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Home > Anti-aging Research > Lactobacillus Acidophilus

Lactobacillus Acidophilus & Other Probiotics

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News & Research:

  • 'Good' bacteria to tackle depression - Science Daily, 6/9/22 - "All participants were inpatients at the University Psychiatric Clinics Basel (UPK) and were given a probiotic (21 subjects) or a placebo (26 subjects) for 31 days, in addition to antidepressants ... although depressive symptoms decreased in all participants thanks to the general antidepressant treatment, there was a greater improvement in the subjects in the probiotic group than in the placebo group ... Another interesting effect of taking probiotics was seen in relation to brain activity when viewing neutral or fearful faces. The researchers investigated this effect using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In patients with depression, certain brain regions for emotional processing behave differently than in individuals with good mental health. After four weeks of probiotics, this brain activity normalized in the probiotic group but not in the placebo group ... Although the microbiome-gut-brain axis has been the subject of research for a number of years, the exact mechanisms are yet to be fully clarified ... This was another reason why the researchers believed it was important to use a wide range of bacteria in the form of probiotics, such as formulations already available on the market" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Antibiotics wreak havoc on athletic performance - Science Daily, 6/1/22 - "by killing essential gut bacteria, antibiotics ravage athletes' motivation and endurance ... when wheel running in the athletic mice was reduced by 21 percent, researchers were certain the microbiome damage was responsible. In addition, the high runner mice did not recover their running behavior even 12 days after the antibiotic treatment stopped"
  • Can Fecal Transplants Help Reverse Aging? - Medscape, 5/12/22 - "Transplanting fecal microbiota from young mice into older mice can reverse signs of aging in the gut, brain, and eyes, a team of scientists from the United Kingdom has found. Conversely, transplanting microbiota from old mice to young mice has the opposite effect ... Age-related changes in diversity, composition, and function of the gut microbiota are associated with low-grade systemic inflammation, declining tissue function, and increased susceptibility to age-related chronic diseases ... Targeting the gut-brain axis in aging, by modification of microbial composition to modulate immune and metabolic pathways, may therefore be a potential avenue for therapeutic approaches to age-associated inflammatory and functional decline" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Gut Bacteria Linked to Stroke Severity, Risk - Medscape, 5/6/22 - "Gut microbiota have been implicated in dementia risk, cardiovascular disease, and multiple sclerosis relapse. Prior research has also pointed to a possible link between gut bacteria and stroke ... A potential future development of our study would be to investigate the effects of altering the gut microbiota of patients at high risk of stroke by giving them probiotics, prebiotics, or performing fecal matter transplants and measuring whether their risk of stroke is reduced ... The exact mechanisms by which gut bacteria might influence neurologic conditions such as stroke are uncertain, but one possibility is that they could cause changes to the immune system" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com and prebiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Probiotic Improves Symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome - Medscape, 5/9/22 - "After the 30-day treatment period with B longum 35624, a significant decrease in IBS severity was observed, compared with baseline. The IBS-SSS score went from 303 to 208 (P < .001). More than half of the patients (57%) experienced an overall decrease in their symptoms. The rate of severe symptoms decreased from 46.6% to 20%; moderate symptoms decreased from 48.1% to 36.1%; mild symptoms increased from 4.7% to 35.2%; and 8.7% of patients were in remission after the treatment vs 0.9% before. A significant improvement in disease severity (more than a 50-point decrease in the IBS-SSS score) was observed in 65.7% of patients, regardless of the IBS subtype ... After 30 days of treatment, a significant improvement in quality of life was noted in the patients (IBS-QOL score 68.8 vs 60.2, P < .001), and more than 6 out of 10 (63%) were satisfied with the treatment" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Targeting the Microbiota May Help Manage Type 2 Diabetes - Medscape, 4/20/22 - "Daily oral supplementation with live or pasteurized A muciniphila at the dose of 1010 bacteria/day or more for 3 months was safe and well tolerated among patients who were overweight or with obesity, as well as people with insulin resistance who presented with metabolic syndrome. Compared with placebo, pasteurized A muciniphila improved insulin sensitivity and lowered serum insulin and plasma total cholesterol levels, and it was associated with a reduction in body fat, hip circumference, and weight (−2.27 kg). Blood markers of inflammation and liver dysfunction were improved" - Note: The only place that I could find that sells it is sold out. They want $105 for a 30 day supply.
  • Oral Probiotic Could Improve HPV Clearance - Medscape, 4/20/22 - "At a median follow-up of 12 months, HPV-related cytological anomalies cleared in 60.5% of the probiotic group vs 41.3% of the control group (P = .05) ... HPV cleared in 15.3% of the probiotic arm vs 9.3% of the control group (P = .34)"
  • Scientists develop coated probiotics that could be effectively delivered into the human gut - Science Daily, 3/25/22 - "In the NTU-study, the probiotics, gut-friendly Lacticaseibacillus bacteria, are spray-coated with alginate, a carbohydrate derived from brown algae, protecting them from the harsh acidic conditions in the stomach" - Note: But they've been claiming that for decades.
  • Healthy gut microbiome improves success of cancer treatment - Science Daily, 2/28/22 - "The largest study to date has confirmed the link between the gut microbiome and the response to cancer immunotherapy therapy for melanoma ... The presence of three types of bacteria (Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum, Roseburia spp. and Akkermansia muciniphila) seem to be associated with a better immune response. An additional finding was that the microbiome itself is strongly influenced by factors including patient constitution, use of proton pump inhibitors and diet that should be considered in future longitudinal studies" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Scientists characterize the imbalanced gut bacteria of patients with myocardial infarction, angina and heart failure - Science Daily, 2/18/22 - "However, the early microbiome changes persisted in patients with heart disease who in addition showed specific heart disease related alterations in the composition and function of the gut microbiome. Both at the early dysmetabolic stage and at the later stages of diagnosed heart disease, the diseased microbiome was characterized by a loss of bacterial cells and bacterial competences. In addition, the patients showed a shift towards fewer types of bacteria known to produce health promoting compounds like short chain fatty acids and more bacteria types producing unhealthy compounds from the metabolism of certain dietary amino acids, choline and L-carnitine. Analyses of the blood compounds mirrored the imbalance of the gut microbiome ... Intervention in both humans and rodents have shown that an imbalanced gut microbiome at various stages of heart disease development can be modified and partly restored by eating a more plant-based and energy-controlled diet, avoidance of smoking and compliance with daily exercise" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Gut Bacteria Linked With Long COVID - Medscape, 1/25/22 - "the researchers enrolled 106 patients with COVID-19 from February to August 2020, and compared them with people who did not have COVID, recruited in 2019. The severity of COVID in the enrolled patients was mostly mild to moderate ... At 3 months, 86 of the COVID patients had post–acute COVID-19 syndrome (PACS) — defined as at least one persistent, otherwise unexplained symptom 4 weeks after clearance of the virus. And 81 patients had PACS at 6 months, most commonly fatigue, poor memory, hair loss, anxiety, and trouble sleeping ... broadly, the diversity of the types of bacteria, and the abundance of these bacteria, were significantly lower at 6 months for those with PACS, compared with those without PACS and with controls (P < .05 and P < .0001, respectively). Among those with PACS, 28 bacteria species were diminished and 14 were enriched, both at baseline and follow-up. Those patients who had COVID but not PACS showed just 25 alterations of bacteria species at the time of hospital admission, and they all normalized by 6 months ... Having respiratory symptoms at 6 months was linked with higher levels of opportunistic pathogens such as Streptococcus anginosus and S. vestibularis. Neuropsychiatric symptoms and fatigue were associated with nosocomial pathogens that are linked to opportunistic infections, such as Clostridium innocuum and Actinomyces naeslundii ... Bacteria known for producing butyrate, a beneficial fatty acid, were significantly depleted in those patients with hair loss. And certain of these bacteria, including Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, had the largest inverse correlations with PACS at 6 months (P < .05), the researchers found ... Her group is conducting trials to look at how modulating the microbiome might prevent long COVID and boost antibodies after vaccination in high-risk people ... Gut microbiota influences the health of the host ... It provides crucial benefits in the form of immune system development, prevention of infections, nutrient acquisition, and brain and nervous system functionality. Considering the millions of people infected during the ongoing pandemic, our findings are a strong impetus for consideration of microbiota modulation to facilitate timely recovery and reduce the burden of post–acute COVID-19 syndrome" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Could Probiotics Reduce 'Chemo Brain' in Breast Cancer Patients? - Medscape, 1/18/22 - "The finding that probiotic treatment given alongside chemotherapy is sufficient to, in part, protect against memory disturbances in these patients suggests that there may be some neuroprotection conferred by the probiotic treatment" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Common drugs affect our gut microbiome differently, with good and bad impacts on health - Science Daily, 12/9/21 - "In the colon of people who take gastric acid medication, we found relatively high levels of bacteria that are normally only present in the oral cavity. Stomach acid usually kills bacteria from the oral cavity that try to escape to the gut where they do not belong. But this is not the case when you use these gastric acid inhibitors. The observation we have made is important because the presence of oral bacteria in the colon is associated with an increased risk of developing some types of colon cancer"
  • The impact of drugs on gut microbes is greater than we thought - Science Daily, 12/8/21 - "We know that the microbiome can reflect the status of a patient's health and provide a range of biomarkers to assess the severity of diseases. What is often overlooked, however, is that the medication used to treat a disease also affects the state of the microbiome ... The researchers are hopeful that these results can provide knowledge that could potentially help in drug repurposing as well as in planning individualised treatment and prevention strategies"
  • Probiotics improve nausea and vomiting in pregnancy - Science Daily, 12/4/21 - "Nausea, vomiting and constipation during pregnancy can significantly diminish the quality of patients' lives. Once nausea and vomiting during pregnancy progress, they can become difficult to control, and sometimes the patient even needs to be hospitalized ... During pregnancy, hormones like estrogen and progesterone increase, bringing about many physical changes. These increases can also change the gut microbiome, which likely affects the digestive system functions and causes unwanted symptoms like nausea, vomiting and constipation ... A total of 32 participants took a probiotic capsule twice a day for six days and then took two days off. They then repeated the cycle ... The probiotics were available over-the-counter and mainly contained Lactobacillus., a type of good bacteria. Each capsule contained approximately 10 billion live cultures at the time of manufacture ... taking the probiotic significantly reduced nausea and vomiting. Nausea hours (the number of hours participants felt nauseous) were reduced by 16%, and the number of times they vomited was reduced by 33%. Probiotic intake also significantly improved symptoms related to quality of life, such as fatigue, poor appetite and difficulty maintaining normal social activities, as scored by questionnaires ... Probiotics were also found to reduce constipation significantly ... Another finding was that vitamin E levels increased after taking probiotics. Higher levels of vitamin E were associated with low vomiting scores"
  • Gut Health 'Vitally Important' for Mental Health - Medscape, 9/21/21 - "A meta-analysis of 59 studies, encompassing roughly 2600 patients with psychiatric conditions, showed a decrease in microbial richness in patients with psychiatric conditions vs controls."
  • Microbes turn back the clock as research discovers their potential to reverse aging in the brain - Science Daily, 8/9/21 - "There is a growing appreciation of the importance of the microbes in the gut on all aspects of physiology and medicine. In this latest mouse study the authors show that by transplanting microbes from young into old animals they could rejuvenate aspects of brain and immune function. Prof John F. Cryan, says "Previous research published by the APC and other groups internationally has shown that the gut microbiome plays a key role in aging and the aging process. This new research is a potential game changer , as we have established that the microbiome can be harnessed to reverse age-related brain deterioration. We also see evidence of improved learning ability and cognitive function." Although very exciting Cryan cautions that "it is still early days and much more work is needed to see how these findings could be translated in humans."" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com and iHerb.
  • Characterization of the Gut-Liver-Muscle Axis in Cirrhotic Patients With Sarcopenia - Medscape, 7/6/21 - "Alterations in the gut-liver-muscle axis are associated with sarcopenia in patients with cirrhosis. Detrimental but also compensatory functions are involved in this complex network" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com and iHerb.
  • Probiotic Supplementation Regulates Newborn Immune System - Medscape, 6/28/21 - "Supplementing breastfed infants with bifidobacteria promotes development of a well-regulated immune system, theoretically reducing risk of immune-mediated conditions like allergies and asthma ... These findings support the importance of early gut colonization with beneficial microbes, an event that may affect the immune system throughout life"
  • The Probiotic Strain H. alvei HA4597® Improves Weight Loss in Overweight Subjects under Moderate Hypocaloric Diet: A Proof-of-Concept, Multicenter Randomized, Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Study - Nutrients 2021 - "Subjects of the HA group received two capsules per day providing 100 billion bacteria per day and subjects in the Placebo (P) group received two placebo capsules ... A 12-week treatment with the probiotic strain H. alvei HA4597® significantly improves weight loss, feeling of fullness and reduction of hip circumference in overweight subjects following moderate hypocaloric diet. These data support the use of H. alvei HA4597® in the global management of excess weight" - [Nutra USA] - Note:  Here's the targedys.com website.  I don't see where it's for sale anywhere.
  • Fecal Transplantation Safe but Ineffective in PsA Trial - Medscape, 5/7/21 - "The first clinical trial of fecal microbiota transplantation in patients with psoriatic arthritis has found the procedure to be as safe as a sham procedure, but it didn't show any effectiveness in decreasing PsA symptoms over 6 months"
  • The Gut Microbiota in Osteoarthritis - Medscape, 3/11/21 - "Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most frequent musculoskeletal diseases characterized by degeneration of articular cartilage, subchondral bone remodeling, and synovial membrane inflammation, which is a leading cause of global disability, morbidity, and decreased quality of life ... Gut microbiota is responsible for a series of metabolic, immunological, and structural and neurological functions, potentially elucidating the heterogeneity of OA phenotypes and individual features. In this narrative review, we summarized research evidence supporting the hypothesis of a "gut-joint axis" and the interaction between gut microbiota and the OA-relevant factors, including age, gender, genetics, metabolism, central nervous system, and joint injury, elucidating the underlying mechanisms of this intricate interaction. In the context, we also speculated the promising manipulation of gut microbiota in OA management, such as exercise and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), highlighting the clinical values of gut microbiota. Additionally, future research directions, such as more convincing studies by the interventions of gut microbiota, the gene regulation of host contributing to or attributed to the specific phenotypes of gut microbiota related to OA, and the relevance of distinct cell subgroups to gut microbiota, are expected. Moreover, gut microbiota is also the potential biomarker related to inflammation and gut dysbiosis that is able to predict OA progression and monitor the efficacy of therapeutic intervention"
  • How Do Gut Bacteria Affect COVID-19 Severity? - Medscape, 2/4/21 - "The gut, which regulates immune response, is one of the largest and most essential organs in the body. COVID-19 patients have been found to have poorer gut microbiome compositions compared with those without the disease ... Dysbiosis — abnormal gut microbiome — may account for long-term COVID-19 symptoms. In studies, elderly patients and those with chronic conditions were more likely to have dysbiosis, which might explain their increased risk for severe disease ... COVID-19 is not just a lung disease. Anywhere from 30% to 40% have gut manifestations too. Stool samples are now being used to test for COVID-19 ... The best way to promote good gut bacteria and reduce inflammation is to eat a healthy diet, with less processed food and food additives, and more fiber. Exercise is also important ... Select probiotics carefully; they are not all created equal"
  • Poor gut health connected to severe COVID-19, new review shows - Science Daily, 1/12/21 - "The "western diet" that's common in these countries is low in fiber, and "a fiber-deficient diet is one of the main causes of altered gut microbiomes," he said, "and such gut microbiome dysbiosis leads to chronic diseases." ... The pathogenesis of COVID-19 is still not fully understood. If future studies do show that gut health affects COVID-19 prognosis, Kim argued, then clinicians and researchers should exploit that connection for better strategies aimed at preventing and managing the disease. Eating more fiber, he said, may lower a person's risk of serious disease. And fecal microbiota transplantation might be a treatment worth considering for patients with the worst cases of COVID-19"
  • Link between gut microbes, diet and illnesses revealed - Science Daily, 1/11/21 - "The researchers defined a "healthy" diet as one that contained a mix of foods associated with a lower risk of chronic disease. They found that trial subjects who ate such a diet, or one rich in plants, were more likely to have high levels of specific 'good' gut microbes which are associated with a low risk of common illnesses. The researchers also found microbiome-based biomarkers of obesity as well as markers for cardiovascular disease and impaired glucose tolerance, which are key risk factors for COVID. These findings can be used to help create personalized eating plans designed specifically to improve one's health" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Scientists reveal how gut microbes can influence bone strength in mice - Science Daily, 1/12/21 - "The findings suggest that treatments which alter the gut microbiome could help improve bone structure or treat conditions that weaken bones, such as osteoporosis"
  • Gut microbe may promote breast cancers - Science Daily, 1/6/21 - "Our study suggests another risk factor, which is the microbiome. If your microbiome is perturbed, or if you harbor toxigenic microbes with oncogenic function, that could be considered an additional risk factor for breast cancer ... First, they performed a meta-analysis of clinical data looking at published studies comparing microbial composition among benign and malignant breast tumors and nipple aspirate fluids of breast cancer survivors and healthy volunteers. B. fragilis was consistently detected in all breast tissue samples as well as the nipple fluids of cancer survivors ... In the lab, the team gave the ETBF bacteria by mouth to a group of mice. First, it colonized the gut. Then, within three weeks, the mouse mammary tissue had observable changes usually present in ductal hyperplasia, a precancerous condition. In additional tests, investigators found that hyperplasia-like symptoms also appeared within two to three weeks of injecting ETBF bacteria directly to the teats of mice, and that cells exposed to the toxin always exhibited more rapid tumor progression and developed more aggressive tumors than cells not exposed to the toxin"
  • Link between dietary fiber and depression partially explained by gut-brain interactions - Science Daily, 1/6/21 - "The study confirmed an inverse association between dietary-fiber intake and depression in premenopausal women after adjusting for other variables, but no significant difference was documented in postmenopausal women. Research has suggested that estrogen depletion may play a role in explaining why postmenopausal women don't benefit as much from increased dietary fiber, because estrogen affects the balance of gut microorganisms found in premenopausal and postmenopausal women. The link between dietary fiber and depression may be partially explained by gut-brain interactions, because it is theorized that changes in gut-microbiota composition may affect neurotransmission. Fiber improves the richness and diversity of gut microbiota." - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Gut microbiota plays a role in brain function and mood regulation - Science Daily, 12/11/20 - "Using animal models, scientists recently discovered that a change to the gut microbiota brought about by chronic stress can lead to depressive-like behaviors, in particular by causing a reduction in lipid metabolites (small molecules resulting from metabolism) in the blood and the brain." - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com and iHerb.
  • Connection between gut bacteria and vitamin D levels - Science Daily, 11/30/20 - "In addition to discovering a link between active vitamin D and overall microbiome diversity, the researchers also noted that 12 particular types of bacteria appeared more often in the gut microbiomes of men with lots of active vitamin D. Most of those 12 bacteria produce butyrate, a beneficial fatty acid that helps maintain gut lining health" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com and vitamin D at iHerb.
  • Link between Alzheimer's disease and gut microbiota is confirmed - Science Daily, 11/16/20 - "A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG) in Switzerland, together with Italian colleagues from the National Research and Care Center for Alzheimer's and Psychiatric Diseases Fatebenefratelli in Brescia, University of Naples and the IRCCS SDN Research Center in Naples, confirm the correlation, in humans, between an imbalance in the gut microbiota and the development of amyloid plaques in the brain, which are at the origin of the neurodegenerative disorders characteristic of Alzheimer's disease ... This discovery paves the way for potentially highly innovative protective strategies -- through the administration of a bacterial cocktail, for example, or of pre-biotics to feed the "good" bacteria in our intestine" - See prebiotic supplements at Amazon.com and iHerb and probiotic supplements at Amazon.com and iHerb.
  • Probiotic Blend May Help Patients With GI Symptoms - Medscape, 10/28/20 - "evaluated the safety and efficacy of a five-strain probiotic blend - comprised of Bl-04, Bi-07, HN019, NCFM, and Lpc-37 - in people with functional GI disturbances ... In the open-label, multicenter study, all 188 adult participants - mean age, 44.1 years; 72.3% female - demonstrated symptoms of functional GI disturbances. Each received an oral capsule of the probiotic blend once daily for 30 days ... By day 30, 85.1% of patients had achieved the primary end point and indicated a positive response when asked about their overall GI well-being. All of the improvements reported at day 30 were generally observed at day 14 as well"
  • Probiotics Promising for Parkinson's Constipation - Medscape, 10/22/20 - "randomized 72 patients (mean age, about 70; about 65% men) to a multi-strain probiotics capsule or placebo for four weeks. Each probiotic capsule contained 10 billion colony forming units of eight different commercially-available bacterial strains: Lactobacillus acidophilus, L. reuteri, L. gasseri, L. rhamnosus, Bifidobacterium bifidum, B. longum, Enterococcus faecalis, and E. faecium. The placebo group received capsules containing maltodextrin ... spontaneous bowel movements (SBMs) per week ... SBMs increased by a mean of one per week after probiotics treatment, and decreased by 0.3 per week in the placebo group. After correction for multiple comparisons, significant improvements with probiotics were also seen for secondary outcomes, including stool consistency and quality of life related to constipation. A trend for reduced laxative usage was also seen ... Satisfaction was reported by 65.6% of intervention group participants versus 21.6% in the placebo group"
  • Gut microbiome plays important role in sleep regulation - Science Daily, 9/23/20 - "the gut microbiome plays a major role in sleep regulation. This ultimately could translate into treatments that target the gut microbiome in humans with OSA ... The study exposed male mice to either room air or intermittent hypoxia -- a condition in which the body doesn't get enough oxygen -- designed to mimic OSA. After six weeks, researchers collected fecal material from all of the rodents. A third group of mice was divided up and given either a fecal transplant from the mice breathing room air or those exposed to intermittent hypoxia. The transplanted mice underwent sleep recordings for three consecutive days. Researchers found the mice who received transplants from the intermittent hypoxia group slept longer and slept more often during their normal period of wakefulness, suggesting increased sleepiness"
  • Gut microbes could unlock the secret to healthy aging - Science Daily, 8/27/20 - "Bacteria and other microorganisms in the digestive tract are linked with dozens of health conditions including high blood pressure, high blood lipids, and body mass index (BMI) according to research presented today at ESC Congress 2020 ... The researchers found that higher levels of eleven bacteria (estimated from genetic data) were associated with a total of 28 health and disease outcomes. These included chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), atopy (a genetic tendency to develop allergic diseases like asthma and eczema), frequency of alcohol intake, high blood pressure, high blood lipids, and BMI ... To take one example, higher levels of the genus Ruminococcus were linked with increased risk of high blood pressure ... Regarding alcohol consumption, Dr. Groot said: "What we eat and drink is connected to microbiome content, so we studied the links with meat, caffeine, and alcohol. We observed a relationship between raised levels of Methanobacterium and drinking alcohol more often. It is important to stress that this is an association, not a causal relation, and more research is needed.""
  • Supplement Plus Probiotic May Improve Depressive Symptoms - Medscape, 8/12/20 - "randomly assigned 90 patients with subthreshold or mild-to-moderate depression to receive either SAMe plus L. plantarum HEAL9 or placebo for 6 weeks and found significant reductions in depression, anxiety, and cognitive symptoms as early as 2 weeks following treatment initiation ... The effect of this novel product is independent from the severity of the symptoms, unlike traditional antidepressants available on the market that have minimal benefits for subthreshold or mild-to-moderate symptoms ... Extensive research has also shed light on the role of microbiota in patients with depressive disorder, suggesting a role for probiotic supplementation. A probiotic called L. plantarum 299v has been found to have a significant effect on stress markers, such as cortisol levels ... At 2 weeks, participants showed significant reductions in the cognitive and anxiety subdomains of the Z-SDS" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com and iHerb and SAM-e at Amazon.com and iHerb.
  • Probiotics Reduce Allergic Rhinitis in Children and Adults - Medscape, 6/18/20 - "The 115 infants in the probiotic group received five drops of L reuteri daily from the age of 4 weeks to 12 weeks. "The drops were put on the mother's nipple, directly to the child's mouth," she explained ... The 201 children in the control group were breast-fed without any supplements. All children were followed by the same pediatrician until they were 9 years of age ... Children in the probiotic group were three times less likely to develop allergic rhinitis than those in the control group"
  • Improved gut microbiota with cholesterol-lowering medication - Science Daily, 6/15/20 - "The positive and hitherto unknown effect of statins identified by the researchers was that the proportion of individuals with Bact2 decreased in the group given statin therapy, resulting in a more normal gut microbiota"
  • Gut microbiome influences ALS outcomes - Science Daily, 5/13/20 - "mice with a common ALS genetic mutation, changing the gut microbiome using antibiotics or fecal transplants could prevent or improve disease symptoms ... he findings provide a potential explanation for why only some individuals carrying the mutation develop ALS. They also point to a possible therapeutic approach based on the microbiome ... The gut-brain axis has been implicated in a range of neurological conditions, including Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. Our results add weight to the importance of this connection"
  • Probiotic Reduces Crying Time in Colicky Infants - Medscape, 12/4/19 - "80% of BB-12 recipients showed a ≥50% reduction in crying duration after 28 days, compared with 31.5% of those in the placebo group (P < .0001"
  • Increased use of antibiotics may predispose to Parkinson's disease - Science Daily, 11/22/19 - "The strongest associations were found for broad spectrum antibiotics and those that act against against anaerobic bacteria and fungi. The timing of antibiotic exposure also seemed to matter ... The study suggests that excessive use of certain antibiotics can predispose to Parkinson's disease with a delay of up to 10 to 15 years. This connection may be explained by their disruptive effects on the gut microbial ecosystem"
  • Gut microbiota imbalance promotes the onset of colorectal cancer - Science Daily, 11/18/19 - "an imbalance in the gut microbiota, also known as "dysbiosis," promotes the onset of colorectal cancer ... transplanting fecal flora from patients with colon cancer into mice caused lesions and epigenetic changes characteristic of the development of a malignant tumor"
  • Where does Parkinson's disease start? In the brain or gut? Or both? - Science Daily, 11/7/19 - "It may be possible to prevent the 'gut-first' type of PD through interventions targeting the gut, such as probiotics, fecal transplants, and anti-inflammatory treatments. However, these strategies might not work with respect to treating and preventing the brain-first type. Thus, a personalized treatment strategy will be required, and we need to be able to identify these subtypes of PD in the individual patient" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Gut bacteria is key factor in childhood obesity - Science Daily, 10/30/19 - "The medical community used to think that obesity was a result of consuming too many calories. However, a series of studies over the past decade has confirmed that the microbes living in our gut are not only associated with obesity but also are one of the causes" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Could More Coffee Bring a Healthier Microbiome? - WebMD, 10/28/19 - "Overall, the 34 participants who drank two or more cups of coffee daily throughout the previous year exhibited better gut microbiome profiles than those who consumed less or no coffee ... Heavy coffee drinkers' bacterial species were more abundant and more evenly distributed throughout the large intestine, richer in anti-inflammatory properties, and considerably less likely to include Erysipelatoclostridium, a type of bacteria linked to metabolic abnormalities and obesity ... coffee's polyphenols and other antioxidants, compounds naturally found in plant foods, are likely what's providing a healthier microbiome"
  • Gut instincts: Researchers discover first clues on how gut health influences brain health - Science Daily, 101/23/19 - "Over the last two decades, scientists have observed a clear link between autoimmune disorders and a variety of psychiatric conditions. For example, people with autoimmune disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), psoriasis and multiple sclerosis may also have depleted gut microbiota and experience anxiety, depression and mood disorders. Genetic risks for autoimmune disorders and psychiatric disorders also appear to be closely related. But precisely how gut health affects brain health has been unknown ... The gut-brain axis impacts every single human being, every day of their lives ... We are beginning to understand more about how the gut influences diseases as diverse as autism, Parkinson's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Our study provides a new piece of understanding of how the mechanisms operate"
  • Probiotic pills could bring an end to malnutrition, says billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates - Telegraph, 10/7/19 - "He argues that better scientific understanding of the human microbiome – specifically the microorganisms which inhabit the gut – will enable the development of “smartly engineered” probiotic pills which will help us to retain more of the nutrients in the foods we eat"
    • Why probiotics could hold the key to solving malnutrition – the world’s worst health problem - Bill Gates, 10/7/19 - "Saving these children isn’t as simple as making sure they have enough food to eat. Stunting can happen even if you’re getting enough calories ... there are a few less intuitive causes of stunting. A deeper understanding of one of those reasons – the microbiome of the human body – is why I believe we’re going to solve malnutrition within 20 years ... Another intervention could be what’s called “microbiota directed complementary foods.” Think of them as being like fertiliser for the microbiome. Eating them encourages healthy bacteria – the ones that help digest food and protect us from infection – to flourish." - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com and prebiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Molecule links weight gain to gut bacteria - Science Daily, 9/27/19 - "Their findings could have far-ranging implications for obesity in affluent countries and malnutrition in impoverished countries ... In the study, published this week by Science, Dr. Lora Hooper and her research team found that the commensal, or good, bacteria that live in the guts of mammals program the metabolic rhythms that govern the body's absorption of dietary fat ... Most mice on that diet become obese. To our surprise, those that had no HDAC3 in their intestinal lining were able to eat a high fat, high sugar diet and stay lean ... disrupting the interactions between the microbiota and the body's clock could make us more likely to become obese. These disruptions happen frequently in modern life when we take antibiotics, work overnight shifts, or travel internationally. But we think that our findings might eventually lead to new treatments for obesity -- and possibly malnutrition -- by altering the bacteria in our guts"
  • Abnormal gut bugs tied to worse cognitive performance in vets with PTSD and cirrhosis - Science Daily, 9/12/19 - "A study involving military veterans with PTSD and cirrhosis of the liver points to an abnormal mix of bacteria in the intestines as a possible driver of poor cognitive performance -- and as a potential target for therapy ... the findings add to the substantial evidence linking gut health and brain function ... Those with PTSD had microbiota that were less diverse, meaning they had fewer types of bacteria overall ... These veterans, along with the relative lack of diversity in their gut, tended to have more potentially harmful types of bacteria, such as Enterococcus and Escherichia/Shigella, and fewer beneficial ones, such as Lachnospiraceae and Ruminococcaceae ... He cited probiotic supplements or fecal transplants as two possible therapy approaches"
  • The diet-microbiome connection in inflammatory bowel disease - Science Daily, 9/9/19 - "The bacteria in the gut are known to be a really important factor in tipping the scales toward disease ... And the environmental factor that seems to contribute the most to rapid changes in the microbiome is what you eat. Given that dogs' microbiomes are extremely similar to those of humans, we thought this was an intriguing model to ask, 'Could diet be impacting this disease through an impact on the microbiome?'" ... One of these "good" microbes that can give rise to secondary bile acids was the bacterium Clostridium hiranonis, which the researchers found in greater numbers in dogs that went into remission ... Youngsters who responded to the therapy had an increase in numbers of the bacteria species Clostridium scindens, which, like C. hiranonis, is a potent producer of secondary bile acids"
  • Seeking an Obesity Cure, Researchers Turn to the Gut Microbiome - NYT, 9/10/19 - "A clinical trial published in the journal Nature Medicine in July, for example, found that giving obese people supplements containing a gut microbe linked to leanness in mice and humans lowered their cholesterol, inflammation and insulin and even led to a few pounds of weight loss compared to a control group ... Still, Dr. Yu said a capsule containing a cocktail of beneficial microbes is never going to be a silver bullet."
