Aug 8, 2016Prebiotic Shows Promise Against Exercise-Induced Asthma
A propietary carbohydrate complex may help reduce the severity of exercise-induced asthma. According to medicalnewstoday.com, the study, which was published in the British Journal of Nutrition, showed that Bimuno® (B-GOS), a unique patented trans-galactooligosaccharide complex, resulted in a 40 percent reduction in exercise-induced asthma’s severity in subjects who used it for three weeks. It was the first human study to show the benefical effects a prebiotic can have, by lessening the extent of airways narrowing and inflammation in adults with asthma.
“The finding that B-GOS can reduce exercise induced bronchoconstriction will be of great interest to clinicians and asthma sufferers alike,” said Graham Waters, CEO of B-GOS’s producer, Clasado Biosciences Limited. “Although this is early stage work, it raises the prospect that our unique carbohydrate complex could be used as an adjunct to existing asthma therapy. This could potentially benefit millions of sufferers.”
Dr. Neil Williams, the lead researcher and a lecturer in exercise physiology and nutrition at Nottingham Trent University’s School of Science and Technology, said the findings suggested that B-GOS could help therapy for those with exercise-induced asthma by increasing the growth and activity of “good gut bacteria,” resulting in a noticeable improvement in the patients’ health.
“We are only just starting to understand the role the gut microbiome plays in health and disease—and it is becoming increasingly recognised that microbes living in the gut can have a substantial influence on immune function and allergies which is likely to be important in airway disease,” he said. “B-GOS significantly increases the growth and activity of good gut bacteria. This in turn may reduce the inflammatory response of the airways in asthma patients to exercise. Importantly, the level of improvement in lung function that appears after administration of B-GOS is perceivable by the patient and therefore potentially clinically relevant.”
The study, published online ahead of print in the British Journal of Nutrition, is titled “A Prebiotic Galactooligosaccharide Mixture Reduces Severity of Hyperpnoea-Induced Bronchoconstriction and Markers of Airway Inflammation.”
