News Update

Probiotics and health - Nutritionists have been using probiotics for many years to great effect (to relieve IBS, and other digestive problems and support the immune system) . Now mainstream medicine are finally catching on to the use of therapeutic strain probiotics as tool to treat patients digestive problems and counter the detrimental effects of anti-biotics.



Now a new scientific review by the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF), Probiotics and health – summing up the evidence, draws together complex probiotic research and shows accumulating evidence to support the health benefits of probiotics in some areas. The results of this review are a valuable tool for health professionals which will underpin consistent health advice.



The BNF has examined around 100 original research studies and reviews on probiotics and health. Sian Porter, spokeswoman for the British Dietetic Association says: “We welcome BNF’s efforts to bring together the evidence on probiotics and clear the confusion. This review is a useful, up-to-date resource for dietitians to support their evidence based advice on the use of probiotics for different health conditions, to both individuals and the public”.



A complex science

‘Probiotics’ is an extremely complex topic, and this often leads to consumers being exposed to conflicting advice. Dr Elisabeth Weichselbaum, Nutrition Scientist and author of the BNF review says: “Probiotics seem to work in a very strain specific manner - speaking about ‘probiotics’ in general may be as misleading as speaking about ‘pills’ and their effects on health. If a certain strain has been found to affect a certain health outcome, such as IBS, it would be misleading to state that ‘all probiotics’ are effective in relieving IBS symptoms.”



The BNF review shows that each single probiotic strain has to be tested for each single health outcome. To be effective, probiotics need to influence the balance of the human gut microflora. Probiotics must be able to survive their passage through the gastro-intestinal tract, be taken regularly, and in the right dose. Dr Weichselbaum adds: “Scientists are also now becoming increasingly aware that it is important to test whether the food or drink in which probiotics are given is an effective vehicle for delivering health benefits.”



Promise for irritable bowel syndrome

Between 3-25% of the population complains of the uncomfortable symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), so it is no wonder that sufferers are interested in whether probiotics can help. Professor Glenn Gibson, Professor of Food Microbiology at the University of Reading, is optimistic: “The science shows promising results for the use of probiotics in IBS. The studies have looked at many different strains of bacteria but we need more studies to find out which strains are most effective, and to make sure any benefits found are not the result of a placebo effect.”



Established benefits for diarrhoea

The potential for probiotics to help in the prevention and treatment of diarrhoea has been widely studied.



Antibiotic-associated diarrhoea

Dr Weichselbaum says: “The prevention of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea has a good science-base for some probiotic strains. Two strains called S. boulardii and L. rhamnosus GG have been shown to cut the risk of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea by more than a half.”



Dr Mary Hickson, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust adds: “Certain strains of bacteria have good evidence to show they prevent antibiotic associated diarrhoea and Clostridium difficile diarrhoea. Providing products containing these strains to hospital patients may help to reduce these detrimental side effects and so reduce healthcare costs”.

Health4Media.com -




Yet more evidence that all you need is water to vastly improve the effectiveness of the National Health Service. So many patients are left water tantalisingly out of their reach.



The trouble is that from an operational point of view the last thing they want is bed bound patients going to the toilet regularly, the irony is that the patient could be sent home earlier getting well more quickly if they practiced patient centered medicine more often.



The results of the recent study in an NHS hospital showed:



20% reduction in time spent in hospital



97% reduction in dehydration



100% reduction in hospital acquired infections



"If these results were repeated across the NHS as a whole it would show a £5 Billion saving and a major increase in patient satisfaction with their care in hospital." say the manufacturers of a new contraption that makes water more accessable to patients in hospital.

A woman who assaulted her three children over a 21 month period with weapons that included a jug cord, tent pole, belt and wooden spoon during various incidents in Napier, Gisborne and Invercargill has been jailed for 3 and a half years. One of the people hit was a one-year-old boy.




So cases like this is why why section 59 of the Crimes Act, removing the defence of reasonable force for correction, had to go from the statute books, right?

Phil Goff' support has halved in the latest ONE News Colmar-Brunton poll. Only 5% like Goff, and that was before the awful speech last week. Shane Jones doesn't want to be Labour's leader yet. National is on 53%, Labour slips back to 31%, the Greens bounce back to 7%, the Maori Party's on 3% and ACT on 2%.




If Goff's support drops any further, it will be within the margin of error. When did that last happen to any National or Labour leader? Perhaps its time for Charles Chauvel to run a Facebook campaign for a leader. I hear Chauvel is quite good on Facebook.

Rather than do an immediate post on Goff’s Nationhood speech, I thought I’d wait rather than attack Goff for a racist speech that Shane Jones vetted before delivery.




What Goff appeared to want to do is open up a split within the Māori Party at the same time as divide a wedge between the Māori Party and National. He wanted to play the race card, but in a non-racist way. His speech was not racist like Brash’s 2004 Nationhood speech, but Goff pulls on the same strings, articulating a latent belief that Māori were getting special treatment at the expense of other New Zealanders.



Goff may be correct in calling the emissions trading scheme a “shabby “political deal, (twice), but it is a bit rich saying that it will harm New Zealanders for generations to come when he has said that Labour will repeal the ETS when in power, thus minimising that harm.



Goff attacked John Keys leadership, saying it would lead to a country with "one New Zealander turned against another, Maori against Pakeha". Yet Labour has led the way on this. In addition, it has now withdrawn an offer to create enduring consensus over the Foreshore and Seabed legislation.



Perhaps Goff wants to see the Māori Party destroyed - hence the hope of engineering that destruction - as he sees it as the only way Labour can form a government in 2011. Like Helen Clark before him, he could well be willing to reopen wounds in race relations to gain power, and use the race card to expose any rifts between National the Māori Party as they appear, in the hope that NZ First will come back in 2011. And that is a real pity.



Sure, the Treaty of Waitangi settlement process should not be used as a basis for privileged treatment of certain iwi, thus causing disagreement among Māori - but Goff’s speech was not exactly about kotahitanga either. His unsubstantiated implication was that Key’s lack of criticism of Harawira’s mofo comments was because he wanted to get this “shabby political deal” enacted.



Goff’s comments that the Foreshore and Seabed legislation that deprived Māori to go to court was ‘working well’ is contrary to Labour’s submission to the Foreshore and Seabed Ministerial review. It’s a U-turn in Labour policy. Warning that repeal would make ‘wounds fester’ was a politically irresponsible statement to make, given that it was Labour who did the wounding that initiated the formation of the Māori Party.



Labour still sees the Māori Party as the last cab off the rank. Now that the party is bleeding supporters who are looking for another cab; will they go to a party that is happy to exercise wedge politics to open up a boiling pot in race relations, ask questions and demand change in Māori Party leadership, or be politically apathetic.



Goff, in trying to articulate concerns about emerging problems seems unable to offer practical solutions to problems in race relations and unfair treatment.



But that’s what is needed now. Extending a narrative to touch a nerve for short –term exposure is not going to do much. Labour needs a new leader - and quickly.

Phil Goff has confirmed that a future Labour government will repeal Nationals Emissions Trading Scheme - just like National confirmed, before the election, that it would repeal Labours Electoral Finance Act. Goff says the deal is at the expense of taxpayers.


“If you are only looking at the narrow pork barrel politics of your own business and not the overall well being of the community, Maori and Pakeha, you’re not worried about the taxpayer who’s paying for it and you’re not worried about the legal opinions that are ignored to suit a dirty political deal, you might say that.