Post on 28-Jul-2018
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Irritable Bowel
Syndrome- Overview
- Details of an independent study carried out by University College London to establish if 8 leading
probiotics are effective as they claim
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+ Irritable Bowel Syndrome
1 in 5 households contain someone with IBS
Despite the high prevalence of IBS, recent research reveals that the condition is extremely poorly
managed
Sufferers try an average of 5 products each month but around half are still left battling the
symptoms long-term
These people are in persistent pain - they need to know if a product is effective
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+ IBS Sufferers
Lack of understanding about internal organs leads to the use
of wrong products
IBS is multi-faceted -predominately only single
symptom products available
Many brands do not understand the IBS sufferer leading to broken promises
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60% of UK households regularly purchase them
The Probiotic Market
The probiotic market is worth $32 billion globally – thought to rise to
$42 billion by 2016
A wide variety of probiotics on the market that claim to work
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+ Probiotic consumers
Those with no functional GI disorder or diagnosed
health condition
View probiotics as
a form of daily
insurance against ill
health
Want to offset negative side
effects relating to poor diet and lifestyle
Those with chronic,
debilitating disorders
such as IBS
Often dissatisfied
with conventional
treatments
Looking for a safe and
effective way to relieve symptoms long-term
Prevention Treatment
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Seductive marketing campaigns often include claimed
research and data to support this, but have limited facts
available
Many claim to “work" or
“survive", but they all use
different strains, tests and conditions
In order to be effective, a probiotic
product has to reach the gut in good condition
AND do something beneficial when it
reaches there
Most manufacturers have avoided comparisons with realistic
tests
The European Food Safety
Authority (EFSA) have previously rejected health
claims relating to probiotics, due to a
lack of robust scientific evidence
Probiotic efficacy 6
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+ So do they work?
In a bid to help address this confusion, scientists at University College London (UCL)
have independently conducted one of the first studies comparing some of the leading
probiotic brands available in the UK. The study investigated which of these popular products actually arrive, survive and thrive in the gut environment - enabling them to do as they
claim.
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+ So do they work?
Do they contain the claimed
number of viable organisms
stated on the label?
Do they possess the robustness
to transit through to the gut?
Scientists at University College
London (UCL) independently
conducted compared leading probiotic
brands to find out the truth
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Study aims
1.Actimel
2.Align
3.Symprove
4.Biobalance
5. Probio7
6. Yakult
7. VSL#3
8. Bio-kult
To compare 8 commercial probiotic brands:
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To subject the products to three challenge tests to assess if the bacteria:
ARRIVED
In a live state
SURVIVED
Stomach acid transit
THRIVED
In the target area of the gut
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1. Enumeration Test
Were the claimed number of bacteria recoverable?
2. Tolerance Test
Do the bacteria survive exposure to gastric Juices?
3. Real-time Growth Test
Are the bacteria able to grow after exposure to
gastric juices?
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Did the bacteria arrive?
Results showed that not all probiotic products deliver state content of ‘live’
bacteria
Freeze-dried products lose many of their bacteria as they attempt to recover to an
active state
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Only dairy-based (Actimel, Yakult) or water-based (Symprove) probiotics delivered 100% or more than the claimed content
Delivers at least 75%
of the amount claimed
for the product
Symprove
Actimel
Yakult
Arrived
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Did the bacteria survive?
PGF (Porcine Gastric Fluid) was demonstrated to be the best simulation of human gastric fluid
The initial acid shock after only 5 minutes was dramatic on almost all products, with some
showing almost complete collapse.
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Only two products survived stomach transit time (120 minutes), with one of these continuing to decline
Only one product seems stable
After exposure, are the
surviving bacteria still
concentrated enough?
Survived
VSL#3Symprove
Did the bacteria thrive?
A product must be able to grow quickly, to establish a strong colony before travelling too far along the gut and being ejected from the system
After only a 30 minute exposure to gastric acid, the products showed very different abilities to
grow
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Only three products showed signs of strong growth within 10 hours. Others showed very slow, or even no growth
ThrivedColony starts growing
strongly within 10
hours to hit the target
areas in the gut
VSL3
Actimel
Symprove
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To be successful probiotic product needs
to beat all three challenge tests
Safely arrive, survive stomach
acids, and thrive in the target area of the
gut
Only one product met all three challenges -with several products
failing all three challenges
Summary
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There is a lack of truly independent and comparable probiotic data
The vast majority of UK consumers are wasting millions on bacteria that simply die in the stomach
Live liquid bacteria offers new hope for long-term sufferers by outperforming all other probiotic drinks and supplements tested
Many popular products do not deliver what they promise and are not robust enough for the human GI tract
The big probiotic scam
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