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Probiotic Drops Ease Colic
By Todd Neale, Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Published: August 16, 2010
Reviewed by Adam J. Carinci, MD; Instructor, Harvard Medical School.  Earn CME/CE credit
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Action Points 
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■Discuss with patients that probiotic drops containing Lactobacillus reuteri administered to colicky infants may significantly reduce crying times.

 

■Explain to patients that probiotic supplementation with Lactobacillus reuteri in infants younger than 2 months was not associated with any significant adverse events in this small study.

Any parent with a colicky baby knows the incessant crying that colic can produce -- but use of probiotic drops may reduce the infant's wailing, according to a small randomized trial.

The double-blinded and placebo-controlled study of 46 breastfed colicky infants found those who received probiotic drops containing a strain of Lactobacillus cried significantly less each day after three weeks compared with babies who got placebo drops (median 35 versus 90 minutes a day, P=0.022), according to Francesco Savino, MD, PhD, of the University of Turin in Italy, and colleagues.

Significantly fewer colicky infants in the probiotic group cried for longer than three hours a day at the end of the study (four versus 12, P=0.009), the researchers reported in the September issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Benefits of the probiotic drops may have come from modifications of gut microbiota, particularly a reduction in Escherichia coli, they wrote in their paper.

"These findings provide important insights into the role of an aberrant bacterial flora in the pathogenesis of infantile colic and the potential to overcome this with probiotic supplementation," they wrote.

The probiotic used in the study was Lactobacillus reuteri DSM 17 938.

A previous study suggested a benefit from a similar Lactobacillus probiotic when compared with simethicone, but the researchers received criticisms because the study was not double-blinded and placebo-controlled.

So Savino and colleagues recruited 50 exclusively breastfed infants with colic for the current study. They ranged in age from 2 to 16 weeks at baseline.

Colic was diagnosed if the babies had episodes of fussy crying lasting at least three hours a day on at least three days in the week before enrollment.

Half were assigned to receive the probiotic (108 colony-forming units) and half were assigned to placebo. Both were administered in five drops once a day 30 minutes before the morning feeding.

Parents monitored daily crying time and adverse effects in a diary.

Data were collected for analysis from 46 infants; 4 of the infants in the placebo group were excluded from the analysis because of fever in one, gastroesophageal reflux in another baby, and parental failure to complete the diary in two others.

Daily crying times were similar in the two groups at baseline -- a median of 370 minutes in the probiotic group and 300 in the placebo group (P=0.127). There were steady declines in both groups during three-week study.

Infants were considered responders if they had at least a 50% reduction in crying time from baseline. There were significantly more responders in the probiotic group at days seven, 14, and 21 (P<0.05 for all).

Among the intervention group, 96% were considered responders at 21 days. The considerable number of responses seen among the placebo group (71%) "could be elicited by the mother's cow's-milk-free diet ... or more likely by physiologic maturation that ultimately resolves colic during normal development," the authors noted.

During the study, fecal analysis revealed a significant change in the gut microbiota of the infants in the probiotic group only, including an increase in lactobacilli and a reduction in E. coli and ammonia, an end-product of amino acid fermentation by various bacterial species (P<0.05 for all).

The ammonia reduction "could be related to modification of bacterial enzyme activity through the reduction of E. coli and other members of the gut microbiota," the researchers wrote.

No between-group differences were seen in weight gain, stooling frequency, rates of constipation or regurgitation, and no adverse events related to supplementation were reported in either group.

The study was funded by BioGaia AB, which develops and sells probiotic products.

The authors reported that they had no conflicts of interest.
 

 

Also named Nyttårsorkanen. This affected much of northern Scotland and western Norway, unofficial records of gusts in excess of 130 knots (67 m/s) were recorded in Shetland, while Statfjord-B in the North Sea recorded wind gusts in excess of 145 knots (75 m/s). DNMI estimated the strongest sustained winds (10 min. average) to have reached 90 knots (45 m/s), comparable to a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson-scale. Very few fatalities occurred, mainly due to the very low population of the islands and the fact that the islanders are used to very high winds.

