Part 2: Treatments for Chronic Gastrointestinal Disease and Gut Dysbiosis
by Admin
Posted on 25-07-2023 10:57 PM
The gastrointestinal microbiome mirrors the overall wellness of an animal.
Although stable in health, this community of microorganisms can be jolted by age, diet, environmental factors, and disease states. These shifts can result in gut dysbiosis, which is defined as alterations in the microbiota that result in functional changes in bacteria numbers, bacteria diversity, and metabolites. Dysbiosis leads to bile acid dysmetabolism and the intestinal inflammation that follows. “dysbiosis is a marker of underlying disease processes,” said jan suchodolski, medvet, drvetmed, phd, dacvm, professor and associate director of the gastrointestinal laboratory at texas a&m university in college station. Suchodolski and his colleagues developed a dysbiosis index (di) for dogs in 2017,2 as well as for cats just recently.
Probiotics and Antibiotic-associated Diarrhea
If microbiota are so vital to our health, how can we ensure that we have enough or the right types? you may be familiar with probiotics or perhaps already using them. These are either foods that naturally contain microbiota, or supplement pills that contain live active bacteria—advertised to promote digestive health.
Probiotic supplement sales exceeded $35 billion in 2015, with a projected increase to $65 billion by 2024. Whether you believe the health claims or think they are yet another snake oil scam, they make up a multi-billion dollar industry that is evolving in tandem with quickly emerging research.
https://www.specialistsupplements.com/product-category/probiotic-bacteria/
Probiotics are sold as supplements, which means they’re not regulated by the u. S. Food and drug administration (fda). This means companies can essentially throw whatever they want into a supplement and call it a probiotic. To keep yourself safe and make sure you’re getting the probiotics you really want, you’ll need to keep a keen eye on the labeling and read up on scientific studies and research reports to determine which probiotics have made positive outcomes on specific conditions. “i’d probably stay away from store brands and pay a little extra for the name brand that’s been studied,” advises dr.
While we are all familiar with how antibiotics help us to rid the body of disease-causing bacteria, we know much less about the role of probiotics — live microbes that we consume in an effort to improve health. Probiotics can be found in yogurt, kefir and other fermented foods, and they are often sold as supplements, too. The most well-established benefit of probiotics is to treat and even prevent diarrhea associated with antibiotic use and infection , especially for rotavirus in children. The most commonly used probiotic groups are lactobacillus and bifidobacterium. Aside from these benefits, some research has shown probiotics might enhance immune function and decrease inflammation , however, it hasn’t been conclusive.
Probiotics and Necrotizing Enterocolitis
Infants especially those who are born premature can also suffer from damaged intestinal tissues that begin to die. This disease known as necrotizing enterocolitis is characterized by bloating and swollen abdomen responds favourably to probiotics. Use of the probiotic lactobacillus is quite effective in mitigating this disease. On the other hand, the intervention with a concoction of bifidobacterium, propionobacterium and lactobacillus significantly reduces the risk of allergy in infants delivered by c-section. In fact these c-section babies are devoid of the microbes that mothers impart on them if they are not born naturally. Recent studies involving the sprucing the babies with the mums’ microbiota are showing positive results.
The effects of current prebiotics/probiotics/synbiotics on amelioration of diseases such as aad, inflammtory bowel disease (ibd), crc, necrotizing enterocolitis (nec) nafld, encephalopathy, and ventilator-associated pneumonia (vap) in intensive care units (icu)…etc. Remain controversial. Study results obtained are very heterogeneous and not consistent. Among these diseases, the aad is a very serious global clinical issue and is closely related to the clostridium difficile infection after antibiotics treatment that induced gut microbiota dysbiosis [ 58 ]. Though the use of probiotics may somewhat restore intestinal microflora, the current best strategy for treatment of aad is still through translocation of faecal microbiota (fecal microbiota transplantation, fmt) from healthy donors to the patients [ 59 ].
Though many companies and influencers encourage everyone to use probiotics, they are, in fact, not beneficial for everyone, and different strains have different effects on different people.
objective to assess the evidence for the claim probiotics can correct dysbiosis of the normal microbiota resulting from disease or disruptive events. Setting systematic review of published clinical trials of patients receiving a probiotic intervention for the prevention or treatment of various diseases. Data sources sources searched (1985–2013): pubmed, embase, cochrane database of systematic reviews, cinahl, amed and isi web of science. Three on-line clinical trial registries were searched: cochrane central register of controlled trials, metaregister of controlled trials and national institutes of health. Review methods included studies were randomised clinical trials of probiotic interventions having microbiological assays. Studies were evaluated following preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines for specific probiotic strains.
If you have dysbiosis, you should begin treatment right away to feel better and improve your overall health. We share four steps for treating dysbiosis today to help you start feeling more like yourself again: take probiotics every day, especially if you are on antibiotic therapy. Take prebiotics to stimulate the growth of beneficial bacteria and probiotics. Look into herbal therapy or essential oils to treat dysbiosis change your diet to support healthy bacteria in the gut if you’re not sure which probiotics, prebiotics, or herbs, essential oils, and diet changes can treat dysbiosis , continue reading for more details and tips for balancing your microbiota.
The world of probiotics is a wild one! and just like me, i’m sure that any renal dietitian who is reading this post wants to understand the why and how for recommending probiotics to ckd patients. Because above all, the health and safety of our patients is priority #1! so let’s first unpack what the research says about how probiotic therapy may help with the dysbiosis associated with ckd. Secondly, we’ll uncover when to consider recommending probiotics and when to use caution. If you missed the complementary post: a renal dietitian’s guide to fiber and prebiotics , i’d recommend reading that post first.