Strengthen your intestine
TRAVELLER’S diarrhoea ( TD) is a common health complaint among travellers.
TD is acquired through ingestion of faecally contaminated food, water or other liquids. Diarrhoea is when there are four to six instances of loose, watery or bloody bowel movements per day. TD usually lasts for two to six days, if untreated. Other common symptoms are abdominal cramps and nausea. Vomiting and fever are less common.
The best strategy to prevent TD is education and avoiding contaminated foods and liquids.
One of the reasons tourists are susceptible to illnesses is that travel can disrupt the body’s normal defence mechanisms against infections.
Stress, jet lag, unfamiliar foods and water and disrupted body rhythms can disturb the normally protective bacteria in the intestines.
These protective bacteria usually fight off disease- causing bacteria and viruses through “colonisation resistance”, a barrier effect that prevents attachment and colonisation by harmful microorganisms.
Probiotics are a promising therapeutic strategy for diseases that involve a disruption of normal microflora as they inhibit pathogen attachment, enhancing the immune response and assisting in re- establishing normal microflora.
Lallemand Health Solutions, a Canadian company with 80 years of expertise in probiotic research and development, is introducing a Probiotic 2.0 formula, which is a combination of yeast and probiotics aimed at managing intestinal disorders.
The Probiotic 2.0 formula combines the well- known Saccharomyces boulardii yeast, extensively documented for its efficacy in diarrhoea prevention, with three specific probiotic bacteria strains – Lactobacillus rhamnosus Rosell- 11 ( R0011), Lactobacillus helveticus Rosell- 52 ( R0052), and Bifidobacterium longum Rosell- 175 ( R0175).
Either alone or in combination, these three probiotic bacteria are effective in protecting the gut and restoring a balanced microflora.
While exhibiting different modes of action in the gut, probiotic yeast and bacteria are complementary and allow for dual protection of the gut surface against pathogens.
A study published in Digestive Diseases and Sciences in 2009 demonstrated the dual- defence capabilities of the probiotic combination in an animal model of TD ( enterotoxigenic E. coli infection in rats).
After two weeks of probiotic administration, the probiotic combination appeared to offer better protection against E. coli infection than the probiotic yeast or bacteria mixture separately, leading to reduced weight loss, stabilised body temperature, and reduced diarrhoea severity and duration.
This probiotic combination has been successfully marketed in many countries under different trade names, and several postmarketing clinical trials have been published.
A first trial, conducted by Grandy et al in Bolivia on children hospitalised for acute rotavirus diarrhoea, showed that the combination formula reduced the duration of diarrhoea and therefore the time of rotavirus excretion, which in turn lowered the risk of transmission to other children. The study was published in the journal BMC Infectious Diseases ( 2010).
This probiotic combination is now being marketed by Vitamode Sdn Bhd and is available in selected pharmacies nationwide.
It is recommended for reinforcing or restoring the intestinal barrier and for fighting intestinal infections, particularly TD.
This article is brought to you by Vitamode Sdn Bhd and Big Pharmacy.