ABSTRACT
While probiotics and prebiotics have been used for decades on an anecdotal basis to address a variety of the ills that man is prone to suffer from, the scientic study of probiotics in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is more recent and its emergence has paralleled an emerging interest in the role of the microbiota in intestinal disorders. The possibility that the enteric ora, or microbiota, could play a role in the pathogenesis of IBS has only begun to attract concerted scientic attention very recently, though evidence to suggest a link has been extant for some time and contains several distinct, and even contradictory, strands:
1. Epidemiological evidence that antibiotic use may predispose to IBS or to exacerbations thereof.
