Recent Scientific Articles

I am hopeful you all had a wonderful holiday season and will enjoy a healthy and successful New Year.

January is the month in which we make resolutions to exercise, eat healthy and maybe lose a few of those unwanted pounds.

This month’s newsletter discusses another reason why you should consider adding EndoMune to your list of healthy things to do.

Leaky Gut Makes Way for Harmful Toxins

I want to begin 2012 by sharing with you an important probiotic benefit that I haven’t previously mentioned. The term “leaky gut”(1) has been around for a long time. It has been used more in the alternative medicine sector to explain a variety of health issues(2).

Many physicians are hesitant to prescribe antibiotics for many reasons. In fact, it's not uncommon for physicians to use antibiotics as a last option for treatment. Those who are hesitant to prescribe antibiotics now have one more reason - Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis.

A new study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology has found that people who are prescribed larger amounts of antibiotics have a higher risk for inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Crohn's Diease and Colitis are the most common forms of IBD and can cause inflammation in the intestines, which then can cause abdominal pain, diarrhea and weight loss.

I just returned from the 3rd Yale Workshop on “Advances in Probiotic Use” and am pleased to report there is a large amount of active research in the area of the intestinal bacteria. Namely, research is examining how bacteria impact human health and disease.

Among various findings, researchers presented new information about how probiotic bacteria can modulate the intestinal immune system. They have discovered how probiotic bacteria interact with the intestinal lining cells to improve the inflammatory conditions that occur due to infection colitis and ulcerative colitis.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) increases the risk of malnutrition in both adults and children, according to the American College of Gastroenterology. This incidence, likely due to malabsorption of essential nutrients, was the result of a recent study among a cross-section of adults a pediatric patients.

The study addressed patients with both Ulcerative Colitis and Chrohn’s Disease, with the latter showing higher incidence of malnutrition. Fortunately, the occurrence of malnutrition was low – but this study still indicates the need to monitor nutrients and maintain medical treatment to not only address the medical disease, but its impact on overall health and nutrition.

The July issue of the Journal of Gastroenterology discusses the recent findings of a post-gastric bypass surgery weightloss study. The physicians and researchers administering the study were interested in whether gastrointestinal bacteria and gut health plays an impact in the weight loss of individuals.

Both a control and a probiotic group were on the same counseling and diet regimen, with the probiotic group receiving 2.4 billion colonies of Lactobacillus daily.

At both 6-weeks and 3-months, the probiotic group had a statistically significant increase in weight loss over their counterparts in the control group. However, at 6-months, the significance had decreased.