I’ve been using the K12 lozenges for 2 months now. I’ve only had 1 minor ear ache; nothing full blown as yet. So this is good news. I will be anxious to see how the next few months go, but so far so good.
For those of you who read this blog, you know I am an event trader. I keep a stockpile of cash, waiting for the right event to make me some moola.
Typically, it’s when panic occurs; those are the best times. Unfortunately, it usually involves people dying. Now we have a mini-panic that involves people dying: Toyota Motors; symbol TM.
They have recalled millions of vehicles throughout the world. AND they have stopped sales of eight of its most popular models while they are working to fix the faulty gas pedals. This is a nearly devastating blow to the #1 auto maker (or at least thats the public perception).
The crisis revolves around faulty accelerators that have caused gas pedals to stick.
The announcements Thursday come one day after the company announced an additional recall of 1.09 million vehicles in the United States covering five models:
Thats on top of the recall issued last week affecting eight models, including 270,000 vehicles in Canada and 2.3 million in the U.S. That recall included Toyotas:
This results in a roughly 4.2 million vehicle recall. Lets say this costs Toyota $100 per car (conservatively), thats $420 million dollars. Add in the lawsuits and bad press, and we’re easily approaching half a billion dollars!
I believe they will come back. But to do so, they will have to offer incentives, buy back customer faith, etc. This means marketing and incentives of another $500 million (they sell a car every 6 seconds; 1.8 million in N.America alone) to win back customers.
So roughly a 1-2 billion dollar hit. And another $13 billion hit in market capitalization in just 2 days.
BUT, Toyota had roughly $90 billion in cash reserves a few years ago. With their rapidly growing debt (and bad economy), they may be down to $18.5 billion. Its short term liabilities are now equal to its assets. So its on financial par with Ford. Expect layoffs and cost-cutting measures as well as incentive plans to come.
Overall, Toyota has had a sterling reputation. And I believe it will come back from this PR disaster.
Toyota insists that the problem being reported with accelerator pedals and floor mats are rare.
“They are absolutely safe to drive,” Toyota spokeswoman Sandy de Felice told CTV Toronto. “Its a very gradual condition that occurs over long usage of your driving in the vehicle.”
Again, I’m putting my money where my mouth is:
I could be making a horrific mistake. But, this is how I make extra cash. 30 seconds after I bought my shares at $77, I put in my sell orders for $100; and my stop loss at $65.
We’ll see how Christmas looks. 
Do you have kids? Do you have grand-kids? Of course, you want to protect them, help them grow, and do all you can to make sure they have a good start on life.
I have ear infections. About once a month. And no matter what I do, I have them. It really sucks. Especially if you have to fly on a plane. Then you cry alot. Seriously.
My purpose in life changed dramatically when I was 20 years old. At 19, I was going to change the world, become a doctor, be a missionary, and marine biologist, trot the globe, save the world, all that stuff.
But, at 20, I hurt myself. Just getting around and walking became a major effort. My purpose in life changed from trying to change the world, to trying to be pain-free.
In the pursuit of a pain-free life, I became interested in how the body works. When I retire, it would fun to get my biochemistry degree. What does all this have to do with kids & grand-kids?
Well, I have ear aches. And I have seen parents horrendously and unintentionally give their kids ear disease & infections. Repeatedly. And there is no need for this kind of pain and damage on a child. But parents don’t know and don’t pay attention — they’re stressed out enough, just being parents.
How do they infect their kids? Go into any mall, and watch the parents with their kids in strollers. The pacifier falls out of the mouth, onto the floor. What do the parents do? They pick it up, MAYBE rub it off once, and plugged it back into the screaming child to shut them up. Good Lord!! What did you just innoculate your child with??? Are you insane?!?!
I used to walk up to these parents and say, “Excuse me, but the men’s bathroom floor is covered with urine. I just walked out of there and across the floor where that pacifier fell. You just put urine in your child’s mouth. Urine that may have hepatitis. I would wash it in hot water next time.”
Oh, you should have heard some of these people. A few were grateful for the wake-up slap across the face. And we would talk about how the pacifier (coated with bad bugs) was causing their child’s ear infections and other problems. You see, the vacuum action of sucking the pacifier, opens and closes the eustachian tube. This propels the bad bugs into the inner ear; a nice warm quiet place for disease to grow.
Most people were just indignant at my rudeness. Of course, I always got the best reaction from cigarette smokers.
