|
|
|
Irritable Bowel Syndrome Dietary Therapy
|
|
|
Printable Version | Email |
| |
|
 IBS is a very common disorder. Please refer to my essay Irritable Bowel Syndrome for details about this disorder. This information is directed to dietary considerations.
The large bowel or colon is the site of many beneficial bacteria. A Wonderful Colon provides considerable detail on how the colon and its bacteria function together to provide our bodies with certain health benefits. However, the colon is the site for many of the symptoms in IBS patients. Since this organ is where all fiber and other food remnants arrive, it would seem logical that some parts of food we eat might play a role in the symptoms of IBS, which for the most part, are a reflection of an overly sensitive colon.
IBS is currently seen as falling into several major types according to symptoms. Patients will frequently overlap their symptoms or even swing from one type to another. In each case, the diet may play an important role. So there is always some experimentation that each patient must undertake to see which dietary changes work best.
Abdominal Discomfort, Cramps, Bloating
The gut has been called the second brain because it has so many nerve cells within it. IBS patients have an increased nervous sensitivity built into their intestinal tract. This means that minor changes in the way the intestines contract can be perceived as discomfort, whereas in other people it is not. At times, there may be excessive production of colon gas resulting in bloating and discomfort. It is important that you understand how this occurs, namely that colon bacteria ferment soluble plant fibers in the food you eat and some of these bacteria will create harmless gases. You need to understand the difference between soluble fiber and insoluble fiber in your foods.
All fiber goes through the small intestine unchanged. Soluble fiber, as is found in foods such as oats, beans and fruit pectins, is fermented by the colon bacteria. It is used as a food by these bacteria which, in turn, provide significant health benefits. Some benign colon bacteria will create intestinal gases, mostly hydrogen, which then can move on down and become flatus. Insoluble fiber, on the other hand, is not fermented by colon bacteria and is evacuated relatively unchanged. No colon gas occurs with insoluble fiber.
Constipation Dominant
Constipation occurs when the colon just does not contract well enough or often enough. The stool within it becomes dehydrated and hard. Why does the colon become so lazy and what can be done about it? The diet may be important. Insoluble fibers such as wheat and wheat bran are not fermented by colon bacteria so they do not produce colon gas. At the same time, they retain water and create a large, bulky stool. This, in turn, often stimulates the colon to contract and provide easier evacuation. The first step then is to gradually increase the amount of insoluble fiber up to 10-15 grams a day or even more.
Soluble fibers, on the other hand, are trickier since they are used by colon bacteria as a food source and some of these bacteria make colon gas. Still, these fibers, especially the newly discovered prebiotic ones, produce many benefits within the colon. So, the IBS patient should eat enough soluble fiber to create its health benefit but not enough to produce crampy bloating and flatus.
Go to Fiber Content of Foods for the amount of fiber in each food.
Diarrhea Dominant
 There are many causes of diarrhea. Your physician will want to be sure there is not a correctible cause present. For instance, some patients chew sugar free gum, which is high in the sweetening agent, sorbitol. This can lead to diarrhea. Read the labels. Others may have lactose intolerance, meaning they don't digest the milk sugar, lactose. The lactose ends up in the colon where it can promote colon gas and diarrhea. There may be chronic infections, such as the parasite, Giardia, residing in the small bowel. Celiac sprue may be a concomitant or even the major problem. When all of these and more are ruled out, then diarrhea dominant IBS can be diagnosed with confidence.
The next step is to consider the types of fiber in your diet. Increasing insoluble fiber in the diet or with a dietary supplement is worth a try as these can bulk up the stool which, of course, is desirable. Soluble fibers can aggravate diarrhea. However, they, along with probiotic bacteria, can also change the bacterial makeup of the colon in such a beneficial way that it may reduce the diarrhea.
Go to Fiber Content of Foods for details.
I suggest gradually increasing the insoluble fiber in the diet up to 10 grams or more a day. Following this, I would add prebiotic fibers, either in foods or a dietary supplement in very gradual increasing doses. If there were no change in symptoms, then I would add a probiotic at the direction of your physician. There is no secret here. What works for one IBS patient with diarrhea may not work for another. Judicious trial and error is recommended.
Colon Bacteria in the IBS Patient
We, in medicine, are in a new era regarding what we know about the colon and its inhabitants. What we have known for a long while is that the density and numbers of bacteria within the human colon are greater than any other place in the animal kingdom or, in fact, any place in the world. There are more bacteria within the colon by a factor of 10 than there are cells in the entire body. This is amazing! There is likely a reason and, yes, a good healthy reason for this. We have always thought that there were around 400-500 different species of colon bacteria. We were wrong. The number just discovered in 2007 is closer to 1,000 different species.
A key and likely a very important fact, again just discovered in 2007, is that IBS patients have a significantly different colon bacterial makeup than those people without IBS. This has been a startling finding but, thinking it through, it should not have come as a great surprise. Bacteria flourish in the colon and they provide huge numbers of benefits for us. They rely on the foods we eat and what we used to call waste products for their health. However, in some way they may be a problem as well. Can changing the bacterial makeup of the colon change the symptoms in IBS patients? This is a key question. A recent research study showed that a certain probiotic formula may reduce the symptoms of cramping and bloating in some IBS patients. We will await more research on what these interesting findings mean for the IBS patients.
Summary
There are no specific and right answers for every IBS patient. There will always be some trial and error necessary to see what is right for you. Still, there are some general principals that may apply to most patients.
