Coffee and tea intake with long-term risk of irritable bowel syndrome: a large-scale prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: To investigate prospective association of coffee and tea intake with incident irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in a long-term cohort. METHODS: Participants free of IBS, coeliac disease, inflammatory bowel disease and any cancer at baseline from UK Biobank were included. Coffee and tea intake was measured separately via baseline touchscreen questionnaire, with four categories for each intake (0, 0.5-1, 2-3 and ≥4 cups/day). Primary outcome was incident IBS. Cox proportional hazard model was used to estimate associated risk. RESULTS: Among 425 387 participants, 83 955(19.7%) and 186 887(43.9%) consumed ≥4 cups/day of coffee and tea at baseline, respectively. During median 12.4-year follow-up, incident IBS was identified in 7736 participants. Compared with no coffee intake, consumption of 0.5-1, 2-3 and ≥4 cups/day was associated with lower IBS risk [hazard ratio (HR)=0.93, 95% CI: 0.87-0.99; 0.91, 0.85-0.97; 0.81, 0.76-0.88; Ptrend < 0.001]. Specifically, decreased risk was evident in individuals who consumed instant (HR = 0.83, 0.78-0.88) or ground coffee (HR = 0.82, 0.76-0.88) compared with no coffee drink. Regarding tea intake, protective association was only found in individuals who consumed 0.5-1 cup/day (HR = 0.87, 0.80-0.95), whereas no significant association was detected in those who consumed 2-3 (HR = 0.94, 0.88-1.01) or ≥4 cups/day (HR = 0.95, 0.89-1.02) compared with no-tea intake (Ptrend = 0.848). CONCLUSIONS: Higher intake of coffee, particularly instant and ground coffee, is associated with lower risk of incident IBS, with significant dose-response relationship. Moderate-tea intake (0.5-1 cup/day) is associated with lower IBS risk.

Ethyl pyruvate supplemented in drinking water ameliorates experimental nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

Inflammation and oxidative stress play a significant role in the pathogenesis of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Ethyl pyruvate (EP) is a novel anti-inflammatory agent and a potent reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenger. Therefore, EP supplemented in drinking water may alleviate experimental NASH in this study (even though 0.3% of EP cannot attenuate the simple non-aggressive fatty liver). The methionine-choline-deficient (MCD) diet was given to the C57BL/6 male mice for 3 weeks to induce NASH. The NASH animals were randomized into 3 treatment groups: animals in the MCD alone group were treated with normal drinking water alone; animals in the delayed EP group were given 3% (v/v) of EP supplemented in normal drinking water, the treatment started 10 days after MCD diet feeding; animals in the early EP therapy group were treated the same as the delayed EP group except that EP treatment started the same day when MCD diet was given; the control mice were fed with normal chow and treated with normal drinking water (n = 10 for each group). Compared to MCD group with normal drinking water, early EP treatment significantly decreased serum ALT and improved NASH histopathology; delayed EP therapy only attenuated NASH in 50% (5/10) of the animals. The beneficial effects were associated with decreased hepatic TNF-a and IL-6 mRNA expression on early 5 days, inhibited NF-kB activation, reduced liver tissue malondialdehyde levels, and decreased intestinal bacterial translocation (BT). In conclusion: EP supplemented in drinking water attenuates experimental NASH.

Pharmacokinetics of Bismuth following Oral Administration of Wei Bi Mei in Healthy Chinese Volunteers.

BACKGROUND: Bismuth-containing quadruple therapy achieves higher eradication rate of Helicobacter pylori. High level of bismuth in blood may result in damage of many organs. Wei Bi Mei is a new bismuth-containing drug combining chemicals and Chinese medicine portions. The present research is to study the pharmacokinetics of bismuth to evaluate the safety and rational use of Wei Bi Mei granules. Material and Methods. Seven healthy Chinese adult subjects were enrolled in this research, which included a single-dose study and a multiple-dose study. Wei Bi Mei granules were administered orally to the subjects at corresponding time. Blood and urine were collected. All samples were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). RESULTS: For single-dose Wei Bi Mei granules administration, the mean time to peak concentration (t max) of bismuth was 2.29 ± 0.76 h, and the mean peak concentration (C max) of bismuth was 0.85 ± 0.55 ng/mL. For multiple-dose Wei Bi Mei granules administration, the C max was 2.25 ± 1.18 ng/mL at day two, and the volume of distribution (V d ) was (22.97 ± 9.82) × 103 L. The urinary excretion of bismuth was the fastest during the first two days, with a mean excretion rate of 3.84 ± 1.23 ng/h. The bismuth concentration in urine was significantly reduced at day 16. CONCLUSION: Bismuth has a washout period of approximately two months. The concentration of bismuth in blood was far less than the "safe level." Thus, Wei Bi Mei is a highly safe therapeutic medicine, with a good clinical application value. Wei Bi Mei should be recommended more widely for use in bismuth-containing quadruple therapy for the treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection.

Efficacy and Safety of Wei Bi Mei, a Chinese Herb Compound, as an Alternative to Bismuth for Eradication of Helicobacter pylori.

Bismuth-containing quadruple therapy has been recommended as the first line of treatment in areas of high clarithromycin or metronidazole resistance. However, safety concerns of bismuth agents have long been raised. We first assessed the efficacy and safety of Wei Bi Mei granules, which are bismuth compounds consisting of three synthetic drugs and five medicinal herbs, compared to bismuth aluminate and colloidal bismuth subcitrate (CBS) in H. pylori-infected mouse model. We then used atomic fluorescence spectroscopy and autometallography to measure the accumulation of three bismuth agents in the brain, heart, liver, and kidneys in adult Sprague-Dawley rats. We also evaluated the safety of bismuth agents by conducting clinical biochemistry tests in blood samples of experimental animals. Wei Bi Mei granules exhibited the highest efficacy of anti-H. pylori activity and yielded the lowest bismuth accumulation when compared to CBS and bismuth aluminate. Our findings show that Wei Bi Mei granules are a safe Chinese medicinal herb with potent anti-H. pylori activity and can be considered as an alternative to current bismuth compounds. Thus, Wei Bi Mei granules merit further evaluation, particularly with regard to efficacy and safety when they are combined with other H. pylori eradication medications in the clinical setting.