Alternative Medicine Research
The One Item You MUST Bring When
Traveling
Probiotics appear to be effective in treating acute diarrhea, according
to researchers from John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
They conducted a meta-analysis of 34 masked, randomized,
placebo-controlled trials. One was carried out in a developing country,
while the others were carried out in health-care settings in developed
countries. They found that pro-biotics reduced:
Antibiotic-associated diarrhea by 52 percent;
Traveler's diarrhea by 8 percent;
Acute diarrhea of diverse causes by 34 percent.
Further, risk of
acute diarrhea among
children and adults was reduced by 57 percent and 26 percent,
respectively, when pro-biotics were used. Several pro-biotic strains,
including Saccharomyces boulardii, Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG,
Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, and others, were
evaluated. No significant difference was found between the different
strains used, alone or in combination.
The Lancet Infectious Diseases June 2006, Vol. 6,
No. 6: 374-382
Men who participate in athletic sports in their late teens gain stronger bones, a benefit that can persist long after they stop exercising intensively. This is because exercise has the greatest effect on bone
mineral density during childhood and puberty.
Researchers tracked the bone health of 63 athletes and 27 non-athletes, from when they were an average age of 17 until they were an average age of 25.
The athletic group, composed of hockey and badminton players, actively trained for nine hours every week, and had generally been doing so for
about a decade. Their workouts included weight training, playing soccer and long-distance running.
Over the course of the study, 40 athletes stopped their training and, consequently, their average bone mineral density (BMD) fell dramatically.
Nevertheless, the group that was athletically active at the outset of the study had better BMD numbers -- no matter if they continued exercising or didn't -- than the non-athletic group, particularly in their hips, where debilitating fractures often occur. The researchers estimated that the young athletes cut their risk of future fractures in half by being active.
Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism
July 2006; 91(7): 2600-2604