researcher thinks bacteria a factor in IBS
#104619 - 09/08/04 05:35 PM
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amo616
Reged: 08/16/04
Posts: 236
Loc: Ontario, Canada
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Be interested in knowing what other folks think about this.
Source: University Of Southern California Date: 2004-09-03 Print this page Email to friend
Bacteria May Be The Cause Of Irritable Bowel Syndrome Researchers have suggested numerous theories to explain IBS, which affects as many as 36 million Americans. But according to gastrointestinal motility specialist Henry C. Lin, associate professor of medicine in the Keck School of Medicine of USC, the idea of a bacterial origin of IBS represents a major change in thinking.
Writing in the Aug. 18 issue of JAMA, Lin proposed that ordinary bacteria normally confined to the large intestine may expand into the small intestine, prompting uncomfortable bloating and gas after meals, a change in bowel movements as well as an immune response that may account for the flu-like illness so common in the IBS patient, including such debilitating symptoms as headaches, muscle and joint pains and chronic fatigue.
"IBS has long been a frustrating diagnosis for both patients and their physicians," Lin said. "The bacterial hypothesis of IBS offers new hope for suffering patients by providing a new framework for understanding the symptoms of this disorder, pointing to new strategies for treatment."
Physicians frequently diagnose a patient with IBS when ongoing symptoms - including diarrhea, constipation, bloating, gas and abdominal pain - are not explained by medical tests such as gastrointestinal endoscopies.
For more than a dozen years, Lin has searched for a common thread to account for the symptoms in IBS. Studies indicate 92 percent of IBS patients report bloating after they eat, a symptom he saw again and again in his patients.
While many physicians believe that IBS-related bloating is perceived and not real, Lin noted that recent studies of IBS patients show that their abdomens do become measurably more distended than those of healthy patients.
With the symptom of post-meal bloating in mind, Lin began the quest for the cause of IBS by considering the problem of increased intestinal gas.
Gas comes about when gut bacteria ferment food in the intestinal tract. There are plenty of organisms in the gut, where bacteria may number 100 trillion.
Bacteria perform a variety of valuable services in the large intestine, according to Lin. "But we believe problems may start when bacteria set up shop in the small intestine where they are normally scarce. Usual medical tests such as endoscopy cannot detect this problem in most patients," he said.
However, a breath test can be used to indirectly tell if too many bacteria are in the small intestine. In this test, the patient ingests a syrup containing the sugar lactulose. Over the next three hours, the gaseous products of bacterial fermentation of this sugar may be measured in the exhaled breath.
In a 2003 paper authored by Lin and his research partner Mark Pimentel of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, 84 percent of IBS patients were found to have abnormal breath test results suggesting small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.
In this double-blind, placebo-controlled study, patients received either antibiotic therapy or a sugar pill. Patients whose small intestinal bacterial overgrowth was eradicated by antibiotics reported a 75 percent improvement in symptoms.
Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth allows gut bacteria to cross the mucosal barrier, which is the lining of the gut, and enter the body. This activates the patient's immune system as evidenced by increased numbers of inflammatory cells in tissues of IBS patients.
"The immune response to bacterial antigens may then explain the flu-like symptoms that can greatly diminish the quality of life such as chronic fatigue and pain," Lin said.
The Jill and Tom Barad Family Fund supports Lin's current bacterial overgrowth research. His other research projects are supported by the National Institutes of Health.
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Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
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If I were a betting person, I'd say there could definitely be something to this. After all, look at all the other things that we're starting to find out are bacterial in cause -- ulcers from h.pylori (remember when they were thought to be stress?), degenerative disc disease is now thought to have a bacterial origin, there is MUCH work being done in inflammatory arthritises which shows bacteria is definitely responsible (Dr. Carlson's work specifically, and his successes in treatment with antibiotics), and so on. I even read recently that some types of heart disease may be bacterial in origin (might explain why some people get a rise in sed rate just before a heart event).
Anyone else? Opinions?
OG
-------------------- "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." -- John Lennon
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Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
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very interesting--I have had this theory for some time that IBS might be caused by either a bacteria or latent virus--how could so many people have contracted the same illness with the same syptoms if not caused by either bacteria or virus? I am going to take this article with me to the Rheumatologist next week and see what she says--I suffer with very bad muscle pain and I am on a mission to find out why...thanks for the info!!
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interesting, but they used a bacterial test as one of the ways to rule out infection and rule in IBS for me.. so it kinda would be contradicted by that... then again this getting bad enough again for a diagnosis was after months on a variety of heavy duty antibiotics because we had undiagnosed pertussis and they had us on the wrong antibiotics for so long that when they hit the right ones it killed the disease but didn't get the symptoms gone right away.
-------------------- Dietetics Student (anticipating RD exam in Aug 2010)
IBS - A
Dairy Allergic
Fructose and MSG intollerant
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Bacteria can certainly make IBS worse, but I would not say it causes it. I had pain with mine that would simply not go away, no matter what I did. Sure enough, they ran tests and found I had a bacterial infection in my gut. A round of antiobiotics helped, but then it came back again. I took Apple cider vinegar for 3 days, and that took care of it. The doctor did not prescribe it, I was desparate because I could not take another round of antibiotics. (A friend told me about it.) So if nothing helps your IBS, you may want to be tested. Even though I got rid of the bacteria, I still have IBS.
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Don't you just love where it says most doctors think the bloating is "perceived" & NOT REAL!
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It might depend on what particular bacteria they tested for, and which one(s) can cause IBS. This new research may find bacteria that hadn't been implicated previously in IBS.
I am taking 18 months of antibiotics for my rheumatoid arthritis -- I'm about a year into it, and doing fantastic. I'm tempted to stop it now, but the doc says it's worth it to finish up. I am SOOOO glad I searched for answers and didn't believe that there was no knkown cause, and therefore no cure. But, it'll be just my luck that when I finish the 18 months of it, they'll find out what bacteria causes IBS, and I'll be positive for that, and have to start a NEW round of antibiotics to kill that one! (I'm really tired of antibiotics every day!)
OG
-------------------- "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." -- John Lennon
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I just spoke with my doctor about this. He said the problem is that because of our altered gut motility the bacterial overgrowth will eventually come back and have to be treated with antibiotics again and again. Doesn't sound too promising to me yet.
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I get kideny infections every few months and I get put on antibiotics. Everytime I start the antibiotics my IBS symptoms get worse. One would think that if a bacteria were to blame, I would get better not worse. Hmmmm.
Meg
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