New hope for IBS sufferers

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Title: New hope for IBS sufferers

Word Count: 1128

Author: McEvoy

Email: davemcevoy2004@...

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New hope for IBS sufferers

Copyright 2006 McEvoy

A recent clinical trial has given further weight to the

acceptance that supplemented dietary nucleotides, essential

building blocks, can support the rapid production of new

cells, which is beneficial for adult immunity and gut

health.

This 2005 clinical trial, the effectiveness of a nucleotide

supplement in the management of individuals with Irritable

Bowel Syndrome (IBS), was sponsored by a grant from the

Dept Trade and Industry, and conducted at the University of

East London, under control of Professor Dancey.

Professor Dancey heads the Dept of Psychology and the

Chronic Illness Research Team (CIRT) and is the co-founder

of IBS Network.

IBS is one of the most prevalent chronic illnesses, and

present’s itself through a number of symptoms. The most

severe cases generally include the following symptoms.

Abdominal pain, varying from mild to extremely severe; this

is the symptom which causes most sufferers to seek medical

help. Diarrhoea, constipation – or worse, an alternation

of both are common. Urgency to have a bowel movement –

also affects people with constipation as well as diarrhoea,

and a feeling of incomplete evacuation.

Current medical treatments are directed at symptomatic

relief, and although these - and psychological treatments -

can help relieve IBS, there is no one treatment which has

been shown to be lastingly effective. Although IBS is not a

life-threatening disease, the symptoms and the effects of

the symptoms on daily life can have a great impact on

sufferers (Silk, 2001). IBS is also associated with large

healthcare and economic costs in terms of hospital

investigations, repeated visits to GPs, prescription

medicines, and loss of time from work (Creed et al 2001).

Since there is no cure for IBS, people with IBS attempt to

control their disorder by taking both prescribed medicines

and over-the-counter remedies, together with dietary

control. Some are living on extremely restricted, and

therefore unhealthy, dietary regimes. In an earlier study

of people with IBS, Dancey & Backhouse (1993) found that

14% of their sample (N=148) ate very restricted diets

hoping that this would cure their IBS. However most of

their sample (70%) said that they were trying to follow a

healthy diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables.

This clinical trial was carried out to determine whether a

nucleotide supplement, could improve the symptoms of IBS.

Nucleotides are substances which are synthesised

endogenously, and have important effects on the growth and

development of cells which have a rapid turnover, such as

those in the immune system and the gastrointestinal tract.

In healthy people, dietary nucleotides are probably not

essential, and in fact most will be metabolised and rapidly

excreted from the system. However, under certain

circumstances e.g. in the sub-well, diseased, or under

conditions of stress or poor diet, dietary nucleotides may

be what Maldonado et al (2001) call “semi-essential”,

optimising the function of the gastrointestinal and immune

systems. In relation to the gastrointestinal system work

has shown that dietary nucleotides enhance the intestinal

absorption of iron (Cosgrove 1998).

Holen & Jonsson (2004) found that dietary nucleotides had

beneficial effects, especially when the nutrition supply

was inadequate. Work with infants has shown that the

incidence and duration of acute diarrhoea is lower in

infants when dietary nucleotides are included in their

diets (Gil, 2002). Research has shown the benefits of

dietary nucleotides in a variety of ways, and it would be

expected that people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome may

benefit from nucleotide supplementation.

The chronic illness research team from the University of

East London (Professor Dancey & colleagues) carried out a

double blind randomised placebo controlled study to

determine whether there were any benefits of nucleotide

supplement on some of the common symptoms of IBS. Symptoms

which bother participants the most are pain, diarrhoea, and

urgency to have a bowel movement.

Seven symptoms of IBS were analysed by the participants,

who rated symptoms every day on a scale of 1 (“no

discomfort at all today”) to 7 (“very severe discomfort

today”). All participants completed daily diaries

throughout the trial. After an initial 4 weeks baseline,

they were allotted to condition A or condition B. The

capsules were taken three times a day with meals.

Psychological measures were taken at the beginning of the

baseline period, the end of the experimental condition and

the end of the placebo condition. Depression was measured

by the CES-D, suitable for non clinical sample, and Anxiety

measured by State-Trait. These are commonly used anxiety

scales.

The drop-out rate for the trial was low. Participants

dropped out for reasons other than adverse reactions to the

intervention; in fact the placebo group had a higher drop

out rate than the intervention groups.

Although there was a lot of variability with the daily

scoring, it was clearly observed that symptoms were lower

for all symptoms in the nucleotide supplement compared with

the placebo.

During the baseline period subjects symptom severity went

up and down, but clearly during both the placebo and with

nucleotide supplement severity of symptoms improved. This

improvement was more pronounced in the nucleotide

supplement group and also the improvement continued and

grew over time. In other words, the longer they took the

nucleotide supplement the better they felt overall.

The strongest and most significant effects were observed

for abdominal pain, urgency, incomplete evacuation and

diarrhoea.

Repeated measures analyses of variance were carried out for

each symptom separately; this involved finding the mean of

baseline measures, placebo and nucleotide supplement

conditions. Compared to both baseline and placebo

conditions, the above symptoms are improved under the

experimental condition (p<.05). Bloating, and flatulence

were not significantly improved at the p<.05 level.

It might be expected that due to the benefits of being in a

clinical trial, anxiety and depression would decrease over

time. This was tested by a repeated measures analysis,

comparing washout measures and end of trial measures

without considering condition (placebo or experimental).

There were no differences. There were also no significant

differences in anxiety and depression between the 3

conditions.

The researchers concluded that the physical improvements

observed were not due to psychological benefits of being in

a clinical trial.

Overall 23.73% of the participants improved by taking the

nucleotide supplement. Also, the benefits of the

nucleotide supplement are greater than taking a placebo,

the placebo effect usually being very high in IBS trials.

Also, it was clear that the nucleotide supplement helps

certain symptoms more than others – abdominal pain, urgency

to have a bowel movement, incomplete feeling of evacuation

and diarrhoea. May be that a longer trial would have

shown larger effects, especially as the placebo response

diminishes over time.

However, there was a definite effect of IntestAid IB, which

is due to direct effects on the maintenance and repair

processes of the gastrointestinal system or by improvement

in the gut immune function.

About the Author:

Dave Mcevoy is an award winning personal trainer he also

runs a high quality supplement site http://www.mind1st.com

http://www.mind1st.co.uk