PIA RASINKANGAS, ARTHUR C. OUWEHAND*
*Corresponding author
Global Health and Nutrition Science, DuPont Nutrition and Health, Danisco Sweeteners Oy, Kantvik, Finland

Abstract

HOWARU Restore is a probiotic product aimed to relieve the gastrointestinal symptoms and stabilise the gut microbiota. It is composed of 4 bacterial strains, Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM, Lactobacillus paracasei Lpc-37, Bifidobacterium lactis Bi-07 and B. lactis Bl-04, in equal amounts. The strains have the ability to exert various probiotic functions, such as pathogen exclusion, anti-inflammatory and immune-modulating functions, and in human trials they have been noted to relieve gastrointestinal symptoms, such as bloating, constipation and abdominal pain. Studies with HOWARU Restore have shown at doses of 1.7×10¹⁰ CFU/day to have the potential to significantly reduce the incidence from 24.6% to 12.5% and duration of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea (AAD) by 2.8 days as well as its associated symptoms. Here we describe the main clinical findings and product stability, and discuss the possible mechanisms of action of HOWARU Restore and its component strains.

INTRODUCTION

Digestive health can be defined as the general health and optimal functioning of the digestive tract. Problems with digestive health are a widespread issue and can easily disrupt the quality of life. Common symptoms and conditions affecting the wellbeing of the digestive track are constipation, bloating, dyspepsia, diarrhoea (caused for example by infectious agents or antibiotic use) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a functional gastrointestinal disorder (1, 2). For instance, the prevalence of constipation in the general population worldwide is 0.7-79% with median of 16% (3), and the prevalences of dyspepsia and IBS are 5.3-20.4% and 1.1-29.2% (4), respectively. Digestive health can be affected by for example diet, mood and stress levels and gut microbiota composition or activity. Recent research strongly indicates these factors to be interlinked (5-8). Due to novel research methods, such as high throughput 16S rRNA and metagenomic sequencing, the gut microbiota has emerged as a possible unifying factor in several disorders, including IBS (9, 10). The gut microbiota could affect digestive health for example through the metabolic substance ...