I would be standing near the entrance of Kroger waiting for my propane gas tank. And of course, logically, this is where the smokers hang out, flicking their lighters?!
The smoke would choke me, and I would cough. The smoker, being polite, would say, “Sorry, does the smoke bother you?”
I would say very seriously, and with a smile, “No, no, not at all. Please continue. In fact, if it weren’t for people like you exercising their American right to choose to smoke, my kids would never have had the money to go to college. Thanks to folks like you, I have a job, a car and a nice house.”
They would of course reply, “What do you do?” My response as I walked away, “I sell chemotherapy drugs for lung cancer patients.”
I wonder how many lives I saved with that comment? But, I digress…
Bad bugs in the mouth cause ear infections as they travel from the mouth up the eustachian tube (the pressure equalizing tube connecting your ear to your mouth) and set up housekeeping. Wouldn’t it be great if they couldn’t live in your mouth or eustachian tube!!
It is estimated that 2% of the population naturally carry Streptococcus salivarius K12 in their mouths. This was first noted in healthy school children in New Zealand by Professor John Tagg, a microbiologist at the University of Otaga in New Zealand. These children were unusually healthy.
S. salivarius K12 colonizes your mouth (like acidophilus does your gut) and protects against otitis media, strep throat, and oral candida yeast infections.
S. salivarius K12 does 3 fantastic things:
* blocks bad bugs by competing with them for food;
* produces powerful toxins that kill other bugs;
* activates over 500 genes in the human body that have to do with immune defense & decreasing inflammation.
So, I bought some S. salivarius K12 and am going to give it a test drive. It’s a nice little lozenge you suck on for about an hour. An interesting side effect of these bugs — no bad “morning breath” when you wake up. Apparently it cures halitosis, too.
If I do not have an ear infection by March 1st, that will be interesting. If no infections by April 1st, then its a categoric success!
Mom & Dad, I would certainly try these lozenges out on your kid, BEFORE I let a doctor poke holes in my child’s ear drums (tube placement).
Here’s the link to S. salivarius K12:
http://www.lef.org/Vitamins-Supplements/Item01300/Advanced-Oral-Hygiene.html
Here are the study links:
http://iai.asm.org/cgi/content/full/76/9/4163
http://grande.nal.usda.gov/ibids/index.php?mode2=detail&origin=ibids_references&therow=801054
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118566735/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
I was reading an interesting study last night by the Women’s Health Initiative. Calcium supplementation with Vitamin D does almost nothing for improving bone density (up to 1%).
Using two study groups of 18,141 each, group Alpha (didn’t get D and calcium), and group Beta did receive D and calcium; Alpha had 2 more fractures than Beta. This is statistically insignificant.
The majority of studies say the same thing: calcium supplementation DOES NOT improve bone density or fracture rates. In fact, excess calcium worsens osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, and kidney stone formation.
We have good results with combo mixes of D3, strontium, calcium, K2, & boron. BUT, there is one mineral missing: silica.
Edith Carlisle, UCLA School of Public Health, proved the aorta, trachea, tendon, bone and skin are highly rich in silica. Additionally, induced silica deficiency in test animals shows gross abnormalities in bones, cartilage, and connective tissues.
Silica is essential in collagen production, calcium management, bone formation, and connective tissue formation. Silica is the catalyst for collagen formation and transporting calcium into bone. Without silica, the body will store excess calcium (and Americans take in a lot of it) in alternate places like joints, organs, arteries, and soft tissue.
100 years ago silica was everywhere in our diet, primarily in the husks of grains, & potato skins. Now it is practically non-existent; white flour, white rice, and mashed potatoes (no skins) dominate the dinner table.
We already know what strontium does for bone matrix. The New England Journal of Medicine reports that 2 grams of oral strontium ranelate per day (with vitamin D) for 3 years, reduced fractures by 49% in the first year, and 41% overall! No serious side effects occurred during the study.
One study indicates that dietary silicon is associated with greater BMD in both men and premenopausal women. Another newly released study found that ch-OSA (silica) prevented femoral bone loss in the ovariectomy rat model (standard model for investigating osteoporosis therapies).
Free University of Brussels conducted a 20-week double-blind study involving 50 women, aged 40 to 65, who had clear signs of sun-damaged or prematurely aged skin. Half of the subjects received 10 mg of biologically active silicon in the form of ch-OSA, while the other half were given a placebo. Compared to the placebo group, the ch-OSA group experienced significant improvements, including shallower micro-wrinkles (up to 30% better), improved skin elasticity (55% better), and a significant reduction in brittleness of hair and nails.
