Antibiotic found promising in irritable bowel syndrome

London, Jan 7 (IANS) There is some good news for those with irritable bowel syndrome or IBS, which affects one in five people, with antibiotics offering relief from the painful condition, which causes acute abdominal discomfort, bloating, diarrhoea and constipation.

IBS, which had no known cure, could be relieved by administering antibiotics, dietary changes and laxatives, the Daily Mail reported citing the New England Journal of Medicine.

Researches at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles, used rifaximin, a drug administered in the U.S. for gastric gripes, infecting those travelling abroad.

Over a three-month period, 1,200 people with IBS were randomly prescribed either rifaximin or a placebo, with 40 percent of those who took the drug reporting significant relief from their symptoms, compared with 30 percent of the others.

'For years, the treatment options for IBS patients have been extremely limited,' said Cedars-Sinai's Mark Pimentel.

'IBS does not respond well to treatments currently available, such as dietary changes and fibre supplements alone.

'With this antibiotic treatment, the patients feel better, and they continue to feel better after stopping the drug. This mean that we did something to strike at the cause of the disease,' concluded Pimentel.