Diarrhea / Constipation / Irritable Bowel
CHECK FOR BACTERIAL FLORA IF YOU HAVE SEVERE DIARRHEA – (04-25-05)
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.
