LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Probiotics: Diarrhea
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Probiotics are of increasing use against intestinal disorders such as antibiotics based diarrhea and inflammatory bowel disease. They act as nonpathogenic stimuli within the gut to regain immunologic quiescence. Probiotics are ... of great significance to subjects suffering from environmental illnesses by reducing the number and severity of food and allergens based allergies. Microbial probiotics have been reported to have many beneficial effects when they are used in animal feeds; these effects include competitive exclusion of pathogens and improved digestion and absorption of nutrients.
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Australian researchers have modified probiotics microbes -- "good" bacteria -- that may be useful in preventing or treating travelers' diarrhea, an all too common problem during trips to certain countries. The probiotics work against a type of E. coli bacteria that causes diarrhea by producing a chemical that is toxic to intestinal cells. The probiotics carry a molecule that looks a lot like the toxin receptor found on intestinal cells. This mimicry causes the toxin to bind to the microbes instead of the intestinal cells. Lab tests showed that these probiotics could bind and neutralize a significant amount of enterotoxin, according to a report in the medical journal Gastroenterology. Moreover, treatment with these agents conferred significant intestinal protection in rabbits exposed to the toxin.
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To understand the link between probiotics and diarrhea, it is important to understand what probiotics are and what they do. Probiotics are actually live bacteria that have been shown to have beneficial effects on the human body. More specifically, probiotics are the same sorts of bacteria that naturally occur in a person’s digestive system. Probiotics help restore the natural balance of bacteria in the digestive tract. Once inside the digestive tract, probiotics help with digestion, help to absorb minerals, help to absorb nutrients, boost the immune system, and help to protect against a variety of pathogens, bad bacteria, and other harmful substances. It is in this regard, in protecting against pathogens, that probiotics work best with helping with diarrhea.
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To chart the course for future research about the efficacy of probiotics, four workshops with clinical themes or mechanistic approaches were conducted with respect to areas such as childhood immunity and gastrointestinal disorders. A workshop about childhood immunity explored probiotic actions, particularly with respect to allergic phenomena, infectious or antibiotic- related diarrhea, and affecting the mortality rate among low-birth weight neonates (or even premature neonates) associated with necrotizing enterocolitis, a serious and frequent complication in those newborns. The session about gastrointestinal diseases evaluated the understanding of the diathesis of irritable bowel syndrome and the position of probiotic bacteria in the management of IBS.
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It is no surprise that there may be a link between constipation and probiotics. Probiotics have been demonstrated to reduce diarrhea, for example. Probiotics are ... sometimes helpful for individuals who have IBS, or Irritable Bowel Syndrome. While research is still ongoing, the potential for probiotics to be able to help with things like constipation seems to be very high.
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A review of the literature published in 2001 found 13 double-blind, placebo-controlled trials on the use of probiotics for acute infectious diarrhea in infants and children; 10 of these trials involved treatment and 3 involved prevention. 71 Overall, the evidence suggests that probiotics can significantly reduce the duration of diarrhea and perhaps help prevent it. The evidence is strongest for the probiotic Lactobacillus GG , and for infection with a particular virus called rotavirus, which causes severe diarrhea in children.
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