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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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UCL SCHOOL OF PHARMACY

Independent Research Carried Out By Dr Simon Gaisford UCL School of Pharmacy

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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Overall results

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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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Is your probiotic dead or alive?

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