Is Bacillus Acidophilus therapy a strictly bacteriological phenomenon?

Abstract

Having obtained relief from chronic constipation and diarrhea by treatment with milk fermented with B. Acidophilus, further studies are in progress to determine whether the essential nature of this phenomenon is physical, chemical or bacteriological.

Subject to the limitations of the material under consideration the following points have been established:

1. B. Acidophilus therapy is not a physical phenomenon since patients receiving sterile milk were not relieved of constipation.

2. B. Acidophilus therapy apparently is not a strictly chemical phenomenon, since patients receiving B. Acidophilus milk which had been pasteurized to kill all living forms, were not relieved of constipation.

3. B. Acidophilus therapy appears to be essentially a bacteriological phenomenon, since patients were relieved of constipation by the ingestion of milk fermented by B. Acidophilus.

4. Relief from chronic constipation has persisted for six months after the ingestion of B. Acidophilus has been discontinued.

5. Viable B. Acidophilus organisms in appreciable number have been recovered from the feces of patients six months after the ingestion of B. Acidophilus milk.