A new way of dealing with IBS/GI Problems?

July 24, 2013 8:15 PM

Here is something an approach to IBS that I found interesting: What's the best way of treating Irritable Bowel Syndrome, otherwise known as IBS. Well IBS stems from a lack of intestinal flora. So the goal of treating IBS really is to re-establish the intestinal flora. There's several ways of doing this. First of all we have what's called probiotics. Probiotics are sources of the actual bacteria that inhabit the intestines. Various examples of probiotics include: kefir, cultured vegetables, miso, probiotic supplements, live cultured yogurts and so on. It's very, very important to make sure that the cultures are active though. Second thing to be done is with prebiotics. Now prebiotics are the food that feed the intestinal flora. This is actually more important for the long run because with probiotics you're not going to find any supplement that will have the number of strains and the various strains that you are going to find in the intestinal tract that help to benefit our health. So if you take prebiotics to feed all of the existing flora in your intestines you'll actually build up all their numbers instead of just replacing a few strains. Prebiotics include things such as: rice bran, oat bran, vegetable fibres, FOS and Inulin. Things like these that are natural fibre sources. The intestinal flora will ferment these fibres generating beneficial acids such as lactic acid, acetic acid and fatty acids. What do you guys think?
posted by Jack V to Science & Nature