A small Belgium pilot study found spore-forming probiotics were safe and effective at treating symptoms in functional dyspepsia. This study was conducted on those with a range of different disorders and diseases under the umbrella of Functional GI Disorders (FGID’s). FGID’s are defined as disorders of the GI function itself and can affect any part of the GI tract. According to their data, a greater portion of patients showed a clinical response at 8 weeks to the probiotics than the placebo group. In fact, 48% to 20% respectively. While there are many types of probiotics, this study, in particular, is monumental, as it specifically studied spore-forming probiotics.
Spore-forming probiotics or ‘soil-based organisms’, also known as SBO are a bit different than your traditional lactic-acid-based probiotics. While lactic-acid probiotics require refrigeration, often dissolve in stomach acid, and use native cultures to the gut; SBO’s use environmental cultures that do not naturally occur in the gut, but are found in soil, dust, vegetation, and rocks. These environmental cultures often do not require refrigeration and have a protective coating allowing them to pass through stomach acid unharmed, arriving at the intestines intact. Here they can start to colonize the lower intestines and actually create more spores. Both lactic acid and SBO’s are live cultures, but traditional probiotics can not replace their genetic material as spore-forming probiotics can.
This particular study followed 55 patients over sixteen weeks. About half were on Proton-Pump Inhibitors (PPI), a class of medication that reduces stomach acid production. Interestingly enough, both those on and off PPIs saw similar improvement at 46% with PPIs and 50% without. Prior functional dyspepsia treatments have not shown adequate safety or efficacy profiles, so these new findings could provide a major breakthrough for those with FGIDs.
Participants received either placebo or spore-forming probiotics (Bacillus subtilis (MY02) and Bacillus coagulans (MY01)) twice a day. They were then given a PAGI-SYM (patient assessment of upper gastrointestinal symptom severity index) questionnaire monthly. After eight weeks, the decline in scores was ‘significantly higher’ in the group receiving the spore-forming probiotics. After 16 weeks, researchers found decreased levels of IL-17 and Th17, inflammatory markers, and increased beneficial bacteria in stool samples.
There were some adverse effects in both groups, but less in the probiotic group. The placebo group came in with 33%, while the probiotic group had 16%. These adverse reactions included gastritis, flu-like symptoms, and skin infections. While these were reported, no serious events were reported in conjunction with the use of the probiotics. There is still quite a lot of research to do in this area, and the long-term effectiveness of spore-forming probiotics still remains to be seen. We have yet to acquire this probiotic therapy in the US, but with such positive findings for such a range of GI disorders, I hope we will see it here in the next five years or so.
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