In light of the evidence, I need to add 5-10 mg of Choline-Stabilized Orthosilicic Acid to the program. One interesting side note is the anecdotal reports of increased hair and nail growth while taking silica.
Since the early 1900s, Americans have been trying to improve upon the food designed by either God or evolution.
However, when we compare people eating in the wild, au naturale, and those eating the food of developed countries, we see a clear correlation between “professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.”
Albert Schweitzer noted from his hospital in Gabon (1913) that the natives were cancer free.
June 1923 issue of British Medical Journal noted that a British doctor practicing for 23 years in Nigeria, had never seen a case of cancer among the natives.
Professor Manual Navarro of Santo Tomas University in Manila reported an absence of cancer among the primitive Moro natives in South Philipines.
Irish surgeon Denis Burkitt, reported in 1960 that Ugandan natives were free of colorectal cancer.
All these natives are grain vegetarians, with minimal polyunsaturated oils in their diet, and no processed sugar.
An editorial in The Lancet (1974) entitled €œBeware the Ox, stated that wherever there is low beef consumption, there is no incidence of colon cancer. Scotland has a very high beef consumption, and the highest colorectal cancer in the world. Oddly, a vegetarian Indian population living in Scotland is almost free of colorectal cancer.
In 1989, the Garland et al, Baltimore study of 25,000 people showed that there was a 80% reduction in colorectal cancer deaths with the highest levels of vitamin D in their blood samples.
In 1983, Stephen Seely of the University of Manchester did a study on worldwide sugar intake and breast cancer. As we all know, insulin is highly toxic; a tiny amount is all that is needed. When we eat sugar, we produce large amounts of insulin. In the study, England has the highest consumption of sugar in the world; and the highest death rate from breast cancer. The USA has 80% the sugar consumption of England, and oddly enough, 80% of the breast cancer compared to England.
The correlation is amazing! Greece eats 1/3 the sugar, and has 1/3 the breast cancer. Japan eats 1/4 the sugar, and has 1/4 the breast cancer. What odd coincidences!!!
There are other oddities. In the 1930s, 80% of men smoked cigarettes, yet lung cancer was not as bad as today. Since then, only 30% of men smoke, and the cigarettes have much lower tar than the 30s. However, lung cancer today is 30 times greater than in 1930.
Everyone knows that cigarette smoke causes lung cancer. George Burns who smoked for 80+ years and died of cardiac arrest from the flu (brought on by a head injury), at the ripe old age of 100, would argue that smoking causes cancer.
In Japan, 80% of men smoke, but the death rate from lung cancer is much lower than in the USA. How can that be??
Now, here is the important fact. Polyunsaturated fats and trans fats (Crisco) are immunosuppressive. In 1977, University of Oxford proved that this is true. One of the researchers had a daughter with GBS (Guillian-Barre Syndrome), a severe debilitating auto-immune disease. At 5 years old, she failed all imunosuppressing drugs, and was profoundly disabled and thought to die.
Knowing polyunsaturated oils are immunosuppressive, they gave the girl 30 cc of sunflower seed oil a day for a year. She was cured, is now grown to adulthood and married. The researchers later found that sunflower seed oil was very effective at immunosupressing renal transplant patients.
So what does all this mean? I love epoxy. This is wonderful stuff. I once bolted a toilet to the floor at my old house using just epoxy (I always feared if I ever had to fix that toilet). Epoxy is made of two components. Separately, they aren’t good for much, just resin and hardener. But if you smear resin on your left hand, and smear hardener on your right, clasp your hands together for 5 minutes, you’ll be in prayer formation until the skin peels off.
Perhaps beef is bad for you. Perhaps sugar is bad for you. Perhaps smoking is bad for you. But when you mix polyunsaturated oils and/or trans fats with these bad things, you make them MUCH, MUCH WORSE.
Why? Because when you eat immune system suppressing oils, the cancers and diseases that you were normally able to fight off, no longer can. Our immune system kills cancers every day; that’s its job. But when you suppress that efficient immune system, the cancers and diseases you normally ignore are going to get you.
What should you do? Stick with monounsaturated oils (olive, canola, coconut, avocado). And don’t heat them to smoking point (that’s when carcinogens form).
Finally… After years of poisoning our kids, we’re moving in the right direction.
