Me neither, but the reported results are certainly attention-getters.
Wow, sounds like this pill cures almost as many things as pot does. Not that I believe the claims about the pills. ;-)
"I'm not sure what to make of this, but I'm highly skeptical."
I'm skeptical, too, but probiotics are a good thing otherwise. They keep the gi tract in balance and are a must with some of the more potent antibiotics. The Russians have also done some really interesting research on bacteriophages.
Here's an interesting abstract from the Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology (Publisher: Taylor & Francis Issue: Volume 38, Supplement 239 / December 2003 Pages: 15 - 23)
(My emphasis in bold)
Probiotics in gastroenterology: indications and future perspectives
D. Goossens, D. Jonkers, E. Stobberingh, A. van den Bogaard, M. Russel, R. Stockbrügger
Depts. of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and Medical Microbiology University Hospital Maastricht The Netherlands
"Nowadays, there is a growing interest in probiotics as a safe way of changing the intestinal bacterial flora. Probiotics may have potential in several gastroenterological conditions, especially when the intestinal flora has been disturbed. Most scientific evidence is available for diarrhoea patients treated with Lactobacillus GG, Lactobacillus reuteri or Saccharomyces boulardii.
Meta-analyses have shown an overall reduction in the risk of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea during treatment with probiotics, and benefits have also been demonstrated for patients with rota-virus-associated diarrhoea.
Patients with inflammatory bowel disease, an inflammatory disorder characterized by a change in the intestinal flora, are another important target group for which probiotics may be beneficial. It has been claimed that in ulcerative colitis and Crohn disease patients, lactobacilli, S. boulardii and Escherichia coli reduce relapses, but most studies were not placebo-controlled. A reduction in relapses has also been demonstrated in pouchitis patients treated with a multispecies probiotic.
Irritable bowel syndrome might be another clinical indication for probiotic therapy, but results of clinical trials performed in these patients are inconsistent. Additionally, probiotics may improve lactose absorption, Helicobacter pylori eradication and constipation.
Finally, in animal models of colorectal cancer, treatment with probiotics reduces the prevalence of this disease, and in humans the amount of genotoxic substances in faeces has been reduced.
In conclusion, the results of studies on the effects of probiotics in gastrointestinal conditions are encouraging, but well-designed placebo-controlled studies are warranted before recommendations for therapeutic or preventive use can be given. Many issues still have to be resolved, including optimal dose and duration of treatment, selection of and differences between the several available probiotic strains, and, importantly, their mechanisms of actions have to be elucidated."
I'm not sure what to make of this, but I'm highly skeptical.....
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Not me. My guess is there's something to it. 70% chance. Won't work for everyone but works for many where nothing else does.
And for good reason. Just another alternative medicine snake oil salesman.
You want to believe, and hopefully, all this is wondrously true. But, the great, great grandfather of a friend of mine used to travel around the country with a suitcaseful of his homemade, Taylor's Elixir, guaranteed to cure everything from blindness, baldness, fallen arches, toothache, diarrhea, etc.. He did quite well for an 'Indian Medicine Man'.
Website makes more claims!
http://www.outletnutrition.com/devfdeim100c.html
Thing like these rely on what I term, "The survivor response".
If you interview people with cancer (I am one) they will tell you they are either in treatment or are a "cancer survivor". From that, you can determine, through interviews, that no one dies of cancer. Hence, here, if you interview people who are taking or have taken the pill, all are survivors. Obviously, the pill works.
I keep bees. There is a mite that is killing off colonies of bees. Many have come up with "home remedies" that work, because they tell us they work. Many follow that piper and extol the virtues of the technique. In about two years you never hear from them because they no longer keep bees. Or they tell you they have gone back to conventional treatments since, obviously, they got something wrong and did not do the treatment right, since their bees died. It is never that the treatment was an honest hoax in the first place.
Another, and major problem, with these sorts of "home remedies" is you never hear about the other treatments. You can assume from the article that the pills were in conjunction with standard therapy. You can often arrive at the same results with or without the pill. But the pill takes center stage, since we know people die of whatever is being treated, even with standard therapies. But the survival rate for most therapies is fairly high. I am alive because the cancer was cut out and after several CT scans, have no detectable cancer.
And then, there is the fact that the body does heal itself, no matter what is used. We do have immune systems that are designed for just that. I was told that all of us will encounter cancer in our bodies and most of the time the immune system kills it off, along with many other diseases.
One thing the pill does give, is hope, and many studies have shown that it is a major factor in the healing process. People in depression do not fare as well as those who take control of the process and fight. But you do not need a pill for that.