TITLE:
Seaweed Dietetic Food for the Functional Gastrointestinal Complaint Treatment
AUTHORS:
Juris Pokrotnieks, Aleksey Derovs, Elena Derova, Diana Zandere, Alexei Odinets, Vladimir Mishailov
KEYWORDS:
Dyspeptic Complaints; Seaweed Dietary Products; Laminaria; Vitamarine
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.4 No.9,
August
20,
2013
ABSTRACT: Despite the common nature of dyspeptic complaints, the treatment is still a problem. There is very little research done on the impact of dietary nutrition on the general health of the patients with dyspeptic complaints and overall nutritional safety. Study Objective: To evaluate the clinical effectiveness of the brown seaweed dietary product “Vitamarine” for the treatment of dyspepsia, as well as product safety. Material and Methods: An open, uncontrolled pilot study with questionnaires before and after the vitamarine course with the patient’s self-perception reports. Data were processed with multivariate analysis. Results: The study included 46 patients with 45 valid end result questionnaires for data processing. After 8 to 10 days use of vitamarine, 33 (76.8%) patients noted symptom disappearance or significant improvement, no improvement of symptoms or their increase was noted by 10 patients (23.2%). Complaints about weakness, fatigue and rapid tiredness significantly decreased or disappeared entirely (p = 0.04), including months long epi-gastric pain (p = 0.02) and constipation (p = 0.01). Conclusions: 1) Use of the dietetic food product “Vitamarine” with a dose of 50 - 60 g per day in two cases out of three improve the general well-being of the patients: months long dyspeptic abdominal pain and constipation disappear or significantly decrease. 2) In the first 8 - 10 days of the vitamarine course clinical effectiveness already can be noted. 3) Use of vitamarine is safe, including patients with a history of allergies to medications, elderly and patients with concomitant diseases.