Personalized Korean Medicine Prescriptions Possible with Intestinal Microorganism Testing

Research results reveal that intestinal microorganisms and Korean Medicines combined with different body types are the reason why the same Korean Medicine prescriptions have varying effects from patient to patient.

Recently, a research team led by Professor Jae-ho Shin of Kyungpook National University (KNU) and the New Korean Medicine Team from the National Development Institute of Korean Medicine (NIKOM) participated in The Korean Society for Microbiology and Biotechnology conference held in Yeosu, Korea, and the Australian Society for Microbiology 2018 (ASM 2018) conference held in Brisbane, Australia.
The presentations from the two teams reported findings on changes observed in intestinal microorganisms after research subjects had taken one Korean Medicine called Gwakhyangjeonggi-san.
Compared to the control group, the research subjects who took Gwakhyangjeonggi-san exhibited an increase in diversity of intestinal microorganisms and improved appearance of fecal matter.
However, research subjects who started off with less than 50% of Prevotella and Bacteroides bacteria present in the intestines experienced severe diarrhea after taking Gwakhyangjeonggi-san, and the balance of intestinal microorganisms was greatly disturbed.

The research team said the result shows that intestinal microorganism distribution can be tested for patients before receiving prescriptions to predetermine compatibility, which can then lead to personalized Korean Medicine treatment in the future.
Also, the team demonstrated how the results of intestinal microorganism testing can help explain why a rare few patients experience side effects or why some patients have positive versus negative results after taking the same medicines.
Humans coexist with one to ten times more microorganisms than the number of their own cells.
An imbalance in intestinal microorganisms has recently been shown to bring on obesity, inflammatory bowel disorder, severe colitis, allergies, arthritis, diabetes, and even depression.

Leader of the New Korea Medicine Team, So, Jai Hyun stated, “It is difficult for many people to access medicinal herbs and the ingredients are hard to digest, but recently there is a lot of active research that shows those indigestible ingredients act as probiotics and feeds useful intestinal microorganisms, thereby strengthening the intestines overall.”
President of NIKOM, Lee Eungse commented, “Korean people have long consumed probiotics, namely in the form of Korean Medicines,” and “Using these research results as a base, we need to press on with follow-up research for clinical trials to thoroughly examine real patient cases.”
NIKOM has also established a Joint Research Team that is anticipated to study the absorption of Korean Medicine in relation to the changes in the distribution of intestinal microorganisms and subsequent effects.