  • Gut bacteria may be linked to high blood pressure and depression - Science Daily, 9/5/19 - "the investigators discovered unique patterns of bacteria from people with 1) high blood pressure plus depression; 2) high blood pressure without depression; 3) depression with healthy blood pressure; or 4) healthy subjects without depression or high blood pressure ... Stevens said the results suggest different medical mechanisms of high blood pressure that correlate with signature molecules produced by gut bacteria. These molecules are thought to impact the cardiovascular system, metabolism, hormones and the nervous system."
  • Diet's effect on gut bacteria could play role in reducing Alzheimer's risk - Science Daily, 9/3/19 - "a modified Mediterranean-ketogenic diet produced changes in the gut microbiome and its metabolites that correlated with reduced levels of Alzheimer's markers in the members of both study groups"
  • In Vivo Effectiveness and Safety of Probiotics on Prophylaxis and Treatment of Oral Candidiasis - Medscape, 8/29/19 - "Probiotics were superior to the placebo and blank control in preventing and treating oral candidiasis in the elderly and denture wearers" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Emerging Role of the Gut Microbiome in the Progression of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Potential Therapeutic Implications - Medscape, 8/26/19 - "Multiple pathophysiologic pathways connect the gut microbiome with the pathophysiology of NAFLD. Therefore, therapeutics that effectively target the gut microbiome may be beneficial for the treatment of patients with NAFLD"
  • These gut bacteria prevent mice from becoming obese -- what could that mean for us? - Science Daily, 7/25/19 - "healthy mice have plenty of Clostridia -- a class of 20 to 30 bacteria -- but those with an impaired immune system lose these microbes from their gut as they age. Even when fed a healthy diet, the mice inevitably become obese. Giving this class of microbes back to these animals allowed them to stay slim ... Mice experimentally treated so that Clostridia were the only bacteria living in their gut were leaner with less fat than mice that had no microbiome at all. They also had lower levels of a gene, CD36, that regulates the body's uptake of fatty acids ... These insights could lead to a therapeutic approach, Round says, with advantages over the fecal transplants and probiotics that are now being widely investigated as ways to restore a healthy microbiota ... Round points out that research by others have shown that people who are obese similarly lack Clostridia, mirroring the situation in these mice" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • These gut bacteria prevent mice from becoming obese -- what could that mean for us? - Science Daily, 7/25/19 - "healthy mice have plenty of Clostridia -- a class of 20 to 30 bacteria -- but those with an impaired immune system lose these microbes from their gut as they age. Even when fed a healthy diet, the mice inevitably become obese. Giving this class of microbes back to these animals allowed them to stay slim ... Mice experimentally treated so that Clostridia were the only bacteria living in their gut were leaner with less fat than mice that had no microbiome at all. They also had lower levels of a gene, CD36, that regulates the body's uptake of fatty acids ... These insights could lead to a therapeutic approach, Round says, with advantages over the fecal transplants and probiotics that are now being widely investigated as ways to restore a healthy microbiota ... Round points out that research by others have shown that people who are obese similarly lack Clostridia, mirroring the situation in these mice"
  • Gut microbes may affect the course of ALS - Science Daily, 7/22/19 - "To reveal the mechanism by which Akkermansia may be producing its effect, the scientists examined thousands of small molecules secreted by the gut microbes. They zeroed in on one molecule called nicotinamide (NAM): Its levels in the blood and in the cerebrospinal fluid of ALS-prone mice were reduced following antibiotic treatment and increased after these mice were supplemented with Akkermansia, which was able to secrete this molecule. To confirm that NAM was indeed a microbiome-secreted molecule that could hinder the course of ALS, the scientists continuously infused the ALS-prone mice with NAM. The clinical condition of these mice improved significantly. A detailed study of gene expression in their brains suggested that NAM improved the functioning of their motor neurons" - Note:  See previous newsletters.  Akkermansia is the one that may help with weight control.
  • Gut microbes protect against neurologic damage from viral infections - Science Daily, 7/16/19 - "Gut microbes produce compounds that prime immune cells to destroy harmful viruses in the brain and nervous system ... Mice treated with antibiotics before the onset of disease were unable to defend themselves. They also had fewer immune cells called microglia, which help flag viruses for destruction by other immune cells" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • 'First Evidence' Links Gut Bacteria, Fibromyalgia - Medscape, 7/9/19 - "women with fibromyalgia had significant differences in 19 species of gut bacteria compared with healthy controls. They also had higher serum levels of butyrate and lower levels of propionate ... Evidence is mounting on the critical role of the gut microbiota in a variety of pathologies, including, but not limited to, metabolic, cardiovascular, oncologic, neurologic, and psychiatric disorders"
  • A Probiotic for Obesity - NYT, 7/1/19 - "Compared with the placebo group, those who took pasteurized A. muciniphila had significantly improved insulin sensitivity and total cholesterol, and decreases in several blood markers of inflammation and liver dysfunction. They also had decreased body weight, fat mass and waist circumference, though those differences were not statistically significant"
  • Gut Bacteria Help May Boost Obese People's Health - WebMD. 7/1/19 - ""But that was just a simple correlation," Cani said. So several years ago, his team started to look deeper. First, they found that in lab mice, Akkermansia -- given as live bacteria -- helped prevent weight gain from a high-fat diet ... The important conclusion is, this type of supplement is safe and feasible ... After three months, people on the pasteurized supplement had lost 5 pounds, on average. Their insulin sensitivity improved by 30% in relation to the placebo group, whose sensitivity worsened. And their total cholesterol dipped by about 9% versus the placebo group, the findings showed" - Note:  I Goggled it.  I don't think it's available yet.  Here's what Amazon comes up with for probiotics for weight loss.
  • Could a Gut Bacteria Supplement Make Us Run Faster? - NYT, 6/26/19 - "Given these findings, the researchers “are optimistic” that athletes and inactive people might likewise benefit from popping a little supplemental Veillonella, says Aleksandar Kostic, an assistant professor of microbiology at Harvard Medical School and the Joslin Diabetes Center and the study’s senior author. He, like several of his co-authors, has equity in a new company that plans to offer such supplements. (The current study was funded by the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard and the National Institutes of Health, with no contributions from the new company.) ... “What excites me is the idea that this might help people who find exercise difficult to increase their exercise capacity,” Dr. Kostic says, while also potentially improving the performance of already-fit athletes"
  • Bacteria from your gut may be the key to running farther - engadget, 6/25/19 - "The researchers found the bacteria after examining the poop of 10 Boston Marathon runners. To generate energy for itself, Veillonella breaks down lactic acid, which is produced at a higher level when athletes perform particularly strenuous activities. To determine if the bacteria was making a difference, the researchers isolated a strain of it and inserted it into 16 mice, then placed them on a treadmill. The mice with the bacteria in their stomachs were able to run for 13 percent longer than mice who didn't get the benefit of Veillonella -- a small difference, but one that could make a huge difference in an athletic competition in which every little advantage counts" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Gut bacteria associated with chronic pain for first time - Science Daily, 6/20/19 - "We also saw that the severity of a patient's symptoms was directly correlated with an increased presence or a more pronounced absence of certain bacteria -- something which has never been reported before ... At this point, it's not clear whether the changes in gut bacteria seen in patients with fibromyalgia are simply markers of the disease or whether they play a role in causing it"
  • Unhealthy gut promotes spread of breast cancer - Science Daily, 6/10/19 - "disrupting the microbiome of mice caused hormone receptor-positive breast cancer to become more aggressive. Altering the microbiome, the collection of microorganisms that live in the gut and elsewhere, had dramatic effects in the body, priming the cancer to spread ... When we disrupted the microbiome's equilibrium in mice by chronically treating them antibiotics, it resulted in inflammation systemically and within the mammary tissue ... In this inflamed environment, tumor cells were much more able to disseminate from the tissue into the blood and to the lungs, which is a major site for hormone receptor-positive breast cancer to metastasize ... Most breast cancers -- 65 percent or more -- are hormone receptor positive. That means their growth is fueled by a hormone, either estrogen or progesterone ... A healthy diet, high in fiber, along with exercise, sleep -- all of those things that contribute to positive overall health" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com and prebiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Could boosting the gut microbiome be the secret to healthier older age? - Science Daily, 6/4/19 - "Co-housing young and aged mice (mice naturally like to sample the faecal pellets of other mice!) or more directly performing faecal transfer from young to aged mice boosted the gut immune system in the aged mice, partly correcting the age-related decline ... To our surprise, co-housing rescued the reduced gut immune response in aged mice. Looking at the numbers of the immune cells involved, the aged mice possessed gut immune responses that were almost indistinguishable from those of the younger mice ... The results show that the poor gut immune response is not irreversible and that the response can be strengthened by challenging with appropriate stimuli, essentially turning back the clock on the gut immune system to more closely resemble the situation in a young mouse ... By demonstrating the effectiveness of interventions that have a positive impact on the composition of the gut microbiome, this research suggests that faecal transplants, probiotics, co-habitation and diet might all prove to be ways to facilitate healthy ageing" - Note the word "probiotics". 
  • A gut check for heart failure patients - Science Daily, 5/26/19 - "Heart failure patients had lower biodiversity of intestinal microbes than healthy controls, with differences in the two main phyla of bacteria present in the human gut. Patients with heart failure had a lower ratio of Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes (F/B) compared to controls, and this difference was even more pronounced when the cause of heart failure was non-ischaemic ... Dietary and outcome analyses were performed in heart failure patients. Patients who had a heart transplant or died had lower biodiversity and a lower F/B ratio than controls. Regarding diet, bacterial diversity and Firmicutes levels were positively associated with fibre intake ... Our findings suggest that the altered microbiota composition found in patients with chronic heart failure might be connected to low fibre intake"
  • Anxiety might be alleviated by regulating gut bacteria - Science  Daily, 5/20/19 - "People who experience anxiety symptoms might be helped by taking steps to regulate the microorganisms in their gut using probiotic and non-probiotic food and supplements ... Of the 14 studies that had used probiotics as the intervention, more than a third (36%) found them to be effective in reducing anxiety symptoms, while six of the remaining seven studies that had used non-probiotics as interventions found those to be effective -- a 86% rate of effectiveness ... Some studies had used both the IRIF (interventions to regulate intestinal microbiota) approach and treatment as usual ... The authors say one reason that non-probiotic interventions were significantly more effective than probiotic interventions was possible due to the fact that changing diet (a diverse energy source) could have more of an impact on gut bacteria growth than introducing specific types of bacteria in a probiotic supplement ... There are two kinds of interventions (probiotic and non-probiotic interventions) to regulate intestinal microbiota, and it should be highlighted that the non-probiotic interventions were more effective than the probiotic interventions" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com and prebiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Probiotics May Reduce Rehospitalization in Bipolar Disorder - Medscape, 4/15/19 - "Patients receiving the probiotic had a significantly decreased risk of being hospitalized. About 24% of patients were rehospitalized in the treatment group, compared with approximately 73% in the placebo group. Also, individuals receiving the probiotic were rehospitalized for much shorter periods of time (2.8 vs 8.3 days) ... Another part of this study that was quite interesting, which I haven't really seen in a lot of trials to date, was that the researchers looked at a number of biomarkers to establish what's called a neuroinflammatory index. They looked at a group of antigens to things like gliadin, toxoplasmosis, or the Mason‐Pfizer monkey virus. They stratified their sample and found that individuals with high neuroinflammatory markers who received the probiotic had a 90% reduced risk of being rehospitalized for mania."
  • Here's Everything You Need to Know About Gut Health - Time, 3/25/19 - "Everyone’s microbiome is unique, but there are a few generalities about what’s healthy and what’s not. “In healthy people, there is a diverse array of organisms,” says Dr. Gail Hecht, chair of the American Gastroenterological Association Center for Gut Microbiome Research & Education. (Most of those organisms are bacteria, but there are viruses, fungi and other microbes as well.) “In an unhealthy individual, there’s much less diversity, and there seems to be an increase of bacteria we associate with disease.”"
  • Fountain of youth for heart health may lie in the gut - Science Daily, 3/19/19 - "When you suppressed the microbiome of the old mice, their vascular health was restored to that of young mice," said senior author and professor Doug Seals, director of the Integrative Physiology of Aging Laboratory. "This suggests there is something about those microorganisms that is causing vascular dysfunction ... In general, in the old mice, we saw an increased prevalence of microbes that are pro-inflammatory and have been previously associated with diseases ... For instance, the old mice hosted significantly more Proteobacteria, a phyla that includes Salmonella and other pathogens, and pro-inflammatory Desulfovibrio ... Old mice had three times as much TMAO (trimethylamine N-oxide), a metabolite shown in previous studies to be linked to increased risk of atherosclerosis ... We now suspect that, with age, the gut microbiota begins producing toxic molecules, including TMAO, which get into the blood stream, cause inflammation and oxidative stress and damage tissue ... they are absolutely not suggesting people use antibiotics as a cardiovascular fountain of youth ... But they do believe that diets high in probiotic-rich cultured food (yogurt, kefir, kimchi) and prebiotic fiber could play a role in preventing heart disease by promoting a healthy gut microbiome ... They're also studying a compound called dimethyl butanol, found in some olive oils, vinegars and red wines, which blocks the bacterial enzyme required to produce TMAO ... The fountain of youth may actually lie in the gut" - See Probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • High-Fiber Diet May Help Your Gut Battle Melanoma - WebMD. 2/27/19 - "New research suggests that a diet that's full of fiber appears to lead to more diverse intestinal bacteria (microbiome). In turn, a thriving gut microbiome is linked to a stronger response to an immune therapy for the aggressive skin cancer ... We found that patients eating a high-fiber diet at the start of therapy were about five times more likely to respond to the anti-PD-1 immunotherapy"
  • Efficacy and Safety of Lactobacillus Plantarum C29-Fermented Soybean (DW2009) in Individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment: A 12-Week, Multi-Center, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial - Nutrients 2019, 11(2), 305 - "Compared to the placebo group, the DW2009 group showed greater improvements in the combined cognitive functions (z = 2.36, p for interaction = 0.02), especially in the attention domain (z = 2.34, p for interaction = 0.02). Cognitive improvement was associated with increased serum BDNF levels after consumption of DW2009 (t = 2.83, p = 0.007). The results of this clinical trial suggest that DW2009 can be safely administered to enhance cognitive function in individuals with MCI. Increased serum BDNF levels after administering DW2009 may provide preliminary insight into the underlying effects of cognitive improvement, which suggests the importance of the gut-brain axis in ameliorating cognitive deficits in MCI" - [Nutra USA]
  • Gut Bacteria Tied to Depression - Medscape, 2/11/19 - "In analyzing data from 1054 individuals enrolled in the Flemish Gut Flora Project (FGFP), investigators found two groups of bacteria — Coprococcus and Dialister — were consistently depleted in people diagnosed with depression, regardless of antidepressant treatment ... They validated the results in an independent cohort of 1063 individuals from the Dutch LifeLines DEEP cohort and in a group of patients with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder ... They also found that Faecalibacterium and Coprococcus bacteria were consistently associated with higher quality of life indicators. Both bacteria produce butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid that strengthens the epithelial defense barrier and reduces intestinal inflammation, and both have been reported to be depleted in association with inflammatory bowel disease and depression"
  • The involvement of the gut in Parkinson's disease: hype or hope? - Science Daily, 2/7/19 - "The gut has emerged as one of the new frontiers in PD research," commented Patrik Brundin, MD, PhD, Van Andel Research Institute, Grand Rapids, MI, USA, and J. William Langston, MD, Stanford Udall Center, Department of Pathology, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA, Editors-in-Chief of the Journal of Parkinson's Disease. "We predict there will be several advances regarding the gut in the coming 20 years. Changes in the gut might be utilized to diagnose PD earlier; new therapies targeting these changes might slow disease progression, reduce constipation, and improve gut function in patients who have already been diagnosed."
  • Could Germs in Your Gut Send You Into Depression? - WebMD, 2/4/19 - "Researchers found that among over 2,100 adults, those with depression showed differences in specific groups of gut bacteria. And people with higher concentrations of certain other gut bugs generally reported better mental well-being ... Those microbes are believed to do much more than aid in digestion. Research suggests they are involved in everything from immune system defenses to producing vitamins, anti-inflammatory compounds and even chemicals that influence the brain ... levels of two specific groups of gut bacteria -- Coprococcus and Dialister -- were "consistently depleted" in people with depression ... Meanwhile, people with higher levels of Coprococcus, and another group of bacteria called Faecalibacterium, typically gave better ratings to their quality of life ... Both types of bacteria break down dietary fiber to produce an anti-inflammatory compound called butyrate"
  • 'Bugs' in the gut might predict dementia in the brain - Science Daily, 1/10/19 - "Researchers studying the population of bacteria and microbes in the intestines, known as gut microbiota, have found these "bugs" impact risks for diseases of the heart and more. Japanese researchers studied 128 (dementia and non-dementia) patients' fecal samples and found differences in the components of gut microbiota in patients with the memory disorder suggesting that what's in the gut influences dementia risk much like other risk factors."
  • Probiotics could help millions of patients suffering from bipolar disorder - Science Daily, 12/13/18 - "a probiotic supplement may reduce inflammation of the gut, which is known to exacerbate bipolar disorder ... In recent years, research has demonstrated a strong link between the gastrointestinal tract and the central nervous system. This connection, named the "gut-brain axis" (GBA), allows for crosstalk between the endocrine, immune, and autonomic nervous systems ... There is also mounting evidence linking imbalances in the microbial species that make up the gut microbiome to a number of health problems including allergies, autoimmune disorders, and psychiatric mood disorders ... Overall, these results indicate that changes in intestinal inflammation can alter the trajectory of psychiatric mood disorders and that modulating the intestinal microbiota may be a new avenue of treatment for patients suffering from these diseases"
  • The Efficacy of Prebiotics, Probiotics, Synbiotics and Antibiotics in Irritable Bowel Syndrome - Medscape, 11/22/18 - "The search identified 4017 citations. Data for prebiotics and synbiotics were sparse. Fifty-three RCTs of probiotics, involving 5545 patients, were eligible. Particular combinations of probiotics, or specific species and strains, appeared to have beneficial effects on global IBS symptoms and abdominal pain, but it was not possible to draw definitive conclusions about their efficacy. There were five trials of similar design that used rifaximin in non-constipated IBS patients, which was more effective than placebo (RR of symptoms persisting = 0.84; 95% CI 0.79–0.90). Adverse events were no more common with probiotics or antibiotics"
  • Probiotics, Fecal Transplant Promising in Ulcerative Colitis - Medscape, 10/15/18 - "the researchers reviewed 16 relevant randomized controlled trials that used markedly different protocols ... Overall, probiotics were effective for clinical remission and clinical response in ulcerative colitis. And when we divided it to see which probiotic actually was effective, FMT was number one and VSL#3 was number two"
  • Artificial sweeteners have toxic effects on gut microbes - Science Daily, 10/1/18 - "The collaborative study indicated relative toxicity of six artificial sweeteners (aspartame, sucralose, saccharine, neotame, advantame, and acesulfame potassium-k) and 10 sport supplements containing these artificial sweeteners. The bacteria found in the digestive system became toxic when exposed to concentrations of only one mg./ml. of the artificial sweeteners"
  • Colon cancer is caused by bacteria and cell stress - Science Daily, 9/18/18 - "it is not cell stress alone that leads to tumour growth, but the combination of stress and microbiota that favours cancer growth ... In certain patients, the protein ATF6 could serve as a diagnostic marker for an increased risk of colon cancer and could indicate the start of therapy at an early stage ... a microbial therapy is conceivable, when we know more about the composition of the bacterial flora. What now became clear, however: Chronic inflammation has no effect on cancer development in the colon"
  • Probiotic use may reduce antibiotic prescriptions - Science Daily, 9/14/18 - "when the results from twelve studies were pooled together, infants and children were 29% percent less likely to have been prescribed antibiotics if they received probiotics as a daily health supplement. When the analysis was repeated with only the highest quality studies, this percentage increased to 53%"
  • Gut bacteria markers could be a 'smoking gun' for liver disease - Science Daily, 6/25/18 - "NAFLD starts with the build-up of fat in liver and can lead to scarring and cirrhosis, where the scarred organ eventually shrinks and the risks of liver failure and cancer increase. Fatty liver also increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases ... Their analysis also uncovered a link between the presence of fatty liver disease and subtle changes in the makeup of the microbiome itself. The more advanced the disease, the more the total number of genes encoded by gut bacteria began to decrease, an indirect measure that the microbiome was less diverse -- made up of fewer different types of bacteria ... Researchers have already discovered more than 10 million active genes linked to the microbes in our gut -- 500 times the number of genes in the human genome -- but their function remains largely unknown. However, previous studies have shown the number of active microbial genes drops dramatically with metabolic disorders, such as obesity ... According to the team, the drop in microbial diversity reveals that key gut bugs may be lost in patients with fatty liver disease"
  • Probiotics can protect the skeletons of older women - Science Daily, 6/21/18 - "A random method determined which women received the active treatment with the Lactobacillus reuteri 6475 bacteria and which received powder without bacteria. Neither the researchers nor the women knew who received the active powder during the study ... The women who received the powder with active bacteria had lost only half as much bone in the skeleton compared with those who received inactive powders"
  • How the gut influences neurologic disease - Science Daily, 5/16/18 - "They found that compounds resulting from the breakdown of tryptophan can cross the blood-brain barrier, activating an anti-inflammatory pathway that limits neurodegeneration. The researchers also studied human multiple sclerosis brain samples, finding evidence of the same pathway and players ... Activation of this same pathway has recently been linked to Alzheimer's disease and glioblastoma. The Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases, of which Quintana is a part, brings experts together to accelerate treatment for these diseases, as well as multiple sclerosis Parkinson's disease and ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) ... Quintana and his colleagues plan to further study the connections to neurologic diseases, and are also optimizing small molecules as well as probiotics to identify additional elements that participate in the pathway and new therapies."
  • Probiotics Effective for Primary Prevention of C. Diff - Medscape, 5/7/18 - "Probiotic prophylaxis reduced the odds of CDI by 63% in unadjusted analyses"
  • Gut microbiome plays an important role in atherosclerosis - Science Daily, 5/2/18 - "patients with unexplained atherosclerosis had significantly higher blood levels of these toxic metabolites that are produced by the intestinal bacteria ... "The finding, and studies we have performed since, present us with an opportunity to use probiotics to counter these compounds in the gut and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease," said Gregor Reid, PhD, professor at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, scientist at Lawson" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Growing evidence that probiotics are good for your liver - Science Daily, 4/23/18 - "Saeedi and his colleagues focused their study on the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (known as LGG), a species common in many over-the-counter probiotic formulations. They gave mice food laced with LGG for two weeks and then examined how they responded to a high dose of acetaminophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol®) ... mice receiving the probiotic treatment suffered less liver damage when presented with an overdose of acetaminophen compared with mice that did not receive probiotics ... Administration of the probiotic LGG to mice improves the antioxidant response of the liver, protecting it from oxidative damage produced by drugs such as acetaminophen ... Other studies in mice have previously shown that LGG can protect against alcoholic liver disease and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Older Age, Long-term Antibiotic Use Linked to Mortality Risk - Medscape, 4/2/18 - "women who used antibiotics for 2 months or longer were 27% more likely to die of all causes and were as much as 57% more likely to die of cardiovascular causes compared with those with no antibiotic use ... Antibiotic use has been linked with changes to the gut microbiome that can in fact last for years, while infections from antibiotic resistances remain an ever-increasing concern" - See  probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Fish oil and probiotic supplements in pregnancy may reduce risk of childhood allergies - Science Daily, 2/28/18 - "when pregnant women took a daily fish oil capsule from 20 weeks pregnant, and during the first three to four months of breastfeeding, risk of egg allergy in the child was reduced by 30 per cent ... taking a daily probiotic supplement from 36-38 weeks pregnant, and during the first three to six months of breastfeeding, reduced the risk of a child developing eczema by 22 per cent" - See fish oil supplements at Amazon.com and probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Gut Bacteria Less Diverse in PCOS; Could Probiotics Be a Therapy? - Medscape, 1/24/18 - "In terms of the gut microbiome, it is possible that decreased bacterial diversity results in changes in gut function that could exacerbate diseases including PCOS, though much work remains to be done to understand how changes in the gut microbiome influence host physiology"
  • Prebiotics in infant formula could improve learning and memory and alter brain chemistry - Science Daily, 1/17/18 - "Starting on the second day of life, piglets were given a cow's milk-based infant formula supplemented with polydextrose (PDX), a synthetic carbohydrate with prebiotic activity, and galactooligosaccharide (GOS), a naturally occurring prebiotic. When the piglets were 25 days old, Fleming took them through several learning, memory, and stress tests. After 33 days, blood, brain, and intestinal tissues were collected for analysis ... Pigs fed PDX and GOS spent more time playing with new objects than pigs who didn't receive the prebiotic supplements. The preference for novel objects, an indication of natural curiosity, is a sign of healthy brain development and points towards positive development of learning and memory" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Can Muesli help against arthritis? - Science Daily, 1/12/18 - 'We were able to show that a bacteria-friendly diet has an anti-inflammatory effect, as well as a positive effect on bone density' explains Dr. Mario Zaiss, who is leading the team behind the study. 'Our findings offer a promising approach for developing innovative therapies for inflammatory joint diseases as well as for treating osteoporosis, which is often suffered by women after the menopause. We are not able to give any specific recommendations for a bacteria-friendly diet at the moment, but eating muesli every morning as well as enough fruit and vegetables throughout the day helps to maintain a rich variety of bacterial species.' - See muesli at Amazon.com and probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Gut microbes can protect against high blood pressure - Science Daily, 11/15/17 - "a high-salt diet shrinks the population of a certain type of beneficial bacteria. As a result, pro-inflammatory immune cells called Th-17 cells grow in number ... treatment with a probiotic could reverse these effects ... When subjects were given a commercially available probiotic for a week before going on a high-salt diet, their gut lactobacillus levels and blood pressure remained normal" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Gut bacteria are sensitive to salt: Link to autoimmune disease and hypertension - Science Daily, 11/15/17  - "When the animals were given probiotic lactobacilli in addition to the high-salt diet, however, the frequency of TH17 helper cells decreased once again and blood pressure dropped. The probiotics also alleviated the clinical symptoms of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, a disease model for MS"
  • Gut Bacteria Profile Remains Stable With Healthy Aging - Medscape, 10/25/17 - "The main conclusion is that if you are ridiculously healthy and 90 years old, your gut microbiota is not that different from a healthy 30-year-old in the same population ... This demonstrates that maintaining diversity of your gut as you age is a biomarker of healthy aging, just like low-cholesterol is a biomarker of a healthy circulatory system ... Whether this is cause or effect is unknown, but it suggests that resetting an elderly microbiota to that of a 30-year-old might help promote health, if the microbiota is outside the norm"
  • 'Ridiculously healthy' elderly have the same gut microbiome as healthy 30 year-olds - Science Daily, 10/11/17 - "The main conclusion is that if you are ridiculously healthy and 90 years old, your gut microbiota is Whether this is cause or effect is unknown, but the study authors point out that it is the diversity of the gut microbiota that remained the same through their study groupnot that different from a healthy 30 year old in the same population ... maintaining diversity of your gut as you age is a biomarker of healthy aging, just like low-cholesterol is a biomarker of a healthy circulatory system ... The researchers suggest that resetting an elderly microbiota to that of a 30-year-old might help promote health" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Good-guy bacteria may help cancer immunotherapies do their job - Science Daily, 10/5/17 - "there were certain good-guy bacteria that are needed to optimize the effectiveness of checkpoint inhibitors. These bacteria somehow prime your immune system so that it's better able to attack cancer cells and kill them ... As a group, patients who responded well to the immunotherapy had three specific bacteria: Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron ... Faecalibacterium prausnitzii ... Holdemania filiformis ... All three are common normal flora in the human intestinal tract ... Is it something the bacteria are making? We examined metabolites in these subjects and found the strongest correlation between anacardic acid, present in cashews and mangoes, and the beneficial bacteria ... they may lead eventually to a probiotic cocktail that could be given along with immunotherapy to enhance the chance of response"
  • New research on probiotics in the prevention and treatment of colon cancer - Science Daily, 9/13/17 - "These results suggest that alteration of the gut microbiome with probiotics may become a new preventative or therapeutic strategy for patients at risk for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)-associated CRC ... The active probiotic also reduced inflammation induced by the carcinogen plus DSS, as indicated by suppressed pro-inflammatory cytokine gene expression (i.e., those encoding KC, interleukin (IL)-22, IL-6, tumor necrosis factor (TNF), and IL-1?) and reduced cytokine concentrations in plasma (i.e., KC, IL-22, and IL-6). The active probiotic also counteracted an increase in immature myeloid cells induced by the carcinogen"
  • Intestinal Microbiota Is Altered in Patients With Colon Cancer and Modified by Probiotic Intervention - Medscape, 8/30/17 - "Our results show promise for potential therapeutic benefits in CRC by manipulation of the microbiota"
  • Peanut Allergy: Is Oral Immunotherapy With Probiotic a Cure? - Medscape, 8/24/17 - "Four years after treatment stopped, 70% of patients who were desensitized via 18 months of treatment with combined probiotic and peanut oral immunotherapy (PPOIT) in a randomized controlled trial remain unresponsive to peanut protein despite no intervening therapy" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Gut bacteria might one day help slow down aging process - Science Daily, 6/15/17 - "Scientists at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston have identified bacterial genes and compounds that extend the life of and also slow down the progression of tumors and the accumulation of amyloid-beta, a compound associated with Alzheimer's disease, in the laboratory worm C. elegans ... Our finding suggests that products from bacteria today can still chime in the communication between mitochondria in our cells. We think that this type of communication is very important and here we have provided the first evidence of this"
  • Pre-clinical study suggests Parkinson's could start in gut endocrine cells - Science Daily, 6/15/17 - "Recent research on Parkinson's disease has focused on the gut-brain connection, examining patients' gut bacteria, and even how severing the vagus nerve connecting the stomach and brain might protect some people from the debilitating disease ... Rather than using hormones to communicate indirectly with the nervous system, these gut endocrine cells physically connect to nerves, providing a pathway to communicate with the brain ... This suggests they are able to communicate directly with the nervous system and brain" - Note:  It's another reason not to kill your gut bacteria with antibiotics and possible advantages of probiotics if you've taken antibiotics.