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David C. Kennedy, DDS, former president of International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology, writes “Fluoride has repeatedly been shown to be a carcinogen in cell cultures, animals and humans.Â
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Studies have now confirmed a dramatic increase in osteosarcoma (bone cancer) in young males exposed to fluoride during growth of the bones and a 5% increase in all types of cancers in fluoridated communities.â€
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Now the Europeans have indirectly done something useful for Americans.Â
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The European Court of Justice recently ruled that fluoridated water is a medicine and may not be used for food preparation. Food products made with fluoridated water can’t be imported to the EU. “The decision effectively bans all processed food products coming from countries such as the USA, Australia, and New Zealand, unless they can be positively proven to have been prepared using only water that was not fluoridated,†writes Doub Cross of the UK Councils Against Fluoridation. The end result of this may lead to a world-wide ban on fluoride in drinking water.
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If you drink ROS water, be sure to add the trace minerals back in:Â Â http://www.vitacost.com/NSI-Super-Concentrated-Mineral-Drops
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I’ve gotten emails and phone calls wanting to know what the supplements were that my Mother-in-Law took. So let’s do it! Here is the list, dosage and schedule she took for 6 months:
BREAKFAST:
1 Strontium 340 mg
1 D3 1,000 IU
1 K2 (menaquinone) 45 mcg
1 Boron 3 mg
2 molecularly distilled fish oil (2000 mg total)
LUNCH:
1 Strontium 340 mg
1 D3 1,000 IU
1 K2 (menaquinone) 45 mcg
2 molecularly distilled fish oil (2000 mg total)
DINNER:
1 D3 1,000 IU
1 K2 (menaquinone) 45 mcg
BEDTIME:
1-2 OTC cimetidine
1 pill each MONDAY: 1 Super K2 from Life Extension Foundation. http://www.lef.org/Vitamins-Supplements/Item01224/Super-K-with-Advanced-K2-Complex.html  This supplement came to light in odd animal models showing that vitamin K2 deficiency leads to osteoporosis resulting fractures, and the unrestrained deposition of calcium on arterial walls (what I call “biologic electroplating”), leading to heart attacks. The Rotterdam Heart Study showed that greater intake of K2 (specifically MK4 & MK7) resulted in halving of heart attacks. WHY??
Because K2 carboxylates (activates) calcitonin. Calcitonin takes calcium out of the blood stream and puts it in the bone where it belongs. Department of Sports Medicine, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan, reports that high levels of uncarboxylated osteocalcin contributes to higher levels of hip fractures in elderly women. There is additional data from around the country as well as the World Health Organization supporting this premise.
And as for strontium, this is a fantastic mineral we used to get in the food supply. Needless to say, when you combine all of these supplements, you encourage bone to form a solid well designed matrix. Without the harmful effects of disrupting bone metabolism using bisphosphonates.
Now we had so much success with this regimen, we move on to the next level. Here is what I have suggested my Mother-in-Law take from now on:
BREAKFAST:
1 Strontium 340 mg
1 D3 2,000 IU
1 K2 (MK7 100 mcg, MK4 1300 mcg, phytonadione 1000 mcg
1 Boron 3 mg
2 molecularly distilled fish oil (2000 mg total)
1 Norwegian Kelp (iodine for thyroid)
LUNCH:
1 Strontium 340 mg
1 D3 2,000 IU
2 molecularly distilled fish oil (2000 mg total)
DINNER:
1 D3 2,000 IU
BEDTIME:
1-2 OTC cimetidine
It is important to note that calcium be taken through food or supplement (a glass of milk and yogurt is great). But calcium should not be taken at the same time as the strontium, since they compete. Also, once the winter months are over and she begins to work outside (roughly April), she should stop the dinner dose of D3.
Again, these are only suggestions (I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV) which she should review with her physician before initiating. Here is a list of the supplements you can buy from www.vitacost.com or from www.lef.org  As always, do your homework, talk to your doctor, be informed, and make your own decisions.
In summary, let me hear from you as you perform your own experiments! Lets get healthier and smarter together. Share your experiences in how you’ve improved your health. Note however, that I don’t publish anything that isn’t backed up by bloodwork, MRI, x-ray, etc. Need concrete data, not hearsay.
As you know 6 months ago, my Mother-in-Law was diagnosed with severe osteoporosis; with a L2-L4 T-score of -4.2, and a Z-score of -1.2. What does this mean? The World Health Organization scores as follows:
The Z-score compares your bone density to a typical person in your age group. A Z-score less than -1.5 may indicate osteoporosis from reasons other than age or menopause.
