| 1 | 0Study Finds Probiotics 'Not As Beneficial For Gut Health As Previously Thought' (theguardian.com) null/SLASHDOT/0102641010 70\r |
| 2 | i Thursday September 06, 2018 @11:30PM (BeauHD)\r |
| 3 | i from the contrary-to-popular-belief dept.\r |
| 4 | i\r |
| 5 | i An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The gut\r |
| 6 | i microbiome is the sum total of all the micro-organisms living\r |
| 7 | i in a person's gut, and has been shown to play a huge role in\r |
| 8 | i human health. New research has found probiotics -- usually\r |
| 9 | i taken as supplements or in foods such as yoghurt, kimchi or\r |
| 10 | i kefir -- can hinder a patient's gut microbiome from returning\r |
| 11 | i to normal after a course of antibiotics, and that different\r |
| 12 | i people respond to probiotics in dramatically different ways.\r |
| 13 | i In the first of two papers published in the journal Cell,\r |
| 14 | i researchers performed endoscopies and colonoscopies to sample\r |
| 15 | i and study the gut microbiomes of people who took antibiotics\r |
| 16 | i before and after probiotic consumption. Another group were\r |
| 17 | i given samples of their own gut microbiomes collected before\r |
| 18 | i consuming antibiotics. The researchers found the microbiomes\r |
| 19 | i of those who had taken the probiotics had suffered a "very\r |
| 20 | i severe disturbance." "Once the probiotics had colonized the\r |
| 21 | i gut, they completely inhibited the return of the indigenous\r |
| 22 | i microbiome which was disrupted during antibiotic treatment,"\r |
| 23 | i said Eran Elinav, an immunologist at the Weizmann Institute of\r |
| 24 | i Science in Israel and lead author on the studies. The\r |
| 25 | i scientists also compared the gut microbiomes of the gut\r |
| 26 | i intestinal tract of 25 volunteers with that of their stools.\r |
| 27 | i They found that stool bacteria only partially correlated with\r |
| 28 | i the microbiomes functioning inside their bodies. "So the fact\r |
| 29 | i that we all almost exclusively rely on stool in our microbiome\r |
| 30 | i research may not be a reliable way of studying gut microbiome\r |
| 31 | i health," said Elinav. In the second paper, the researchers\r |
| 32 | i examined the colonization and impact of probiotics on 15\r |
| 33 | i people by sampling within their gastrointestinal tract. They\r |
| 34 | i divided the individuals into two groups: one were given a\r |
| 35 | i preparation made of 11 strains of very commonly used\r |
| 36 | i probiotics and the other were given a placebo. Of those who\r |
| 37 | i were given probiotics, he said, "We could group the\r |
| 38 | i individuals into two distinct groups: one which resisted the\r |
| 39 | i colonisation of the probiotics, and one in which the\r |
| 40 | i probiotics colonized the gut and modified the composition of\r |
| 41 | i the gut microbiome and the genes of the host individual."\r |
| 42 | i\r |