Bacteria: The New Buzzword

Is "bacteria" the new buzzword? Probiotic (beneficial bacteria) products like kefir and "active culture" yogurts (like Dannon's Activia) are flying off the supermarket dairy case -- with promises of a healthy digestive tract and more.

And all the more significant as my mom lays in her hospital bed. She's been there since mid July. First admitted with ulcerative colitis, she later had emergency surgery for a perforated colon. Now she has a stubborn infection and has been on IV antibiotics for two months. Her infectious disease team says her healing has been slow and the infection won't go away partly due to the steroids once prescribed for her colitis.

A recent Harvard School of Public Health study mentions probiotics as a treatment to control Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. I wonder how much the healthy bacteria in probiotics could have prevented her medical woes.

I kick myself for not pushing my mom to try a more holistic route. After all, my husband had an amazing health turnaround once he tried a homeopathic physician a friend had raved about.

The back story -- my once strapping husband (an avid exerciser who regularly practiced Brazilian jiu-jitsu) had been on crutches for four months following hospitalization for blood clots and a PE. The clot occurred December '06 after a long car ride. Our active lifestyle changed on a dime. Now it was all lab tests, doctor appointments and maneuvering on those crutches. The neurologist said it was a vascular problem, the vascular guy said it was neurological. And try this drug! No, this one! And none of them seemed to work anyway.

Fast forward to May '07. Now off the blood thinners, he's feeling somewhat better. Activity helps (he's been exercising like a nut) but the prescribed drugs make him dopey.

He sees the alternative doctor (yes, he is a real MD) and comes home with two homeopathic remedies. These tinctures are to be rubbed into the bend of the elbow.

I was skeptical, and read some of the ingredients. Tuberculosis? Streptococcus? Are you nuts?! We've all heard of sweating toxins out, but putting them in? The remedies are polysans, widely used in homeopathic medicine. The idea is comparable to treating a dog bite by vaccinating with the "hair of the dog that bit you."

The doctor had done the traditional battery of tests and some more high-tech ones for heart rate durability, saliva and urine chemistry. He prescribed some supplements and diet and lifestyle changes along with the "bacteria." I scoffed at some of this holistic approach. How could this bacteria be beneficial?

Turns out it was -- at least for my husband. He's now off all his prescription drugs (and the polysans) and is back to great health!

Comments

[drblack]

What ever works.
I think people should keep am open mind but they should also realize that sometimes traditional medicine is needed.
I am alarmed at some people who think vaccinating kids is a bad idea. Polio anyone?

[emerywood]

One probably should try anything and everything that makes one feel better and which does no harm and is affordable, but I would not replace standard medical treatment with alternative treatment for serious illnesses. At least, not now.

[NanMont]

Score one for the open-minded! Good for your husband for looking into ALL available approaches to care when traditional medicine wasn't successful. More education is needed to help more patients be well-informed and confident enough to ask questions and seek alternatives. Older patients seem especially afraid to question the authority of "traditional" medical practices. More articles like this would be helpful.

[zizyphus]

We have more bacteria than human cells in our body, so the significance of these creatures should not be downplayed. They may be responsible for many conditions that people suffer from. Much more study should be done on them.

[Robert59]

I'm glad your husband is better. During long car rides, airplane rides, or even hours behind a desk need to be broken up with walks.

My dad was made to eat yogurt 3 to 4 times a day. He had undergone radiation treatment for prostate cancer. It worked but it burned his colon resulting in an infection that migrated to his hip. He was not a good candidate for surgery so they bombarded his body with antibiotics which killed the infection but caused his body's own intestinal bacteria to take over resulting in constant diarrhea.

They found another drug to kill it, but had to get him to ingest lots of yogurt to spur the healthy bacteria to grow and restore balance between the good and bad. It worked, but his stay in the hospital was 3 months.

As for me I was exposed to the wonders of yogurt while living in Turkey. Not the most sanitary country to eat in but yogurt went a long way to keep the trots at bay. And Turks young and old all eat their yogurt (even drink it in something called ayrap, served lukewarm and salty).

[outnow]

It just goes to show that you cannot but into either the standard medical treatment or the alternative treatments. You must be an "informed" patient. This requires a lifelong self-education. Science itself is self-correcting so medicine and alternative medicine should be self-correcting.

I am familiar with ulcerative colitis, an unpleasant disease. Fiber and pro-biotics may be helpful. In other cases, there may be allergies. A biopsy usually revels sloughing off of cells and microcrypts. Talk to your gastroenterologist and do your own research. Then discuss with him.