Colitis-Aid.com

A small study suggests that a mixture of probiotics may help refractory ulcerative colitis symptoms:

The probiotic mixture, known as VSL#3, contains four strains of Lactobacillus, three strains of Bifidobacterium and one strain of Streptococcus salivarius Ö all well-known species of good bacteria.

Although VSL#3 has been shown to maintain remission of ulcerative colitis, there have been no studies on the mixture’s use in the active, symptom-producing phase of the disease, co-investigator Dr. Richard N. Fedorak, from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and colleagues note in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

They therefore enrolled 34 patients with active ulcerative colitis who were treated with VSL#3 twice daily for 6 weeks. A variety of standard treatments had been tried on the patients first, all to no avail.

Remission occurred in 53 percent of the patients and an additional 24 percent experienced some degree of improvement in symptoms. A few patients experienced no improvement or worsening of their symptoms.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 5th, 2007 at 9:13 pm and is filed under Alternative Medical Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.