  • Probiotic use linked to improved symptoms of depression - Science Daily, 5/23/17 - "twice as many adults with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) reported improvements from co-existing depression when they took a specific probiotic than adults with IBS who took a placebo ... The study provides further evidence of the microbiota environment in the intestines being in direct communication with the brain" - [Abstract] [Nutra USA]
  • Link between common brain disease and gut microbiome - Science Daily, 5/10/17 - "Bacteria in the gut microbiome drive the formation of cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs), clusters of dilated, thin-walled blood vessels in the brain that can cause stroke and seizures ... altering the microbiome in CCM patients may be an effective therapy for this cerebrovascular disease"
  • Probiotic, Red Yeast Rice Extract Combo May Cut Cholesterol - Medscape, 5/5/17 - "Supplementation with the probiotic Bifidobacterium longum BB536 added to red yeast rice extract improves lipid profiles in patients with moderate hypercholesterolemia ... A 26% reduction in LDL was what was we had in WOSCOPS on pravastatin 40 mg. So it's a very reasonable reduction ... Overall, compliance was excellent at 97% and no adverse effects were reported" - See red yeast rice at Amazon.com and probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • A probiotic stress fix - Science Daily, 3/27/17 - "U.S. sailors and Marines face continuous periods of excessive stress in "fight-or-flight" situations, triggering surges of chemical messengers called neurotransmitters, often known as an adrenaline rush. While these surges are important for relaying messages in the brain, prolonged high levels can cause long-term health problems, including anxiety and susceptibility to infection ... Tae Seok Moon, an engineer in the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis, is working to create a probiotic from a commercially-available, beneficial bacterial strain of Escherichia coli after receiving a three-year, $508,635 grant from the Office of Naval Research's 2017 Young Investigator Program ... We tend to think the gut and the brain are separate, but recently, more researchers think they are connected through the microbiota-gut-brain axis"
  • Vitamin D improves gut flora and metabolic syndrome - Science Daily, 12/21/16 - "a high fat diet affects the balance between good and bad bacteria in the gut. This induces modest fatty liver and slightly raises blood sugar levels in mice. Remarkably, an insufficient supply of vitamin D aggravates the imbalance in gut flora, contributing to full-scale fatty liver and metabolic syndrome ... Vitamin D deficiency decreases the production of defensins, which are anti-microbial molecules essential to maintain healthy gut flora" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
  • Common probiotics can reduce stress levels, lessen anxiety - Science Daily, 11/21/16 - "a common probiotic sold in supplements and yogurt can decrease stress-related behavior and anxiety ... bacteria in the gut altered the gene expression associated with stress- and anxiety-related pathways in the fish allowing for increased signaling of particular neurotransmitters" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Gut bacteria affect our metabolism - Science Daily, 11/21/16 - "Mice that receive gut bacteria transplants from overweight humans are known to gain more weight than mice transplanted with gut bacteria from normal weight subjects, even when the mice are fed the same diet"
  • Probiotics improve cognition in Alzheimer's patients - Science Daily, 11/14/16 - "a daily dose of probiotic Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium bacteria taken over a period of just 12 weeks is enough to yield a moderate but significant improvement in the score of elderly Alzheimer's patients on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scale, a standard measure of cognitive impairment ... scientists have long hypothesized that probiotics might also boost cognition, as there is continuous two-way communication between the intestinal microflora, the gastrointestinal tract, and the brain through the nervous system, the immune system, and hormones (along the so-called "microbiota-gut-brain axis"). In mice, probiotics have indeed been shown to improve learning and memory, and reduce anxiety and depression- and OCD-like symptoms ... Over the course of the study, the average score on the MMSE questionnaire significantly increased (from 8.7 to 10.6, out of a maximum of 30) in the group receiving probiotics, but not in the control group (from 8.5 to 8.0)"
  • Hard to do systems biology when you ignore 99% of us (the microbiome): Expert - Nutra USA, 11/8/16 - "I can tell you with 90% certainty if you're lean or obese based on your microbiome" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Sleep loss tied to changes of the gut microbiota in humans - Science Daily, 10/25/16 - "Changes in the composition and diversity of the gut microbiota have been associated with diseases such as obesity and type-2 diabetes in humans. These diseases have also been linked with chronic sleep loss ... we did however observe microbiota changes that parallel some of the microbiota changes observed when for instance obese subjects have been compared with normal-weight subjects in other studies, such as an increased ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes. Longer and larger clinical sleep interventions will be needed to investigate to what extent alterations of the gut microbiota may mediate negative health consequences attributed to sleep loss, such as weight gain and insulin resistance" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Body fat link to bacteria in faeces - BBC, 9/26/16 - "The researchers found the strongest links with visceral fat, where participants with a high diversity of bacteria in their faeces had lower levels of visceral fat ... This type of body fat is bad news because it is stored in the stomach area around important organs such as the liver, pancreas and intestines and is linked with higher risks of cardiovascular disease and diabetes ... One theory is that a lack of variety in faecal bacteria could lead to the domination of high levels of gut microbes which are good at turning carbohydrates into fat" - [Science Daily]
  • ICU patients lose helpful gut bacteria within days of hospital admission - Science Daily, 8/31/16 - "treatments used in the ICU -- including courses of powerful antibiotics, medicines to sustain blood pressure, and lack of nutrition -- can reduce the population of known healthy bacteria ... the next step is to use the data to identify therapies -- perhaps including probiotics -- to restore a healthy bacterial balance to patients" - Note: No kidding.  Seems like they would have figured that out by now.  Every time I've gone to the hospital such as surgery for neck cancer twelve years ago, I was admitted thinking I could run a marathon that day and I left looking like the walking dead.  One reason is that even for minor surgery they give you enough antibiotics via IV to kill and elephant.  Another reason is lack of sleep.  I posted a study on the sleep issue about a year ago.
  • Antibiotics weaken Alzheimer's disease progression through changes in the gut microbiome - Science Daily, 7/24/16 - "Two of the key features of Alzheimer's disease are the development of amyloidosis, accumulation of amyloid-ß (Aß) peptides in the brain, and inflammation of the microglia, brain cells that perform immune system functions in the central nervous system. Buildup of Aß into plaques plays a central role in the onset of Alzheimer's, while the severity of neuro-inflammation is believed to influence the rate of cognitive decline from the disease ... For this study, Sisodia and his team administered high doses of broad-spectrum antibiotics to mice over five to six months. At the end of this period, genetic analysis of gut bacteria from the antibiotic-treated mice showed that while the total mass of microbes present was roughly the same as in controls, the diversity of the community changed dramatically. The antibiotic-treated mice also showed more than a two-fold decrease in Aß plaques compared to controls, and a significant elevation in the inflammatory state of microglia in the brain. Levels of important signaling chemicals circulating in the blood were also elevated in the treated mice" - Note:  It would seem like changing the gut balance via probiotics would be the way to go, not taking antibiotics.  See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Gut bacteria can cause, predict and prevent rheumatoid arthritis - Science Daily, 7/11/16 - "Dr. Taneja treated one group of arthritis-susceptible mice with a bacterium, Prevotella histicola, and compared that to a group that had no treatment. The study found that mice treated with the bacterium had decreased symptom frequency and severity, and fewer inflammatory conditions associated with rheumatoid arthritis. The treatment produced fewer side effects, such as weight gain and villous atrophy -- a condition that prevents the gut from absorbing nutrients -- that may be linked with other, more traditional treatments"
  • Consuming probiotics promotes weight loss, reduces BMI - Science Daily, 7/11/16 - "Researchers from the Department of Cardiology, Taizhou People's Hospital, Taizhou, China combined the findings of 25 randomized human trials investigating the impact of probiotic consumption on body weight and BMI in over 1,900 healthy adults. They found taking probiotics reduced BMI and body weight with the greatest reduction in BMI occurring in overweight adults. Interestingly, ingesting more than one type of probiotic and taking probiotics for 8 weeks or more resulted in increased weight loss"
  • New study shows chronic fatigue isn’t just in your head. It may have to do with your gut - Washington Post, 6/30/16 - "Cornell University researchers looked at stool and blood samples of 48 people diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome (or more formally, myalgic encephalomyelitis) and at 39 healthy volunteers ... They found two main differences: Through DNA sequencing, they found the stool samples in the patients with the condition had less diversity in bacteria present in the gut and that there were fewer that were anti-inflammatory. The blood samples were also distinct: There were markers of inflammation which the researchers theorized may be due to a "leaky gut from intestinal problems that allow bacteria to enter the blood." ... it suggests that diet and things like probiotics may be a way to help treat the disease by getting the gut microbiome back in balance"
  • How altered gut microbes cause obesity - Science Daily, 6/8/16 - "Taken together these experiments demonstrate a causal link between alterations in the gut microbiota in response to changes in the diet and increased acetate production ... The increased acetate in turn leads to increased food intake, setting off a positive feedback loop that drives obesity and insulin resistance ... Alterations in the gut microbiota are associated with obesity and the metabolic syndrome in both humans and rodents"
  • A Comparison of the Gut Microbiome Between Long-term Users and Non-users of Proton Pump Inhibitors - Medscape, 6/7/16 - "Proton pump inhibitor (PPI) use is associated with an increased risk of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) ... Long-term PPIs use has an effect on the gut microbiome. The alteration in the ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes may pre-dispose to the development of CDI"
  • Connections between gut microbiota and the brain - Science Daily, 5/29/16 - "the gut and the brain communicate with each other via several routes including the vagus nerve, the immune system, the enteric nervous system or by way of microbial metabolic processes. For instance, intestinal bacteria convert carbohydrates into short chain fatty acids, e.g. in butyric acid. This strengthens the connections between the cells and reinforces the blood-brain barrier, which serves as a cellular wall to protect the brain from infections and inflammations ... Elderly individuals who are in poor health often have a lower diversity of microorganisms in their microbiome or inflammation-promoting manifestations" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • How to feed a happy, healthy gut - Washington Post, 5/27/16 - "A healthy, balanced gut microbiota promotes a strong immune system and lower levels of chronic inflammation. An unhealthy microbiota has been linked to obesity, asthma, allergies and autoimmune disorders such as celiac disease, Type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis. Increasingly, chronic inflammation is also thought to be a root cause of cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and some forms of cancer ... a diet high in refined, heavily processed foods will send our microbiota out of balance ... a plant-based diet with lots of fiber and regular consumption of fermented foods nourishes and stimulates beneficial bacteria, which over time can shift the balance of your microbiota in a healthier direction ... Your microbiota adapts to its environment, and if that environment doesn’t provide the fiber it needs, your microbes will instead dine on the thin layer of mucus that protects your intestinal lining, potentially leading to a “leaky gut” and all number of health problems ... Diets high in saturated fat are harmful to microbiota diversity, so opt for plant-based sources of monounsaturated fats such as olive oil, avocados, nuts and seeds"
  • Gut bacteria may contribute to poor health in patients with kidney disease - Science Daily, 5/26/16 - "There has been increasing awareness that the gut microbiota is not only pivotal for human health but is also involved in various disease processes, including obesity and diabetes mellitus ... This study adds evidence that the gut microbiota may likewise be a contributor to the disease burden in patients with a diminished kidney function. Furthermore, this knowledge may pave the way for novel therapeutic interventions by both dietary measures and drugs, thereby hopefully improving the prognosis and quality of life of kidney disease patients"
  • Probiotics stop menopause-like bone loss in mice - Science Daily, 4/27/16 - "treated female mice twice a week with Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) ... A month after ovary removal, mice that were not treated with probiotic bacteria had lost half of their bone density. But the bone density in probiotic-treated mice stayed the same ... In mice that did not have their ovaries removed, probiotic treatment actually led to an increase in bone density" - Note: Lactobacillus rhamnosus is one of the bacterial in the Garden of Life Primal Defense ULTRA I take.
  • Gut bacteria could help prevent cancer - Science Daily, 4/13/16 - "In the UCLA study the bacterium reduced gene damage and significantly reduced inflammation -- a critical goal because inflammation plays a key role in many diseases, including cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, heart disease, arthritis and lupus, and in the aging process ... the mice that were receiving only the beneficial microbiota produced metabolites that are known to prevent cancer. Those mice also had more efficient fat and oxidative metabolism, which the researchers believe might also lower the risk for cancer ... Among the other results, in the mice receiving only the good bacteria, lymphoma formed only half as quickly as it did in the other mice. In addition, mice with the good bacteria lived four times longer and had less DNA damage and inflammation"
  • Gut Bugs May Affect Body Fat, 'Good' Cholesterol - WebMD, 9/10/15 - "The size of your waistline may depend to some degree on the specific bacteria dwelling within your gut ... As recent research has revealed, those bugs do much more than support good digestion: They aid in everything from immune function, to metabolizing drugs to producing vitamins, anti-inflammatory compounds and even chemicals that relay messages among brain cells ... C-sections deprive newborns of beneficial bacteria from the birth canal, while breast milk feeds gut bacteria ... Diets filled with processed foods are also thought to be at fault ... the gut microbiome can be changed through diet"
  • Probiotics improve behavioral symptoms of chronic inflammatory diseases in mice - Science Daily, 7/28/15 - "Mice that received the probiotics spent more time engaging in social behaviors compared to mice that received a placebo ... Mice that received the probiotics had lower blood levels of TNF-α and fewer activated immune cells in the brain compared to mice that received a placebo ... The findings suggest that probiotics improved behavioral symptoms by altering communication between the immune system and the brain"
  • Link between intestinal bacteria, depression found - Science Daily, 7/28/15 - "We are starting to explain the complex mechanisms of interaction and dynamics between the gut microbiota and its host. Our data show that relatively minor changes in microbiota profiles or its metabolic activity induced by neonatal stress can have profound effects on host behaviour in adulthood"
  • Dairy products boost effectiveness of probiotics - Science Daily, 7/17/15 - "The mice that ingested the probiotic in milk had reduced symptoms compared to those that were fed milk without the probiotic, and the ones that received the probiotic within a nonfood supplement"
  • Gut check: Does a hospital stay set patients up for sepsis by disrupting the body’s microbiome? - Science Daily, 6/1/15 - "We know that a major cause of microbiome disruption is antibiotic use. This study hints -- it does not prove, but it hints -- that profligate use of antibiotics might not just be bad because of antibiotic resistance. Profligate use of antibiotics might also, via the microbiome, put patients at increased risk of both all kinds of other infections, and to having a particularly bad response ('sepsis') to those infections" - Note:  It just seems like even if you go in for minor surgery they give you enough antibiotics via IV to kill an elephant.
  • Probiotics in Preventing Recurrent UTIs in Women - Medscape, 5/4/15 - "Lactobacillus probiotics, taken either orally or vaginally, are likely effective in reducing recurrent urinary tract infections in women. Although more research is needed, probiotics should be considered a useful and safe alternative to antibiotics. By minimizing exposure to antibiotics, nursing professionals have the potential to decrease antibiotic resistance in communities, de crease side effects in women, and in turn, improve their quality of life"
  • People less focused on recurrent bad feelings when taking probiotics - Science Daily, 4/14/15 - "Rumination is one of the most predictive vulnerability markers of depression ... Compared to subjects who received the placebo intervention, participants who received the multispecies probiotics intervention showed significantly reduced ruminative thoughts ... Even if preliminary, these results provide the first evidence that the intake of probiotics may help reduce negative thoughts associated with sad mood. As such, our findings shed an interesting new light on the potential of probiotics  to serve as adjuvant or preventive therapy for depression"
  • Gut microbial mix relates to stages of blood sugar control - Science Daily, 3/5/15 - "men whose blood sugar control stayed normal over the year had more gut bacteria that are considered beneficial for metabolic health, whereas those who stayed prediabetic had fewer beneficial bacteria and more harmful bacteria ... she said it is possible that changing one's gut bacteria could prevent diabetes" - See  probiotic products at Amazon.com and prebiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Friendly bacteria are protective against malaria - Science Daily, 12/4/14 - "specific bacterial components in the human gut microbiota can trigger a natural defense mechanism that is highly protective against malaria transmission"
  • Proton pump inhibitors decrease diversity in gut microbiome, increase risk for complications - Science Daily, 11/25/14 - "people who regularly take proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) have less diversity among their gut bacteria ... their prolonged use has been associated with iron and vitamin B12 deficiencies, hypomagnesemia, osteoporosis-related fractures, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, and community-acquired pneumonia"
  • Healthy gut microbiota can prevent metabolic syndrome, researchers say - Science Daily, 11/24/14 - "These results suggest that developing a means to promote a more healthy microbiota can treat or prevent metabolic disease ... They confirm the concept that altered microbiota can promote low-grade inflammation and metabolic syndrome and advance the underlying mechanism ... A person with metabolic syndrome is twice as likely to develop heart disease and five times as likely to develop diabetes"
  • Critically ill ICU patients lose almost all of their gut microbes and the ones left aren't good - Science Daily, 9/23/14 - "patients with stays longer than a month had only one to four types of microbes in their gut, as measured from fecal samples -- compared to about 40 different types found in healthy volunteers ... the team found that adding an opioid drug to the mix -- which mimics stress signals released by sick patients -- could also switch behavior from a peaceful coexistence called commensalism to virulence for some microbe pairs ... doctors should try to find ways to minimize the excessive use of antibiotics and stabilize the microbes that do remain in ICU patients' guts"
  • Probiotics Cut Autoimmunity 33% in Infants at Risk for Diabetes - Medscape, 9/19/14 - "the results show a definite trend that strongly suggests a positive effect of probiotics in infants under the age of 3 months ... One theory is that the probiotics enhance the maturity of the gut barrier to help defend the body against environmental exposure…[to] viruses and foreign proteins ... [With probiotics], the infant is better prepared to process these, and in this way they may not trigger an adverse autoimmune response"
  • Artificial Sweeteners May Disrupt Body's Blood Sugar Controls - NYTimes.com, 9/17/14 - "In the initial set of experiments, the scientists added saccharin (the sweetener in the pink packets of Sweet’N Low), sucralose (the yellow packets of Splenda) or aspartame (the blue packets of Equal) to the drinking water of 10-week-old mice. Other mice drank plain water or water supplemented with glucose or with ordinary table sugar. After a week, there was little change in the mice who drank water or sugar water, but the group getting artificial sweeteners developed marked intolerance to glucose ... Glucose intolerance, in which the body is less able to cope with large amounts of sugar, can lead to more serious illnesses like metabolic syndrome and Type 2 diabetes ... When the researchers treated the mice with antibiotics, killing much of the bacteria in the digestive system, the glucose intolerance went away ... It also suggests probiotics — medicines consisting of live bacteria — could be used to shift gut bacteria to a population that reversed the glucose intolerance" - [How Can Diet Sodas Make You Fat? Study May Explain It - NBC News] - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Microbiome and Probiotics: Link to Arthritis - Medscape, 8/18/14 - "The gut microbiome plays an integral role in the development and maintenance of the host immune system ... There is intriguing yet still inconclusive evidence to support the use of probiotics as a treatment for these diseases"
  • Probiotics Benefit Blood Pressure in Meta-Analysis - Medscape, 7/21/14 - "the Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation (HOPE) study showed a 3.3 mmHg reduction in systolic blood pressure, along with a 1.4 mmHg reduction in diastolic blood pressure, which were associated with a 22% relative reduction in risk of cardiovascular mortality, MI, or stroke ... Probiotic species varied among the trials; four studies used yogurt as the source of probiotic bacteria, two used fermented and sour milk, one used probiotic supplements in capsule form, one used probiotic rosehip drinks, and one used probiotic cheese ... For those who ate more than one probiotic species, the reduction in systolic blood pressure was 5.8 mmHg. Those who consumed probiotics for more than eight weeks had a 4.9 mmHg reduction in systolic blood pressure" - [Abstract]
  • Probiotics prevent deadly complications of liver disease, study finds - Science Daily, 6/6/14 - "Hepatic encephalopathy is a deterioration of brain function that is a serious complication of liver disease ... probiotics modify the gut microbiota to prevent hepatic encephalopathy in patients with cirrhosis of the liver ... These results offer a safe, well-tolerated and perhaps cheaper alternative to current treatments" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • How gut bacteria regulate weight gain: Study provides further understanding - Science Daily, 5/14/14 - "Recent work by other groups has shown that bile acids act as signalling molecules in the host, almost like a hormonal network, with an ability to influence host metabolism. What we have done is to show that a specific mechanism exists by which bacteria in the gut can influence this process with significant consequences for the host ... the findings may be used as a basis for the future selection of probiotics or dietary interventions which target this mechanism to regulate weight gain or high cholesterol"
  • Top 4 Ways to Beat Bad Breath - ABC News, 4/30/14 - "the bacteria species that dominate the tongues of those with healthy mouths are different than the species that inhabit the tongues of those with bad breath. One of the prime bacteria offenders is strain of streptococcus, but recent research has shown that consumption of probiotics reduces streptococci counts significantly ... While eating yogurt is a good way to get probiotics in your diet, you might consider a simple supplement to boost your probiotic counts. Both Flora Udo’s Choice and Garden of Life offer a good basic probiotic supplement ... chewing xylitol gum actually decreases the amount of those same stinky streptococci bacteria" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com and xylitol gum at Amazon.com.
  • Feeding gut microbiota: Nutrition, probiotics key factors for digestive health - Science Daily, 3/10/14 - "Diet is a central issue when it comes to preserving our gastrointestinal health, because by eating and digesting we literally feed our gut microbiota, and thus influence its diversity and composition ... If this balance is disturbed, it might result in a number of disorders, including functional bowel disorders, inflammatory bowel diseases and other immune mediated diseases, such as celiac disease and certain allergies. Also, metabolic conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, and perhaps even behavioral disorders, such as autism and depression, can be linked to gut microbial imbalances ... an increased intake of foods with high amounts of animal fat, as well as of greasy and fried foods is not recommended, while a diet rich in vegetables, salads and fruits has proven to be beneficial to digestive health under normal circumstances. The same applies to fermented dairy products containing probiotics. These are defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as live organisms which, when ingested in adequate amounts, confer a health effect on the host"
  • NICU: Probiotics Reduce NEC, Should Be Routine, Experts Say - Medscape, 2/19/14 - "Probiotic supplementation in preterm infants is perhaps the best studied yet least used therapy in neonatal medicine"
  • Certain probiotics could help women lose weight, study finds - Science Daily, 1/28/14 - "researchers recruited 125 overweight men and women ... half the participants swallowed 2 pills daily containing probiotics from the Lactobacillus rhamnosus family, while the other half received a placebo ... After the 12-week diet period, researchers observed an average weight loss of 4.4 kg in women in the probiotic group and 2.6 kg in the placebo group. However, no differences in weight loss were observed among males in the two groups ... We don't know why the probiotics didn't have any effect on men. It may be a question of dosage, or the study period may have been too short" - Note: 4.4 kg is 9.7 pounds.
  • Effect of Probiotics on Irritable Bowel Syndrome - Medscape, 1/27/14 - "Patients were randomly assigned to two groups: either to receive multispecies probiotics (a mixture of Bifidobacterium longum, B. bifidum, B. lactis, Lactobacillus acidophilus, L. rhamnosus, and Streptococcus thermophilus ) twice a day for 4 weeks or to receive a placebo twice a day for 4 weeks ... The proportion of patients whose IBS symptoms were substantially relieved at week 4 was significantly higher in the probiotics group than in the placebo group: 68.0% (17/25) versus 37.5% (9/24) (P < 0.05). Secondary end-points such as improvement in abdominal pain/discomfort and bloating occurred in the probiotics group but not in the placebo group"
  • The microbes in your gut may be making you fat or keeping you thin - The Washington Post, 12/6/13 - "naturally occurring bacteria and other microbes in the body, and possibly even viruses, can influence weight in ways that scientists are only just beginning to understand ... Studies in mice have shown that intestinal microbes may contribute to weight gain. A novel experiment published this fall, for example, took gut bacteria from human twins — in which one was lean and the other obese — and transferred them into lean mice. The animals with bacteria from fat twins grew fat; those that received bacteria from lean twins stayed lean"
  • Some Gut Bacteria May Affect Colorectal Cancer Risk - Medscape, 12/6/13 - "Because of the potentially modifiable nature of the gut bacteria, our findings may have implications for CRC prevention ... The researchers found decreased microbiome community diversity in patients with CRC , compared with that of healthy participants(P = .02). In an analysis by taxa, patients with CRC had lower relative abundances of Clostridia, at 68.6% compared with 77.8% in people without CRC. In contrast, patients with CRC carried a higher relative abundance of Fusobacterium (31.9% vs 11.7% for control patients) ... A higher relative abundance of Fusobacterium was associated with increased CRC risk (multivariable odds ratio [OR], 4.11 ... Actinobacteria Atopobium (OR, 14.36; 95% CI, 2.78 - 74.30; P < .001) and the Bacteriodetes Porphyromonas (OR, 5.17; 95% CI, 1.75 - 15.25; P = .001) were also associated with CRC risk"
  • Probiotic therapy alleviates autism-like behaviors in mice - Science Daily, 12/5/13 - "the researchers treated the mice with Bacteroides fragilis, a bacterium that has been used as an experimental probiotic therapy in animal models of GI disorders ... The result? The leaky gut was corrected ... In addition, observations of the treated mice showed that their behavior had changed. In particular, they were more likely to communicate with other mice, had reduced anxiety, and were less likely to engage in a repetitive digging behavior ... The B. fragilis treatment alleviates GI problems in the mouse model and also improves some of the main behavioral symptoms ... This suggests that GI problems could contribute to particular symptoms in neurodevelopmental disorders"
  • Probiotics a Potential Treatment for Mental Illness - Medscape, 11/19/13 - "although human studies are still largely lacking, they did find some with promising results on behavior, including 1 showing that healthy volunteers who received Lactobacillus helveticus R0052 plus B longum for 30 days reported significantly lower stress levels than those who received placebo, as well as significantly reduced urinary free cortisol levels ... Another study of 124 volunteers (mean age, 61.8 years) showed that those who consumed probiotic-containing yogurt for 3 weeks had significantly improved mood compared with those who received placebo ... the term "psychobiotic" was created as recent studies have begun to explore a possible link between probiotics and behavior ... As a class of probiotic, these bacteria are capable of producing and delivering neuroactive substances such as gamma-aminobutyric acid [GABA] and serotonin, which act on the brain-gut axis ... a study of human patients with chronic fatigue syndrome showed that those who consumed an active strain of L casei 3 times a day had significantly higher improvement scores on anxiety measures than did those who received matching placebo"
  • Are probiotics a promising treatment strategy for depression? - Science Daily, 11/14/13 - "Human studies are still largely lacking, but a few have shown promising results. In one, healthy volunteers received either a probiotic combination (L.. helveticus R0052 and B. longum) or placebo for 30 days. Those who received the probiotics reported lower stress levels. In a separate study, volunteers who consumed a yogurt containing probiotics reported improved mood"
  • Microbes in the Gut Help Determine Risk of Tumors - Science Daily, 11/5/13 - "Known risk factors for developing colorectal cancer include consuming a diet rich in red meat, alcohol consumption, and chronic inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract ... mice given the microbiota of the tumor-bearing mice had more than two times as many colon tumors as the mice given a healthy microbiota ... In all these [mouse] models the inflammation is critical, but so is the change in the communities ... We liken it to a feed-forward type mechanism where the inflammation is changing the community and the community is inducing inflammation. They make each other worse to the point that you have higher rates of tumor formation"
  • Intestinal Bacteria Linked to Rheumatoid Arthritis - Science Daily, 11/5/13 - "add to the growing evidence that the trillions of microbes in our body play an important role in regulating our health ... the researchers found that P. copri was more abundant in patients newly diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis than in healthy individuals or patients with chronic, treated rheumatoid arthritis. Moreover, the overgrowth of P. copri was associated with fewer beneficial gut bacteria belonging to the genera Bacteroides" - Note:  It's one more thing to think about when you ask your doctor for antibiotics for that sore throat or cold.