My Mother-in-Law’s doctor immediately wanted to prescribe Fosamax. In my opinion, bisphosphonates are a ridiculously clumsy answer to a simple problem. Bisphosphonates interfere with osteoclast function, thereby reducing bone turnover and increasing bone mass. But the resulting bone is poorly designed. Just because you increase mass doesn’t mean its good mass; compare a 250 pound NFL wide receiver to a 250 pound couch potato (healthy muscle versus deadly fat). The bone created by bisphosphonates is brittle. Additionally, you have to deal with side effects of osteonecrosis (recently reported at 4%), esophagitis, gastritis, and glaucoma.
Bisphophonates are actually worse than statins, in my opinion. As to statins, read up on niacin.
Farrugia MC et al 2006 reported that healthy women (did not have metastatic bone disease) have jaw bone death when treated with bisphosphonates within the previous 12 months. Additionally, CHEST 2008 (Oct issue) reports patients taking bisphosphonates develop serious atrial fibrillation.
The bottomline is that my Mother-in-Law is like my wife; a priceless person. No way did I feel it was appropriate for her to take Fosamax.
I suggested she do a series of supplements that all have verifiable studies for bone mineralization with zero side effects.
These supplements included boron 3mg/day (Dept of Agriculture states increases bone by 44%), strontium (builds a better bone matrix and greater affinity than calcium), K2 (MK4 & MK7 removes the “electroplating†of calcium from the vasculature and puts it back in bones), and large doses of D3. Included was large doses of fish oil to decrease inflammation.
So for 6 months, she has been following this regimen. Her doctor had bought into this and said that we could get another bone scan in 6 months. However, when it came time to get the scan, the doctor surprised us by saying Medicare would not pay for it and again prescribed Fosamax.
I told the doctor that I would pay for the scan myself in cash. I called his office for a week on a daily basis asking for him to schedule the scan. The week passed; nothing. 2nd week passed; nothing. So, when my Mother-in-Law came down for Christmas, I scheduled and completed a bone density scan within 24 hours in Conroe — and I paid for it myself. Frustrating is the most polite word I can think of!
My compliments to Sadler Clinic (where the scan was done) Â for doing a fantastic job very quickly!
Now, the results of the two scans.
6 months ago, SEVERE OSTEOPOROSIS: L2-L4 T-score of -4.2 and Z-score -1.2.
The Christmas scan, NO OSTEOPOROSIS: L2-L4 T-score -0.4 and a Z-score of 1.1.
What are we to make of this? One of two things happened: an indefinable miracle, or the supplements worked. I believe it to be the latter.
You all know my feelings as to how we as humans deplete and pollute the food supply, contaminate ourselves daily with lead, fiberglass, asbestos, and jetfuel in the air, ruin our drinking water with aluminum, fluoride, and chlorine, and degrade our DNA with pseudo-science drugs that have been tested on a thousand people for a year and proclaimed to be the panacea for every ailment.
Medicine has its place, and serves a unique purpose. But our DNA evolved in a certain environment and with a food supply rich in vitamins, minerals, & polyphenols. But our environment is heavy-metal-Hell. And our food is a poor, deprived impostor of what our ancestors ate. Many of our doctors are locked into rigid rules that forbid creative thinking; as well as depending far too much on the pharmaceutical industry for their treatments.
And our leaders who manage all this are too busy pandering & buying votes to see the big picture of how the most fantastic blueprint for perfection ever created, our DNA, is being forever mangled and deformed.
We must demand better from our leaders, and allow us as individuals to control, our environment, our food supply, our drinking water, our air, our medicine.
What is the solution to the base problem that almost put my Mother-in-Law on a side-effect riddled and un-needed drug? Four things:
As always, I am not a doctor. I do not propose that anyone do what we just did. I ask only that you look at the facts:   from severe osteoporosis to normal in 6 months, using only supplements and no pharmaceuticals.   Use your doctor as an informed counselor to enhance decisions that you yourself make. And by all means, do not blindly let others decide your medical care, or coerce you into medical decisions you do not understand.
The greatest resource you can find, is a doctor who is a true puzzle solver. Look for them. They’re out there. Don’t hesitate to fire your doctor and look for another, until you find that puzzle solver who is intrigued by figuring out ways to help you.
Hope this study helps someone.
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Now this should be an interesting study!
