for treatment of acute diarrhea in children: randomised clinical trial of five different preparations

The continued high use of inappropriate antibiotics in children doesn’t seem to show any hint of waning. Some may look at this overuse of antibiotics in the short term and note that there is no harm in prescribing the antibiotics. I would suggest that “no harm” is the farthest thing from the truth. We are continually seeing probiotics being used therapeutically for the prevention and / or treatment of any number of problems.

In this study, we see their use in children with acute diarrhea cutting down the number of hours of diarrhea from 115 to 70. That’s almost 2 days less. However, if you read down to the conclusions of the authors, please refrain from laughing at the comment that “pediatricians should choose bacterial preparations based on effectiveness data.” Heck, first they’ve have to actually admit that probiotics are effective before they’d even be concerned with more specific questions!

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TREATMENT OF IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME WITH OSTEOPATHY – (02-11-08)

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Treatment of irritable bowel syndrome with osteopathy: Results of a randomized controlled pilot study

There has almost been much controversy about whether spinal adjusting has the ability to affect visceral function. Over the years, there has been a surprising number of studies (mostly in osteopathic journals) that do show an effect of manipulation on visceral function.

In this small study we see that osteopathic manipulation was effective in symptom scores for irritable bowel syndrome. Couple manual therapy with some aggressive lifestyle changes and targeted suplementation and you’ve got quite a nice set of tools to drastically help IBS.

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USE OF PROBIOTICS FOR TREATMENT OF DIARRHEA – (02-25-08)

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An Experimental Study and a Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Antisecretory Activity of Lactobacillus acidophilus Strain LB Against Nonrotavirus Diarrhea

By now, we’ve seen more than enough evidence on the viability of using probiotics as a cornerstone for treatment of many types of GI disorders, with diarrhea in children being quite well studied. The bottom line is that these friendly bacteria are supposed to be there. Mother Nature made that quite clear when she decided to put lactobacillus into breast milk.

However, the concept of probiotics for children have been quite slow to catch on in the pediatric community. This is disturbing, especially considering the long term health benefits of having probiotics present in the gut, and the fact that many of these studies are published in pediatric journals. This particular study found a shortening of non-rotavirus diarrhea by one day.

Read entire article here