FOR IBS SUFFERS

[Guest guest]

Hi Everyone,

Here' s some great news for anyone who suffers with Irrititable Bowel Syndrome!

I have friends who have been told this is part of FMS. AT LAST here's the

simple help for people who need it.

Your MD may not be up-to-date on his reading so be sure to give him/her the

information that the problem is a bacteria in the gut and the treatment is an

antibiotic called Rifaximin.

Thank you to all the researchers! It reminds me of the doctor who was once

laughed at when he said ulcers were caused by a bacteria and his fellow

colleagues ridiculed and laughed at him until years later he was proven to be

correct!

Wishing you all a good day

Cedars-Sinai physician definitively links irritable bowel syndrome and bacteria

in gut

Findings reinforce results of previous Cedars-Sinai clinical trials showing

antibiotics are an effective treatment for IBS

LOS ANGELES (May 25, 2012) - An overgrowth of bacteria in the gut has been

definitively linked to Irritable Bowel Syndrome in the results of a new

Cedars-Sinai study which used cultures from the small intestine. This is the

first study to use this " gold standard " method of connecting bacteria to the

cause of the disease that affects an estimated 30 million people in the United

States.

Previous studies have indicated that bacteria play a role in the disease,

including breath tests detecting methane - a byproduct of bacterial fermentation

in the gut. This study was the first to make the link using bacterial cultures.

The study, in the current issue of Digestive Diseases and Sciences, examined

samples of patients' small bowel cultures to confirm the presence of small

intestinal bacterial overgrowth - or SIBO - in more than 320 subjects. In

patients with IBS, more than a third also were diagnosed with small intestine

bacterial overgrowth, compared to fewer than 10 percent of those without the

disorder. Of those with diarrhea-predominant IBS, 60 percent also had bacterial

overgrowth.

" While we found compelling evidence in the past that bacterial overgrowth is a

contributing cause of IBS, making this link through bacterial cultures is the

gold standard of diagnosis, " said Mark Pimentel, MD, director of the

Cedars-Sinai GI Motility Program and an author of the study. " This clear

evidence of the role bacteria play in the disease underscores our clinical trial

findings, which show that antibiotics are a successful treatment for IBS. "

IBS is the most common gastrointestinal disorder in the U.S., affecting an

estimated 30 million people. Patients with this condition suffer symptoms that

can include painful bloating, constipation, diarrhea or an alternating pattern

of both. Many patients try to avoid social interactions because they are

embarrassed by their symptoms. Pimentel has led clinical trials that have shown

rifaximin, a targeted antibiotic absorbed only in the gut, is an effective

treatment for patients with IBS.

" In the past, treatments for IBS have always focused on trying to alleviate the

symptoms, " said Pimentel, who first bucked standard medical thought more than a

decade ago when he suggested bacteria played a significant role in the disease.

" Patients who take rifaximin experience relief of their symptoms even after they

stop taking the medication. This new study confirms what our findings with the

antibiotic and our previous studies always led us to believe: Bacteria are key

contributors to the cause of IBS. "

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The study is a collaboration with researchers at Sismanogleion General Hospital

in Athens, Greece, and at the University of Athens.