Battling Gastroenteritis and Inflammation – An LGG Story

Battling Gastroenteritis and Inflammation – An LGG Story

Acute Gastroenteritis, as anyone who has ever been unfortunate enough to have experienced it will tell you, is a very unpleasant condition. It’s more often than not caused by a virus of some kind, such as the Norovirus, and leads to inflammation and swelling in the stomach and the intestines. This in turn leads to some pretty nasty symptoms, varying from nausea, fever and fatigue on the milder end through to the more severe symptoms of diarrhoea, vomiting and painful stomach cramps.

Since this is mostly caused by viruses it’s rare that direct medication such as antibiotics will be used. Instead doctors typically tend to recommend anti-inflammatory medication such as ibuprofen, as well as efforts to keep hydrated, sometimes even including special oral rehydration solutions. The fact is that even with some anti-inflammatories to help keep the pain and swelling down, it’s still a very unpleasant condition, and those who suffer from it often have to ‘ride it out’ as they wait to get better.

Scientists asked the question, therefore, what if we can help to reduce the symptoms with LGG? It worked with antibiotic side effects, and they weren’t so different, so why not this? For more info on antibiotics and LGG, check out our antibiotic article!

LGG has since been very well studied in this area, exploring the possibility that maybe this powerful little microbe could help to reduce the discomfort, and reinforce recovery. Given LGG’s track record with helping to mitigate similar symptoms, it makes sense to find out! The bulk of the studies into this area come in the form of double-blind randomised control trials. These are the gold standard in medical testing, so we know the results are of the highest quality, which is important when you’re looking for science you can trust!  

So tell me, what did the studies find exactly?

There have been multiple high-quality studies into this area, so let’s take a look at a few of them and see what they found out. Most of these combined LGG alongside rehydration therapy, which is standard procedure when treating acute gastroenteritis, and studied the effects in children, as it is often the most vulnerable groups of people who suffer the worst with these conditions.

In one landmark study, children taking LGG recovered in about 3 days, compared with nearly 6 days for those not taking it. That’s a very impressive reduction of almost 50% in duration, and when the symptoms are so unpleasant, every day shaved off is a mercy!

Another large European study into children with gastroenteritis found that those given LGG recovered in 2 - 3 days on average compared to 3 – 4 days in the placebo group, and also spent less time in hospital recovering. This reinforces the evidence that LGG helped to reduce the duration, leading to less strain on the hospital, and symptoms mild enough that the patient could be discharged.

A high-dose trial in India with 200 children showed a similar trend: LGG users recovered 18 hours faster when compared to the placebo group, and had fewer stools per day as their digestion settled.

As we know, acute gastroenteritis is more often than not caused by a virus, and so the scientists decided to conduct a study to see how LGG might impact the virus itself. One study found that after the use of LGG there was a reduced amount of rotavirus in the gut. This is just one study, but a high quality one, and very encouraging results, as it suggests than LGG doesn’t just help to mitigate the symptoms, but may actually fight the virus directly!

When viewed together, these studies demonstrate a consistent pattern: children receiving LGG experienced 25–50 % shorter illness durations, fewer daily symptoms, and a smoother return to normal digestion, all without any increase in side effects that may often come when using medication. Not just this but early results show it might actually help in fighting the virus causing the disease in the first place. Promising results indeed!

Ok, so why does it matter to me?

Acute gastroenteritis is an unpleasant condition that many of us have experienced, and ‘tummy bugs’ are not uncommon. But it’s really the most vulnerable that get hit hard by this condition, especially young children and the elderly, whose bodies are not fully equipped to fight off illnesses quite so well as a healthy adult’s.

We know that a better recovery isn’t just about getting back to normal sooner, it’s also about feeling more comfortable along the way, and LGG has shown great promise. Participants who took LGG described fewer loose stools, less bloating, and an overall calmer digestive experience during their recovery. This is important as it translates not just to scientific terms on paper, but to a result that the participants actually felt, and at the end of the day, when we’re unwell we all want results we can feel.

The body of research into how LGG can help us in this area is growing, and we fully expect there’ll be more studies in the future, adding to this already impressive body of scientific research. So if you are unfortunate enough to suffer from gastroenteritis, ask your doctor about trying LGG alongside your rehydration therapy! There’s a lot of science to suggest it might just make the whole recovery process that much smoother.   

References (the science) – Don’t just take our word for it:

1.     Szajewska, H., Skórka, A. & Dylag, M. (2001) Meta-analysis: Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG for treating acute gastroenteritis in children. Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, 33(1), 38–43. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK74774/

2. Aggarwal, S., Upadhyay, A., Shah, D., Teotia, N., Agarwal, A. and Jaiswal, V. (2014) ‘Lactobacillus GG for treatment of acute childhood diarrhoea: an open labelled, randomized controlled trial’, Indian Journal of Medical Research, 139(3), pp. 379–385. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24820831/

3.     Guarino, A., Canani, R.B., Spagnuolo, M.I., Albano, F. and Di Benedetto, L. (1997) ‘Oral bacterial therapy reduces the duration of symptoms and of viral excretion in children with mild diarrhea’, Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, 25(5), pp. 516–519. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9360205/ 

4.     Rautanen T, Isolauri E, Salo E, Vesikari T. Management of acute diarrhoea with low osmolarity oral rehydration solutions and Lactobacillus strain GG. Arch Dis Child. 1998 Aug;79(2):157-60. doi: 10.1136/adc.79.2.157. PMID: 9797599; PMCID: PMC1717650.

5. Huang, J.S., Bousvaros, A., Lee, J.W., et al. (2002) Efficacy of probiotic Lactobacillus GG in treatment of acute watery diarrhoea: a meta-analysis. Journal of Pediatrics, 140(4), 528–532. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12006958

6.     Nixon AF, Cunningham SJ, Cohen HW, Crain EF. The effect of Lactobacillus GG on acute diarrheal illness in the pediatric emergency department. Pediatr Emerg Care. 2012 Oct;28(10):1048-51. doi: 10.1097/PEC.0b013e31826cad9f. PMID: 23023475; PMCID: PMC3760261.