Are probiotic treatments useful on fibromyalgia syndrome or chronic fatigue syndrome patients? A systematic review - Roman P +

Are probiotic treatments useful on fibromyalgia syndrome or chronic fatigue syndrome patients? A systematic review.
Roman P1,2, Carrillo-Trabalón F3, Sánchez-Labraca N1, Cañadas F4, Estévez AF4, Cardona D1.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29695180

 

The problem with the study for Bifidobacterium infantis 35624, (aka Align) is that the researchers were giving the test subjects 10 pills per day, not the recommended one per day as per the instructions on the package. That would make it very expensive for someone to do this on their own unless finances aren't an issue.

 

Can they really call it a systematic review and draw conclusions from it if it ends up only including 2 studies with a total of 83 patients studied over 8 weeks? Is that really worthy of publication?

 

Well, all I can say is when I try probiotics I end up doubled over with abdominal paim. Not for me, thanks!

 

I have taken the yakult branded one several times for between 4/8 week periods and found it very helpful for gut issues. my irritable bowel used to alternate between constantly running to the toilet multiple times and constipation now its just the constipation slow motility is the problem. but just like everything else what might be helpful to one person can be harmful to another. as organisms we are just to damn complex.

 

I think the most recent research shows that Yakult and their kin are no more effective at affecting the gut than eating live yoghurt...and I think from memory it has way more sugar per 100ml to disguise the horrid taste ..I think eating a bit of live yoghurt a day might be a much cheaper option (and more satisfying if you like the taste) given how little evidence there is for whether it is likely to have any effect at all.

Eating enough fibre (from a variety of sources) and a balanced diet to keep your flora diverse is probably the best way to keep options open until something decent/definitive is published.

Personally although interesting, I think we are a million miles away from understanding a fraction of what’s going on in healthy individuals to be of any use as a treatment for the sick. I know lots has been published ...but I’m talking about understanding the detailed mechanics of what’s going on rather than observational studies with dubious correlations on a small sample.

 

It's worth pointing out that many doctors now say not to take fibre for IBS. It can aggravate your symptoms.

 

Quite right I would say that “enough” depends upon the individual, although as a general population we aren’t eating enough fibre generally and some schools of thought say that eating too many refined carbs and not enough fibre can lead to digestive problems that are often confused with IBS.

I mainly look at general populations rather than specifics....this does show quite a worrying trend of self obsession with ‘being bloated’ and conflating this symptom with a multitude of complicated things ..when the route cause may be a lot more straightforward. I think this “noise” from the general population and media can cloud the more specific studies and cause conflation upon conflation.

However this thread is about probiotics and CFS/ME so I guess we should try and stay on topic

 

Not all probiotics are the same. There are hundreds of bacteria and yogurt only provides a few of those.

 

If probiotics widely worked, we'd all be cured.

 

I was speaking about yakult specifically