What is the role of probiotics in gastrointestinal disease?
['The overall response rate was 80.5%, of which 69.5% of respondents said they recommended or prescribed probiotic food supplements to their patients, including 53.4% of surgeons and 80.8% of gastroenterologists (P = 0.00013). The most popular probiotic supplements among surgeons were probiotic-containing yoghurt and drinks (79.5% and 71.8%, respectively), whereas VSL#3 was more popular with gastroenterologists (83.3%). The most popular indications were irritable bowel syndrome (70.7% of prescribers) and pouchitis (67.5% of prescribers). Many respondents prescribed long-term probiotics.', 'Current evidence indicates that probiotic effects are strain-specific, they do not act through the same mechanisms, and nor are all probiotics indicated for the same health conditions. However, they do share several common features in that they exert anti-inflammatory effects, they employ different strategies to antagonize competing microorganisms, and they induce cytoprotective changes in the host either through enhancement of barrier function, or through the upregulation of cytoprotective host proteins.', 'Most surveyed physicians recommended probiotics for irritable bowel syndrome, antibiotic, and Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea because they believed that the literature supports their usage for these conditions.', 'This study suggests most gastrointestinal disease specialists recognize a role for and have used probiotics as part of their therapeutic armamentarium', 'probiotics for these patients with small bowel bacterial overgrowth, inflammatory bowel disease, and radiation enteritis.', 'These results provide some evidence that viable Bifidobacterium lactis strain Bb 12, added to an acidified infant formula, has some protective effect against acute diarrhea in healthy children.', 'Probiotics are live, microbial food supplements that benefit the host animal by improving intestinal microbial balance. Their major role in preventing and treating gastrointestinal disease appears to be from their effect on the immune process, protection against abnormal invasive bacteria, and in the production of short-chain fatty acids from starch and non-starch polysaccharides.']
['Probiotics are live, microbial food supplements that benefit the host animal by improving intestinal microbial balance. Across all 11 probiotic species and eight different gastrointestinal diseases   - Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Helicobacter pylori infection (HPP), Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC), Pouchitis (Pouch), Antibiotic Associated diarrhea (AAD), Clostridium difficile Disease (CDD), Infectious diarrhea (ID), and Travellers diarrhea (TD) -  probiotics have been shown to have effect on prevention and treatment of gastrointestinal disease through enhancing the immune response, protection against abnormal invasive bacteria. Probiotics have a role in all age groups, incl. infants.']
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