Ulcerative Colitis

" In the past, physicians have considered These studies represent an important advance for patients with inflammatory bowel disease and their gastroenterologists searching for safe medications to help with pain relief," said Joshua R.

Korzenik, author of an accompanying editorial from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

" Patients with However, some researchers have argued that these painkillers have negative effects on IBD patients in remission.

According to a study in the Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, patients with IBD who use NSAIDs tolerate the drugs well and less than one in three patients experiences a flare-up in symptoms.

Furthermore, the study showed COX-2 inhibitors, previously thought to cause symptom recurrence in IBD patients, significantly reduce the likelihood of disease relapse.

To date, this is the most comprehensive study to address the effects of NSAIDs on disease activity...

Fergus Shanahan, director of the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre at the University College in Cork, Ireland, said in the journal Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews in 2004.Even if yogurt laden with “good bacteria” provided a health benefit, people would need to keep eating it indefinitely to maintain adequate levels of the organisms in the body.

That’s because the unique combination of hundreds of bacterial species in each person’s intestines might change temporarily, such as after antibiotic use, but usually quickly reverts to the original composition.

Another point to consider is that yogurt and other products containing probiotics are not monitored to ensure that they contain the levels at which health effects are claimed to occur.

“It’s unregulated, so you don’t know how much is in there,” Hanauer said.

Reach Reid at (803) 771-8378.

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