During Xmas Eve night, a polar low approached northern Scotland and this gave the severest weather for the month.
There were severe blizzards and gales with drifting snow. The Shetlands was worst hit with depth of level snow at 35cm
and drifts well in excess of this. A state of emergency was declared on the Islands.
DECEMBER 1995

A daily summary

                       1995  Day 1974-94                               1995  Day  1974-94  
Mean Maximum Temperature     5.0         6.6    Highest Max temp            10.1   11    11.5
Mean Minimum Temperature     2.6         4.0    Lowest Min temp             -4.5   28    -4.3
Mean Sea Temperature         8.7         8.0    Lowest grass minimum        -8.9   28   -11.5
30 cm Earth temperature      6.0         5.8    Days with ground frost      15            8.8
100cm Earth temperature      7.4         6.8    Days with air frost         10            2.9
Total Rainfall (mm)         51.1       106.7    Days with snow/sleet        17           10.7
Wettest Day (mm)            13.3    7   14.4    Days with snow cover 09hr   13            3.0
Rain Days (> 0.1mm)         19          26.0    Days with hail              15           12.9
Wet Days (> 0.9mm)          10          21.0    Days with fog during 24hrs   7            2.2
Total sunshine, hrs         26.4        15.9    Days with fog at 09hrs       3            0.2
Sunniest day, hrs            5.5   30    3.3    Days with NIL sun           17           15.6
Mean wind speed, kts        16.4        20.0    Days with gale               5            9.7
Maximum gust, kts           82     24   71.3    Days with thunder            0            0.5
Mean Sea Level pressure   1021.2      1005.3    Days with aurora             0            2.7

Wind Direction (%)
                North       25.8        11.4                 S. West         3.2         16.1
                N. East     12.9         2.7                 West            9.7         18.0
                East        12.9         8.1                 N. West         6.5          9.2
                S. East     16.1        12.4
                South        9.7        19.9                 CALM            3.2          2.2
snow image on SIC website

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Men Who Donate Blood May Reduce Risk Of Heart Disease

 According To KU Medical Center Study According To KU Medical Center Study
ScienceDaily (Sep. 1, 1997) — Story by Rosemary Hope

 Men who donate blood may reduce their risk of heart disease by up to 30 percent, according to a study led by David Meyers, M.D., professor of internal medicine and preventive medicine at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

The study, "Possible association of a reduction in vascular events with blood donation," is published in the August issue of the journal Heart.

The study supports the "iron hypothesis" which suggests that women are protected from atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, because they have lower body stores of iron than men. Through menstrual blood loss, women have one-half the iron stores and suffer about one-half the heart attacks and deaths from heart disease as men of similar age.

"What this means for men is - if you donate blood, in a sense you can become a virtual woman and protect yourself from heart disease," said Meyers. "We have identified another reason for blood donation, beyond altruism, for men."

Subjects for the study were men and women, aged 40 or older, with no history of heart disease. They were drawn from the Nebraska Diet Heart Study, a 1985-1987 population-density-based and demographically representative study. The subjects were recontacted from 1992 to 1993 and surveyed about 39 items that included demographics, occurrences of heart disease or procedures, diet, cholesterol levels, smoking and blood donation.

Of the 3,855 in the study, 655 reported donating at least one unit of whole blood in the preceding 10 years. Of the donor group, 9.77 percent reported "vascular events," defined as heart attack, stroke, angioplasty, bypass surgery and nitroglycerin use, compared to 17.72 percent of the non-donors.

When the study group was divided into males and females, the benefit of blood donation was apparent only in the men. The benefit was negated in men by cigarette smoking. There was a much smaller benefit in reduced heart disease risk for women who donated blood.

The observed reduction in vascular events can be explained in two ways, said Meyers. "Either iron depletion through blood donation truly affects atherosclerosis, or on the other hand, mainly healthy people who are at low risk of heart disease are blood donors."

Meyers plans to conduct a randomized clinical trial of 4,000 men in the Kansas City area to determine which answer is correct. The results of the study may not prove that blood donation prevents heart disease, said Meyers. But the study does support the iron hypothesis, which suggests that stored iron in the body stimulates the process in which cholesterol is oxidized, an event that is thought to be involved in atherosclerosis. A smaller study published in March in the British Medical Journal supports the hypothesis also. This study reported that blood donation reduced the risk of heart attack by 86 percent among 2,682 Finnish men. "It could be a win-win situation," said Meyers. "Even if the iron hypothesis is proved incorrect, donating blood is still the right thing to do."

Meyers' co-authors for the study are Daniel Strickland, M.S.P.H., Ph.D., Pierre Maloley, Pharm.D., and Jeanette Seburg, M.T.., all of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha; and Janet Wilson, M.T., and Bruce McManus, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. - KUMC -

 

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University Of Kansas.