  • The Role of the Gut Microbiome in Health and Disease - Medscape, 11/5/13 - "Disturbances to the microbial equilibrium of the gut may mean that some microbes become overrepresented while others are diminished. "It's like a garden—you're less likely to have weeds growing if you have lush vegetation, but without this vegetation the weeds can potentially take over," Mazmanian says. When the gut moves toward a state of microbial imbalance, normally benign gut microbes may begin to induce inflammation and trigger disease throughout the body, even in the nervous system ... although 70% of the immune cells in the body at any one time can be found in the intestine, they circulate throughout the body, and the microbiota of the gut environment help determine how immune cells will behave elsewhere. He gives an example: "If T-cells, while in the gut, are programmed by the microbiota to have anti-inflammatory properties, then they may suppress inflammation even after they leave the gut."" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Mesalazine and/or Probiotics for Diverticular Disease - Medscape, 10/16/13 - "Group M (active mesalazine 1.6 g/day plus Lactobacillus casei subsp. DG placebo), Group L (active Lactobacillus casei subsp. DG 24 billion/day plus mesalazine placebo), Group LM (active Lactobacillus casei subsp. DG 24 billion/day plus active mesalazine), Group P (Lactobacillus casei subsp. DG placebo plus mesalazine placebo). Patients received treatment for 10 days/month for 12 months ... Recurrence of SUDD occurred in no (0%) patient in group LM, in 7 (13.7%) patients in group M, in 8 (14.5%) patients in group L and in 23 (46.0%) patients in group P (LM group vs. M group, P = 0.015; LM group vs. L group, P = 0.011; LM group vs. P group, P = 0.000; M group vs. P group, P = 0.000; L group vs. P group, P = 0.000). Acute diverticulitis occurred in six group P cases and in one group L case"
  • Probiotics’ benefits go beyond digestion - Washington Post, 10/15/13 - "We hear about them everywhere — how they clear up everything from a bloated gut to a depressed mind. How they boost the immune system and improve skin health. How they delay allergies in children and prevent urinary tract infections in women ... Probiotics come in many forms, and they don’t need to be delivered through yogurt — particularly important for the dairy-intolerant. Probiotics can be found as fresh, refrigerated supplements at some health food stores, as well as dried and preserved ... the probiotics thrive best when prebiotics are present. Prebiotics, which are found in such foods as whole grains, bananas and onions, are nondigestible carbohydrates that create a probiotic-friendly gut environment ... The appropriate probiotic dosage, according to McCusker, is about 5 billion units for daily health maintenance and 15 billion-20 billion when you are treating a specific condition" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Lactobacillus Probiotics May Prevent Recurrent UTIs - Medscape, 9/20/13 - "randomised double-blind non-inferiority trial comparing lactobacilli to trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX) in 252 postmenopausal women with a history of at least three self-reported symptomatic UTIs within the preceding year ... After 12 months of prophylaxis, the mean number of clinical UTI recurrence (CR) was 2.9 in the TMP-SMX group and 3.3 in the lactobacilli group (p=0.42). The mean number of microbiological recurrence (MR) was significantly less in TMP-SMX group at 1.2 compared with 1.8 in the lactobacilli group (p=0.02). For both CR and MR, a higher proportion of women in the lactobacilli group experienced at least one UTI recurrence and the median time to first recurrence was significantly shorter in the lactobacilli group. In women with complicated UTIs, the mean number of CRs was 4.4 in the TMP-SMX group compared with 3.4 in the lactobacilli group (p<0.001), suggesting a favourable effect of lactobacilli in this subgroup. With regard to adverse events, there were no significant differences between groups, although the lactobacilli group had a non-significantly higher number of treatment-related withdrawals with gastrointestinal side effects being the most common"
  • The best foods for clear skin - washingtonpost.com, 9/18/13 - "Stay away from anything that comes in a box ... both because of the added sugars and because of other additives ... gobble up produce of all colors, plus nuts and seeds, to get minerals, fiber and vitamins A, C and E ... Foods that keep your blood sugar low are also good for the skin ... avoid sugar ... omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in wild salmon, help support healthy cell membranes ... Another smart move is the addition into the diet of probiotics, which can be found in yogurt and kefir as well as nutritional supplements. (She prefers supplements over yogurt because they contain much higher amounts of probiotics.)"
  • Gut Microbes Closely Linked to Proper Immune Function, Other Health Issues - Science Daily, 9/16/13 - "Problems ranging from autoimmune disease to clinical depression and simple obesity may in fact be linked to immune dysfunction that begins with a "failure to communicate" in the human gut ... Health care of the future may include personalized diagnosis of an individual's "microbiome" to determine what prebiotics or probiotics are needed to provide balance ... Appropriate sanitation such as clean water and sewers are good. But some erroneous lessons in health care may need to be unlearned -- leaving behind the fear of dirt, the love of antimicrobial cleansers, and the outdated notion that an antibiotic is always a good idea. We live in a world of "germs" and many of them are good for us"
  • Gut Bacteria From Thin Humans Can Slim Mice Down - NYTimes.com, 9/5/13 - "Researchers found pairs of human twins in which one was obese and the other lean. They transferred gut bacteria from these twins into mice and watched what happened. The mice with bacteria from fat twins grew fat; those that got bacteria from lean twins stayed lean ... The investigators discovered that given a chance, and in the presence of a low-fat diet, bacteria from a lean twin will take over the gut of a mouse that already had bacteria from a fat twin. The fat mouse then loses weight. But the opposite does not happen. No matter what the diet, bacteria from a fat mouse do not take over in a mouse that is thin ... The fat mice that got food high in fat and low in fruits and vegetables kept the gut bacteria from the fat twins and remained fat. The thin twins’ gut bacteria only took over when the mice got pellets that were rich in fruits and vegetables and low in fat" - [WebMD / ABC News]
  • Why Smokers Gain Weight When They Quit Smoking: Changes in Intestinal Flora - Science Daily, 8/29/13 - "the Swiss IBD cohort study examined the genetic material of intestinal bacteria found in the faeces and studied stool samples which they had received from twenty different persons over a period of nine weeks -- four samples per person. The test persons included five non-smokers, five smokers and ten persons who had quit smoking one week after the start of the study ... While the bacterial diversity in the faeces of smokers and non-smokers changed only little over time, giving up smoking resulted in the biggest shift in the composition of the microbial inhabitants of the intestines. The Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes fractions increased at the expense of representatives of the Firmicutes and Actinobacteria phyla. At the same time, the test subjects who had quit smoking gained an average of 2.2 kilos in weight although their eating and drinking habits remained the same ... Their results reflected those seen in previous studies conducted with mice"
  • Obesity and diabetes risk: One in four has alarmingly few intestinal bacteria, Danish study finds - Science Daily, 8/28/13 - "Oluf Pedersen compares the human gut and its bacteria with a tropical rainforest. He explains that we need as much diversity as possible, and -- as is the case with the natural tropical rainforests -- decreasing diversity is a cause for concern. It appears that the richer and more diverse the composition of our intestinal bacteria, the stronger our health. The bacteria produce vital vitamins, mature and strengthen our immune system and communicate with the many nerve cells and hormone-producing cells in the intestinal system. And, not least, the bacteria produce a wealth of bioactive substances which penetrate into the bloodstream and affect our biology in countless ways ... people having few and less diverse intestinal bacteria are more obese than the rest. They have a preponderance of bacteria which exhibit the potential to cause mild inflammation in the digestive tract and in the entire body, which is reflected in blood samples that reveal a state of chronic inflammation, which we know from other studies to affect metabolism and increase the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases"
  • Probiotics Prevent Diarrhea Related to Antibiotic Use, Review Shows - Science Daily, 5/30/13 - "Antibiotics disturb the beneficial bacteria that live in the gut and allow other harmful bacteria like C. difficile to take hold. Although some people infected with C. difficile show no symptoms, others suffer diarrhea or colitis. The so-called "good bacteria" or yeast in probiotic foods and supplements may offer a safe, low-cost way to help prevent C. difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD). This finding is important because CDAD is expensive to treat ... Probiotics taken in conjunction with antibiotics reduced the number of people who suffered diarrhea by 64%"
  • Changing Gut Bacteria Through Diet Affects Brain Function - Science Daily, 5/28/13 - "Time and time again, we hear from patients that they never felt depressed or anxious until they started experiencing problems with their gut ... Researchers divided the women into three groups: one group ate a specific yogurt containing a mix of several probiotics -- bacteria thought to have a positive effect on the intestines -- twice a day for four weeks; another group consumed a dairy product that looked and tasted like the yogurt but contained no probiotics; and a third group ate no product at all ... compared with the women who didn't consume the probiotic yogurt, those who did showed a decrease in activity in both the insula -- which processes and integrates internal body sensations, like those form the gut -- and the somatosensory cortex during the emotional reactivity task ... Further, in response to the task, these women had a decrease in the engagement of a widespread network in the brain that includes emotion-, cognition- and sensory-related areas. The women in the other two groups showed a stable or increased activity in this network"
  • Probiotics found to reduce hepatic encephalopathy - Science Daily, 4/25/13 - "Ammonia, produced by gut bacteria, is thought to be one of the main mediators of cerebral dysfunction in HE. Probiotics work by enriching the gut flora with a non-urease producing microorganisms, which decrease ammonia production ... Twice as many patients taking a placebo developed overt HE (the study's primary endpoint) compared to patients taking probiotics in the form of a capsule ... Hepatic encephalopathy is an insidious disease that's caused by an accumulation of toxins in the blood that are normally removed by the liver ... Hepatic encephalopathy is a spectrum of neuropsychiatric abnormalities including personality changes, intellectual impairment and reduced levels of consciousness in patients with liver failure, after exclusion of other known brain disease" - See Garden of Life, Primal Defense at Amazon.com.  Note:  Maybe it will work for ammonia accumulation due to endurance exercise:
    • Ammonia accumulation during highly intensive long-lasting cycling: individual observations - Int J Sports Med. 1990 May;11 Suppl 2:S78-84 - "Acute quantitative ammonia production during intensive endurance exercise may be enhanced by a reduced glycogen availability in muscle. However, adequate amounts of glycogen itself do not prevent ammonia production when exercise is at high intensity and long-lasting. The continuous ammonia accumulation in blood during endurance exercise in trained individuals may be the result of a relatively low blood flow to the liver and thereby low clearance in contrast to lactate which may not accumulate due to a high clearance rate in both active and nonactive oxidative muscle fibers. In a number of subjects it was observed that exhaustion, when performing endurance exercise at high exercise intensities, occurred when plasma ammonia levels were high. Muscle cramps occurred in subjects who reached their highest individual ammonia values and seemed not to be related to serum potassium, plasma lactate, or muscle glycogen. These individual observations give rise to the hypothesis that high intramuscular ammonia levels may be related to the etiology of muscle exhaustion and muscle cramping during highly intensive endurance exercise"
  • Probiotics reduce stress-induced intestinal flare-ups, study finds - Science Daily, 3/14/13 - "while stress does not cause IBS, it does alter brain-gut interactions and induces the intestinal inflammation that often leads to severe or chronic belly pain, loss of appetite and diarrhea ... Stress has a way of suppressing an important component called an inflammasome which is needed to maintain normal gut microbiota, but probiotics reversed the effect in animal models ... The effect of stress could be protected with probiotics which reversed the inhibition of the inflammasome"
  • Natural Probiotic for Osteoporosis? Building Healthy Bones Takes Guts - Science Daily, 2/14/13 - "inflammation in the gut can cause bone loss, though it's unclear exactly why ... the researchers fed the mice Lactobacillus reuteri, a probiotic known to reduce inflammation, a sometimes harmful effect of the body's immune response to infection ... the male mice showed a significant increase in bone density after four weeks of treatment. There was no such effect when the researchers repeated the experiment with female mice, an anomaly they're now investigating ... People tend to think of osteoporosis as just affecting postmenopausal women, but what they don't realize is that it can occur with other conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease and Type 1 diabetes ... You don't want to put your child on medications that reduce bone remodeling for the rest of their life, so something natural could be useful for long-term treatment of bone loss that begins at childhood"
  • Gut Bacteria Linked to Cholesterol Metabolism - Science Daily, 2/18/13 - "gut bacteria reduce bile acid synthesis in the liver by signaling through a specific protein, known as the FXR receptor, in the small intestine ... The FXR receptor not only affects cholesterol metabolism but is also involved in the body's sugar and fat metabolism ... If future research can identify the specific bacteria that affect FXR signaling in the gut, this could lead to new ways to treat diabetes and cardiovascular disease"
  • Effects of antibiotics on gut flora analyzed - Science Daily, 1/9/13 - "In the gut live one trillion bacteria, which are known as microbiota or gut flora, and that have co-evolved in symbiosis with humans. According to this study, treatment with antibiotics can alter this symbiosis from early stages of the treatment. "Although some of the changes are oscillatory and can be reversed at the end of the treatment, others seem irreversible,""
  • Metabolic Diseases and Pro- and Prebiotics - Medscape, 11/7/12 - "Recent findings that support the idea of the involvement of intestinal bacteria in the development of obesity and diabetes include: 1) the resistance to high-fat diet-induced obesity in germ-free mice,[64] 2) antibiotic-induced reduction of plasma LPS levels in obese mice fed a high-fat diet,[65] and 3) delayed onset and development of type 1 diabetes by use of antibiotics in a diabetes-prone rat model ... The control of intestinal microbial composition by use of probiotics and prebiotics is likely to impact the development of metabolic diseases through modulation of immune responses/inflammation and metabolism. Supplementation of probiotics and prebiotics may delay and/or reverse the progression of metabolic diseases"
  • Daily doses of a new probiotic reduces 'bad' and total cholesterol - Science Daily, 11/5/12 - "The study involved 127 adult patients with high cholesterol. About half the participants took L. reuteri NCIMB 30242 twice a day, while the rest were given placebo capsules ... Those taking the probiotic had LDL levels 11.6 percent lower than those on placebo after nine weeks. Furthermore, cholesterol esters were reduced by 6.3 percent and cholesterol ester saturated fatty acids by 8.8 percent, compared with the placebo group ... Furthermore, people taking the probiotic had total cholesterol reduced by 9.1 percent. HDL "good" cholesterol and blood triglycerides, a dangerous form of fat in the blood, were unchanged ... Scientists have proposed that Lactobacillus bacteria alone may impact cholesterol levels in several ways, including breaking apart molecules known as bile salts. L. reuteri NCIMB 30242 was fermented and formulated to optimize its effect on cholesterol and bile salts ... the study results suggest the probiotic broke up bile salts, leading to reduced cholesterol absorption in the gut and less LDL ... The probiotic worked at doses of just 200 milligrams a day, far lower than those for soluble fiber or other natural products used to reduce cholesterol"
  • Probiotics are secret weapon for fighting symptoms of the common cold in college students, study suggests - Science Daily, 10/22/12 - "randomized 198 college students aged 18 to 25 and living on-campus in residence halls at Framingham State University in Massachusetts. Groups received either a placebo (97 students) or a powder blend containing Chr. Hansen's probiotic strains BB-12® and LGG® (101 students) for 12 weeks. Each day, students completed a survey to assess the effect of the probiotic supplementation ... The study found that while all students caught colds at roughly the same rate, the students who took the probiotic supplementation experienced: ... A duration of colds that was two days shorter (four days vs. six days) ... Symptoms that were 34% less severe and ... A higher quality of life that resulted in fewer missed school days (15 vs. 34 missed by students taking the placebo) ... consumers need to read the label to be sure that the product contains Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG [LGG] and Bifidobacterium animalis lactis BB12 [BB12]. There also are some yogurts that contain LGG and/or BB12 but check the labels, since companies change the probiotics strains often"
  • Chronic kidney disease alters intestinal microbial flora - Science Daily, 10/9/12 - "consumption of high-fiber foods and better control of uremia -- a disease common in kidney failure -- by diet and dialysis may improve the composition of gut microbes and the well-being of patients ... They found marked differences in the abundance of some 190 types of bacteria in the gut microbiome of those with kidney disease -- and confirmed the results in a concurrent study of rats with and without chronic kidney disease ... One solution, Vaziri said, is to provide longer, more frequent dialysis treatments. This would let more potassium be removed by dialysis and allow for more potassium in the diet. Alternatively, packaged fiber foods that do not contain potassium could be used as a dietary supplement" - See Garden of Life, RAW Fiber at Amazon.com.
  • Gut bacteria could could play key role in development of type 2 diabetes - Science Daily, 9/26/12 - "The 1.5 kilograms of bacteria that we each carry in our intestines have an enormous impact on our health and well being. The bacteria normally live in a sensitive equilibrium but if this equilibrium is disrupted our health could suffer. In the new study, scientists examined the intestinal bacteria of 345 people from China, of which 171 had type 2 diabetes ... The research, which was recently published in the scientific journal Nature, also demonstrated that people with type 2 diabetes have a more hostile bacterial environment in their intestines, which can increase resistance to different medicines ... The big question now is whether the changes in gut bacteria can affect the development of type 2 diabetes or whether the changes simply reflect that the person is suffering from type 2 diabetes" - Follow-up story:
  • Natural intestinal flora strengthen immune system - Science Daily, 7/2/12 - "The research team infected two groups of mice with various viral germs. One group had a normal intestinal flora and the other consisted of so-called axenic mice, which do not have any intestinal flora due to having been treated with antibiotics or bred under particularly clean conditions. The immune response in the axenic mice was greatly reduced and led the disease to take a more severe course than in the healthy mice. When the scientists artificially provided the axenic mice with a healthy intestinal flora, their immune response improved ... The team succeeded in demonstrating that signals from the intestinal bacteria lead to a conditioning of the dendritic cells. This conditioning takes place on the level of the DNA in the nucleus and enables genes that encode these soluble mediators to be read better. The scientists speak of epigenetic changes. "This is the first time anyone has shown that changes in the natural intestinal flora resulting from antibiotics, hygiene, or lifestyle can have substantial consequences for the entire immune system," says Diefenbach"
  • Early gut bacteria regulate happiness - Science Daily, 6/12/12 - "UCC scientists have shown that brain levels of serotonin, the 'happy hormone' are regulated by the amount of bacteria in the gut during early life ... normal adult brain function depends on the presence of gut microbes during development. Serotonin, the major chemical involved in the regulation of mood and emotion, is altered in times of stress, anxiety and depression and most clinically effective antidepressant drugs work by targeting this neurochemical ... Scientists at the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre in UCC used a germ-free mouse model to show that the absence of bacteria during early life significantly affected serotonin concentrations in the brain in adulthood ... Finally, when the scientists colonized the animals with bacteria prior to adulthood, they found that many of the central nervous system changes, especially those related to serotonin, could not be reversed indicating a permanent imprinting of the effects of absence of gut flora on brain function"
  • New approach to regulating probiotics recommended - Science Daily, 5/24/12 - "the regulatory system in the US maintains that any product that claims to impact disease must be categorized as a drug. Therefore, scientists can't test if a probiotic yogurt relieves patients with inflammatory bowel disease without first registering the yogurt as a drug ... this regulation has halted a lot of great research on probiotics in North America and has ramifications for probiotic research and development in Europe"
  • Probiotics Reduce Antibiotic Diarrhea - Science Daily, 5/8/12 - "Diarrhea is a common side effect of antibiotic use, occurring in almost 1 in 3 people who take the drugs ... By affecting good bacteria, as well as bad, antibiotics can disrupt the delicate microbial balance in the intestines, but the live microorganisms marketed as probiotics can help restore this balance to reduce diarrhea risk ... in people taking antibiotics, those who used probiotics were 42% less likely to develop diarrhea"
  • Invisible helpers: How probiotic bacteria protect against inflammatory bowel diseases - Science Daily, 4/26/12 - "In experiments with mice, the scientists observed that lactocepin -- an enzyme produced from the lactic acid bacterium Lactobacillus paracasei -- can selectively interrupt inflammatory processes. As the scientists observed, lactocepin degrades messengers from the immune system, known as chemokines, in the diseased tissue. As a part of the "normal" immune response, chemokines are needed to guide defense cells to the source of the infection. In chronic intestinal disorders like Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, the otherwise highly effective defense mechanism against infectious agents is malfunctioning. Chemokines such as "IP-10" then contribute to the tissue damage due to chronic inflammatory processes, preventing the tissue from healing"
  • Probiotic Effects in Infants Last Until 4 Years of Age - Medscape, 2/10/12 - "Infants exposed to Lactobacillus rhamnosus through diet supplements from 35 weeks' gestation through 2 years of age had a significantly lower risk for eczema and rhinoconjunctivitis. The protective effect lasted until the children were at least 4 years of age"
  • New evidence that bacteria in large intestine have a role in obesity - Science Daily 12/21/11 [but it showed up in the news on 12/28] - "trillions of bacteria live in the large intestine of healthy people, where they help digest food and make certain vitamins. In recent years, however, scientists have realized that these bacteria do more -- they interact with the rest of the body in ways that affect the use of energy and its storage as fat and finely tune the immune system. Claus and Nicholson decided to see how intestinal bacteria might affect the activity of brown fat. The "good" fat that burns calories quickly before they can be stored as fat, brown fat exists in small deposits in the neck area and elsewhere -- not like "white fat" in flab around the waist and buttocks ... the scientists uncovered evidence suggesting that the bacteria do influence the activity of brown fat"
  • Probiotics reduce infections for patients in intensive care, study finds - Science Daily, 12/1/11 - "including probiotics with nutrients, supplied via the patient's feeding tube, increased interferon levels, reduced the number of infections, and even reduced the amount of time patients spent in intensive care ... by day 15 the patients who received the probiotics had significantly higher levels of both IL-12 and IFNy than the control patients. They also showed a decrease in the Th2-associated factors IL-4 and IL-10 ... probiotic therapy reduced the number of infections occurring after seven days, reduced the number of different antibiotics needed to treat infections, and shortened the length of time the patients were required to stay in ICU"
  • Probiotics appear to mitigate pancreatitis: Surprising hypothetical mechanism warrants further investigation - Science Daily, 11/16/11 - "The major finding: in the small intestine, higher than normal numbers of the newly discovered bacterium, "commensal rat ileum bacterium" (CRIB) were correlated with reduced severity of acute pancreatitis in animals that had been fed probiotic. These animals had less infection of remote organs, less infection of dying and dead pancreatic tissues, and less severe immune response during acute pancreatitis, as demonstrated by lower plasma levels of proinflammatory cytokines"
  • Probiotic protects intestine from radiation injury - Science Daily, 11/16/11 - "the therapy can kill both cancer cells and healthy ones, leading to severe bouts of diarrhea if the lining of the intestine gets damaged ... For many patients, this means radiation therapy must be discontinued, or the radiation dose reduced, while the intestine heals ... Probiotics may provide a way to protect the lining of the small intestine from some of that damage ... the probiotic bacteria Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG), among other Lactobacillus probiotic strains, protected the lining of the small intestine in mice receiving radiation ... the probiotic was effective only if given to mice before radiation exposure ... The bacteria we use is similar to what's found in yogurt or in commercially available probiotics ... So theoretically, there shouldn't be risk associated with this preventative treatment strategy any more than there would be in a patient with abdominal cancer eating yogurt"
  • Some Probiotics Effectively Reduce Common GI Symptoms - Medscape, 11/8/11 - "Mounting evidence is building a strong case for the use of probiotics, or "good" bacteria, to alleviate common gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, such as diarrhea, bloating, and inflammation, according to several studies highlighted during a press briefing here at the American College of Gastroenterology 2011 Annual Scientific Meeting and Postgraduate Course ... By giving a specific probiotic orally, we could actually reduce the levels of these proinflammatory cytokines and actually enhance the production of an anti-inflammatory cytokine, which is the exact replication of what we identified in animal models and more basic models ... Plasma levels of the anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-10 rose significantly in healthy volunteers and patients with psoriasis, but not in those who took the placebo for 8 weeks ... Plasma levels of 2 proinflammatory cytokines — tumor necrosis factor-alpha and IL-6 — dropped in all patients who received B infantis. C-reactive protein levels were also significantly lower in patients with psoriasis, ulcerative colitis, and chronic fatigue after treatment with the bacterium than after treatment with placebo"
  • Some Doctors Warming Up to Probiotics - WebMD, 11/4/11 - "A review of 22 studies involving 3,096 patients presented at the meeting showed that taking probiotics while on antibiotics may cut the risk of developing antibiotic-associated diarrhea by about 60% ...antibiotics kill "good" bacteria along with the bacteria that cause illness. A decrease in beneficial bacteria may lead to digestive problems. Taking probiotics may help replace the lost beneficial bacteria and help prevent diarrhea ... Probiotics also appeared to provide protection against potentially deadly bouts of diarrhea caused by the bug Clostridium difficile, or C. diff. ... Look for a brand you trust and whose label offers that information"
  • Gut bacteria may affect whether a statin drug lowers cholesterol - Science Daily, 10/13/11 - "Among the group who had a strong response to the drug, three bile acids appeared to play a role. The bile acids are produced by certain gut bacteria, which are increasingly understood as factories for chemicals that can contribute to a state of health. Among the people who responded poorly to the statin, five different bile acids were commonly evident ... new strategies could be developed to manipulate the gut microbiome using probiotics to spur different gut bacteria, which could then give the drugs a boost"
  • Probiotic intake linked to fewer birth complications - Nutra USA, 9/13/11 - "The Norwegian researchers analyzed data from 33,399 women participating in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study ... The intake of lactobacilli-containing milk-based products was determined using a food frequency questionnaire, while pre-eclampsia was determined using the Norwegian Medical Birth Registry ... the daily intake of at least 140 mL of probiotic milk products was associated with a 20% reduced risk of pre-eclampsia ... The effects were more pronounced for severe pre-eclampsia, with daily and weekly intakes of probiotic products associated with a 39% and 25%, respectively" - [Abstract]
  • New polymer research could boost probiotics industry - Science Daily, 9/5/11 - "One of the challenges for manufacturers of probiotic foods is getting high enough numbers of these bacteria into the intestines; most perish under the heavy acidic conditions of the stomach ... The novel biopolymer is completely biodegradable and is able to remain intact in the stomach and continue to the intestine, where it disintegrates, releasing the bacteria ... The researchers believe their findings could have a major impact on the probiotics industry"
  • Mind-altering microbes: Probiotic bacteria may lessen anxiety and depression - Science Daily, 8/29/11 - "Probiotic bacteria have the potential to alter brain neurochemistry and treat anxiety and depression-related disorders ... mice fed with Lactobacillus rhamnosus JB-1 showed significantly fewer stress, anxiety and depression-related behaviours than those fed with just broth. Moreover, ingestion of the bacteria resulted in significantly lower levels of the stress-induced hormone, corticosterone ... regular feeding with the Lactobacillus strain caused changes in the expression of receptors for the neurotransmitter GABA in the mouse brain, which is the first time that it has been demonstrated that potential probiotics have a direct effect on brain chemistry in normal situations"
  • Antibiotic Overuse May Be Bad for Body's Good Bacteria - WebMD, 8/24/11 - "Antibiotic overuse doesn’t just lead to drug-resistant superbugs, it may also permanently wipe out the body’s good bacteria ... in a developed country like the U.S., the average child gets 10 to 20 courses of antibiotics by age 18 ... doctors often prescribe antibiotics before they know whether an infection is viral or bacterial. If the problem is a virus, antibiotics don't help ... a 2003 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that doctors prescribed antibiotics for more than 60% of adults with upper respiratory tract infections, which are usually caused by viruses ... Antibiotics, he thinks, may also be contributing to obesity in humans, though Blaser says no one yet understands how ... a child’s risk for inflammatory bowel disease increases with the number of courses of antibiotics taken ... antibiotics may be a factor behind the unexplained rises in allergies, asthma, and type 1 diabetes in children ... There’s really only a limited number of studies that have been done on this so far, but I think we’re going to see more because I think it’s going to be a big deal for us to understand this ... effective probiotics are needed to replace lost good bacteria"
  • A gut-full of probiotics for your neurological well-being - Science Daily, 7/5/11 - "A recent study in mice, for example, showed that the presence of neurochemicals such a serotonin in the bloodstream was due to direct uptake from the gut ... Until recently the idea that probiotic bacteria administered to the intestine could influence the brain seemed almost surreal ... Yet in Lyte's paper the concept is supported by studies showing that microbes can produce and respond to neurochemicals, which can induce neurological and immunological effects on the host ... The research presents an idea for selecting probiotic strains with neurological applications and linking this with immune-modulatory effects, while highlighting the fact that microbial strains already being widely ingested in fermented food can produce neurochemicals" - See Garden of Life, Primal Defense at Amazon.com.
  • ‘Level 1’ evidence that probiotics boost ‘transit time’: Danisco & Fonterra - Nutra USA 6/22/11 - "the benefits were “at least equivalent to that of dietary fiber” ... The researchers recruited 100 healthy people with an average age of 44 and randomly assigned them to receive high or low daily doses of B. lactis HN019, or placebo for 14 days. High dose was defined as 17.2 billion colony forming units (CFU), while the low dose was 1.8 billion CFU ... At the end of the study results showed an improvement in transit time in the high dose group of 33 percent, and 25 percent in the low dose group. There was no change in the placebo group, added the researchers" - [Abstract]
  • Prebiotics may keep students healthy during stressful periods - Nutra USA, 5/26/11 - "A daily dose of 5.0 grams of the commercially available Purimmune prebiotic product from GTC Nutrition was associated with a 40 percent reduction in the number of days with cold or flu, according to findings published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition ... In addition, the prebiotic supplement – based on galactooligosaccharides – was also associated with a reduction in the occurrence of gut upsets in students around the time of fall final exams" - [Abstract] - See galactooligosaccharide products at iHerb (see the abstract).  I could have used that in college.  I remember that it worked out that I had two or three finals on the same day and I was up late studying for all three and got a stomach ache so bad I had to go to the campus nurse.  I never got much studying done but made it through the exams OK.
