# Article: Get Healthy - Eat Your Bacteria



## JeanG (Oct 20, 1999)

This article is from CBS HealthWatch, and the url is: http://healthwatch.medscape.com/medscape/p...SP=0&Channel=10 Get Healthy: Eat Your BacteriaAmy Paturel, Medical Writer"The concept is really quite an old one," says Dr. Sherwood Gorbach, researcher and professor of family medicine and community health at Tufts University in Boston. "It goes all the way back to the Bible," he says, referring to passages in the Book of Genesis that cite feeding yogurt to the sick as a way to help them recover.What he's talking about is eating bacteria. Dr. Gorbach and fellow Tufts researchers say strains of bacteria called probiotics can improve the health of your digestive system. The organisms may even be able to strengthen your body's natural defense system and help treat conditions that range from diarrhea to dental cavities. LGG has shown promise in treating inflammatory bowel disease and Crohn's disease. "In ancient times, fermented milk products were important because milk would sour after a few days," says Dr. Gorbach. "If you put your own bacteria in, you get a tasty product, not an [unappetizing] product. That's the concept of making yogurts and cheeses and so on: You sour them with the bugs you like."There is considerable research indicating that the probiotic Lactobacillus GG (LGG) is especially helpful as a treatment for diarrhea and other intestinal ailments. Continuing research suggests that travelers, people taking antibiotics, and even women with vaginitis can gain some relief by getting LGG into their system.GGIn 1985, Dr. Gorbach and his colleague, Dr. Barry Goldin, also a professor of family medicine and community health at Tufts, discovered Lactobacillus GG and named it using their initials. "The way we found it was very simple," says Dr. Goldin. "It was basically brute force." In their attempt to find the most helpful strain of bacteria, the two scientists spent years working while literally surrounded by fecal matter that came from all over the country.First, they needed to find a bacterium that could travel all the way through the gastrointestinal tract. This was no easy task, since acid in the stomach destroys most probiotics long before they ever reach the intestine.The scientists also needed the bacterium to be "sticky." "In order for it to have some benefit, it has to temporarily join you--join your flora [the other microorganisms in your stomach]," says Dr. Gorbach. "If it doesn't, then it is not going to have any health benefits." Most probiotic strains don't help our health because they don't stay in our intestine.In their search for "good" bacteria, the scientists had another important requirement: "[We] needed to have a relatively easy way of identifying it in the feces," he says. Since most probiotics look the same, it is very difficult to prove that the organism you feed is the same one that later appears in the feces. GG looks different.LGG may help curb many types of diarrhea, like diarrhea that develops as a result of foreign travel or after a course of antibiotics. "A small percentage of people develop a roaring diarrhea [after taking antibiotics]," says Dr. Goldin. "If you give the GG while they are recovering, over 90% don't relapse."Antibiotics destroy both good and bad bacteria, upsetting the natural balance of the digestive tract. GG is thought to help restore that balance. "It kills a large number of pathogens [any substance that causes disease], including clostridium [a bacterium]," says Dr. Goldin. The key is that while it kills the pathogens, it does not destroy other "good bugs."Intestinal Ailments"This is a product that has had over 100 scientific publications done by distinguished researchers from around the world," says Dr. Gorbach. "There is no other probiotic with as much research and publications as LGG."LGG has shown promise in treating infections that attack the intestinal lining, including inflammatory bowel disease and Crohn's disease (a serious inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract). Preliminary studies with rats suggest that LGG may even make an impact on colon cancer. In Europe, South America, and Asia, the strain has been added to fermented dairy products and some cheeses for years. In addition to the intestine, GG also colonizes the oral cavity and the vagina. Researchers are looking into the possibility that LGG may be able to stop vaginal infections in women and prevent dental cavities and some food allergies in children. There is even "the intriguing possibility of using it with alcoholics who have cirrhosis of the liver," says Dr. Goldin.A number of studies in Finland have shown that GG reduces milk allergies in children. "This [allergy] is increasing in Western society," says Dr. Goldin. "We are getting cleaner and cleaner, so we have less opportunity to build up our defenses." Some speculate that less exposure to bacteria and pathogens results in fewer antibodies and more allergies.LGG is currently available in pharmacies in a concentrated pill form called Culturelle. But Drs. Goldin and Gorbach agree that foods fortified with GG are the best vehicle for the bacteria. "Paying a few cents extra for foods that you like and would eat anyway is not an economic burden for people," says Dr. Goldin. "On the other hand, $16 a month on pills is a big investment."In Europe, South America, and Asia, the strain has been added to fermented dairy products and some cheeses for years. "In Finland, it's in little power drinks, low-fat yogurts, milk, buttermilk," says Dr. Goldin. "Finland, Korea, Argentina, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway all have a whole array of different products that [GG] has been put in." The United States has yet to attempt fortifying foods with the bacteria.According to Drs. Gorbach and Goldin, there is much more research to be done on LGG. It is clear that the bacteria has remarkable capabilities. What is known about it now may just be scratching at the surface. |


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