Best Probiotics for IBS
IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) is commonly thought to be the result of eating bad food or can be caused by taking some antibiotics. For the digestive system to work properly, there should be a balance of healthy bacteria and yeast strains. Probiotics has been shown to have a significant positive effect on this balance, and is a way to treat IBS for most sufferers.
How To Treat IBS
Persons suffering from IBS tend to have one thing in common: low levels of healthy bacteria in their digestive system. When the levels of these healthy bacteria drop to low levels, the yeast strains can take over in the gut.
When there is to many yeast strains and not enough health bacteria, the digestive system is unable to effectively break down the foods that are eaten, often resulting in the overproduction of gas and diarrhea.
By consuming probiotics food and supplements on a continual basis, IBS sufferers may be able to improve this imbalance, and help the body to prevent the overgrowth of yeast in the digestive system.
Slowing the Growth of Yeast Strains
Balancing yeast and healthy bacteria in the digestive tract can be tricky, and it can quickly get out of hand for IBS sufferers. If the yeast strains grow out of control, they tend to change – and instead of providing benefit to the body, they can hurt it.
By eating probiotics for IBS, the healthy bacteria that are provided to the body can begin working with the body to prevent the yeast from multiplying out of control. This can help to bring the digestive and immune systems back into balance, which will decrease the production of gas and aid digestion.
What Can Probiotics Do For IBS Patients?
Many IBS patients suffer from pain in the gut, diarrhea, constipation, or all of these. IBS causes the gut to process food faster or slower than the average person, and the exact cause of this is not known. Since IBS is a problem with the gastrointestinal tract, probiotics offers hope by helping it to work properly.
Does Probiotics Treat IBS?
In recent controlled trials with over 1500 IBS patients, researchers found that probiotics are effective to treat IBS. Since the patients were given a multi-strain probiotic in the study, the results could not pinpoint if a specific probiotic could effectively treat IBS, or if a combination of different probiotics was necessary to effectively reduce the symptoms of IBS.
In another recent study of IBS patients with severe diarrhea, 84 patients were again given a combination of probiotics over a 28 day period. The results were clear – that probiotics had a significant positive effect on the bowel movements of the patients who took the probiotics. The IBS patients that were given a placebo experienced slight improvements in the number of diarrheal episodes each day.
There was also a study of children with IBS, and the effects of taking a probiotic. The probiotic agent that was used in the double-blind crossover study was VSL#3, and proved to be significantly more effective at treating IBS symptoms than a placebo.
It is clear that more research needs to be completed for us to learn exactly what probiotics work the best to treat IBS. Most likely, different probiotics will be effective at reducing the specific IBS symptoms that the IBS patient is suffering from.
The Best Probiotics for IBS
There is an overproduction of gas in the small intestine when bacteria mix with large chunks of undigested food. To remedy this situation, the person suffering with painful gas should begin a healthy diet of probiotic foods. It is also advisable to take digestive enzymes to break down the food before it reaches the small intestines.
Eating yogurt will provide several probiotics at one time, so usually this is a good idea, and will help the digestive system to relax. Unpasteurized sauerkraut also provides a good mix of probiotics, if it can be tolerated.
If necessary, probiotic supplements may be needed to significantly increase the healthy bacteria in folks with severe IBS.
Another tip is to focus on chewing your food more. Food is partially digested by our saliva, and by thoroughly chewing each mouthful of food until it is broken down into small pieces, the digestive system will not have to work so hard to break it down.
