BrainStuff Classics: What Can Probiotics Really Do?

Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel bomb here. What if you could take a pill that would treat depression, constipation, diarrhea, exzema, urine, airtract infections, and allergies, while also preventing cavities and strengthening your overall immunity. And what if it promised to shield you from the impurities of the world and re establish a right and correct balance in your body's ecology. First of all, everybody settled down, there is no such thing as a pill that does all of that. But to

hear some people talk, probiotics might just come close. The popularity of products containing friendly live microorganisms has exploded over the past decade. At this point, you can walk into almost any grocery store and find probiotics in capsules, lozenges, gum, facial toner and yes even in pet products, in addition to the more traditional delivery systems like culture dairy products, yogurt,

and fermented products like suakraut and kombucha. Some folks are making a lot of money on these little bacterial helpers, but what are they actually able to do for us and are they safe? We spoke with doctor Chris Irwin, a dietitian and lecturer in nutrition and dietetics at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia. He said that unless you have an extremely poor diet or drink alcohol to excess, there's not a lot of evidence that a probiotic dietary supplement

will help your overall health. He said, if you're taking probiotics, you'll likely need to take them every day, and it's best to feed the healthy bacteria with prebiotics. The bottom line is that healthy people are likely to get more benefit from getting regular exercise, avoiding smoking or consuming too much alcohol, and having a diet rich in foods that increase fiber and natural prebiotics intake like vegetables, fruit and

whole grains, rather than consuming a probiotic supplement. However, probiotics might be an effective treatment for specific cases or conditions. While there's not a lot of evidence supporting the idea that probiotics could help with your exima allergies or dental woes, sorry, they might actually help people looking to avoid vaginal east infections or upper respiratory infections picked up from a cold virus.

Other studies have found that probiotics can help with digestive issues like irritable bell syndrome and may improve the frequency and consistency of your poop. So, as a consumer, what should you look for in a probiotic If you want to get the most bang for your buck, Basically, you've got some homework to do. Irwin said. Different probiotic strains have different effects, so it's important to look for a probiotic supplement that contains the strains of bacteria most likely

to match your condition. The dose of bacteria, called colon many forming units or CFU, is also important and should be high enough to meet benefits observed in clinical trials. The short answer here is, if someone is looking for a probiotic to take, go for something that provides the

greatest diversity in bacterial strains and the highest CFU. Irwin also suggests getting advice from your doctor or dietitian for the strains that might be right for you, and making sure you're buying probiotic strains that are reputable and have committed to transparency in scientific research. However, that latter is

more easily said than done. A study published in Jama Internal Medicine in twenty eighteen pointed out that there is very little government oversight of factories that manufacture probiotics, and the US Boon and Drug Administration, or FDA, found that about half of the six hundred and fifty factories that manufacture probiotic supplements in the United States were cited for violations, most having to do with the product not living up

to what was promised on the label. The study also said the probiotics may lead to infections in people with immune deficiencies. Another study published this year in the journal Cell suggests some people may be resistant to supplemented probiotic bacteria, and therefore we'll get no benefit from it at all.

The researchers also investigated whether probiotics can help the gut microbiome bounce back after a round of antibiotics, and they found that though probiotics might have helped with diarrhea related to the antibiotic. They seem to have delayed the reconstitution of gut bacteria. Of course, more research is needed to understand just how helpful probiotics are to our overall health, and it's important not to give them more credit than

their due. Irwin said, it's unlikely probiotic supplements are dangerous, but I don't think that they're a magic bullet. Healthy people are likely to get more benefit from having a diet rich in vegetables, fruit, and whole grains. On the other hand, if someone has a poor diet and doesn't exercise regularly, their digestive bacteria may benefit from probiotic supplements, but they'll likely need to keep taking them to get

lasting effects. Today's episode is based on the article Everyone Be Taking Probiotics on hostiff works dot com, written by Molly Edmunds and Jesslyn Shields. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership with hostuffworks dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.