Stomach Aches that Linger – Case of the Week

Talking about bathroom habits is often uncomfortable. Easier to talk about leg pain, or a back ache.

But with 26 feet of digestive tract, if it’s not working properly, you can be miserable.

And so it was with a patient this week.  Initially when I heard about his months of woe, of bloating, of diarrhoea multiple times per day, of abdominal pain, of being unable to risk going out because of an accident, I presumed, an imbalance of the bugs, the flora called Acidophilus that inhabit the gut.

They complete our normal digestion processes, or food ferments, rots and produces gas – the symptoms described above. And worse including blood in the stool – it can be scary.  With doses of these normal flora, often the digestive processes calm down and patients becomes more comfortable within days.

But not this case.  He was already sensitive to milk and avoided dairy products.  Two weeks into daily  Acidophilus doses, and Manuka honey from New Zealand, the patient was barely improving.

“What tests did they do?” The patient described various procedures including a colonoscopy.  I inquired about allergy testing, since he was already sensitive to milk.

“What about wheat?” I asked.  “I don’t know” was the reply.  Wheat or gluten allergies are becoming more prevalent so I encouraged the patient to stop wheat, read up on the internet all the products with wheat (the list will surprise you) and buy wheat free items from health stores.

“Its a miracle,” the patient said a few days later. It was for a couple of days until he had soup with noodles by accident. The wheat in the noodles irritated him again- part of the avoiding wheat learning curve.

Keep an eye out for Dr. Miller’s new site at millerfamilycare.com

Probiotics and Acidophilus – things you should know

As Seen on TV: There’s a new friend in town – probiotics.  Jamie Lee Curtis has been plastered all over the TV with Activa yogurt and its Bifidus Regularis that is supposed to help you be more regular.  Exercise and a high fiber diet with five servings of fruits and vegetables will also help you be more regular. But wait, there’s more!

Apparently Bifidus Regularis is a made up name, or a strain created by Dannon.  In the adult gut, there is about thirty strains of bacteria, which are commensal with us i.e. we help them, they help us.  The estimate is that there are ten times as many gut bacteria as cells in the human body.   They are not parasites. They breakdown food products and keep the pH of the digestive, urinary and reproductive tracts acid so other bugs can’t easily set up shop and help the immune system.  This group of bacteria that are healthy for us are called  Probiotics.

Its all in a name: In the U.S. the general term of Acidophilus is used to describe one or more of several bacterial strains that help in digestion, often added to milk products:

• Lactobacillus acidophilus
• Lactobacillus casei
• Lactobacillus bulgaricus
• Bifidobacterium species (The Dannon product is one of these)
• Streptococcus thermophilus

Active Cultures: When it says “active cultures” in  yogurt, some of the above strains have been added. Acidophilus milk the same.  Read the fine print on the ingredients to see.

Why do we need Probiotics? When you are born they are in breast milk and flourish in the child’s digestive tract. As we mature the mix changes because we get the healthy bacteria from milk products. Or we used to! The pasteurization of milk, cheese and yogurt which may have gotten rid of bad bugs, and got rid of the good ones too. So they can add them back in.  My suspicion is they don’t add in many. Why? Because yogurt does not go rotten fast. Raw (unpasteurized) milk does. Acidophilus milk does.

Real food goes rotten fast.  Raw fruit does unless refrigerated. Raw milk only lasts a few days before going sour, even when refrigerated.

How much do we need? So we used to get healthy bacteria into our system every day when we lived on farms.  Nowadays  we have to buy products with it added in IF WE KNOW TO.   Most yogurt and most cheeses in the store are from pasteurized (read sterilized) milk with all the good bugs killed off and none added back. Since there is about 26 feet of digestive tract in the adult, we probably need more probiotics and need them more often than we are getting.

Antibiotics: If you have taken antibiotics, the need is even greater.  Antibiotics upset the balance in the gut and allow “bad” bugs to set up shop and flourish.  In some kids they fail to thrive or grow normally.  Having yogurt with live cultures will help, having the pure bacteria will help much more.

I provide our patients with lab tested strains of acidophilus which contain six billion (6,000,000,000) bugs per gram after digestion!).  1/4 of a teaspoon of the powder makes a difference in a few hours for many conditions.  It also helps calm lots of other digestive tract disorders.

Urinary tract and Reproductive Tract health: Acidophilus keeps the urinary tract and reproductive tract in the acid pH range; it migrates through the blood and sets up shop in these tracts. This prevents harmful bacteria from flourishing and prevents infection. .. alot of the time. When the chemistry is out of balance, when stress or trauma affects the body urinary or vaginal infections can occur.  Most often antibiotics are used which can work in the short term. In the long term, the correct balance of the these bacteria, the flora as its called  is needed.

Lessons to take home:

1. Have food with active cultures as often as you can.
2. If you have taken antibiotics, particularly children, take the probiotics alone such as Acidophilus in pill or powder form.
3. If you are prone to Urinary Tract Infections (UTI) or vaginal infections, make probiotics part of your weekly regimen, daily if on antibiotics.
4. If you immune system is down in general and you are often sick, consider adding probiotics into your health regimen as one step towards wellness.
5. Probiotics are a food, not a medicine. You can’t overdo it.

Dannon, Activa, Bifidus Regularis are trademarks, yada, yada – Dr. Miller