According to a recent study, probiotic treatments do not provide benefits for all people and in some circumstances damage the microbiota.
I Probiotics they include bacteria and yeasts whose intake is believed to improve intestinal well-being and overall health. Despite this widespread belief, however, the evidence supporting the benefits of probiotics is limited and often refers to isolated cases.
A recent study has indeed shown that in most cases take supplements based on probiotics it has no effect, while in some situations probiotic-based treatments can even be harmful.
To evaluate the real effect of probiotics, immunologist Eran Elinav of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel directly analyzed the microbiota of people through endoscopies and colonoscopies to evaluate the differences between those who took probiotics and those who took a placebo. .
Professor Elinav and his team first discovered that fecal samples are not representative of what happens in the gut.
Furthermore, since there are notable differences in people's microbiota, giving everyone the same mix of microorganisms does not give the same results and in some participants, probiotics did not have any noteworthy effects. To get the benefits of taking probiotics, everyone should follow a tailor-made treatment.
It is also a widespread belief that after a treatment with antibiotics, a probiotic treatment can help restore the gut microbiota. In another study, the researchers then gave the participants probiotics after a course of antibiotics.
In this case, the probiotics readily colonized the gut but took over too much control, preventing or slowing the restoration of the original microbiota. This suggests that taking probiotics can be counterproductive in some cases.
Overall, the results pose numerous doubts about the efficacy of probiotics and so-called lactic ferments: taking microorganisms to improve the health of the microbiota and of the organism seems to be effective only in some people and even harmful in certain situations.
Read also:
- Probiotics and lactic ferments: useless for children with intestinal flu or gastroenteritis. I study
- Probiotic supplements: this is why "lactic ferments" do not always work
- Immune system: dogs' kisses better than probiotics?
Tatiana Maselli