  • Healthy gut flora could prevent obesity, rat study suggests - Science Daily, 5/25/11 - "Poor gut flora is believed to trigger obesity. In the same way, healthy gut flora could reduce the risk. This has shown to be the case in tests on rats. Daily intake of a lactic acid bacteria, which has been given the name Lactobacillus plantarum HEAL19, appears to be able to prevent obesity and reduce the body's low-level inflammation ... Rats who were given this specific lactic acid bacterium from their time in the uterus up to adult age put on significantly less weight than other rats. Both groups ate the same amount of high-energy food ... A third group of rats were given the inflammation-causing Escherichia coli bacteria in their drinking water, in addition to the same high-energy food as the other rats. The E. coli supplement led to changes in gut flora and increased body fat ... A healthy gut flora at an early stage appears to play a part in children's wellbeing later in life"
  • Comfort food: Protein from probiotic bacteria may alleviate inflammatory bowel disorders - Science Daily, 5/23/11 - "A protein isolated from beneficial bacteria found in yogurt and dairy products could offer a new, oral therapeutic option for inflammatory bowel disorders (IBD) ... the protein supports intestinal epithelial cell growth and function, and reduces inflammatory responses that can cause intestinal cells to die. Importantly, the investigators showed that oral consumption of p40 by mice in a protective delivery system prevents and treats colitis in multiple models of the disease ... Many of the hundreds of bacterial species that live in our gut (known as the "human microbiome") are helpful to us: they help us digest certain substances, produce vitamins and fight off more dangerous bacteria. But miscommunication between these bacteria and our gut lining can lead to conditions like ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease"
  • Gut bacteria linked to behavior: That anxiety may be in your gut, not in your head - Science Daily, 5/17/11 - "For each person, the gut is home to about 1,000 trillium bacteria with which we live in harmony. These bacteria perform a number of functions vital to health: They harvest energy from the diet, protect against infections and provide nutrition to cells in the gut. Any disruption can result in life-threatening conditions, such as antibiotic-induced colitis from infection with the "superbug" Clostridium difficile ... Working with healthy adult mice, the researchers showed that disrupting the normal bacterial content of the gut with antibiotics produced changes in behaviour; the mice became less cautious or anxious. This change was accompanied by an increase in brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which has been linked, to depression and anxiety ... When oral antibiotics were discontinued, bacteria in the gut returned to normal. "This was accompanied by restoration of normal behaviour and brain chemistry,""
  • Probiotics may ease bowel movements for elderly: Study - Nutra USA, 5/13/11 - "The probiotic product (VSL Pharmaceuticals) reportedly contained 450 billion viable lyophilized bacteria from eight different strains, including Lactobacillus plantarum, L. paracasei, L. bulgaricus, L. acidophilus, Bifidobacterium breve, B. longum, B. infantis, and Streptococcus thermophilus ... people consuming the probiotic experienced a lower incidence of diarrhea (60 percent lower), compared to placebo ... In addition, laxative use decreased by 26 percent amongst people in the probiotic group, compared to placebo, added the Israeli scientists ... A significant reduction of Clostridium difficile prevalence was found in the probiotic group" - [Abstract]
  • Probiotics may ease bloating for people with bowel disorders: Study - Nutra USA, 5/12/11 - "Compared to results at the start and end of the study, bloating symptoms were reduced by 15 percent in the probiotic group"
  • C. difficile colonization accompanied by changes in gut microbiota: Study hints at probiotics as treatment - Science Daily, 4/19/11 - "Asymptomatic colonization by Clostridium difficile, absent the use of antibiotics, is common in infants and when it happens changes occur in the composition of the gut microbiota ... The adult human gut is an ecosystem containing several pounds of bacteria, including hundreds of species and more than 100 trillion (100,000,000,000,000) individuals. A healthy microbial ecosystem protects the host against Clostridium difficile, which frequently colonizes the gut after its ecological balance has been disrupted by broad spectrum antibiotics ... Our results suggest that Bifidobacterium species, which are used as probiotics, can participate in that barrier effect against C. difficile"
  • Antibiotics disrupt gut ecology, metabolism - Science Daily, 4/19/11 - "carry several pounds of microbes in our gastro-intestinal tracts. Recent research suggests that this microbial ecosystem plays a variety of critical roles in our health ... antibiotics profoundly disrupt intestinal homeostasis ... Intestinal microbes help us digest our food, provide us with vitamins that we cannot make on our own, and protect us from microbes that make us sick, amongst other things ... administered antibiotics to the mice, to kill off most of their gut microbiota, and analyzed the feces anew ... The levels of 87 percent of the molecules detected had been shifted up or down by factors ranging from 2-fold to 10,000-fold ... the unnecessary use of antibiotics has deleterious effects on human health that were previously unappreciated ... our gut microbes control these important molecules raises the possibility that manipulating these microbes could be used to modulate diseases that have hormonal or metabolic origins (such as inmmunodeficiency, depression, diabetes and others)"
  • Probiotic may reduce rate of recurrent urinary tract infections in women, study suggests - Science Daily, 4/15/11 - "Of the 100 women who participated in the study, 50 received LACTIN-V, and 50 received the placebo. Seven of the women who received LACTIN-V had at least one urinary tract infection, compared to 13 in the placebo group"
  • Bacteria supplements may affect weight gain: Rat study extends microflora-obesity link - Nutra USA, 4/12/11 - "Early exposure to bacterial strains during pregnancy, breast feeding, and early life has a profound impact on weight gain in the offspring, says a new study with rats ... supplementation of a high-energy-dense diet with the bacterial strain Lactobacillus plantarum resulted in less weight gain, compared to rats fed only the high energy diet ... animals fed the high energy diet and supplemented with less friendly Escherichia coli bacteria experienced significantly higher levels of body fat, compared to the control animals ... the L. plantarum supplemented animals had significantly lower weight gain than both the control and E. coli-supplemented groups. This difference was observed at birth (indicating a potential influence of the mother’s diet) with the L. plantarum pups having an average birth weight of 7.5 grams, compared with 8.2 and 9.6 grams for the control and E.coli animals, respectively ... After six months, a similar trend was observed, with L. plantarum animals having an average weight of 304 grams, compared with 340 and 352 grams for the control and E.coli animals, respectively" - [Abstract]
  • 'Knowing it in your gut' is real - Science Daily, 3/23/11 - "the "cross-talk" between bacteria in our gut and our brain plays an important role in the development of psychiatric illness, intestinal diseases and probably other health problems as well including obesity ... Using germ-free mice, Foster's research shows gut bacteria influences how the brain is wired for learning and memory ... genes linked to learning and memory are altered in germ-free mice and, in particular, they are altered in one of the key brain regions for learning and memory -- the hippocampus ... The take-home message is that gut bacteria influences anxiety-like behavior through alterations in the way the brain is wired"
  • Gut bacteria can control organ functions - Science Daily, 2/28/11 - "The gut microbiota enhances the host's metabolic capacity for processing nutrients and drugs and modulates the activities of multiple pathways in a variety of organ systems ... Here we describe the first evidence of an in vivo association between a family of bacteria and hepatic lipid metabolism. These results provide new insights into the fundamental mechanisms that regulate host-gut microbiota interactions and are of wide interest to microbiological, nutrition, metabolic, systems biology and pharmaceutical research communities ... Another important finding in the paper, according to Claus, is that gut colonization strongly stimulated the expression and activity of the cytochrome P450 3A11, an essential enzyme in drug-detoxification pathways"
  • Probiotic identified to treat ulcers - Science Daily, 2/24/11 - "H. pylori is considered one of the major risk factors underlying the development of gastritis and gastric and duodenal ulcers ... Currently, antibiotic-based treatment for H. pylori infection is neither sufficient nor satisfactory, with the most successful treatments reaching 75 to 90% eradication rates ... Among probiotics Bifidobacterium is one of the favorite genera in studies focused on the prevention of gastrointestinal infection and is often used in fermented dairy products or food supplements ... They identified one strain (Bifidobacterium bifidum CECT 7366) that under certain conditions had an inhibition level of nearly 95% in vitro and tested its activitity against infection in mi ... After 21 days, mice treated with the potentially probiotic strain developed significantly less ulcers than the control group" - See probiotics at Amazon.com.
  • Bacteria in the gut may influence brain development - Science Daily, 2/1/11 - "The research team compared behavior and gene expression in two groups of mice -- those raised with normal microorganisms, and those raised in the absence of microorganisms (or germ-free mice). The scientists observed that adult germ-free mice displayed different behavior from mice with normal microbiota, suggesting that gut bacteria may have a significant effect on the development of the brain in mammals"
  • New probiotic combats inflammatory bowel disease - Science Daily, 1/31/11 - "Northwestern Medicine researchers deleted a gene in the probiotic Lactobacillus acidophilus and fed the new form to mice with two different models of colitis. After 13 days of treatment, the novel probiotic strain nearly eliminated colon inflammation in the mice and halted progression of their disease by 95 percent ... In the study, the modified Lactobacillus acidophilus entered the gut, which is akin to a battlefield of friendly fire with immune cells attacking the intestine. The Lactobacillus acidophilus acted as the gut's peacekeeping force, calming the overstimulated immune cells ... The probiotic restored intestinal peace by mobilizing messenger immune cells, called dendritic cells. The dendritic cells, in turn, enhanced the production of other functional immune cells, regulatory T-cells that rebalanced intestinal and systemic inflammation"
  • Specific populations of gut bacteria linked to fatty liver - Science Daily, 1/31/11 - "A new research finding showing a strong relationship between complex microbial ecologies in human intestines and the common but serious medical condition known as fatty liver illustrates this paradox ... Choline deficiency also implicates genetics, since many people lack the genes to efficiently make choline internally ... The implication of the finding is that these groups of bacteria may be influencing the body's ability to properly use the choline available in food ... bioinformatics researchers at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte found a strong correlation between the relative abundances of two specific classes of bacteria and the development of fatty liver ... Those patients with the highest abundance of Gammaproteobacteria at the beginning of the study seemed to have the lowest fatty liver development. The ones with the least developed the most fatty liver ... Erysipeoltrichi showed exactly the opposite association, though this relationship was not quite as strong. So there seemed to be change going on in opposite directions"
  • Synbiotics may protect kids from asthma: Danone study - Nutra USA, 1/12/11 - "probiotics are defined as "live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host". Prebiotics are "nondigestible substances that provide a beneficial physiological effect on the host by selectively stimulating the favourable growth or activity of a limited number of indigenous bacteria". Synbiotics are a combination of the two ... One year after the study, data was available for 75 children, and this showed that the absolute risk of asthma symptoms 'frequent wheezing' and 'wheezing and/or noisy breathing apart from colds' were 20 and 28 percent lower, respectively, in the synbiotic group" - [Abstract] - See synbiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Designer probiotics could reduce obesity - Science Daily, 12/22/10 - "engineered a strain of Lactobacillus to produce a version of a molecule called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). When this engineered bacterial strain was fed to mice, the researchers found that the composition of the mice's fat tissue was significantly altered ... One type, called t10, c12 CLA, has been shown to be associated with decreased body fat in humans and other animals. t10, c12 CLA also has the ability to inhibit the growth of colon cancer cells and induce their death. However, this type of CLA is only produced by certain types of bacteria including Propionibacterium acnes -- a skin bacterium that can cause acne ... In this study, an enzyme-encoding gene from P. acnes was transferred to the Lactobacillus strain allowing it to produce t10, c12 CLA ... CLA has already been shown to alleviate non-alcoholic fatty liver disease that often accompanies obesity. Therefore, increasing levels of CLA in the liver by ingestion of a probiotic strain is of therapeutic relevance ... The same group of researchers previously found that microbially produced CLA was able to reduce the viability of colon cancer cells by 92%"
  • Dannon's Activia, DanActive health claims draw $21M fine - USATODAY.com, 12/15/10 - "Dannon will stop claiming that one daily serving of Activia yogurt relieves irregularity and that DanActive helps people avoid catching colds" - Here's the reason I used Activia to make my own yoghurt (first bullet).  This article doesn't address it.  I never did buy off on the irregularity claim but there might be some support for colds:
    • Dannon Activia | How Activia Helps - Activia.com - "This is where Activia, with Bifidus Regularis®, can help! Activia is shown in several clinical studies to survive passage through the digestive system and arrive in the gut in enough quantities to help have a positive impact on slow intestinal transit"
    • Probiotics show potential against common cold: Study - Nutra USA 9/21/10 - "daily consumption of Lactobacillus plantarum HEAL 9 (DSM 15312) and Lactobacillus paracasei 8700:2 (DSM 13434) reduced the incidence of one or more episodes of the common cold from 67 percent in the placebo group to 55 percent, according to findings published in the European Journal of Nutrition ... Furthermore, the number of days of symptoms for the cold was significantly reduced in people taking the probiotic supplements, from an average of 8.6 to 6.2, compared with placebo ... the total symptom score was reduced during the study period from a mean of 44.4 for the control group to 33.6 for the probiotic group"
  • Probiotics shorten diarrhea episodes, review suggests - Science Daily, 11/9/10 - "Giving probiotics in conjunction with rehydration fluids reduced the duration of diarrhea by around a day and reduced the risk of diarrhea lasting four or more days by 59%"
  • Lactobacillus reuteri good for health, Swedish study finds - Science Daily, 11/2/10 - "several different strains of Lactobacillus reuteri have a positive effect on health, including various types of gastrointestinal disorders and oral health. It is also believed that lactobacilli play a role in the development of allergies ... Gabriela Sinkiewicz has also studied how L. reuteri affects oral health and has established that the occurrence of both plaque and bleeding from the gums declined after only two weeks of using chewing gum containing certain strains of L. reuteri"
  • Probiotics show potential against stress-related conditions - Nutra USA 10/29/10 - "Results showed that levels of psychological distress, including measures of depression, anger-hostility, anxiety, and problem solving, were significantly improved in the probiotic group, compared with placebo" - [Abstract]
  • Probiotics show potential against common cold: Study - Nutra USA 9/21/10 - "daily consumption of Lactobacillus plantarum HEAL 9 (DSM 15312) and Lactobacillus paracasei 8700:2 (DSM 13434) reduced the incidence of one or more episodes of the common cold from 67 percent in the placebo group to 55 percent, according to findings published in the European Journal of Nutrition ... Furthermore, the number of days of symptoms for the cold was significantly reduced in people taking the probiotic supplements, from an average of 8.6 to 6.2, compared with placebo ... the total symptom score was reduced during the study period from a mean of 44.4 for the control group to 33.6 for the probiotic group" - [Abstract]
  • Cutting fat and calories can lower cancer risk in dogs and people - Science Daily, 7/22/10 - "adding quality prebiotics to pet foods can enhance their gut health"
  • Probiotics use in mothers limits eczema in their babies - Science Daily, 7/20/10 - "compared mothers who drank one glass of probiotic milk a day to women who were given a placebo. Use of the probiotic milk -- which the mothers drank beginning at week 36 in their pregnancy up through to three months after birth -- reduced the incidence of eczema by 40 percent in children up to age two, the researchers found"
  • Of bugs and brains: Gut bacteria affect multiple sclerosis - Science Daily, 7/20/10 - "This study shows for the first time that specific intestinal bacteria have a significant role in affecting the nervous system during MS -- and they do so from the gut, an anatomical location very, very far from the brain ... Perhaps treatments for diseases such as multiple sclerosis may someday include probiotic bacteria that can restore normal immune function in the gut… and the brain"
  • Probiotics in pregnancy could have diabetes benefits: Study - Nutra USA, 7/16/10 - "those women who had taken probiotics had a reduced frequency of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM): 13 percent for the diet/probiotics group, compared to 36 percent for the diet/placebo group and 34 percent for the control group ... In addition, the dietary counseling during pregnancy reduced the risk of fetal overgrowth, which is thought to predispose to later obesity" - [Abstract]
  • Gut bacteria could be key indicator of colon cancer risk - "a shift in the balance between the "good" bacteria and the "bad" bacteria that populate our gut could be a harbinger of colon cancer ... We think something happens to tip the balance away from the beneficial bacteria and in favor of microbes that make toxic metabolites and are detrimental to our health ... By pinpointing these bacterial culprits, we can not only identify people at risk, but also suggest that they include the good bacteria in their diet .. And what a great way to address colon cancer -- you could know your risk and lower it by eating your yogurt every day" - Note:  Dannon claims that only their Activia brand reaches the gut.  see:
    • Activia by Dannon - "Specialists at Dannon® selected Bifidus Regularis™ for Activia® because it survives passage through the digestive tract, arriving in the colon as a living culture. Once there, it plays a beneficial role in your intestinal ecosystem"
  • Oral bacteria may offer probiotic potential against upper respiratory infections - Science Daily, 6/18/10 - "So far, the benefits of probiotics have been predominantly explored in the intestinal tract, however, other initial studies suggest probiotics may contribute to wellness in the stomach, vaginal tract, skin and mouth ... A probiotic strategy effective in the prophylaxis of pharyngitis, therefore, could provide a significant social benefit"
  • Probiotic therapy cuts risk of ventilator-associated pneumonia in half for some in ICU, study finds - Science Daily, 6/17/10 - "daily use of probiotics not only decreased VAP infections by about 50 percent compared to placebo, but also reduced the amount of antibiotics needed in comparison to placebo-treated patients. This reduction in antibiotic consumption led to significantly fewer Clostridium difficile infections in patients given probiotics. No side effects attributable to the probiotics were observed"
  • Probiotic Reduces Crying Time in Infants With Colic - Medscape, 6/17/10 - "One week of supplementation with the probiotic Lactobacillus reuteri Protectis reduced crying time in colicky babies by 74%, compared with 38% with placebo" - See lactobacillus at Amazon.com.
  • Gut-residing bacteria trigger arthritis in genetically susceptible individuals - Science Daily, 6/17/10 - "A single species of bacteria that lives in the gut is able to trigger a cascade of immune responses that can ultimately result in the development of arthritis ... In the absence of all bacteria, these mice didn't develop arthritis, but the introduction of a single bacterium was enough to jump-start the immune process that leads to development of the disease ... bacteria in the gut could influence the development of an autoimmune disease affecting tissues distant from the gut. Diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome have been linked to gut-residing bacteria" - See Garden of Life Primal Defense HSO Probiotic Formula at Amazon.com.  Also see my section in last week's newsletter on making you own Activa.
  • 15 best age-erasing superfoods - MSNBC, 5/25/10 - "Yogurt ... Various cultures claim yogurt as their own creation, but the 2,000-year-old food’s health benefits are not disputed: Fermentation spawns hundreds of millions of probiotic organisms that serve as reinforcements to the battalions of beneficial bacteria in your body, which keep your digestive tract healthy and your immune system in top form, and provide protection against cancer. Not all yogurts are probiotic, though, so make sure the label says “live and active cultures.”"
  • Probiotics may help fat and weight loss: Study - Nutra USA, 6/11/10 - "Twelve weeks of consuming a fermented milk product containing the Lactobacillus strain was associated with a 4.6 per cent reduction in abdominal fat, and a 3.3 per cent reduction in subcutaneous fat" - [Abstract]
    • See Yogourmet Electric Yogurt Maker - I've had a lot of yogurt makers over the years but this is the best one I've found.  I mix two cups of Nestle Nido Instant Dry Whole Milk (available at Amazon) with two cups of dry skim milk in a blender.  Lately I've been making it with Activa. I believe it's only sold flavored but I've been using the strawberry flavored Activa.  I put the milk powders in a blender then fill it with water and blend.  Then add one container of the Activa and blend fast one more time (not to kill the culture).  Then pour it into the jar and fill the jar to the top with additional water and leave it in the yoghurt maker for 13 hours.  I mix the finished product with Smucker's Strawberry Orchard's Finest.  If your worried about the BPA's from the plastic container, see Widemouth Clear Half Gallon Glass Jar (64oz) w/ White Metal Lid  at specialtybottles.com.
    • Activia by Dannon - "Specialists at Dannon® selected Bifidus Regularis™ for Activia® because it survives passage through the digestive tract, arriving in the colon as a living culture. Once there, it plays a beneficial role in your intestinal ecosystem"
  • Yogurt-like drink DanActive reduced rate of common infections in daycare children - Science Daily, 5/19/10 - "Researchers found a 19 percent decrease of common infections among the children who drank the yogurt-like drink with L. casei DN-114 001 compared to those whose drink did not have the probiotic. More specifically, those who drank DanActive had 24 percent fewer gastrointestinal infections (such as diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting), and 18 percent fewer upper respiratory tract infections (such as ear infections, sinusitis and strep). However, the reduction in infections did not result in fewer missed school days or activities -- also a primary outcome of the study" - [Abstract] - Note:  For what it's worth, I tried Activa in my yogurt maker and it worked fine however Activa has fruit mixed with it but most of it flouted to the top and I was able to skim it off.
  • Probiotics for mum during pregnancy may cut obesity in child: Study - Nutra USA, 2/16/10
  • Prebiotic-soy combination may boost heart health: Study - Nutra USA, 2/11/10
  • 'Good' bacteria keep immune system primed to fight future infections - Science Daily, 1/27/10 - "The investigators show that "good" bacteria in the gut keep the immune system primed to more effectively fight infection from invading pathogenic bacteria. Altering the intricate dynamic between resident and foreign bacteria -- via antibiotics, for example -- compromises an animal's immune response, specifically, the function of white blood cells called neutrophils"
  • Promising probiotic treatment for inflammatory bowel disease - Science Daily, 1/21/10 - "Several recent studies have identified butyric acid as a potential therapeutic agent for IBD. Some gut bacteria produce butyric acid naturally in the intestines, but in IBD patients some of these strains are heavily depleted. Trials in mice have shown that injecting one such strain Faecalibacterium prausnitzii into the digestive tract is effective at restoring normal levels of gut bacteria and treating the symptoms of IBD. In addition, novel identified butyrate-producing strains, such as Butyricicoccus pullicaecorum, have been shown to exert similar effects"
  • Another Cause of Obesity: The Bacteria in Your Gut? - Time Magazine, 11/12/09 - "When one group of mice was fed a typical Western diet, high in fat and sugars, they tended to gain weight and grow more Firmicutes gut bacteria and fewer Bacteroidetes. In mice given a low-fat, plant-based chow, the distribution of the two groups of bugs flipped and the animals remained lean. It's not clear whether the balance of gut bugs causes weight gain or is a result of it, but the findings suggest that a "gut profile" could potentially serve as a diagnostic tool for identifying who might have a propensity for obesity. If, for instance, your gut environment contains a preponderance of Firmicutes, then your body may be predisposed to digest calories in a way that leads to greater fat storage. In fact, in Gordon's earlier work with identical twins of different weights, he found that the obese twin tended to have more Firmicutes colonies than the leaner sibling ...factors like gut microbes, which scientists traditionally would not think of exerting influence on genes, may have a surprisingly powerful effect, changing how a body's genes would normally control the way it digest food and breaks it down into energy"
    • Gut microflora and obesity: Study highlights potential for pre-, probiotics - Nutra USA, 11/12/09 - "One approach could involve searching for nutritional interventions to modify specific gut microbial species. Dietary components (prebiotics) might be found that alter growth of specific microbial species capable of affecting host physiology, and the Turnbaugh model can be used to pinpoint these elements and decipher the mechanisms of the host-microbe collaboration"
  • Probiotics May Help Treat IBD Symptoms - WebMD, 10/29/09 - "A new study shows treatment with the probiotic Bacillus polyfermenticus reduced rectal bleeding, lessened tissue inflammation, and promoted weight gain in mice with colitis. The mice also had increased blood vessel growth in their intestinal lining, which is important for healing damaged tissue. The probiotic also encouraged the growth process of new blood vessels in laboratory tests with human intestinal cells"
  • Diet And Intestinal Bacteria Linked To Healthier Immune Systems - Science Daily, 10/28/09 - "Insoluble dietary fibre, or roughage, not only keeps you regular, say Australian scientists, it also plays a vital role in the immune system, keeping certain diseases at bay ... Similarly, probiotics and prebiotics, food supplements that affect the balance of gut bacteria, reduce the symptoms of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis, also inflammatory diseases"
  • Probiotics may protect against gum disease: Yakult study - Nutra USA, 9/30/09 - "One group was required to drink 65 ml of Yakult daily, giving a daily probiotic dose of 100 billion bacteria per 100 ml. The other group was given no product to consume at all ... analysis of the fluid between the gum and the tooth (gingival crevicular fluid) showed that the probiotic was associated with reductions were in elastase activity, and enzyme linked to inflammation, and matrix metalloproteinase-3 (MMP-3), an enzyme that is responsible for the degradation of extracellular matrix components and known to have increased activity during inflammation" - [Abstract]
  • Prebiotics may stop early stage colon cancer: Study - Nutra USA, 9/4/09
  • Could probiotics protect us from gut parasites? - Nutra USA, 8/20/09
  • Probiotics may reduce cold and 'flu symptoms for children - Nutra USA, 7/30/09 - "A daily supplement of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains may reduce the incidence of cold and 'flu-like symptoms in children by 50 per cent ... A combination of the two strains was linked to reductions in fever incidence by 73 per cent, a reduction in the occurrence of runny noses by 59 per cent, and drop in the incidence of coughing by 62 per cent" - [Abstract]
  • Antibiotics Take Toll On Beneficial Microbes In Gut - Science Daily, 6/18/09 - "Normally, a set of thousands of different kinds of microbes lives in the gut – a distinctive mix for each person, and thought to be passed on from mother to baby. The microbes, including many different bacteria, aid digestion and nutrition, appear to help maintain a healthy immune system, and keep order when harmful microbes invade ... Mice, which normally develop a diverse set of microbes after being born without one, then were given either cefoperazone, a broad-spectrum cephalosporin antibiotic, or a combination of three antibiotics (amoxicillin, bismuth and metronidazole) ... Both antibiotic treatments caused significant changes in the gut microbial community. However, in the mice given cefoperazone, there was no recovery of normal diversity. In other mice given the amoxicillin-containing combination, the microbiota largely recovered, but not completely ... Probiotics may be part of the solution, but we don’t know that yet"
  • Probiotics may reduce eczema risk by 60 per cent - Nutra USA, 5/15/09 - "The Dutch researchers report that parental-reported eczema was 58 per cent lower in the intervention group compared with placebo during the first three months of life, after which the incidence of eczema was similar between the groups" - [Abstract]
  • Study In Pregnant Women Suggests Probiotics May Help Ward Off Obesity - Science Daily, 5/7/09 - "One year after giving birth, women were less likely to have the most dangerous kind of obesity if they had been given probiotics from the first trimester of pregnancy, found new research that suggests manipulating the balance of bacteria in the gut may help fight obesity ... Central obesity, where overall obesity is combined with a particularly fat belly, is considered especially unhealthy ... We found it in 25% of the women who had received the probiotics along with dietary counselling, compared with 43% in the women who received diet advice alone"
  • How Probiotics Can Prevent Disease - Science Daily, 4/1/09 - "In each instance the protection was linked to a particular bacterial species, and the mechanism of action varied from direct antagonism (where the probiotic directly kills the pathogenic bacteria) to effects mediated by the host immune system. For example Lactobacillus salivarius UCC118 protected mice against listeriosis (a disease which can affect pregnant women) by producing an antimicrobial peptide that eliminates Listeria monocytogenes in the gut of the animal. In another mechanism, Lactococcus lactis could be used to treat mastitis by eliciting an immune response that overwhelmed the infectious bacterium"
  • Probiotics May Relieve Symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome - Medscape, 3/20/09 - "In patients with IBS, probiotics showed a modest improvement in overall symptoms, using both dichotomous and continuous data"
  • New Yogurt Fights Stomach Ulcers - WebMD, 3/22/09 - "H. pylori uses an enzyme called urease to attach to and infect the inside of the stomach. This latest yogurt, designed to fight stomach ulcers, contains an antibody called IgY-urease. The yogurt is marketed as Dr. Piro in Japan and as Gut in Korea. Researchers are hopeful that their clinical trial will pave the way for approval in the United States ... For the trial, scientists recruited 42 people who tested positive for H. pylori. Some participants ate the yogurt with the antibody three times a day for four weeks. Some participants ate the same amount of regular yogurt that didn't contain the antibody. H. pylori activity was significantly reduced in the antibody yogurt group"
  • Supplement Of Probiotics Provides A New Therapy For Ulcerative Colitis - Science Daily, 2/27/09
  • Probiotics May Help People Taking Antibiotics - Science Daily, 12/17/08 - "Up to one in five people on antibiotics stop taking their full course of antibiotic therapy due to diarrhea. Physicians could help patients avoid this problem by prescribing probiotics"
  • Yoghurt can benefit bladder cancer, say researchers - Nutra USA, 10/21/08 - "yoghurt consumption reduced the risk of cancer in men by 36 per cent and in women by 45 per cent. Other dairy products did not reveal such benefits and the researchers suggested this was down to the inherent functionality present in many yoghurts and not just those with boosted probiotic levels ... Cultured milk products, such as yoghurt, contain lactic acid bacteria, which have been shown to suppress bladder cancer in rats" - [Abstract] - See Yogourmet Electric Yogurt Maker and Nestle Nido Instant Milk Powder Mexico 1600g (3.5 Pounds) - Case of 6.  I mix the Nido full fat and Carnation non-fat (50/50).
