Quote: I just don't find using Google to find different Internet articles to be "the science of IBS". It's misleading to try and represent something absolutely when you've only got iffy studies with small sample sizes.
Google is a rather crude tool. I only use it to do preliminary research overviews. I do my primary research using much more powerful tools. I use many subscription-only on-line research databases including the ISI Web of Knowledge.. It covers research published in 15,000 plus of the topic scientific journals for the past 75+ years. I use these databases to research articles. I do keyword searches to locate potentially interesting articles and then read the abstracts. Once I locate an interesting article I use on-line journal subscriptions to retrieve the original article to archive and read.
Most of the articles I read are not available via Google .
Many of the abstracts of the articles are available on Google because abstracts are used to advertise articles.
I maintain a large digital library of original articles on IBS, bowel dysfunction and related illnesses. In fact just this afternoon I added about 15 new articles. Three articles gave compeling evidence for the use of probiotics to treat IBS. In fact in one article they described how a probiotic of Escherichia coli made such an improvement in the lining of the small bowel that it could be seen using a new technology called a Pill Cam. Three other articles discussed the gender distribution subtypes of IBS in Korea, China and Japan screened using ROME I & II and compared the findings to the rest of World. The total sample sizes in these articles were greater than 10,000 individuals. One reason I like to use review articles is that reviewers examine results from many studies effectively increasing the sample size.
Most interestingly I came across article that gives detailed dietary guidelines to manage fructose malabsorption and symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. I have not studied it in detail yet but I will. A quick scan seems to show it has many similarities to the EFI diet. I will report back when I know more. Here is the abstract
Quote: Dietary fructose induces abdominal symptoms in patients with fructose malabsorption, but there are no published guidelines on its dietary management. The objective was to retrospectively evaluate a potentially successful diet therapy in patients with irritable bowel syndrome and fructose malabsorption. Tables detailing the content of fructose and fructans in foods were constructed. A dietary strategy comprising avoidance of foods containing substantial free fructose and short-chain fructans, limitation of the total dietary fructose load, encouragement of foods in which glucose was balanced with fructose, and co-ingestion of free glucose to balance excess free fructose was devised. Sixty-two consecutively referred patients with irritable bowel syndrome and fructose malabsorption on breath hydrogen testing underwent dietary instruction. Dietary adherence and effect on abdominal symptoms were evaluated via telephone interview 2 to 40 months (median 14 months) later. Response to the diet was defined as improvement of all symptoms by at least 5 points on a -10- to 10-point scale. Forty-eight patients (77%) adhered to the diet always or frequently. Forty-six (74%) of all patients responded positively in all abdominal symptoms. Positive response overall was significantly better in those adherent than nonadherent (85% vs 36%; PP<0.01 for all symptoms). This comprehensive fructose malabsorption dietary therapy achieves a high level of sustained adherence and good symptomatic response.
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Gosh Jen ....
