Some days, you just have to sit back and watch the medical profession flounder around as they re-invent the wheel. This study cites FOS as the prebiotic of choice due to their limited understanding, which results from not reading a good deal of the science that already exists on prebiotics. They could make giant strides by consulting with experts in this area, but they choose to crawl while patients under their care continue to suffer. Research shows that Inulin is a better choice than FOS. Inulin is a long-chain fiber and FOS a short-chain fiber. FOS is more available to "bad" bacteria than inulin, which makes inulin a better choice. 

This article also touches on another area of interest to me, necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). NEC is very common in preemies, as their intestines are very fragile and the prophylactic use of antibiotics in these infants destroys the cells of their gut leading to a need for emergency surgery. While my twin preemies were in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of Cedar's Sinai hospital in Beverly Hills, we observed that about half the babies there received this surgery. Our son was even one of these surgeries. This would be an unnecessary event if the doctors there would start using prebiotics and probiotics to help protect the preemies' intestines from the devastating effect of antibiotics. I talked to the head of the NICU about it, but he didn't seem to interested. He also wasn't interested in hearing about us observing one specific doctor continually making choices that resulted in the deaths of some babies. Last I looked, that doctor was no longer there. I wonder how many more babies died due to her arrogance and mis-manangement. Here's the Science Daily article - http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121015142407.htm


"Adding the right prebiotic to the diets of pediatric patients with intestinal failure could replace intravenous feeding, says a new University of Illinois study.

"When we fed the carbohydrate fructooligosacharide (FOS) as a prebiotic, the gut grew and increased in function," said Kelly A. Tappenden, a U of I professor of nutrition and gastrointestinal physiology. "The study showed that using the correct pre- and probiotic in combination could enhance these results even more."

When FOS enters the intestines, bacteria convert it into butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid that increases the size of the gut and its ability to digest and absorb nutrients, she said.

But today's IV solutions don't contain butyrate and adding it would entail drug development trials and regulatory red tape. She wanted to see if adding this carbohydrate to the diet while continuing to provide most nutrients intravenously would cause the gut to start producing butyrate on its own. It worked.

According to Tappenden, at least 10,000 U.S. patients are totally reliant on intravenous feeding because their intestines have been surgically shortened.

Many of these patients are premature infants who develop necrotizing enterocolitis, a kind of gangrene of the intestine. In the U.S., one in eight infants is a preemie, and removing necrotized, or dead, intestine is the most common surgical emergency in these babies.

"Surgery saves their lives, but with so much intestine removed, they're unable to digest or absorb nutrients. These babies are also at risk for long-term complications, such as bone demineralization and liver failure. Our goal is to take kids who've had this resection and cause their gut to grow and adapt," she said.

She tested her hypothesis about butyrate using newborn piglets, an excellent model for the human infant in metabolism and physiology. Piglets with intestinal failure were assigned to one of four groups: a control group; a group whose diet contained FOS, a carbohydrate given as a prebiotic to stimulate the production of butyrate by beneficial bacteria; a probiotic, or actual live bacteria; and a combination of pre- and probiotics.

"We believed that bacteria in the gut would use the prebiotic to make butyrate and support intestinal growth. But we thought that might only happen in the group that received both pre- and probiotics because we didn't know if the newborn gut would have enough bacteria to make this important short-chain fatty acid."

Actually, the neonatal piglets did have enough bacteria in their guts, and the prebiotic alone was effective in increasing intestinal function and structure, she said.

"In fact, the probiotic that we used in one of the groups eliminated the beneficial effect of the prebiotic. That shows us that we need to be exceptionally careful in selecting the probiotic we use, matching it to the specific disease," she noted. Many consumers believe all probiotics are equal, but the effect of specific bacterial strains is different, she said.

"At this point, we can only recommend consumption of the FOS prebiotic alone," she added."

For a quality Probiotic formula with Inulin as a Prebiotic, go to Dr. McCombs Flora Prime.