Uses of Probiotics in Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Natural Standard is offering a series of complimentary webinars on integrative medicine. Natural Standard offers these impartial webinars as an informational public service. All webinars are recorded and archived at www.naturalstandard.com/webinars.

Uses of Probiotics in Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Andrew Shulan, PharmDc, presents Natural Standard's evidence-based systematic review results on probiotics. He provides a basic overview on probiotics and discusses the scientific evidence, dosing, safety and interactions related to its use. Shulan also applies the data to several patient cases that highlight potential interactions and adverse effects. Complimentary access is now available.

Comments

[nb]

The webinar is accessible now if you click the audio link, but the pdf file does not exist. I think that this webinar was a user friendly presentation to those who are not experts on this topic, and I liked how the key probiotics were highlighted from the ones that are not so commonly used. The space bar was tabbed too hard and that was distracting, like My Lien said. Overall, I it was very informative; I did not know that lactobacillus produced Vit K, which is blood clotting.

[Carla]

In response to My Lien’s comment about C. difficile infection, I think that is a very good point. Have you read about an alternative therapy for resistant C. difficile that involves a fecal bacteria transplant? I have read about good efficacy results from this approach and it would help decrease antibiotic resistance.

[My Lien T, Nguyen]

Good presentation in not only an introduction to probiotics and potential consumer cases, but also a useful suggestions/introduction to the different databases in Natural Standards (e.g., Comparative Effectiveness, Medical Conditions).

Technical criticism: The narrator hits the advance key too hard and this is a distraction in the beginning of the presentation.

Consumer health caution: There should be a precautionary statement for the patient case with IBS and diarrhea. Patients should be cautioned that frequent diarrhea may be a sign of more serious condition for which they should seek medical advice. An extreme condition would be Clostridium difficile associated diarrhea for which a probiotic would be inappropriate.

[anonymous]

I wish the link to this webinar was up and running. I would really like to hear more about probiotics. I am specifically interested in hearing about the interactions and adverse effects. I was under the impression that probiotics were benign and would have many adverse effects or interactions. It is good to be aware of them though since it is very common for practitioners to recommend probiotics for their patients on antibiotics. I am also curious to see if the presenter touches on prebiotics in the webinar. Those are growing in popularity and I am unsure of the evidence behind them.

[Angela]

I’m glad that Natural Standard is focusing on probiotic use, which I personally believe is underestimated in the medical field. More research is coming out everyday on the importance of the gut microbiome, the huge population of bacteria which resides in our digestive system. Some of these bacteria have very important functions, like digesting certain nutrients and protecting the body against illness.

[Anon]

I always thought it was interesting as well that some doctors recommend taking probiotics when they prescribe antibiotics and some just do not. In the retail setting, an auxillary label usually prints with most antibiotics stating to avoid taking with calcium containing products, but that you should take it with food to avoid stomach upset. Most people think to take it with yogurt since it contains probiotics, but don't some yogurts contain calcium? In this case shouldnt yogurt be advised against being used as a probiotic?

[ki]

The link seems to be working if you go to the Natural Standard webinar page through the link in the article (www.naturalstandard.com/webinars) and go to the Uses of Probiotics in Complementary and Alternative Medicine section. A link is provided there, and I was able to access the webinar. It was a very informative presentation; I had no idea that tofu and soy milk contained probiotics! It is also interesting to see that probiotics can help reduce the severity of eczema, even in infants! Very helpful information for mothers and children alike.

[AS]

MK if you click on the other link for webinars it will take you to the page where all of the webinars done by Natural Standard are located and you can click on the probiotic one from there. I also agree that this is a great topic and I can't wait until I have a little time to listen to this webinar. I personally have seen a great benefit from the use of probiotics and would be interested to see whether or not there is substantial clinical data to support its use.

[Robynholman]

I also had difficulty with accessing the webinar. I recently attending a lecture at the Commonwealth Center for Herbal Medicine here in Boston, and the herbalist mentioned that in addition to taking probiotics you also need to take prebiotics. It makes sense that you would want to feed the "good bacteria", but I had never heard of this before. I am really interested in watching the webinar as soon as the link is fixed!

[anonymous]

MK, I have found that the webinars are also available off of the Natural Standard homepage. Just click on News/Events and then select webinars off the drop down menu and hopefully that will work for you! I agree that this is such a hot topic right now, as are prebiotics. One thing I found really interesting in the webinar was that probiotics have been shown to prevent eczema in infants who have them added to their formula and that they can lessen eczema severity. I feel like probiotics are often emphasized for their GI use but they have other potential benefits as well! Thanks Natural Standards for posting the webinar!

[Maryjoy Lepak]

This is a wonderful webinar presentation on the use of probiotics in complementary and alternative medicine. Many patients often have questions about this topic and want to experience benefits from them. As a pharmacy student completing a rotation with Natural Standard this month, I had the opportunity to meet with an herbalist from the CommonWealth Center for Herbal Medicine yesterday. She introduced an interesting point about the importance of feeding the healthy digestive bacteria with prebiotics. Natural prebiotics with high inulin content, such as burdock, may be found on the Natural Standard Food, Herbs, and Supplements Database.

[MK]

I tried to click on the link to this complimentary webinar and it did work, it came back as page not found! I hope they fix that soon because I really do want to hear this webinar. Probiotics are a common supplement of discussion in retail pharmacies. Some doctors recommend it to all of their patients who are starting an antibiotic and some never do. It doesn’t seem as though it would do any harm to take it, but I would like to hear more on this subject. I know that there is some controversial evidence as to its benefits and the potential benefits may vary depending on how a patient uses the supplement (preventative vs treatment).