  • Probiotic May Help Treat Crohn's Disease - WebMD, 10/20/08 - "A gut bacterium called F. prausnitzii may make a good probiotic treatment for Crohn's disease"
  • Cultured milk, yogurt, and dairy intake in relation to bladder cancer risk in a prospective study of Swedish women and men - Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 Oct;88(4):1083-7 - "Total dairy intake was not significantly associated with risk of bladder cancer [> or =7.0 servings/d compared with < 3.5 servings/d: multivariate rate ratio (RR) = 0.87; 95% CI: 0.66, 1.15; P for trend = 0.33]. However, a statistically significant inverse association was observed for the intake of cultured milk (sour milk and yogurt). The multivariate RRs for the highest category of cultured milk intake (> or =2 servings/d) compared with the lowest category (0 serving/d) were 0.62 (95% CI: 0.46, 0.85; P for trend = 0.006) in women and men combined, 0.55 (95% CI: 0.25, 1.22; P for trend = 0.06) in women, and 0.64 (95% CI: 0.46, 0.89; P for trend = 0.03) in men. The intake of milk or cheese was not associated with bladder cancer risk ... These findings suggest that a high intake of cultured milk may lower the risk of developing bladder cancer"
  • 'Friendly' Bacteria Protect Against Type 1 Diabetes, Researchers Find - Science Daily, 9/21/08 - "mice exposed to common stomach bacteria were protected against the development of Type I diabetes ... if they were raised in a germ-free environment, lacking "friendly'' gut bacteria, the mice developed severe diabetes. NOD mice exposed to harmless bacteria normally found in the human intestine were significantly less likely to develop diabetes"
  • Does Probiotic Intervention Induce The Serum Global Lipid Profile Change? - Science Daily, 9/18/08 - "investigated the effect of a three weeks intervention of a probiotic LGG intervention on serum global lipidomics profiles in healthy adults. The result showed that there were decreases in the levels of lysophosphatidylcholines (LysoGPCho), sphingomyelins (SM) and several glycerophosphatidylcholines (GPCho), and increases in triacylglycerols (TAG) in the probiotic LGG group. These changes may contribute, for example, to the metabolic events behind the beneficial effects of LGG on gut barrier function seen in previous studies"
  • Is Probiotic Yakult Helpful In The Treatment Of Irritable Bowel Syndrome? - Science Daily, 9/10/08 - "A pilot study was undertaken to determine the effect of L. strain Shirota (Yakult®) on intestinal fermentation patterns of IBS patients. After 6 week of treatment with 1 x 65 mL dose of Yakult(R) daily, 9 of 14 patients (64%) completing the study had reversal of ERBHAL, with the median time of first rise increasing from 45 to 75 min (P = 0.03). Furthermore, symptoms improved in those in whom ERBHAL was corrected"
  • How Friendly Bacteria Avoids Immune Attack To Live Happily In The Gut - Science Daily, 9/2/08
  • 'Good' Bacteria May Ease Hay Fever - WebMD, 6/4/08
  • Hayfever Hope: Probiotic Drink Can Modify Immune System's Response To Grass Pollen - Science Daily, 6/4/08 - "contained Lactobacillus casei ... The probiotic strain we tested changed the way the body's immune cells respond to grass pollen, restoring a more balanced immune response"
  • Probiotics may offer hay fever hope - Nutra USA, 6/3/08 - "Hayfever is an allergic reaction to pollen or fungal spores, most commonly grass pollen. The immune system mistakes the spores for harmful invaders and white blood cells - T-helper type 2 (Th2) lymphocytes - produce protein-like cytokines, such as interleukin-4 (IL-4), IL-5 and IL-6, which in turn promote the synthesis of the immune chemicals immunoglobulins (Ig) to bind to the pollen and fight them off ... However, supplementation with the probiotic led to reduced production of IL-5 and IL-6, as well as decreased in the production of IgE ... The probiotic-supplemented volunteers had significantly reduced levels of IL-5 and IL-6" - [Abstract]
  • What Else May Probiotics Do In Adults? - Science Daily, 5/20/08 - "It was found that probiotics have an anti-inflammatory potential seen as a decrease in serum CRP levels and as a reduction in bacteria-induced production of proinflammatory cytokines in peripheral blood mononuclear cells"
  • Probiotic hope for kidney stones - BBC News, 3/9/08 - "People naturally carrying the bacterium Oxalobacter formigenes were found to be 70% less likely to have problems"
  • Probiotic Cuts Respiratory Illness Rates In Endurance Athletes, Study Suggests - Science Daily, 2/18/08 - "The probiotic Lactobacillus substantially cuts the rate and length of respiratory illness in professional long distance runners ... athletes taking the probiotic had less than half the number of days of symptoms of their colleagues taking the placebo ... Respiratory symptoms while taking Lactobacillus lasted 30 days compared with 72 days while taking the placebo" - [Nutra USA] - See my favorite Garden of Life Primal Defense HSO Probiotic Formula at Amazon.com.
  • Probiotics 'protect top athletes' - BBC News, 2/14/08 - "Over the four months, all 20 received two month-long courses of pills - one containing the bacterium Lactobacillus fermentum, and the other containing no active ingredients ... a total of 72 days in which people taking the "dummy" pills complained of symptoms ... When the same number of "probiotic" days was examined, only 30 were hit by illness"
  • Infants With Poor Intestinal Flora Often Develop Eczema - Science Daily, 1/23/08 - "children with only a limited variety of bacteria in their feces one week after birth more often developed atopical eczema by the age of 18 months"
  • Probiotics 'have effects on gut' - BBC News, 1/16/08 - "Our study shows that probiotics can have an effect and they interact with the local ecology and talk to other bacteria"
  • Clinical trial: multispecies probiotic supplementation alleviates the symptoms of IBS and stabilises intestinal microbiota - Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2007 Oct 6 - "The composite IBS score had at five months decreased 14 points (95% CI: -19 to -9) from baseline with the multispecies probiotic versus 3 points (95% CI: -8 to 1) with placebo (p=0.0083). Especially distension and abdominal pain were affected"
  • Appendix Isn't Useless At All: It's A Safe House For Good Bacteria - Science Daily, 10/8/07
  • Probiotics work out against constipation, says study - Nutra USA, 8/10/07 - "the frequency of bowel movements doubled over the weeks following the start of probiotic supplementation, increasing from two per week to 4.2 after two weeks, to 3.8 after four weeks" [Abstract]
  • Probiotic Supplements (Including Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium, and Others) review - ConsumerLab.com, 12/13/06
  • Elderly 'should take probiotics' - BBC News, 8/7/06 - "the drinks, yoghurts or capsules could help protect older people against bowel conditions, such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) ... as people get older they have reduced levels of friendly bacteria and increased levels of disease-causing bacteria ... at about the age of 60 there was a big drop in bacteria levels, and older people had 1,000-fold less friendly bacteria than other younger adults"
  • Probiotics May Help Stressed Gut - WebMD, 4/25/06 - "Harmful bacteria latched onto cells in the intestinal wall and nearby lymph nodes of stressed rats with sterile drinking water ... Stressed rats that had gotten probiotics in their drinking water showed no signs of harmful bacteria leaking to their lymph nodes"
  • Probiotic Yogurt May Help Eradicate H. pylori Infection - Medscape, 4/17/06 - "Four weeks of pretreatment with AB-yogurt before quadruple therapy improves eradication rate of residual H. pylori after failed triple therapy"
  • 'Good' Bacteria: Good for Colds? - WebMD, 11/7/05
  • Workers On Daily Probiotics Less Likely To Take Time Off Sick - Science Daily, 11/7/05 - "workers who took a daily dose of the probiotic bacteria Lactobacillus reuteri were 2.5 times less likely to take sick leave than workers who took a placebo"
  • SA, 3/31/05
  • A Healthy Gut May Resist Allergies, Asthma - WebMD, 12/23/04 - "People need a mix of healthy bacteria and fungi in their guts. Microflora in humans can be thrown off by antibiotics and a sugary, high-fat, low-fiber diet"
  • Good Bacteria Trigger Proteins To Protect The Gut - Science Daily, 7/23/04 - "the practice of giving antibiotics to cancer patients to prevent infections might render the gut more vulnerable to damage – a danger that might be overcome by administering substances that mimic the protective presence of gut bacteria"
  • Probiotics, dead or alive, can relieve gut disease - Nutra USA, 2/2/04
  • Probiotic Therapy May Be Effective for Treating Ulcerative Colitis - Doctor's Guide, 5/21/03 - "adding a probiotic with multiple strains and a high concentration of bacteria to the treatment regimen may have the potential to stop this disease in its tracks and avoid any treatment-related side effects"
  • Quality of Probiotic Supplements Questioned: Are You Getting What You Pay For? - New Hope Natural Media, 1/16/02 - "laboratory testing of 12 refrigerated and 8 non-refrigerated, randomly selected probiotic supplements obtained from different health food stores revealed that only one product contained the same bacteria as those listed on the label. Many of the refrigerated products had some beneficial bacteria, but contained fewer species of organisms than the label claimed. More than 30% of all supplements were contaminated with other microorganisms and 50% of the non-refrigerated products were completely dead. Dead probiotics have no impact on improving intestinal function or restoring the balance of normal intestinal flora"
  • Lactobacillus Preparation Prevents Complications in Acute Pancreatitis - New Hope Natural Media, 1/2/03
  • Eating Yogurt Daily Increases “Good” Cholesterol in Women - New Hope Natural Media, 12/5/02 - "In this study, 29 women ate 300 grams (about 10.6 ounces) of a full-fat (3.5% fat by weight) yogurt product daily for 21 weeks ... A larger, and statistically significant, 38% increase was observed in HDL, or “good” cholesterol levels after eating the yogurt. No change was observed in LDL, or “bad,” cholesterol levels ... each woman also ate the probiotic- and prebiotic-containing product for a 7-week stretch during the 21-week trial. During the period when the women consumed the supplemented yogurt, there was a further increase in HDL cholesterol beyond that seen from simply eating plain yogurt"
  • Probiotics—Good Bacteria Meet Functional Foods - Functional Foods & Nutraceuticals, 11/02
  • “Friendly Bacteria” Help Eradicate the Peptic-Ulcer Organism - New Hope Natural Media, 10/17/02 - "Taking a supplement of “friendly bacteria” (probiotics) increases the effectiveness of conventional antibiotic therapy in eradicating Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), the organism that causes peptic ulcers"
  • New Research Validates Use Of Once-Daily High Dose "Good" Bacteria In Patients With Recurrent Or Refractory Pouchitis - Doctor's Guide, 5/24/02 - "We are excited about the results of this study because a specific amount and type of probiotic has demonstrated that it can dramatically improve patient outcome for pouchitis," said lead investigator, Dr. Mimura. "Furthermore, because pouchitis may be considered a model for other inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), these findings indicate we may have found an effective, inexpensive, and widely available therapeutic treatment for various forms of IBD, such as ulcerative colitis."
  • Headaches-Germ Link Suggested - Intelihealth, 4/29/02 - "about 18 percent of chronic migraine sufferers were infected with the stomach bug helicobacter pylori and antibiotics appeared to clear the headaches ... Adding the friendly bacteria Lactobacillus seemed to work even better ... Helicobacter pylori, the bug that causes gut ulcers, has recently been linked to a growing list of diseases, including heart disease, autoimmune diseases and skin conditions"
  • Lactobacillus Safe, Effective For Infectious Diarrhoea In Children - Doctor's Guide, 4/8/02
  • Probiotics During Pregnancy, Lactation May Promote Immunoprotection Against Atopic Eczema - Doctor's Guide, 2/8/02 - "Probiotics administered during pregnancy and lactation appears to promote the immunoprotective potential of breast-feeding ... The probiotics also protect infants against atopic eczema during the first two years"
  • Feeling Fit: Good bacteria - CNN, 2/5/02
  • The Wizard is Oz - Life Extension Magazine, 11/01 - "Best-selling author and nutritional guru to the rich and famous, Oz Garcia is singing the praises of the Life Extension Foundation and its products in his newest book, The Healthy High Tech Body, published in September 2001 ... Supplements at the top of Garcia's list of recommendations ... DHA ... NADH ... Alpah Lipoic Acid ... Acetyl-L-Carnitine ... An expanded list of his recommendations includes lycopene, gamma tocopherol, vinpocetine, SAMe, folic acid, carnosine, glutathione, DMAE, Huperzine A, probiotics, MSM, secretagogues, arginine pyroglutamate, IP-6, bioflavonoid formulas and grape skin/seed extracts"
  • Probiotic LP299V Could Help Patients With Irritable Bowel - Doctor's Guide, 10/31/01 - "The probiotic Lactobacillus plantarum 299V (LP299V) appears to have a beneficial effect on patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) ... All patients treated with LP299V reported resolution of their abdominal pain as compared to 11 patients from the placebo group"
  • Can lactobacillus prevent viral infections? - Nutrition Science News, 9/01 - "Probiotic supplement use was associated with a significantly reduced risk of diarrhea; only three children (6.7 percent) in the group given probiotics had diarrhea, yet 12 children (33.3 percent) in the placebo group experienced diarrhea"
  • Going With the Gut May Prevent Allergy, Asthma, Good Bacteria May Help a Child's Immune System - WebMD, 4/5/01 - "kids who were given the probiotics were only half as likely to have common allergic diseases as those who received the placebo"
  • Study Suggests Probiotics Could Reduce Childhood Eczema - Intelihealth, 4/5/01 - "Supplements of friendly bacteria could halve the chances of infants developing eczema, an incurable skin disease some babies never outgrow, scientists have found"
  • Missing Intestinal Bacterium Linked To Kidney Stones In CF Patients - Doctor's Guide, 9/25/98 - "The study is one of the first to directly link an absence of the organism, known as Oxalobacter formigenes, to the formation of the painful crystals ... O. formigenes appears to break down calcium oxalate before it can form crystals that evolve into kidney stones ... Peck and colleagues suspect prolonged antibiotic use and other high-dose drug regimens may preclude natural colonisation with the organism, or may irreversibly destroy the colonies"
Abstracts:
  • Probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics in type 1 diabetes mellitus: A systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials - Diabetes Metab Res Rev 2023 May 14 - "Dysbiosis or imbalance of microbes in the gut has been associated with susceptibility and progression of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). The present systematic review and meta-analysis examined the effects of probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics on fasting blood glucose (FBG), haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), C-peptide, and insulin requirements in T1DM patients ... The pooled effect size showed that FBG decreased following probiotic supplementation (weighted mean difference = -31.24 mg/dL; 95% confidence interval = -45.65, -16.83; p < 0.001), however, there was no significant improvement in serum HbA1c, C-peptide, and insulin requirements. Probiotic supplementation could be a complementary therapeutic strategy in T1DM. The evidence is limited; therefore, it is crucial to conduct more trials" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • The potential beneficial effects of Lactobacillus plantarum GM11 on rats with chronic unpredictable mild stress- induced depression - Nutr Neurosci 2023 Apr 28 - "This work has revealed that LacP GM11 has potential beneficial effects on depression. This effect might be related to alleviating monoamine neurotransmitter deficiency, HPA axis hyperfunction and CREB-BDNF signaling pathway downregulation. This study demonstrates that LacP GM11 could be a potential therapeutic approach to treat depression and other mental health problems" - See Lactobacillus plantarum at Amazon.com.
  • The effects of live and pasteurized Akkermansia muciniphila on DSS-induced ulcerative colitis, gut microbiota, and metabolomics in mice - Food Funct 2023 Apr 26 - "Notably, prophylactic supplementation of pasteurized A. muciniphila increased the relative abundance of the anti-inflammatory microbe Dubosiella, thereby activating intestinal sphingolipid metabolism to alleviate intestinal damage. In conclusion, pasteurized A. muciniphila showed a more effective amelioration of DSS-induced colitis by repairing the dysbiosis of gut microbiota and intestinal metabolism compared to live A. muciniphila, providing a potential strategy to explore the protective effect of A. muciniphila on host intestinal health" - See Akkermansia muciniphila at Amazon.com.
  • Oral Administration of Mixed Probiotics Improves Photoaging by Modulating the Cecal Microbiome and MAPK Pathway in UVB-Irradiated Hairless Mice - Mol Nutr Food Res 2023 Apr 20 - "Continuous ultraviolet (UV) exposure causes skin photoaging, wrinkle formation, and skin barrier damage. In this study, the protective effect of mixed probiotics (MP) against photoaging in UVB-irradiated Hs68 fibroblasts and SKH-1 hairless mice was investigated ... Collectively, these findings suggest that MP modulates the gut microbiome and ameliorates UVB-induced photoaging by downregulating the MAPK pathway"
  • The Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Eicosapentaenoic Acid and Docosahexaenoic Acid, and Vitamin K1 Modulate the Gut Microbiome: A Study Using an In Vitro Shime Model - J Diet Suppl 2023 Apr 20;1-19 - "Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and vitamins exert multiple beneficial effects on host health, some of which may be mediated through the gut microbiome. We investigated the prebiotic potential of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and lipid-soluble phylloquinone (vitamin K1), each at 0.2x, 1x and 5x using the simulator of the human intestinal microbial ecosystem (SHIME®) to exclude in vivo systemic effects and host-microbe interaction ... In conclusion, our in vitro data further establish a role of PUFAs and vitamin K to modulate the gut microbiome with effects on the production of SCFAs and barrier integrity" - See omega-3 supplements at Amazon.com and vitamin K at Amazon.com.
  • Prebiotics alleviate cartilage degradation and inflammation in post-traumatic osteoarthritic mice by modulating the gut barrier and fecal metabolomics - Food Funct 2023 Apr 20 - "Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease characterized by articular cartilage degeneration, subchondral bone sclerosis, synovial hyperplasia and inflammation as the main pathological manifestations. This study aims to investigate the protective effect of prebiotics in post-traumatic osteoarthritic (PTOA) mice by modulating the gut barrier and fecal metabolomics. The results suggested that cartilage degeneration, osteophyte formation and inflammation were significantly reduced by prebiotics in PTOA mice. In addition, the gut barrier was protected by the increased expression of tight junction proteins ZO-1 and occludin in the colon. High-throughput sequencing found that 220 fecal metabolites were affected by joint trauma, 81 of which were significantly recovered after probiotic intervention, and some metabolites (valerylcarnitine, adrenic acid, oxoglutaric acid, etc.) were closely associated with PTOA. Our study demonstrates that prebiotics can delay the progression of PTOA by regulating the metabolites of the gut microbiota and protecting the gut barrier, which is expected to be an intervention method for PTOA"
  • Synbiotics as Supplemental Therapy for the Alleviation of Chemotherapy-Associated Symptoms in Patients with Solid Tumours - Nutrients 2023 Apr 4 - "One of the approaches to reduce or avoid chemotherapy-associated complications is to restore the gut microbiota. Gut microbiota is essential for the healthy functioning of the immune system, metabolism, and the regulation of other molecular responses in the body. Chemotherapy erodes the mucosal layer of the gastrointestinal tract and results in the loss of gut microbiota. One of the ways to restore the gut microbiota is through the use of probiotics. Probiotics are the 'good' bacteria that may provide health benefits if consumed in appropriate amounts. Some studies have highlighted that the consumption of probiotics in combination with prebiotics, known as synbiotics, may provide better health benefits when compared to probiotics alone" - See synbiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials of the effects of probiotics in Parkinson's disease - Food Funct 2023 Mar 28 - "Oral probiotic consumption significantly improved motor symptoms, gastrointestinal dysfunction, anxiety, and depression in patients with PD. Notably, oral probiotics also reduced the use of laxatives and increased GSH levels in the serum of patients with PD" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Bifidobacterium longum supplementation improves age-related delays in fracture repair - Aging Cell 2023 Jan 27 - "Age-related delays in bone repair remains an important clinical issue that can prolong pain and suffering. It is now well established that inflammation increases with aging and that this exacerbated inflammatory response can influence skeletal regeneration. Recently, simple dietary supplementation with beneficial probiotic bacteria has been shown to influence fracture repair in young mice ... We found that B. longum supplementation accelerated bony callus formation which improved mechanical properties of the fractured limb. We attribute these pro-regenerative effects of B. longum to preservation of intestinal barrier, dampened systemic inflammation, and maintenance of the microbiota community structure. Moreover, B. longum attenuated many of the fracture-induced systemic pathologies. Our study provides evidence that targeting the gut microbiota using simple dietary approaches can improve fracture healing outcomes and minimize systemic pathologies in the context of aging." - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Probiotic supplements are effective in people with cognitive impairment: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials - Nutr Rev 2023 Jan 11 - "Cognitive function is a significant concern among the elderly and has a major negative effect on their quality of life. Probiotics have a positive effect on improving cognition, but the exact nature of the association between probiotic supplements and cognitive function is poorly understood ... According to this meta-analysis, probiotic supplementation had a highly significant effect on cognitive function in people with cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's disease. For people without cognitive impairment, probiotic supplementation may be ineffective"
  • Effects of probiotics supplementation on blood pressure: An umbrella meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials - Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis 2022 Oct 12 - "The present umbrella meta-analysis suggests probiotics supplementation to improve BP and claims that probiotics could be used as a complementary therapy for controlling high BP"
  • Lacticaseibacillus casei ATCC334 Ameliorates Radiation-Induced Intestinal Injury in Rats by Targeting Microbes and Metabolites - Mol Nutr Food Res 2022 Nov 21 - "These results highlight that medium and high doses of L. casei ATCC334 alleviate radiation-induced intestinal damage by enhancing the mucosal barrier and remodeling the gut microbiota structure and metabolic activity"
  • Impact of probiotics on muscle mass, muscle strength and lean mass: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials - J Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle 2022 Nov 22 - "Probiotics have shown potential to counteract sarcopenia, although the extent to which they can influence domains of sarcopenia such as muscle mass and strength in humans is unclear ... Probiotic supplementation enhances both muscle mass and global muscle strength; however, no beneficial effects were observed in total lean mass. Investigating the physiological mechanisms underpinning different ageing groups and elucidating appropriate probiotic strains for optimal gains in muscle mass and strength are warranted"
  • Akkermansia muciniphila ameliorates depressive disorders in a murine alcohol-LPS (mALPS) model - Food Funct 2022 Nov 23 - "We found that acute alcohol treatment damaged the intestinal barrier and caused dysbiosis, which further increased the translocation of LPS and neuroinflammatory responses (TNF-α and IL-1β) and led to abnormal expression of the depression-related genes, i.e. BDND and IDO, reduced the levels of 5-HT and caused depressive behaviors in mice. Probiotic intervention could improve depressive symptoms without notable adverse effects. Akkermansia muciniphila (AKK), one of the next-generation probiotics, has been widely used for the restoration of the intestinal barrier and reduction of inflammation. Here, we found that AKK significantly ameliorated alcohol-related depressive behaviors in a mALPS model, through enhancing the intestinal barrier and maintaining the homeostasis of the gut microbiota. Furthermore, AKK reduced serum LPS, ameliorated neuroinflammation (TNF-α and IL-1β), normalized the expression of depression-related genes and increased the 5-HT levels in the hippocampus. Our study suggests that AKK supplements will be a promising therapeutic regime for alcohol-associated depression in the future" - See Akkermansia muciniphila at Amazon.com.
  • Live and pasteurized Akkermansia muciniphila attenuate hyperuricemia in mice through modulating uric acid metabolism, inflammation, and gut microbiota - Food Funct 2022 Nov 14 - "Akkermansia muciniphila (A. muciniphila) has been demonstrated to exhibit beneficial effects against various metabolic diseases, but whether A. muciniphila has an anti-hyperuricemia effect remains unexplored ... These findings suggest that both live or pasteurized A. muciniphila could effectively attenuate hyperuricemia by moderating uric acid metabolism and inflammation, and live bacteria exhibit additional beneficial effects on the gut microbiota. These findings highlight that A. muciniphila could be potentially developed as a probiotic or postbiotic to combat hyperuricemia" - See Akkermansia muciniphila at Amazon.com.
  • Emerging Evidence on the Use of Probiotics and Prebiotics to Improve the Gut Microbiota of Older Adults with Frailty Syndrome: A Narrative Review - J Nutr Health Aging 2022 - "The gut microbiota can impact older adults' health, especially in patients with frailty syndrome. Understanding the association between the gut microbiota and frailty syndrome will help to explain the etiology of age-related diseases. Low-grade systemic inflammation is a factor leading to geriatric disorders, which is known as "inflammaging". Intestinal dysbiosis has a direct relationship with low-grade systemic inflammation because when the natural gut barrier is altered by age or other factors, some microorganisms or their metabolites can cross this barrier and reach the systemic circulation ... The gut microbiota participates in many metabolic processes that have an impact on the brain, muscles, and other organs. These processes integrate feedback mechanisms, comprising their respective axis with the intestine and the gut microbiota. Alterations in these associations can lead to frailty. We report a few interventions that demonstrate that prebiotics and probiotics could modulate the gut microbiota in humans" - See prebiotic supplements at Amazon.com and probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • The effect of probiotics on postsurgical complications in patients with colorectal cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis - Nutr Rev 2022 Sep 15 - "Clinical trials have investigated the effect of probiotics on postsurgical complications in colorectal cancer (CRC). However, so far, there are no systematic reviews evaluating the effect of probiotics and synbiotics on the clinical or infectious postsurgical complications of colorectal cancer ... Probiotics and synbiotics seem to be a promising strategy for the prevention of postoperative complications after CRC surgery"
  • Lactobacillus plantarum HNU082 alleviates dextran sulfate sodium-induced ulcerative colitis in mice through regulating gut microbiome - Food Funct 2022 Sep 16 - "Probiotics have shown good efficacy in the prevention of ulcerative colitis (UC), but the specific mechanism remains unclear ... In conclusion, improving gut microbiota dysbiosis, protecting the intestinal mucosal barrier, regulating inflammatory and disease pathways, and affecting neutrophil infiltration are the potential mechanisms of probiotic Lp082 in alleviating UC. Our study enriches the mechanism and provides a new prospect for Lactobacillus plantarum HNU082 in the prevention of colitis, provides support for the development of probiotic-based microbial products as an alternative prevention strategy for UC, and provides guidance for the future probiotic prevention of human colitis"
  • Probiotics Treatment Can Improve Cognition in Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review - J Alzheimers Dis 2022 Sep 8 - "These results support the intervention with probiotics, especially as a preventive approach"
  • Probiotics supplementation and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF): a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials - Nutr Neurosci 2022 Aug 22 - "Overall, meta-analysis of 11 trials (n = 648 participants) showed no significant changes in serum level of BDNF following probiotics. However, subgroup analysis revealed that probiotics increased BDNF levels in individuals suffering from neurological disorders (n = 214 participants; WMD = 3.08 ng/mL, 95% CI: 1.83, 4.34; P = 0.001; I2 = 7.5%; P-heterogeneity 0.34), or depression (n = 268 participants; WMD = 0.77 ng/mL, 95% CI: 0.07, 1.47; P = 0.032; I2 = 88.4%; P-heterogeneity < 0.001). Furthermore, a significant increase in BDNF levels was found in studies that administered the mixture of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium genera, and were conducted in Asia"
  • The safety and efficacy of probiotic supplementation for critically ill adult patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis - Nutr Rev 2022 Aug 19 - "Probiotics, however, provided a significant reduction in ICU-acquired infections (risk ratio .73"
  • Akkermansia muciniphila Colonization Alleviating High Fructose and Restraint Stress-Induced Jejunal Mucosal Barrier Disruption - Nutrients 2022 Jul 30 - "Our work indicates that A. muciniphila ameliorates the disruption of the intestinal mucosal barrier under high fructose and restraint stress. These results provided a rationale for the development of probiotic colonization for the prevention or treatment of intestinal diseases"
  • Effects of probiotic supplementation on glucose metabolism in pregnant women without diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis - Food Funct 2022 Jul 19 - "Overall, probiotic supplementation significantly reduced GDM incidence (Risk Ratio (RR) = 0.62 ... This meta-analysis suggested that probiotic supplementation may lead to an improvement in glycemic control and reduction of GDM incidence in pregnant women" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Bifidobacterium longum BL-10 with Antioxidant Capacity Ameliorates Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Acute Liver Injury in Mice by the Nuclear Factor-κB Pathway - J Agric Food Chem 2022 Jul 7 - "Bifidobacterium longum is frequently utilized and has broad prospects for preventing liver injury ... lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced acute liver injury ... Overall, all the results demonstrated that B. longum BL-10 had excellent efficiency in preventing LPS-induced ALI" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Akkermansia muciniphila prevents cold-related atrial fibrillation in rats by modulation of TMAO induced cardiac pyroptosis - EBioMedicine 2022 Jul 4 - "Cold exposure is one of the most important risk factors for atrial fibrillation (AF), and closely related to the poor prognosis of AF patients ... Our findings revealed a novel causal role of aberrant gut microbiota and metabolites in pathogenesis of cold-related AF, which raises the possibility of selectively targeting microbiota and microbial metabolites as a potential therapeutic strategy for cold-related AF" - See Akkermansia muciniphila at Amazon.com.
