American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 25, 612-614, Copyright © 1972 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

A holistic approach to the interruption of the diarrhea-malabsorption-malnutrition cycle

¹ From the Departments of Biochemistry and Microbiology of the University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, Missouri 65201

The holistic view of infantile diarrhea suggests that poor environmental management provides an excess of potentially harmful inocula to human beings who are vulnerable to the inauguration of the vicious cycle of diarrhea-malabsorption-malnutrition. This can possibly be remedied if the problem is viewed with perspective and destructive parameters are corrected. Management is neither more nor less important than nutrition, and these might be correlated with positive inoculation and the maintenance of the balanced intestinal microflora as a natural defense mechanism. Antimicrobial and antidiarrheal drugs should be used to break the cycle. Positive inoculation with normal gut bacteria and a beginning toward subtle changes in habits should be encouraged. Research is badly needed in the laboratory and in the field to determine if chronic antibiotics, therapy plus inoculation, plus nutrition and management parameters can be incorporated into a functional approach to the cycle in underdeveloped areas. These studies should be carefully designed and controlled to demonstrate the best method(s) of progressing toward a better nourished and more productive human population.