- Gradually reduce animal protein in the diet.
- Increase insoluble fiber and reduce soluble fiber in the vegetables, fruits and whole grains you eat. Go to Fiber Content of Foods for information on foods that are high in insoluble fiber.
- Probiotics. There are 2 that have some demonstrated benefit for bloating. These are VSL#3 and Align. They can be purchased over the counter at any pharmacy, but check with your physician first.
- Prebiotics. Use these cautiously as they may increase gas production, even while they are providing certain bowel benefits
For Jackson GI Medical products,Click here
Send Page To a Friend
|
Medical References
BACKGROUND: Prebiotics are short-chain carbohydrates that alter the
composition, or metabolism, of the gut microbiota in a beneficial
manner. It is therefore expected that prebiotics will improve health in
a way similar to probiotics, whilst at the same time being cheaper, and
carrying less risk and being easier to incorporate into the diet than
probiotics. AIM: To review published evidence for prebiotic effects on
gut function and human health. METHODS: We searched the Science
Citation Index with the terms prebiotic, microbiota, gut bacteria,
large intestine, mucosa, bowel habit, constipation, diarrhoea,
inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis,
pouchitis, calcium and cancer, focussing principally on studies in
humans and reports in the English language. Search of the Cochrane
Library did not identify any clinical study or meta-analysis on this
topic. RESULTS: Three (Sources of Prebiotics), oligofructose,
galacto-oligosaccharides and lactulose, clearly alter the balance of
the large bowel microbiota by increasing bifidobacteria and
Lactobacillus numbers. These carbohydrates are fermented and give rise
to short-chain fatty acid and intestinal gas; however, effects on bowel
habit are relatively small. Randomized-controlled trials of their
effect in a clinical context are few, although animal studies show
anti-inflammatory effects in inflammatory bowel disease, while calcium
absorption is increased. CONCLUSIONS: It is still early days for
prebiotics, but they offer the potential to modify the gut microbial
balance in such a way as to bring direct health benefits cheaply and
safely.
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review summarizes the clinical efficacy of
probiotics and prebiotics in gastrointestinal disorders and examines
the mechanisms of action related to their therapeutic effect. RECENT
FINDINGS: The demonstration that immune and epithelial cells can
discriminate between different microbial species has extended the known
mechanism(s) of action of probiotics beyond simple barrier and
antimicrobial effects. It has also confirmed that probiotic bacteria
modulate mucosal and systemic immune activity and epithelial function.
The progressive unraveling of these mechanisms of action has led to new
credence for the use of probiotics and prebiotics in clinical medicine.
Level I evidence now exists for the therapeutic use of probiotics in
infectious diarrhea in children, recurrent Clostridium
difficile-induced infections and postoperative pouchitis. Level II
evidence is emerging for the use of probiotics in other
gastrointestinal infections, prevention of postoperative bacterial
translocation, irritable bowel syndrome, and in both ulcerative colitis
and Crohn disease. Nevertheless, one consistent feature has emerged
over the past year: Not all probiotic bacteria have similar therapeutic
effects. Future clinical trials will need to incorporate this fact into
trial planning and design. SUMMARY: The use of probiotics and
prebiotics as therapeutic agents for gastrointestinal disorders is
rapidly moving into the "mainstream." Mechanisms of action explain the
therapeutic effects and randomized; controlled trials provide the
necessary evidence for their incorporation into the therapeutic
armamentarium.
Patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) often request dietary
recommendations. They must eat, and they want to know what to eat.
Present national guidelines recommend dietary treatment with fiber for
IBS patients with constipation. Diet recommendations are made based on
symptoms. There may be different dietary recommendations for
constipation, diarrhea, and pain or bloating. This article reviews the
relationship of foods to IBS and issues of food intolerances and
hypersensitivities, and recommendations for diet therapy. The role of
dietary fiber, both soluble and insoluble, is reviewed. Although there
are few studies to substantiate exact diets, broad dietary plans are
recommended for the different symptoms of IBS. In addition, the recent
literature on probiotics and prebiotics pertinent to IBS is reviewed.
BACKGROUND & AIMS: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a significant
gastrointestinal disorder with unknown etiology. The symptoms can
greatly weaken patients' quality of life and account for notable
economical costs for society. Contribution of the gastrointestinal
microbiota in IBS has been suggested. Our objective was to characterize
putative differences in gastrointestinal microbiota between patients
with IBS and control subjects. These differences could potentially have
a causal relationship with the syndrome. METHODS: Microbial genomes
from fecal samples of 24 patients with IBS and 23 controls were
collected, pooled in a groupwise manner, and fractionated according to
their guanine cytosine content. Selected fractions were analyzed by
extensive high-throughput 16S ribosomal RNA gene cloning and sequencing
of 3753 clones. Some of the revealed phylogenetic differences were
further confirmed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction assays on
individual sampl es. RESULTS: The coverage of the clone libraries of
IBS subtypes and control subjects differed significantly (P <
.0253). The samples were also distinguishable by the Bayesian analysis
of bacterial population structure. Moreover, significant (P < .05)
differences between the clone libraries were found in several bacterial
genera, which could be verified by quantitative polymerase chain
reaction assays of phylotypes belonging to the genera Coprococcus,
Collinsella, and Coprobacillus. CONCLUSIONS: The study showed that
fecal microbiota is significantly altered in IBS. Further studies on
molecular mechanisms underlying these alterations are needed to
elucidate the exact role of intestinal bacteria in IBS.
|
|
|
|