  • Lactobacillus acidophilus LA85 ameliorates cyclophosphamide-induced immunosuppression by modulating Notch and TLR4/NF-κB signal pathways and remodeling the gut microbiota - Food Funct 2022 Jul 6 - "LA85 can be used as a dietary supplement to potentially enhance the immune capacity of patients"
  • Manipulation of Gut Microbiota as a Key Target for Crohn's Disease - Front Med (Lausanne) 2022 Jun 16 - "Other medications often used concomitantly in IBD, such as antibiotics, antidepressants, oral contraceptives, opioids, and proton pump inhibitors, have shown to alter the gut microbiota and account for increased susceptibility to disease onset or worsening of disease progression. In contrast, some environmental modifications through alternative therapies including fecal microbiota transplant (FMT), diet and dietary supplements with prebiotics, probiotics, and synbiotics have shown potential protective effects by reversing microbiota dysbiosis or by directly promoting beneficial microbes, together with minimal long-term adverse effects" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com, prebiotic supplements at Amazon.com and synbiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • New Horizons in the Treatment of Age-Associated Obesity, Sarcopenia and Osteoporosis - Drugs Aging 2022 Jul 4 - "The rapid increase in both the lifespan and proportion of older adults in developed countries is accompanied by the dramatic growth of age-associated chronic diseases, including obesity, sarcopenia, and osteoporosis. Hence, prevention and treatment of age-associated chronic diseases has become increasingly urgent. The key to achieving this goal is a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying their pathophysiology, some aspects of which, despite extensive investigation, are still not fully understood. Aging, obesity, sarcopenia, and osteoporosis are characterized by the creation of a systemic, chronic, low-grade inflammation (SCLGI). The common mechanisms that govern the development of these chronic conditions include a failed resolution of inflammation. Physiologically, the process of inflammation resolution is provided mainly by specialized pro-resolving mediators (SPMs) acting via cognate G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Noteworthy, SPM levels and the expression of their receptors are significantly reduced in aging and the associated chronic disorders. In preclinical studies, supplementation of SPMs or their stable, small-molecule SPM mimetics and receptor agonists reveals clear beneficial effects in inflammation-related obesity and sarcopenic and osteoporotic conditions, suggesting a translational potential. Age-associated chronic disorders are also characterized by gut dysbiosis and the accumulation of senescent cells in the adipose tissue, skeletal muscle, and bones. Based on these findings, we propose SCLGI resolution as a novel strategy for the prevention/treatment of age-associated obesity, sarcopenia, and osteoporosis. Our approach entails the enhancement of inflammation resolution by SPM mimetics and receptor agonists in concert with probiotics/prebiotics and compounds that eliminate senescent cells and their pro-inflammatory activity" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com and prebiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Lactobacillus reuteri J1 prevents obesity by altering the gut microbiota and regulating bile acid metabolism in obese mice - Food Funct 2022 Jun 20 - "Obesity is closely related to metabolic syndromes such as hyperlipidemia and diabetes and has become a global public health problem. Probiotics are now used as a treatment for obesity, but the mechanism by which probiotics treat obesity remains unclear ... The results revealed that L. reuteri J1 prevented weight gain, lowered fat mass and relieved dyslipidemia, and improved glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity ... These results demonstrated that L. reuteri J1 could treat obesity by inhibiting the FXR signaling pathways and remodeling white adipose tissue, linked with UDCA and LCA which are affected by intestinal microbiota"
  • Alteration of Gut Microbiota in Alzheimer's Disease and Their Relation to the Cognitive Impairment - J Alzheimers Dis 2022 Jun 20 - "The current work highlighted a significant relationship between AD and gut microbiota dysbiosis. A higher abundance of Prevotella species and lactic acid bacteria was correlated with cognition"
  • Probiotic Bifidobacterium breve MCC1274 Mitigates Alzheimer's Disease-Related Pathologies in Wild-Type Mice - Nutrients 2022 Jun 19 - "Probiotics improve brain function, including memory and cognition, via the microbiome-gut-brain axis. Oral administration of Bifidobacterium breve MCC1274 (B. breve MCC1274) improves cognitive function in AppNL-G-F mice and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) subjects, and mitigates Alzheimer's disease (AD)-like pathologies ... These findings suggest that B. breve MCC1274 may mitigate AD-like pathologies in WT mice by decreasing Aβ42 levels, inhibiting tau phosphorylation, attenuating neuroinflammation, and improving synaptic protein levels"
  • Lactobacillus reuteri J1 prevents obesity by altering the gut microbiota and regulating bile acid metabolism in obese mice - Food Funct 2022 Jun 1 - "Probiotics are now used as a treatment for obesity, but the mechanism by which probiotics treat obesity remains unclear. Herein, we investigated the effects of Lactobacillus reuteri J1 ( L. reuteri J1) on obese mice with the strain being administered at 1010, 109 and 108 CFU mL-1 and explored the possible underlying molecular mechanism. The results revealed that L. reuteri J1 prevented weight gain, lowered fat mass and relieved dyslipidemia, and improved glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity. Moreover, the effect of obesity reversal exhibited dose-dependence to some extent. More importantly, mice treated with L. reuteri J1 altered the gut microbiota and bile acid (BA) composition. Analysis of the gut microbiome showed that L. reuteri J1 increased the relative abundances of Lactobacillus, Akkermansia and Clostridium, which strongly correlated with ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) and lithocholic acid (LCA)" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Intestinal Flora Mediates Antiobesity Effect of Rutin in High-Fat-Diet Mice - Mol Nutr Food Res 2022 May 26 - "Intestinal flora plays a critical role in the development of diet-induced obesity and related metabolic complications. Rutin is a natural flavonoid with potential prebiotic effects on regulating the intestinal flora composition that is beneficial for host health ... Rutin can be considered as a prebiotic agent for improving intestinal flora disorders and obesity-associated metabolic perturbations in obese individuals" - See rutin at Amazon.com.
  • Lactiplantibacillus plantarum J-15 reduced calcium oxalate kidney stones by regulating intestinal microbiota, metabolism, and inflammation in rats - FASEB J 2022 Jun - "The prevention role of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum against the formation of kidney stones has been increasingly recognized; its mechanism, however, has mainly been focused on inhibiting the inflammation in the colon in the gastrointestinal (GI) system, and the intestinal metabolites from microflora have not been revealed fully with regarding to the stone formation ... L. plantarum J-15 effectively reduced renal crystallization and urinary oxalic acid. Ten microbial genera, including anti-inflammatory and SCFAs-related Faecalibaculum, were enriched in the J-15 treatment group. There are 136 metabolites from 11 categories significantly different in the J-15 supplementation group compared with CaOx model rats, most of which were enriched in the amino acid metabolic and secondary bile acid pathways. The expression of intestinal tight junction protein Occludin and the concentration of pro-inflammatory cytokines and prostaglandin were decreased in the intestine, which further reduced the translocated lipopolysaccharide and inflammation levels in the blood upon J-15 treatment. Thus, the inflammation and injury in the kidney might be alleviated by downregulating TLR4/NF-κB/COX-2 signaling pathway. It suggested that L. plantarum J-15 might reduce kidney stone formation by restoring intestinal microflora and metabolic disorder, protecting intestinal barrier function, and alleviating inflammation. This finding provides new insights into the therapies for renal stones" - See Lactiplantibacillus plantarum at Amazon.com.
  • Docosahexaenoic acid-acylated curcumin diester alleviates cisplatin-induced acute kidney injury by regulating the effect of gut microbiota on the lipopolysaccharide- and trimethylamine- N-oxide-mediated PI3K/Akt/NF-κB signaling pathway in mice - Food Funct 2022 May 16 - "An increasing number of studies have reported the effects of curcumin (Cur) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) on alleviating acute kidney injury (AKI) ... An increasing number of studies have reported the effects of curcumin (Cur) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) on alleviating acute kidney injury (AKI). In this work, we have performed a comparative investigation to determine the effect of dietary DHA-acylated Cur esters, ester derivatives of Cur, and recombination of curcumin and DHA on alleviating acute kidney injury in a mouse model induced by a single intraperitoneal injection with cisplatin (20 mg kg-1). The results showed that the DHA-acylated Cur diesters significantly decreased the abnormally increased blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) in serum caused by AKI ... the DHA-acylated Cur diester treatment remarkably changed the relative abundance of microbiota related to LPS and TMAO/trimethylamine (TMA) metabolism. Moreover, dietary DHA-acylated Cur diesters clearly reduced the MDA content and elevated GSH levels in the kidney of AKI mice, as well as changed the fatty acid composition in the kidney. Further mechanism studies showed that DHA-acylated Cur diesters significantly inhibited inflammation, apoptosis and oxidative stress by preventing the LPS and TMAO-mediated PI3K/Akt/NF-κB signaling pathway. The above results indicate that DHA-acylated Cur diesters are a potentially novel candidate or targeted dietary pattern to prevent and treat drug-induced acute kidney injury" - See docosahexaenoic acid at Amazon.com and curcumin at Amazon.com.
  • Effect of Probiotic Bifidobacterium breve in Improving Cognitive Function and Preventing Brain Atrophy in Older Patients with Suspected Mild Cognitive Impairment: Results of a 24-Week Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial - J Alzheimers Dis 2022 May 7 - "Probiotics consumption for 24 weeks suppressed brain atrophy progression, suggesting that B. breve MCC1274 helps prevent cognitive impairment of MCI subjects"
  • Gut Microbiota and Subjective Memory Complaints in Older Women - J Alzheimers Dis 2022 May 9 - "Our findings support an association between alterations in the gut bacterial composition and cognitive dysfunction"
  • Berberine as a Potential Agent for the Treatment of Colorectal Cancer - Front Med (Lausanne) 2022 Apr 28 - "Numerous studies have shown that berberine (BBR) is a safe and effective agent presenting significant antitumor effects ... The review emphasizes several therapeutic effects of BBR and confirms that BBR could suppress CRC by modulating gene expression, the cell cycle, the inflammatory response, oxidative stress, and several signaling pathways. In addition, BBR also displays antitumor effects in CRC by regulating the gut microbiota and mucosal barrier function" - See berberine at Amazon.com.
  • Lactobacillus paracasei PS23 improves cognitive deficits via modulating the hippocampal gene expression and the gut microbiota in D-galactose-induced aging mice - Food Funct 2022 Apr 19 - "Probiotic supplements are potential therapeutic agents for age-related cognitive deficits. A prior study showed that probiotic Lactobacillus paracasei PS23 (PS23) supplementation delayed age-related cognitive decline in mice ... We revealed that PS23 and HK-PS23 supplementation ameliorated D-gal-induced memory deficits and improved motor and anxiety-behaviors in aging mice. In the hippocampus, serotonin levels (5-HT) were increased and the genes involved in neuroplasticity, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant functions were upregulated in PS23 and HK-PS23 supplemented groups. The gut microbiota showed specific changes. Our results suggest that PS23 and HK-PS23 supplements could ameliorate age-related cognitive decline, possibly by upregulating the genes involved in synaptic plasticity and preventing oxidation and inflammation"
  • The relationship between the gut microbiota, benign prostatic hyperplasia, and erectile dysfunction - Int J Impot Res 2022 Apr 13 - "Microbiota is defined as the group of commensal microorganisms that inhabit a specific human body site. The composition of each individual's gastrointestinal microbiota is influenced by several factors such as age, diet, lifestyle, and drug intake, but an increasing number of studies have shown that the differences between a healthy microbiota and a dysbiotic one can be related to different diseases such as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and erectile dysfunction (ED) ... Gut microbiota modifications can influence prostate health indirectly by the activation of the immune system and the production of proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-17, IL-23, TNF-alpha, and IFN-gamma, which are able to promote an inflammatory state. Gut dysbiosis may lead to the onset of ED by the alteration of hormone levels and metabolic profiles, the modulation of stress/anxiety-mediated sexual dysfunction, the development of altered metabolic conditions such as obesity and diabetes mellitus, and the development of hypertension. In conclusion, much evidence suggests that the intestinal microbiota has an influence on various pathologies including BPH and ED"
  • The relationship between the gut microbiota, benign prostatic hyperplasia, and erectile dysfunction - Int J Impot Res 2022 Apr 13 - "Microbiota is defined as the group of commensal microorganisms that inhabit a specific human body site. The composition of each individual's gastrointestinal microbiota is influenced by several factors such as age, diet, lifestyle, and drug intake, but an increasing number of studies have shown that the differences between a healthy microbiota and a dysbiotic one can be related to different diseases such as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and erectile dysfunction (ED) ... Gut microbiota modifications can influence prostate health indirectly by the activation of the immune system and the production of proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-17, IL-23, TNF-alpha, and IFN-gamma, which are able to promote an inflammatory state. Gut dysbiosis may lead to the onset of ED by the alteration of hormone levels and metabolic profiles, the modulation of stress/anxiety-mediated sexual dysfunction, the development of altered metabolic conditions such as obesity and diabetes mellitus, and the development of hypertension. In conclusion, much evidence suggests that the intestinal microbiota has an influence on various pathologies including BPH and ED" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Probiotics' effect on visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials - Eur J Clin Nutr 2022 Apr 13 - "Probiotics are shown to alter the microbiota, leading to a favorable environment, in which weight loss and metabolic parameters are improve. However, the results on probiotics' effect on specific types of central adipose tissues, mainly visceral (VAT) and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), are conflicting ... For VAT, overall, there was a significant decrease (DM = -3.63 cm2, 95% CI: -5.08 to -2.17, p < 0.001). When stratified by type of probiotic, single Bifidobacterium (DM = -4.49 cm2, 95% CI:-7.37 to -1.61, p = 0.002) and single Lactobacillus probiotics (DM = -3.84 cm2, 95% CI:-5.74 to -1.93, p < 0.001) resulted in significant reductions. Mixed probiotics had no effect. For SAT, overall, there was a significant decrease (DM = -2.91 cm2, 95% CI:-4.82 to -1.01, p = 0.003), and when stratified by type of probiotic, single Lactobacillus (DM = -3.39 cm2, 95% CI:-5.90 to -0.88, p = 0.008) and mixed probiotics (DM = -5.97 cm2, 95% CI:-10.32 to -1.62, p = 0.007) resulted in a significant decrease. Single Bifidobacterium probiotics had no effect. Using meta-regression, no association was observed between the total daily probiotic dose and VAT or SAT reduction" - See Lactobacillus at Amazon.com.
  • Lactobacillus paracasei 24 Attenuates Lipid Accumulation in High-Fat Diet-Induced Obese Mice by Regulating the Gut Microbiota - J Agric Food Chem 2022 Apr 4 - "Obesity has become a worldwide public health problem. Lactic acid bacteria have attracted extensive attention for alleviating obesity and fat accumulation. This study aimed to evaluate the alleviating effects of Lactobacillus paracasei 24 (LP24) on lipid accumulation in an obese mouse model induced by a high-fat diet (HFD). The results showed that LP24 treatment significantly reduced body weight and fat deposition in HFD mice, improved blood lipid levels and liver steatosis, reduced liver oxidative stress injury and the inflammatory response, and regulated fat metabolism-related factors. Moreover, LP24 regulated the abundance and diversity of the gut microbiota, reduced the abundance of Firmicutes and the ratio of Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes (F/B), and increased the abundance of Akkermansia" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Relationship Between the Gut Microbiota and Alzheimer's Disease: A Systematic Review - J Alzheimers Dis 2022 Mar 2 - "The results of these studies support the hypothesis that there is a relationship between the gut microbiota and cognitive disorders through the gut-brain axis. However, today, there is a substantial lack of human studies, especially clinical trials, which makes it difficult to formulate clinical recommendations on this topic"
  • Tryptophan Supplementation Increases the Production of Microbial-Derived AhR Agonists in an In Vitro Simulator of Intestinal Microbial Ecosystem - J Agric Food Chem 2022 Mar 28 - "The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) plays an important role in intestinal homeostasis, and some microbial metabolites of tryptophan are known AhR agonists. In this study, we assessed the impact of tryptophan supplementation on the formation of tryptophan metabolites, AhR activation, and microbiota composition in the simulator of the human intestinal microbial ecosystem (SHIME) ... Tryptophan supplementation induced most microbial changes in the transverse colon including increased relative abundance of lactobacillus. We conclude that tryptophan supplementation leads to increased formation of AhR agonists in the colon" - See tryptophan at Amazon.com.
  • The role of microbiota in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) - Eur J Clin Invest 2022 Mar 16 - "NAFLD is the most frequent liver disease worldwide. Gut microbiota can play a role in the pathogenesis of NAFLD since dysbiosis is associated with reduced bacterial diversity, altered Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio, a relative abundance of alcohol-producing bacteria, or other specific genera. Changes can promote disrupted intestinal barrier and hyperpermeability, filtration of bacterial products, activation of the immune system, and pro-inflammatory changes in the intestine, in the liver, and at a systemic level. Microbiota-derived molecules can contribute to the steatogenic effects. The link between gut dysbiosis and NAFLD, however, is confused by several factors which include age, BMI, comorbidities, dietary components, and lifestyle. The role of toxic chemicals in food and water requires further studies in both gut dysbiosis and NAFLD. We can anticipate that gut microbiota manipulation will represent a potential therapeutic tool to delay or reverse the progression of NAFLD, paving the way to primary prevention measures" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Influence of the Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis on Cognition in Alzheimer's Disease - J Alzheimers Dis 2022 Mar 2 - "few of these interventions, such as probiotics, are promising candidates for the improvement of cognition in Alzheimer 's disease and are the focus of this review"
  • Restorative effects of probiotics on memory impairment in sleep-deprived mice - Nutr Neurosci 2022 Mar 3 - "These findings demonstrate that Lpc-37 and the multi-strain may play a role in alleviating memory impairments and improve cognitive function in partially sleep-deprived mice"
  • Probiotics counteract hepatic steatosis caused by ketogenic diet and upregulate AMPK signaling in a model of infantile epilepsy - EBioMedicine 2022 Feb 8 - "Our results suggest that early intervention with probiotics could be considered as an approach to reduce the risk of hepatic side effects of the KD in children who are on the diet for medically indicated reasons"
  • Gut microbiota in patients with Alzheimer's disease spectrum: a systematic review and meta-analysis - Aging (Albany NY) 2022 Jan 14 - "gut microbiota (GM) ... 11 studies consisting of 378 HC and 427 patients with AD spectrum were included in the meta-analysis. Patients with AD, but not MCI, showed significantly reduced GM diversity as compared to HC. We also found more abundance of Proteobacteria, Bifidobacterium and Phascolarctobacterium, but less abundance of Firmicutes, Clostridiaceae, Lachnospiraceae and Rikenellaceae in patients with AD spectrum as compared with HC. The profiles of abundance of Alistipes and Bacteroides in HC and AD spectrum were differentially affected by countries. Finally, when considering clinical stage as a moderator, the comparisons of abundance in Clostridiaceae and Phascolarctobacterium showed large effect sizes, with gradient changes from MCI to AD stage"
  • Lactobacillus plantarum DP189 Reduces α-SYN Aggravation in MPTP-Induced Parkinson's Disease Mice via Regulating Oxidative Damage, Inflammation, and Gut Microbiota Disorder - J Agric Food Chem 2022 Jan 24 - "Our results suggested that L. plantarum DP189 could delay the neurodegeneration caused by the accumulation of α-SYN in the SN of PD mice via suppressing oxidative stress, repressing proinflammatory response, and modulating gut microbiota"
  • A Specifically Tailored Multistrain Probiotic and Micronutrient Mixture Affects Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease-Related Markers in Patients with Obesity after Mini Gastric Bypass Surgery - J Nutr 2021 Nov 22 - "Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is frequent among patients undergoing bariatric surgery. Beyond weight reduction, dietary supplements like micronutrients or probiotics that modify insulin resistance and lipotoxicity can be used to prevent or delay the progression of liver disease ... Patients received a combination of specifically tailored multistrain probiotic powder and a specific micronutrient mixture (Pro+SM) or a control treatment consisting of a placebo and a basic care micronutrient mixture (Con+BM), with some micronutrients in lower doses than SM, for 12 wk after hospital discharge ... Compared with Con+BM, Pro+SM improved serum ASAT (difference: -8.0 U/L, 95% CI: -17.0, -4.0; P = 0.043), NAFLD fibrosis score (difference: -0.39; 95% CI: -0.78, 0; P = 0.048), serum triglycerides (difference: -22.8 mg/dL; 95% CI: -45.6, -0.1; P = 0.049) and the visceral adiposity index (difference: -0.70"
  • Probiotic Releasing Angiotensin (1-7) in a Drosophila Model of Alzheimer's Disease Produces Sex-Specific Effects on Cognitive Function - J Alzheimers Dis 2021 Dec 15 - "While extensive research on the brain has failed to identify effective therapies, using probiotics to target the gut microbiome has shown therapeutic potential in Alzheimer's disease (AD)"
  • Role of the microbiota in hypertension and antihypertensive drug metabolism - Hypertens Res 2021 Dec 9 - "In this review, we provide insights into host-microbiota interactions and summarize the evidence supporting the importance of the microbiota in blood pressure (BP) regulation. Metabolites produced by the gut microbiota, especially short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), modulate BP and vascular responses. Harmful gut-derived metabolites, such as trimethylamine N-oxide and several uremic toxins, exert proatherosclerotic, prothrombotic, and proinflammatory effects. High-salt intake alters the composition of the microbiota, and this microbial alteration contributes to the pathogenesis of salt-sensitive hypertension. In addition, the microbiota may impact the metabolism of drugs and steroid hormones in the host. The drug-metabolizing activities of the microbiota affect the pharmacokinetic parameters of antihypertensive drugs and contribute to the pathogenesis of licorice-induced pseudohyperaldosteronism. Furthermore, the oral microbiota plays a role in BP regulation by producing nitric oxide, which lowers BP via its vasodilatory effects. Thus, antihypertensive intervention strategies targeting the microbiota, such as the use of prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics (e.g., SCFAs), are considered new therapeutic options for the treatment of hypertension" - See Probiotic supplements at Amazon.com, Prebiotic supplements at Amazon.com and postbiotics at Amazon.com.
  • Prevention of Atopic Dermatitis in Mice by Lactobacillus Reuteri Fn041 Through Induction of Regulatory T Cells and Modulation of the Gut Microbiota - Mol Nutr Food Res 2021 Nov 26 - "The development of atopic dermatitis (AD) in infants is closely related to the lagging development of intestinal microbiota, including that inoculated by breast milk bacteria, and immune development. Lactobacillus reuteri Fn041 is a secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) -coated bacterium derived from human milk ... Our study strengthens the understanding that breast milk-derived sIgA coated potential probiotics are involved in the development of infant intestinal microbiota, thus promoting immune development and preventing allergic diseases, and expanding the knowledge of breast milk sIgA and bacterial interactions on infant immune development"
  • Anti-osteoporotic potential of Lactobacillus plantarum AR237 and AR495 in ovariectomized mice J Func Foods, 12/21 - "Osteoporosis is a common skeletal disease in which bone resorption exceeds bone formation. Intestinal health has been linked to reduced osteoporosis. The aim of this study was to compare the anti-osteoporotic and intestinal health effects of two strains of Lactobacillus plantarum (AR237 and AR495) in ovariectomized (ovx) C57BL/6 mice. The results showed that AR495 significantly inhibited ovx-induced bone loss, reduced intestinal permeability, increased the expression of tight junction proteins, claudin-family proteins, zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1), and junctional adhesion molecule 3 (JAM-3) in ovx mice. Furthermore, AR495 inhibited bone resorption by modulating the receptor activator for nuclear factor kappa B (RANK)/RANK ligand (RANKL)/osteoprotegerin (OPG) system, and ameliorated ovx-induced intestinal inflammatory responses. AR495 improved intestinal microbial stability, and increased the abundance of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA)-producing bacteria and fecal SCFA content of ovx mice. Overall, the findings of this study showed that AR495 was more effective than AR237 at treating osteoporosis" - [Nutra USA]
  • Lactobacillus plantarum DP189 prevents cognitive dysfunction in D-galactose/AlCl 3 induced mouse model of Alzheimer's disease via modulating gut microbiota and PI3K/Akt/GSK-3β signaling pathway - Nutr Neurosci 2021 Nov 10 - "Increased levels of serotonin, dopamine, and gamma-aminobutyric acid positively affected the pathological processes by ameliorating neuronal damage, beta-amyloid deposition, and tau pathology. L. plantarum DP189 intervention simultaneously modulated the gut microbial communities to alleviate gut dysbiosis. Moreover, L. plantarum DP189 inhibited tau hyperphosphorylation by regulating the PI3 K/Akt/GSK-3β pathway. These findings indicated that L. plantarum DP189 intervention is a promising therapeutic strategy to prevent the onset and development of AD."
  • The Effect of Probiotics in Stroke Treatment - Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2021 Oct 28 - "enteral nutrition (EN) ... The probiotics combined with EN group's therapeutic effects were superior to those of the EN alone. Thus, probiotics combined with EN is worthy of both clinical application and promotion in stroke treatment"
  • Understanding the gut microbiota and sarcopenia: a systematic review - J Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle 2021 Sep 14 - "Altering the gut microbiota through bacteria depletion, faecal transplantation, and various supplements was shown to directly affect muscle phenotypes. Probiotics, prebiotics, SCFAs, and bacterial products are potential novel therapies to enhance muscle mass and physical performance. Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains restored age-related muscle loss. Potential mechanisms of microbiome modulating muscle mainly include protein, energy, lipid, and glucose metabolism, inflammation level, neuromuscular junction, and mitochondrial function. The role of the gut microbiota in the development of muscle loss during aging is a crucial area that requires further studies for translation to patients"
  • The Effect of Probiotics (MCP® BCMC® Strains) on Hepatic Steatosis, Small Intestinal Mucosal Immune Function, and Intestinal Barrier in Patients with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease - Nutrients 2021, 13(9) - "Treatment for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) currently consists of lifestyle modifications such as a low-fat diet, weight loss, and exercise. The gut microbiota forms part of the gut–liver axis and serves as a potential target for NAFLD treatment ... This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving ultrasound-diagnosed NAFLD patients (n = 39) who were supplemented with either a probiotics sachet (MCP® BCMC® strains) or a placebo for a total of 6 months. Multi-strain probiotics (MCP® BCMC® strains) containing six different Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species at a concentration of 30 billion CFU were used ... In this pilot study, the use of probiotics did not result in any significant clinical improvement in NAFLD patients. However, at the microenvironment level (i.e., the small intestinal mucosa), probiotics seemed to be able to stabilize the mucosal immune function and to protect NAFLD patients against increased intestinal permeability. Therefore, probiotics might have a complementary role in treating NAFLD" - [Nutra USA]
  • Gut microbiota influences the ability to lose weight - Science Daily, 9/13/21 - "The researchers focused on 48 individuals who lost more than 1% of their body weight per month over a 6 to 12 month period and 57 individuals who did not lose any weight and had a stable body mass index (BMI) over the same period. The researchers relied on metagenomics, the study of genetic material recovered from blood and stool samples. The individuals analyzed blood metabolites, blood proteins, clinical labs, dietary questionnaires and gut bacteria in the two groups ... After controlling for age, sex and baseline BMI, the researchers identified 31 baseline stool metagenomic functional features that were associated with weight loss responses. These included complex polysaccharide and protein degradation genes, stress-response genes, respiration-related genes, cell wall synthesis genes and gut bacterial replication rates. A major finding was that the ability of the gut microbiome to break down starches was increased in people who did not lose weight. Another key finding was that genes that help bacteria grow faster, multiply, replicate and assemble cell walls were increased in people who lost more weight ... Research has already shown that if you change your diet, you can alter the composition of bacteria in your gut. According to Dr. Diener, if someone has a composition of gut bacterial genes that confers resistance to weight loss, then perhaps you can alter their diet to shift to a composition that would help them lose weight"
  • Gut bacteria influence brain development - Science Daily, 9/3/21 - "The early development of the gut, the brain and the immune system are closely interrelated. Researchers refer to this as the gut-immune-brain axis. Bacteria in the gut cooperate with the immune system, which in turn monitors gut microbes and develops appropriate responses to them ... The microorganisms of the gut microbiome -- which is a vital collection of hundreds of species of bacteria, fungi, viruses and other microbes -- are in equilibrium in healthy people. However, especially in premature babies, whose immune system and microbiome have not been able to develop fully, shifts are quite likely to occur. These shifts may result in negative effects on the brain"
  • Beneficial effects of a combination of Clostridium cochlearium and Lactobacillus acidophilus on body weight gain, insulin sensitivity and gut microbiota in high-fat diet induced obese mice Nutrition, 4 Aug 21 - "Species L. acidophilus and butyrate producer C. cochlearium have been shown potential anti-obesity effects. We hypothesized that the combination of C. cochlearium and L. acidophilus (CC-LA) has beneficial effects on body weight control and glucose homeostasis in high-fat diet induced obese (DIO) mice ... thirty-six 6-week-old male C57BL/6 mice were randomly assigned to three groups (n = 12). The experimental group (CC-LA) was administered with CC-LA mixture and fed ad libitum with high-fat diet. High-fat diet (HF) control and low-fat diet (LF) control groups were treated with the same dose of sterile water as CC-LA group. After 17 weeks of dietary intervention, the CC-LA group showed 17% less body weight gain than the HF group did ... This study provided evidence that the CC-LA combination reduced obesity and improved glucose metabolism in high fat diet treated DIO mice, potentially mediated by the modulation of gut microbiota" - [Nutra USA]
  • Probiotics as a New Regulator for Bone Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis - Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2021 Aug 2 - "Spinal and total hip bone mineral density (BMD) was not affected significantly by probiotic consumption. In 37 animal experiments, probiotic or symbiotic feeding mostly had effects on bone health parameters. Some strains of Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus including L. reuteri, L. casei, L. paracasei, L. bulgaricus, and L. acidophilus have indicated beneficial effects on bone health parameters. In conclusion, this systematic review and meta-analysis indicate that probiotic supplementation might improve bone health" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com and iHerb.
  • Effect of probiotics supplementation on disease progression, depression, general health, and anthropometric measurements in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials - Int J Clin Pract 2021 Aug 11;e14724 - "Probiotics may have a promising role in chronic autoinflammatory diseases. The current systematic review and meta-analysis investigated the effects of probiotics on disease progression, depression, general health, and anthropometric measurements in Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS) patients ... Our findings revealed that probiotics supplementation can improve disease progression, suppress depression, and general health in MS patients"
  • Lactobacillus johnsonii Attenuates Citrobacter rodentium-Induced Colitis by Regulating Inflammatory Responses and Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress in Mice - J Nutr 2021 Aug 12 - "Probiotics are beneficial in intestinal disorders. However, the benefits of Lactobacillus johnsonii in experimental colitis remain unknown ... L. johnsonii supplementation is a promising nutritional strategy for preventing C. rodentium-induced colitis in mice" - See Lactobacillus johnsonii at Amazon.com.
  • Effects of Lactobacillus plantarum PS128 on Depressive Symptoms and Sleep Quality in Self-Reported Insomniacs: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Pilot Trial - Nutrients 2021, 13(8) - "Recent animal studies have supported that Lactobacillus plantarum PS128 (PS128) can reduce the severity of anxiety and depression. However, previous studies did not focus on the sleep quality and mood of humans ... Forty participants between 20 and 40 years of age with self-reported insomnia were randomly assigned to two groups, a PS128 group and a placebo group, in a double-blind trial. Participants took two capsules of either PS128 or a placebo after dinner for 30 day ... Compared to the control group, the PS128 group showed significant decreases in Beck Depression Inventory-II scores, fatigue levels, brainwave activity, and awakenings during the deep sleep stage. Their improved depressive symptoms were related to changes in brain waves and sleep maintenance. These findings suggest that daily administration of PS128 may lead to a decrease in depressive symptoms, fatigue level, cortical excitation, and an improvement in sleep quality during the deep sleep stage. Daily consumption of PS128 as a dietary supplement may improve the depressive symptoms and sleep quality of insomniacs, although further investigation is warranted" - [Nutra USA] - See lactobacillus plantarum ps128 at Amazon.com.
