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Pooled review (meta-analysis)

Pooled review of 43 trials in irritable bowel: B. coagulans ranked best for relief

Zhang and colleagues · Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2022

Original title: Efficacy of Probiotics for Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis.

Under review. A person has not yet checked this summary against the paper. It is written from the PubMed abstract. Until a person checks it, search engines are asked not to list this page.

What the study found

Points to benefit

B. coagulans ranked best for symptom relief, pain, bloating and straining scores. At 8 weeks it ranked first for pain and straining. Dose made no clear difference.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Pooled review (meta-analysis)
Who or what was studied
43 studies, 5,531 people · adults with IBS
What was tested
Different probiotic species and mixes compared with placebo and with each other
What it measured
The question itself: gut symptoms such as bloating, pain and irregular bowels
Who has a stake
No stake declared
No competing interests declared.
Journal
Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology, 2022
Source
PubMed record 35433498. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Pools the results of 43 studies with 5,531 people.
  • •A pooled review is only as strong as the studies it pools.
  • ✓Measured the question itself: gut symptoms such as bloating, pain and irregular bowels.
  • ✓No competing interests declared.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

This paper is not on the ladder. It is a pooled review (meta-analysis), and reviews and opinion pieces discuss studies that are already counted on the steps below.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: gut symptoms such as bloating and IBS

    9

    5 benefit, 2 mixed, 2 no difference

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    10

    4 benefit, 2 mixed, 4 no difference

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  4. Population studies

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Do probiotics improve gut health?”

Some strains may help some symptoms.

Confidence: low. Based on 28 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Other reviews on this question

See all 28 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The reviewer corrected 1 field after reading the abstract. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
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