Good bacteria useful for ulcerative colitis

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Consuming a mixture of eight
good, or “probiotic,” bacteria reduces symptoms in patients
with ulcerative colitis that doesn’t respond to conventional
medications, new research suggests.

Ulcerative colitis is a severe inflammatory disease of the
colon that often produces bloody diarrhea and is associated
with an increased risk of colon cancer. Complete removal of the
colon is frequently performed to reduce the symptoms of the
disease and eliminate the cancer risk.

The probiotic mixture, known as VSL#3, contains four
strains of Lactobacillus, three strains of Bifidobacterium and
one strain of Streptococcus salivarius — all well-known
species of good bacteria.

Although VSL#3 has been shown to maintain remission of
ulcerative colitis, there have been no studies on the mixture’s
use in the active, symptom-producing phase of the disease,
co-investigator Dr. Richard N. Fedorak, from the University of
Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and colleagues note in the
American Journal of Gastroenterology.

They therefore enrolled 34 patients with active ulcerative
colitis who were treated with VSL#3 twice daily for 6 weeks. A
variety of standard treatments had been tried on the patients
first, all to no avail.

Remission occurred in 53 percent of the patients and an
additional 24 percent experienced some degree of improvement in
symptoms. A few patients experienced no improvement or
worsening of their symptoms.

The only apparent side effect of VSL#3 was increased
bloating, reported by 10 patients.

Testing of sampled tissue provided direct evidence that the
probiotic bacteria had, in fact, reached the diseased sites of
the colon, Fedorak and his team note.

SOURCE: American Journal of Gastroenterology, July 2005.