Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) — basically, recurrent pain during digestion — is common. A new study by Italian pediatricians asked if a probiotic would help. They randomized children into two groups: active and placebo. Children in the active group were given pills with a lot of lactobacillus bacteria, which they took twice per day. The placebo was made by the same manufacturer, so it looked identical. During the study, the researchers did not know who was in each group.
There was a big difference between the groups, which took about four weeks to emerge. The active group had painful episodes less than half as often as the placebo group, and the episodes they did have were less painful.
Overall this supports my broad point that we need to eat plenty of fermented foods to be healthy. That’s not what the authors of the study concluded. They concluded:
Demonstration of the efficacy of a given probiotic for a specific therapeutic target will help clinicians choose which probiotic to use when dealing with a specific disease. We are entering the era of targeted probiotic use.
Which reveals a bad case of gatekeeper syndrome. I wouldn’t expect them to say their results support the idea that everyone should eat fermented foods — that’s an “alternative” (and therefore “crazy”) idea. But they could have said their results imply that kids with IBS should eat yogurt.
My dad has a theory regarding this. Let me tell you his theory and add a bit from my own knowledge base.
Known fact: I and many others can’t absorb much fructose or other sugars in my upper intestine. It therefore passes into the lower, creating a bacterial feeding frenzy. This is called fructose malabsorbtion. It may also apply to other classes of food.
Known fact: Gut bacterial flora balance is hugely important in overall health. Some chronic patients have been cured by the radical procedure known as “fecal transplant,” to restore proper gut flora.
Hypothetical causal mechanism: Eating the wrong kinds of food causes the wrong kinds of bacteria to flourish in the lower intestine, leading to myriad problems.
Actionable treatment and prediction: Taking probiotics and fermented food is good for you, and can mitigate but not wholly eliminate the detrimental effects of eating the wrong kinds of food.
Joseph, “fermented food” is such a big and vague category that I agree with you that eating fermented foods is unlikely to solve all digestive problems — simply because the range of bacteria in what you eat may be too narrow. A few months ago, I had something edging toward diarrhea. Daily yogurt didn’t cure it but kombucha (which has many more types of bacteria than yogurt) quickly did. Here is what I suggest someone with IBS should try: 1. daily yogurt and 1 glass of kombucha. 2. If any foods you eat regularly still cause trouble, do this: Put the food at room temperature, open to air, as long as you can with it still remaining edible. Then put it in the refrigerator and eat it daily in small pieces for a week. This should populate your gut with bacteria that digest it.
That is a very interesting potential solution for overcoming things like fructose intolerance.
Offhand, I don’t know how it would solve the problem of inability to absorb sufficient quantities of fructose in the small intestine, causing it to pass into the large intestine and create problems there.
However, theoretical causal mechanisms pale in comparison to hard experimentation. I haven’t heard of your experiment being tried.
Right now branching out isn’t a priority for me… I try to minimize what little carbs (potatoes) I eat, because they slow me down compared to meat. The diet I’m on gives me zero IBS and provide optimal mood and energy and personality effects.
However, I will certainly file away this intriguing idea. There may come a time when I want to travel the world and sample cuisines worry-free. It would be nice to be able to digest fruit, alcohol, grains, etc without a problem.
“But they could have said their results imply that kids with IBS should eat yogurt.”
In the discussion, they could have referenced actual studies showing instances where people eating yogurt experienced IBS relief (or talked about the anecdotal evidence)…and then used their own results with lactobacillus pills as a possible explanation. But they couldn’t jump from their results to the implied claim that yogurt should be eaten by IBS kids. Many people with inflamed guts have problems with food intolerance…so the added dairy proteins and acid in yogurt might not be tolerated, despite the potential good effects of the bacteria. Maybe when the gut is healed of the inflamation, yogurt can be eaten prophylaticly…but maybe not.
I made my own yogurt and ate it as a staple for many years…then had a nasty case of IBS after using antibiotics during dental procedures. I had to go on a very strict elimination diet to figure out what foods were aggrevating the condition. Then followed a personalized, restricted diet until the IBS went away. Afterwards, I was able to add back many of the eliminated foods, but, sadly, not the yogurt.