Probiotics as a Treatment for Diarrhea

Diarrhea can be a dibilitating condition. You can’t go anywhere or do anything because you are “tied” to a bathroom! A new study suggests that probiotics can be a treatment for this condition! Based on a meta-analysis of 34 randomized trials, probiotics reduced the incidence of antibiotic-related diarrhea by 52 percent. Generally, probiotics lowered the risk of diarrhea among adults (26 percent) and children (57 percent.) However, probiotics didn’t do nearly as much good for travelers’ diarrhea, according to the study, reducing it only by 8 percent.

New Study: Probiotics and Diarrhea

The study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Volume 6, Issue 6, June 2006, Pages 374-382, says in part, “Evaluating the evidence by types of acute diarrhoea suggests that probiotics significantly reduced antibiotic-associated diarrhoea by 52% (95% CI 35–65%), reduced the risk of travellers’ diarrhoea by 8% (−6 to 21%), and that of acute diarrhoea of diverse causes by 34% (8–53%). Probiotics reduced the associated risk of acute diarrhoea among children by 57% (35–71%), and by 26% (7–49%) among adults. The protective effect did not vary significantly among the probiotic strains Saccharomyces boulardii, Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, and other strains used alone or in combinations of two or more strains. Although there is some suggestion that probiotics may be efficacious in preventing acute diarrhoea, there is a lack of data from community-based trials and from developing countries evaluating the effect on acute diarrhoea unrelated to antibiotic usage.”

In severe cases of diarrhea, try taking large doses of probiotics over time, I have seen the effects reduced in hours by this method!