A method to alleviate the symptoms of ‘functional diarrhea’, which has symptoms similar to irritable bowel syndrome, such as frequent stools and loose stools, but does not accompany abdominal pain, has been proposed.
A team led by Professor Gyu-Man Kim (Clinical Instructor Su-Ji Jeong) of the Department of Family Medicine at Ajou University Hospital divided 39 patients with functional diarrhea into a synbiotic intake group (20) and a placebo intake group (19), and △ frequency of bowel movements △ number of loose stools for 8 weeks. △ Intestinal symptoms such as bowel satisfaction and changes in the intestinal microenvironment were confirmed.
The new probiotics used in this study are a mixture of two types of Lactobacillus, one type of Bifidobacterium, and fructooligosaccharides, a type of prebiotics, which are their food.
The research team focused on the research results that showed that the species of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium were reduced in irritable bowel syndrome, especially diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome, and ingesting these two strains actually improved intestinal symptoms in patients with functional diarrhea and improved intestinal microflora. I checked if it could cause environmental changes.
As a result, after 8 weeks, normal stools significantly increased and loose stools decreased in the group that consumed synbiotic compared to the placebo group.
In particular, the subjective satisfaction of bowel movements actually felt by the patient improved compared to before intake through a diary in which the patient wrote down his/her bowel status every day.
In addition, as a result of analyzing the intestinal flora (intestinal microbiome), the faecal microflora including Lactobacillus strains in the intestine increased in the synbiotic intake group.
In contrast, no changes in the gut flora were found in the placebo group. In other words, positive changes occurred in the microenvironment in the large intestine only in the synbiotic intake group.
In addition, the research team emphasized that functional diarrhea is less severe than irritable bowel syndrome in that it does not accompany abdominal pain, and there are few related studies, but it should not be overlooked because it has a high prevalence and significantly reduces quality of life.
Professor Kyu-Nam Kim said, “We hope that this study will help patients with functional diarrhea by confirming the improvement of the subjective symptoms felt by the patients themselves, and we hope that effective treatments will be developed through follow-up large-scale studies.”
The research results were published in the international journal ‘Nutrients’.
Daeik Kwon medical journalist [email protected]