A massive, National Institutes of Health–sponsored study looking at whether vitamin-D and/or omega-3 fatty-acid supplementation can reduce the risk of developing heart disease, stroke, or cancer will get under way in January 2010, according to a website for the study. Drs JoAnn Manson and Julie Buring (Harvard Medical School/ Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA) will head up the Vitamin D and Omega-3 Trial (VITAL).
The study is aiming to enroll 20Â 000 men and women, one-quarter of whom will be black.
According to a Brigham and Women’s Hospital press release, the study is intentionally aiming to illuminate a potential racial and ethnic disparity hypothesized to be linked to vitamin D [1]. “African Americans have a higher risk of vitamin-D deficiency as well as a greater frequency of diabetes, hypertension, and certain types of cancer.” Â Â For VITAL, women need to be over age 65 to enter the study; men need to be over age 60.
Study participants will be randomized to one of four groups: daily vitamin D (2000 IU) and fish oil (1 g); daily vitamin D and fish-oil placebo; daily vitamin-D placebo and fish oil; or daily vitamin-D placebo and fish-oil placebo. The trial will run for five years and is expected to cost US $20 million.
In a related article, investigators are reporting that more than one third of mothers and more than half of their infants are vitamin D-deficient at the time of birth.
What’s more, the data, released at Pediatric Academic Societies Annual Meeting 2009, demonstrate that prenatal vitamin D supplements do not fully protect against deficiency.
Anne Merewood, MPH, Director of the Breastfeeding Center at Boston Medical Center, and associates examined vitamin D levels in 433 women and 376 newborns using blood samples obtained within 72 hours of birth. They also collected data from questionnaires completed by the mothers and from the mothers’ medical records.
The results showed that vitamin D deficiency (defined as 25(OH)D <20 ng/mL) was present in 36% of mothers and severe deficiency (defined as 25(OH)D <15 ng/mL) was present in 23%.
Fifty-eight percent of infants were vitamin D deficient and 38% were severely deficient.
Risk factors for vitamin D deficiency in infants included winter birth versus summer birth, African American race, and severe maternal obesity.
For years, the staggering benefits of probiotics have been ignored by “official medicine.” Patients in hospitals for extended periods of time were found to develop bed sores rapidly, and generally spiral downhill the longer they stayed in the hospital — except for people in the country whose families brought them raw sauerkraut and/or raw yogurt. These people seemed to fair better than others.
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We now know there are good bugs and bad bugs. The bad bugs can be beaten down and out-competed by the good bugs. Additionally, good bugs produce a wealth of by-products, e.g., vitamins and enzymes.
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Now, as Dannon and every other mega food corporation jumps on the band wagon, so too does the medical establishment.
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The publishing of a new study states that a variety of ailments in children can be averted, and kids are actually healthier if they eat these bugs.
The subjects (kids)Â took probiotics (or placebo) twice a day over a 6-month period during the 2005-2006 winter season. The children were randomized into 3 groups, with 1 treatment group receiving Lactobacillus acidophilus (single-agent) in a powder and the second treatment group receiving a combination of Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium animalis (combination), also as a powder. The control group received a powder placebo that was indistinguishable from the treatment granules.
All participants took their powders twice a day with milk. Weekday administrations were conducted by preschool personnel, and families administered the compounds on weekends.
Episodes of illness were recorded by either the preschool staff (weekdays) or parents (weekends) in symptom diaries. The authors also evaluated absenteeism from school via school record review.
Three hundred twenty-six children were randomized, with 104-112 subjects per group having complete data at the end of the study.
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When looking at school attendance, 28% of all children were absent at least 1 day during the study period, but this rate was much higher among placebo children (49%) compared to either treatment group (18% each).
The single-agent group had lower rates of fever, cough, and use of antibiotics compared to placebo, while the combination treatment group had lower rates of fever, cough, rhinorrhea, and antibiotic use compared to placebo. For almost all symptoms, the combination group had rates lower than those of the single-agent group (eg, 6-month incidence rate of “fever” was 64% in placebo, 28% in single-agent treated, and 16% in combination agent treated subjects).
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The authors conclude that use of probiotics reduced the incidence and duration of upper respiratory symptoms and antibiotic use. The authors also suggest that there appeared to be a trend toward a greater effect among participants in the combined treatment group compared to the single-agent treatment group.
These data are interesting for the magnitude of potential benefit they show. Reducing preschool absentee rates by > 50% is remarkable. But, really now, couldn’t they have just asked Great-Grandma? She already knew the secret!
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