Dr. Birgitta Evengard of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, study co-author, recommends her patients with chronic fatigue syndrome try taking the probiotics tested in her study, and stop if they start feeling worse, but stick with it for 3 weeks if they feel better or if they don't notice an immediate effect.
Given that there is a close connection between the gut and the immune system, as well as the central nervous system, Evengard and her colleagues decided to test whether probiotics -- which can restore the normal balance of bacteria in the digestive system -- might help patients with chronic fatigue syndrome.
Six of the patients reported improvements in their symptoms, while one said symptoms got worse. Four of the women reported improvements in their physical health and two said their mental health had improved by the end of the study. One man reported improvement in physical health and one other man reported improved mental health.
"For some patients this was a dramatic difference," Evengard said, adding that the challenge for the future will be to figure out who will benefit from probiotics and who will not.
The wide range of response is not surprising, because of the complexity of chronic fatigue syndrome, Evengard noted. "Everything in this research is really going toward individualization of treatment, that's the trend of research in the chronic fatigue syndrome area today."
Bonnie - important to note that this doctor says "everything is really going toward individualization of treatment." Eh hem. Weren't doctors supposed to be doing this already?
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