34 • Countryside Produce


Te Countryside Experience • Sunday 12 August 2018


Real hope for IBS


Extract from the number-one bestselling new book Te Kefir Solution: Natural Healing for IBS, Anxiety and Depression


By Shann Nix Jones Eighty-six percent of all British


adults suffered from some sort of gastrointestinal problem or ailment in the past year. If you’re one of them, you know


that science has had very little help to sufferers of IBS — until now.


Cause of IBS uncovered New research has uncovered strong evidence that IBS, along with the anxiety and depression that frequently accompany it, are all asso- ciated with an imbalance of bacteria in the gut. A landmark study by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in the US used cultures from the small intestine to connect bacteria to the cause of the disorder. Mark Pimentel, an author of the


study, said: “While we found compel- ling evidence in the past that bacterial overgrowth is a contributing cause of IBS, making this link through bacte- rial cultures is the gold standard of diagnosis. Tis clear evidence of the role bacteria play in the condition underscores our clinical trial find- ings. Bacteria are key contributors to the cause of IBS.” In 2017, researchers at Canada’s


McMaster University used faecal transplants to transfer microbiota


from IBS patients into germ-free mice, and they found that those mice went on to develop IBS symptoms and anxiety-like behaviour. It was already known that patients with IBS have certain kind of bugs in their gut, so the gut bug-IBS connection has been established. But the McMaster study showed that it’s possible to start out with the bugs, and use them to create both the gut-related symptoms of IBS and the co-morbid aspects of depres- sion and anxiety.


The science behind kefir Discovering the cause of IBS opened the way for probiotic treatments that can resolve it. In January 2017, the first main-


stream UK study was performed to determine which probiotic food has the greatest impact on the bugs inside the human gut. Te study was conducted by Dr Michael Mosley, presenter of the BBC TV show Trust Me I’m a Doctor, along with NHS High- land and 30 volunteers and scientists around the country. At the end of the four weeks, the


biggest change in gut bacteria was seen in the group that had taken a probiotic called ‘kefir’, a fermented milk drink that originated in the Black Caucasus Mountains.


Te study confirmed that the


non-transient bacteria in kefir do survive our digestive process — with its strong acid that kills off dangerous bacteria in our food — and reaches the gut to colonize it and suppress pathogens (disease- causing bugs.)


Can Kefir help with IBS, depres- sion and anxiety? Te American College of Gastroen- terology performed a comprehensive literature review on the topic, and found that psychobiotics were both safe and effective in improving symp- toms and normalizing bowel move- ment frequency in patients suffering from constipation or diarrhoea related to IBS. Today, kefir is also poised to become


a major player in a new frontier in neuroscience because of its actions as a ‘psychobiotic’. Tis is a new term for a combination of live organisms that, when ingested in adequate amounts, produce mental health benefits. While it’s been known for over a


century that bacteria can have posi- tive effects on our physical health, it’s only in the last 10–15 years that studies have proven there’s a connec- tion between the gut, the bacteria in the gut, and the brain. In mice, enhanced immune func-


tion, better reactions to stress, and even learning and memory advan- tages have been attributed to adding the right strain of bacteria to the gut. Tese bacteria work on something called the ‘gut–brain axis’. “Tose studies give us confidence


that gut bacteria are playing a causal role in very important biological


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