  • Combination of Limosilactobacillus fermentum MG4231 and MG4244 attenuates lipid accumulation in high-fat diet-fed obese mice - Benef Microbes 2021 Aug 4 - "Administration of the Limosilactobacillus strains decreased body weight gain, liver and adipose tissue weight, and glucose tolerance. Serum levels of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, and leptin were reduced, while adiponectin increased. The administration of Limosilactobacillus strains improved the histopathological features of liver tissue, such as hepatic atrophy and inflammatory penetration, and significantly reduced the content of triglyceride in the liver. Limosilactobacillus administration discovered a significant reduction in the size of the adipocytes in the epididymal tissue. Limosilactobacillus treatment significantly reduced the expression of important regulators in lipid metabolism, including peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ, CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein α, fatty acid synthase (FAS), adipocyte-protein 2, and lipoprotein lipase in the epididymal tissue. Also, Limosilactobacillus lowered sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1-c and FAS in the liver tissue" - [Nutra USA]
  • Effects of probiotics on body adiposity and cardiovascular risk markers in individuals with overweight and obesity: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials - Clin Nutr 2021 Jul 3 - "Evidence suggests that gut microbiota is a potential factor in the pathophysiology of both obesity and related metabolic disorders ... The present meta-analysis suggests that probiotics consumption may be helpful for improving body weight, body adiposity and some CVD risk markers in individuals with overweight and obesity" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com and iHerb.
  • Effects of Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris YRC3780 daily intake on the HPA axis response to acute psychological stress in healthy Japanese men - Eur J Clin Nutr 2021 Aug 4 - "Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris (YRC3780), which is isolated from kefir, has been associated with anti-allergic effects in humans ... Our study suggests that daily intake of YRC3780 improves the HPA axis response to acute psychological stress, which might be associated with a decrease in morning cortisol levels" - See kefir at Amazon.com.
  • Gut Microbiota and Pathophysiology of Depressive Disorder - Ann Nutr Metab 2021 Jul 28 - "Accumulating evidence has suggested that the bi-directional communication pathway, the microbiota-gut-brain axis, plays an important role in the pathophysiology of many neuropsychiatric diseases including major depressive disorder (MDD) ... There are at least 4 key biological molecules/systems underlying the pathophysiology of MDD: central dopamine, stress responses by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and autonomic nervous system, inflammation, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Animal experiments in several depression models have clearly indicated that gut microbiota is closely related to these molecules/systems and administration of probiotics and prebitotics may have beneficial effects on them ... Clinical trials of probiotics have emerged, and the majority of the studies have reported beneficial effects on depression symptoms and related biological markers. Key Messages: The accumulating evidence suggests that research on the microbiota-gut-brain axis in major depressive disorder (MDD) is promising to elucidate the pathophysiology and to develop novel treatment of MDD, although there is still a long distance yet to reach the goals"
  • The Effects of Limosilactobacillus reuteri LR-99 Supplementation on Body Mass Index, Social Communication, Fine Motor Function, and Gut Microbiome Composition in Individuals with Prader–Willi Syndrome: a Randomized Double-Blinded Placebo-Controlled Trial - Probiotics Antimicrob Proteins 2021 Jun 11 - "Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a rare genetic disorder associated with developmental delay, obesity, and neuropsychiatric comorbidities. Limosilactobacillus reuteri (Lactobacillus reuteri, Lact. reuteri) has demonstrated anti-obesity and anti-inflammatory effects in previous studies. In the present study, we aim to evaluate the effects of Lact. reuteri supplementation on body mass index (BMI), social behaviors, and gut microbiota in individuals with PWS ... Participants were randomly assigned to either receive daily Lact. reuteri LR-99 probiotic (6 × 1010 colony forming units) or a placebo sachet ... We found a significant reduction in BMI for the probiotic group at both 6 weeks and 12 weeks relative to the baseline (P < 0.05). Furthermore, we observed a significant improvement in social communication and interaction, fine motor function, and total ASQ-3 score in the probiotics group compared to the placebo group (P < 0.05). Altered gut microbiota was observed in the probiotic group to favor weight loss and improve gut health. The findings suggest a novel therapeutic potential for Lact. reuteri LR-99 probiotic to modulate BMI, social behaviors, and gut microbiota in Prader-Willi syndrome patients, although further investigation is warranted" - [Nutra USA] - See Limosilactobacillus reuteri at Amazon.com.
  • Effects of Probiotic NVP-1704 on Mental Health and Sleep in Healthy Adults: An 8-Week Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial - Nutrients 2021, 13(8) - "The human gut microbiome is closely linked to mental health and sleep. We aimed to verify the efficacy and safety of probiotic NVP-1704, a mixture of Lactobacillus reuteri NK33 and Bifidobacterium adolescentis NK98, in improving stress, depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbances, along with the measurement of some blood biomarkers. A total of 156 healthy adults with subclinical symptoms of depression, anxiety, and insomnia were retrospectively registered and randomly assigned to receive either NVP-1704 (n = 78) or a placebo (n = 78) for eight week ... After intervention, gut microbiota composition was quantified by pyrosequencing the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. The NVP-1704 group had a more significant reduction in depressive symptoms at four and eight weeks of treatment, and anxiety symptoms at four weeks compared to the placebo group. Those receiving NVP-1704 also experienced an improvement in sleep quality. NVP-1704 treatment led to a decrease in serum interleukin-6 levels. Furthermore, NVP-1704 increased Bifidobacteriaceae and Lactobacillacea, whereas it decreased Enterobacteriaceae in the gut microbiota composition. Our findings suggest that probiotic NVP-1704 could be beneficial for mental health and sleep" - [Nutra USA]
  • Effect of probiotic supplementation along with calorie restriction on metabolic endotoxemia, and inflammation markers in coronary artery disease patients: a double blind placebo controlled randomized clinical trial - Nutr J 2021 Jun 1 - "Alterations in the gut microbiome (dysbiosis) has been associated with increased microbial translocation, leading to chronic inflammation in coronary artery disease (CAD). It has been proposed that modulation of gut microbiota by probiotic might modify metabolic endotoxemia ... These data provide preliminary evidence that probiotic supplementation has beneficial effects on metabolic endotoxemia, and mega inflammation in participants with CAD"
  • Probiotics Can Further Reduce Waist Circumference in Adults with Morbid Obesity after Bariatric Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials - Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2021 Apr 1 - "Probiotics aid adults with morbid obesity in achieving further waist circumference improvement after BS, with no significant effect on weight, BMI, %EWL, and CRP"
  • Mendelian Randomization Analysis Reveals Causal Effects of the Human Gut Microbiota on Abdominal Obesity - J Nutr 2021 Mar 24 - "trunk fat mass (TFM) ... Our findings provided evidence of a causal association between gut microbiota and TFM in UK adults and identified specific bacteria taxa that may regulate the fat metabolism, thus offering new direction for the treatment of obesity"
  • Dissecting the contribution of host genetics and the microbiome in complex behaviors - Cell 2021 Mar 4 - "The core symptoms of many neurological disorders have traditionally been thought to be caused by genetic variants affecting brain development and function. However, the gut microbiome, another important source of variation, can also influence specific behaviors. Thus, it is critical to unravel the contributions of host genetic variation, the microbiome, and their interactions to complex behaviors. Unexpectedly, we discovered that different maladaptive behaviors are interdependently regulated by the microbiome and host genes in the Cntnap2-/- model for neurodevelopmental disorders. The hyperactivity phenotype of Cntnap2-/- mice is caused by host genetics, whereas the social-behavior phenotype is mediated by the gut microbiome. Interestingly, specific microbial intervention selectively rescued the social deficits in Cntnap2-/- mice through upregulation of metabolites in the tetrahydrobiopterin synthesis pathway. Our findings that behavioral abnormalities could have distinct origins (host genetic versus microbial) may change the way we think about neurological disorders and how to treat them"
  • Gut microbiota compositions and metabolic functions in type 2 diabetes differ with glycemic durability to metformin monotherapy - Diabetes Res Clin Pract 2021 Mar 4 - "Metformin, the first-line treatment for type 2 diabetes, has been found to modulate the gut microbiota ... There were different compositions of gut microbiota with unique microbial metabolic pathways between type 2 diabetes with and without glycemic durability to metformin monotherapy. Microbial salvage by increasing thiamine biosynthesis might be beneficial for the metformin durable group to maintain optimal glycemic control"
  • The effects of co-administration of probiotics and prebiotics on chronic inflammation, and depression symptoms in patients with coronary artery diseases: a randomized clinical trial - Nutr Neurosci 2021 Feb 28 - "we are interested in exploring of anti-inflammatory and anti-depressant effects of Lactobacillus Rhamnosus G (LGG), a probiotic strain, alone or in combination with a prebiotic, Inulin, in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) ... This randomized, double-blind clinical trial was held on 96 patients with CAD. Patients were randomly allocated into four different groups: LGG [a capsule/day, contained 1.9 × 109 colony-forming unit of Lactobacillus Rhamnosus G], inulin (15 g/day), co-supplemented (LGG and inulin), and placebo. Participants consumed the supplements for two months. Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), MacNew questionnaire and Spielberger state-trait anxiety inventory (STAI-Y) were used to assess depression, quality of life and anxiety, respectively. Serum levels of C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), lipopolysaccharide (LPS), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and Interleukin (IL)-10 were also measured ... Co-supplementation of probiotics and inulin in CAD subjects for eight weeks had beneficial effects on depression, anxiety, and inflammatory biomarkers. Adding inulin to probiotic supplements improved psychological outcomes and inflammatory biomarkers more effectively than two supplements separately" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com and prebiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Gut microbiome pattern reflects healthy ageing and predicts survival in humans - Nat Metab 2021 Feb;3(2):274-286 - "The identified microbiome pattern of healthy ageing is characterized by a depletion of core genera found across most humans, primarily Bacteroides. Retaining a high Bacteroides dominance into older age, or having a low gut microbiome uniqueness measure, predicts decreased survival in a 4-year follow-up. Our analysis identifies increasing compositional uniqueness of the gut microbiome as a component of healthy ageing, which is characterized by distinct microbial metabolic outputs in the blood" - [Nutra USA]
  • Probiotics as a Complementary Therapy for Management of Obesity: A Systematic Review - Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2021 Jan 22 - "It seems that the probiotic products could have beneficial effects as an adjunct therapy for care and management of obesity when used in high dose. However, due to heterogeneity of included studies, it is required to confirm our results by more meta-analyses of clinical trials"
  • Lacticaseibacillus paracasei Lpc-37® improves psychological and physiological markers of stress and anxiety in healthy adults: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and parallel clinical trial (the Sisu study) - Neurobiol Stress. 2020 Nov 24 - "Chronic stress is a risk-factor for the development of mood and stress-related disorders. Clinical evidence indicates that probiotics can influence the stress response and mood. The Sisu study investigated whether Lacticaseibacillus paracasei Lpc-37® (Lpc-37®) could modulate stress, mood and well-being. Prior to a two-week run-in period, 120 healthy adults (18-45 y) were stratified for sex and chronic stress and randomized to either 1.75 × 1010 colony forming units (CFU) of Lpc-37 or placebo (1:1) per day for 5 weeks. The primary objective was the effect of Lpc-37 on heart rate (HR) in response to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Secondary objectives were assessed by biomarkers and self-report scales over the study. The primary hypothesis was not met in either the Intention-to-Treat (ITT) or Per Protocol (PP) population, but Lpc-37 reduced the increase in HR in participants with low chronic stress (LCS) and increased HR in participants with high chronic stress (HCS) during the TSST. Supporting significant efficacy in the PP population (n = 113), Lpc-37 reduced perceived stress following intervention. More significant effects were identified within the subgroups where Lpc-37 reduced exhaustion during the TSST and normalized cortisol levels at 8pm in participants with LCS, reduced perceived stress also in females, and increased perceived health and sleep-related recovery in participants with HCS. Adverse events (AEs) were similar between groups, there were no severe AEs, and vital signs remained unchanged" - [Nutra USA]
  • Effect of the Natural Sweetener Xylitol on Gut Hormone Secretion and Gastric Emptying in Humans: A Pilot Dose-Ranging Study - Nutrients 2021 Jan 8 - "Sugar consumption is associated with a whole range of negative health effects and should be reduced and the natural sweetener xylitol might be helpful in achieving this goal ... Twelve healthy, lean volunteers received intragastric solutions with 7, 17 or 35 g xylitol or tap water on four separate days ... low doses of xylitol stimulate the secretion of gut hormones and induce a deceleration in gastric emptying rates. There is no effect on blood lipids and only little effect on plasma glucose and insulin. This combination of properties (low-glycemic sweetener which stimulates satiation hormone release) makes xylitol an attractive candidate for sugar replacement" - See xylitol at Amazon.com.
  • Age-related cognitive decline is associated with microbiota-gut-brain axis disorders and neuroinflammation in mice - Behav Brain Res 2021 Jan 7 - "We observed that aged mice exhibited significant deficits in learning and memory, neuronal loss, and synaptic damage compared with young mice. Aged mice also exhibited significant dysbiosis of the gut microbiota. Disruptions of the intestinal barrier and blood-brain barrier were also observed, including increases in intestinal, low-grade systemic and cerebral inflammation. Furthermore, plasma and brain levels of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were significantly higher in aged mice compared with young mice, with increases in the expression of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and myeloid differential protein-88 (MyD88) and the nuclear translocation of nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) in intestinal and brain tissues. These findings showed that microbiota-gut-brain axis dysfunction that occurs through LPS-induced activation of the TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway is implicated in age-related neuroinflammation and cognitive decline" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Probiotic Lactobacillus fermentum strain JDFM216 improves cognitive behavior and modulates immune response with gut microbiota - Sci Rep 2020 Dec 10 - "Increasing evidence indicates that alterations in gut microbiota are associated with mammalian development and physiology. The gut microbiota has been proposed as an essential player in metabolic diseases including brain health ... Assessment of various behavioral and physiological functions was performed using Y-maze tests, wheel running tests, accelerated rotarod tests, balance beam tests, and forced swimming tests (FSTs), using adult mice after 50 weeks of administering living probiotic bacterium Lactobacillus fermentum strain JDFM216 or a vehicle. Immunomodulatory function was investigated using immune organs, immune cells and immune molecules in the mice, and gut microbiota was also evaluated in their feces. Notably, the L. fermentum JDFM216-treated group showed significantly better performance in the behavior tests (P < 0.05) as well as improved phagocytic activity of macrophages, enhanced sIgA production, and stimulated immune cells (P < 0.05). In aged mice, we observed decreases in species belonging to the Porphyromonadaceae family and the Lactobacillus genus when compared to young mice. While administering the supplementation of L. fermentum JDFM216 to aged mice did not shift the whole gut microbiota, the abundance of Lactobacillus species was significantly increased (P < 0.05). Our findings suggested that L. fermentum JDFM216 also provided beneficial effects on the regulation of immune responses, which has promising implications for functional foods. Taken together, L. fermentum JDFM216 could confer the benefit of improving health with enhanced cognition, physiological behavior, and immunity by modulating the gut microbiota" - [Nutra USA]
  • Synergistic Therapeutic Effects of Probiotic Lactobacillus casei TD-2 Consumption on GM-CSF-Induced Immune Responses in a Murine Model of Cervical Cancer - Nutr Cancer 2020 Dec 26 - "Our findings showed that the combination of GM-CSF and probiotic results in improved tumor suppression against HPV-associated tumors and stimulates enhancement of specific antitumor immune responses."
  • The Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis and Alzheimer's Disease: Neuroinflammation Is to Blame? - Nutrients 2020 Dec 24 - "microbiota-gut-brain (MGB) axis ... Modulation of the gut microbiota with antibiotics or probiotic supplementation may create new preventive and therapeutic options in AD. Accumulating evidences affirm that research on MGB involvement in AD is necessary for new treatment targets and therapies for AD"
  • Gut microbes: a key to normal sleep - Science Daily, 11/30/20 - "The researchers gave a group of mice a powerful cocktail of antibiotics for four weeks, which depleted them of intestinal microorganisms. Then, they compared intestinal contents between these mice and control mice who had the same diet. Digestion breaks food down into bits and pieces called metabolites. The research team found significant differences between metabolites in the microbiota-depleted mice and the control mice. As Professor Yanagisawa explains, "we found more than 200 metabolite differences between mouse groups. About 60 normal metabolites were missing in the microbiota-depleted mice, and the others differed in the amount, some more and some less than in the control mice." ... the biological pathways most affected by the antibiotic treatment were those involved in making neurotransmitters, the molecules that cells in the brain use to communicate with each other. For example, the tryptophan-serotonin pathway was almost totally shut down; the microbiota-depleted mice had more tryptophan than controls, but almost zero serotonin. This shows that without important gut microbes, the mice could not make any serotonin from the tryptophan they were eating. The team also found that the mice were deficient in vitamin B6 metabolites, which accelerate production of the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine."
  • A Probiotic Lactobacillus gasseri Alleviates Escherichia coli-Induced Cognitive Impairment and Depression in Mice by Regulating IL-1β Expression and Gut Microbiota - Nutrients 2020 Nov 10 - "Excessive expression of interleukin (IL)-1β in the brain causes depression and cognitive dysfunction. Herein, we investigated the effect of Lactobacillus gasseri NK109, which suppressed IL-1β expression in activated macrophages, on Escherichia coli K1-induced cognitive impairment and depression in mice. Germ-free and specific pathogen-free mice with neuropsychiatric disorders were prepared by oral gavage of K1. NK109 alleviated K1-induced cognition-impaired and depressive behaviors, decreased the expression of IL-1β and populations of NF-κB+/Iba1+ and IL-1R+ cells, and increased the K1-suppressed population of BDNF+/NeuN+ cells in the hippocampus. However, its effects were partially attenuated by celiac vagotomy. NK109 treatment mitigated K1-induced colitis and gut dysbiosis. Tyndallized NK109, even if lysed, alleviated cognitive impairment and depression. In conclusion, NK109 alleviated neuropsychiatric disorders and colitis by modulating IL-1β expression, gut microbiota, and vagus nerve-mediated gut-brain signaling" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com and iHerb.
  • The Role of the Gut Microbiota in Coronary Heart Disease - Curr Atheroscler Rep 2020 Oct 16 - "A consensus has been reached that differences exist in the gut microbiotas of patients with coronary heart disease. Studies have shown that the gut microbiota is associated with obesity, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and hypertension, which are risk factors for coronary heart disease. The gut microbiota is involved in mediating basic metabolic processes, such as cholesterol metabolism, uric acid metabolism, oxidative stress, and inflammatory reactions, through its metabolites, which can induce the development of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. Interfering with the composition of gut microbiota, supplementing probiotics, and fecal donation are active areas of research to potentially prevent and treat coronary heart disease. Gut microbiota are causally associated with coronary heart disease. We analyzed the gut microbiota's effects on risk factors for coronary heart disease and studied the effects of gut microbiota metabolites on coronary heart disease. Gut microbiota is a potential target for preventing and treating coronary heart disease." - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com and iHerb.
  • Non-Viable Lactobacillus johnsonii JNU3402 Protects against Diet-Induced Obesity - Foods, 19 Oct 20 - "In this study, the role of non-viable Lactobacillus johnsonii JNU3402 (NV-LJ3402) in diet-induced obesity was investigated in mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD). To determine whether NV-LJ3402 exhibits a protective effect against diet-induced obesity, 7-week-old male C57BL/6J mice were fed a normal diet, an HFD, or an HFD with NV-LJ3402 for 14 weeks. NV-LJ3402 administration was associated with a significant reduction in body weight gain and in liver, epididymal, and inguinal white adipose tissue (WAT) and brown adipose tissue weight in HFD-fed mice. Concomitantly, NV-LJ3402 administration to HFD-fed mice also decreased the triglyceride levels in the plasma and metabolic tissues and slightly improved insulin resistance. Furthermore, NV-LJ3402 enhanced gene programming for energy dissipation in the WATs of HFD-fed mice as well as in 3T3-L1 adipocytes with increased peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ) transcriptional activity, suggesting that the PPARγ pathway plays a key role in mediating the anti-obesity effect of NV-LJ3402 in HFD-fed mice. Furthermore, NV-LJ3402 administration in HFD-fed mice enhanced mitochondrial levels and function in WATs and also increased the body temperature upon cold exposure. Together, these results suggest that NV-LJ3402 could be safely used to develop dairy products that ameliorate diet-induced obesity and hyperlipidemia" - [Nutra USA] - See Lactobacillus johnsonii at Amazon.com.
  • Effects of a Psychobiotic Supplement on Serum Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor Levels in Depressive Patients: A Post Hoc Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial - J Neurogastroenterol Motil 2020 Sep 30 - "Psychobiotics are probiotics or prebiotics that, upon ingestion in adequate amounts, yield positive influence on mental health via microbiota-gut-brain axis regulation to modulate the circulating cytokines, chemokines, neurotransmitters, or neurotrophins levels. We have recently shown that a psychobiotic combination (Lactobacillus helveticus R0052 and Bifidobacterium longum R0175; CEREBIOME) significantly improved depression symptoms in patients with depression. Recent animal data suggest the influence of the gut microbiota on brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which was shown to correlate with antidepressant response in depressive patients. Therefore, we conducted this exploratory post hoc analysis of BDNF levels to clarify the mechanism of action of this psychobiotic in our cohort ... We compared serum BDNF levels from participants at baseline and endpoint, and assessed the Pearson correlation between depression severity and BDNF levels for each intervention ... We found that post-intervention BDNF levels were significantly different between groups (P < 0.001). Furthermore, BDNF levels increased significantly in the probiotic group compared to both the prebiotic (P < 0.001) and placebo" - [Nutra USA] - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com and iHerb and prebiotic supplements at Amazon.com and prebiotic supplements at iHerb.
  • Effects of Probiotic Strains on Disease Activity and Enteric Permeability in Psoriatic Arthritis-A Pilot Open-Label Study - Nutrients 2020 Aug 5 - "enrolled 10 PsA patients with low to medium disease activity who received probiotics for 12 weeks ... All patients showed increased levels of the enteric permeability marker zonulin which correlated with the frequency of peripheral Th17 cells. Calprotectin, a marker for intestinal inflammation was elevated in 6 out of 10 patients. Probiotic intake resulted in a reduction of disease activity and gut permeability. These effects, however, were not sustained beyond termination of probiotic intake. (4) Conclusions: PsA patients suffer from enhanced enteric permeability and inflammation. Probiotics may ameliorate disease activity in PsA by targeting these alterations"
  • Antidepressant-like effects of Lactobacillus plantarum DP189 in a corticosterone-induced rat model of chronic stress - Behav Brain Res 2020 Aug 6 - "Probiotic antidepressant effects demonstrated previously in clinical studies and animal models act via unknown mechanism ... Behaviorally, DP189 treatment improved memory and spatial learning and reduced anhedonia, as measured using Morris water maze and sucrose preference tests, respectively. Histopathologically, DP189 treatment ameliorated hippocampal pathological changes and dramatically reduced TUNEL-positive cell numbers. Biochemically, DP189 decreased serum IL-1β and TNF-α levels, decreased hippocampal mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 7 and c-Jun N-terminal kinase 2 levels, down-regulated pro-apoptosis protein Bax immunocontent and up-regulated anti-apoptosis protein Bcl-2 immunocontent. Collectively, these results suggest that DP189 treatment may prevent and/or alleviate depression-like behaviors and hippocampal neural injury induced by CORT"
  • Probiotic Bifidobacterium breve prevents DOCA-salt hypertension - FASEB J 2020 Aug 11 - "Many probiotics that affect gut microbial ecology have been shown to produce beneficial effects on renin-angiotensin-dependent rodent models and human hypertension. We hypothesized that Bifidobacterium breve CECT7263 (BFM) would attenuate hypertension in deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA)-salt rats, a renin-independent model of hypertension. Rats were randomly divided into five groups: control, DOCA-salt, treated DOCA-salt-BFM, treated DOCA-salt-butyrate, and treated DOCA-salt-acetate, for 5 weeks. BFM prevented the increase in systolic blood pressure, cardiac weight, and renal damage induced by DOCA-salt. BFM increased acetate-producing bacterial population and gut acetate levels, improved colonic integrity, normalized endotoxemia, plasma trimethylamine (TMA) levels, and restored the Th17 and Treg content in mesenteric lymph nodes and aorta. Furthermore, BFM improved nitric oxide-dependent vasorelaxation induced by acetylcholine in aortic rings and reduced NADPH oxidase activity in DOCA-salt animals. These protective effects were mimicked by acetate, but not by butyrate supplementation. These data demonstrate that BFM induces changes in gut microbiota linked with attenuation of endothelial dysfunction and increase in blood pressure in this low-renin form of hypertension. These beneficial effects seem to be mediated by increased acetate and reduced TMA production by gut microbiota, thus, improving gut integrity and restoring Th17/Tregs polarization and endotoxemia"
  • Lactobacillus plantarum PS128 Improves Physiological Adaptation and Performance in Triathletes through Gut Microbiota Modulation - Nutrients 2020, 12(8), 2315 - "Probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics have been reported to have health-promoting activities (e.g., immunoregulation and cancer prevention) ... In our previous study, we found that Lactobacillus plantarum PS128 could ameliorate inflammation and oxidative stress, with improved exercise performance ... The triathletes were assigned to two groups: an L. plantarum 128 supplement group (LG, 3 × 1010 colony-forming units (CFU)/day) and a placebo group (PG). Both groups continued with their regular exercise training for the next 4 weeks. The endurance performance, body composition, biochemistries, blood cells, microbiota, and associated metabolites were further investigated. PS128 significantly increased the athletes’ endurance, by about 130% as compared to the PG group, but there was no significant difference in maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) and composition between groups" - [Nutra USA] - See probiotics at Amazon.com and iHerb, prebiotics at Amazon.com and iHerb,  and synbiotics at Amazon.com and iHerb.
  • How good gut bacteria help reduce the risk for heart disease - Science Daily, 7/8/20 - "Eubacterium limosum ... The chemical linked to the clogged arteries that characterize atherosclerosis is called trimethylamine, or TMA. It is produced during metabolism when some intestinal microbes -- generally the bacteria considered unhelpful to humans -- interact with certain nutrients from food. Among those nutrients is L-carnitine, a chemical compound found in meat and fish that is also used as a nutritional supplement to improve recovery after exercise ... Up until now, the only known gut microbial reactions with L-carnitine involved converting it into its bad form. We've discovered that a bacterium known to be beneficial could remove a methyl group and send the resulting product down another pathway without making any other harmful compounds in the process ... In these interactions, L-carnitine functions as a growth substrate -- a compound consumed so the organism can live and grow, and also a target for enzyme activity. In the study, the researchers fed E. limosum cultures an assortment of potential substrates, including L-carnitine. Only when offered L-carnitine did the microbe synthesize the MtcB protein specifically to lop off L-carnitine's methyl group -- in essence, MtcB is part of the bacteria's natural way to consume the nutrient"
  • Probiotics alone or combined with prebiotics may help ease depression - Science Daily, 7/6/20 - "The studies varied considerably in their design, methods used, and clinical considerations, but all of them concluded that probiotic supplements either alone or in combination with prebiotics may be linked to measurable reductions in depression ... And every study showed a significant fall or improvement in anxiety symptoms and/or clinically relevant changes in biochemical measures of anxiety and/or depression with probiotic or combined pre-probiotic use ... Probiotics may help reduce the production of inflammatory chemicals, such as cytokines, as is the case in inflammatory bowel disease, suggest the researchers. Or they may help direct the action of tryptophan, a chemical thought to be important in the gut-brain axis in psychiatric disorders" - [Nutra USA]
  • Targeting the Intestinal Microbiota to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes and Enhance the Effect of Metformin on Glycaemia: A Randomised Controlled Pilot Study - Nutrients 2020 Jul 9 - "Probiotics may act as an adjunctive to metformin by increasing the production of butyrate, which may consequently enhance glucose management"
  • Effects of Long-Term Administration of Multi-Strain Probiotic on Circulating Levels of BDNF, NGF, IL-6 and Mental Health in Patients With Multiple Sclerosis: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial - Nutr Neurosci 2020 Jun 5;1-12 - "Patients were randomized into intervention and control groups to receive 2 multi-strain probiotic capsules or placebo, daily for six months ... From baseline to 6 months, probiotic supplementation resulted in a significant increase in BDNF and a significant reduction in the IL-6 levels (P < 0.001). Our findings revealed that probiotic supplementation compared to placebo caused a significant improvement in the general health questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) (-5.31 ± 4.62 vs. -1.81 ± 4.23; P = 0.002), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) (-4.81 ± 0.79 vs. -1.90 ± 0.96; P = 0.001), Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) (-3.81 ± 6.56 vs. 0.24 ± 5.44; P = 0.007) and Pain Rating Index (PRI) ... Overall, six months of probiotic supplementation resulted in greater improvement in mental health parameters"
  • Very Long-Term Treatment With a Lactobacillus Probiotic Preparation, Lactobacillus casei Strain Shirota, Suppresses Weight Loss in the Elderly - Nutrients 2020 May 29 - "To reveal the potential benefit of long-term lactic acid, the effects of bacteria-based probiotics for health maintenance were examined. This observational study included the participants from a previous clinical study designed to evaluate the effects of wheat bran biscuits or Lactobacillus preparation, 3 g/day biolactis powder (BLP), in preventing colorectal tumor. The participants were provided an option to continue treatment with BLP on an outpatient basis after completion of the study. The 380 patients who completed the study were contacted and asked to participate in the present study and those who consented were surveyed for cancer incidence, treatment compliance, lifestyle, weight, and other variables ... The mean follow-up period was 7913 days (21.7 years). Cancer developed in 24 of 128 (18.8%) patients in the BLP extension group and 24 of 109 (22.0%) patients in the non-BLP extension group (risk ratio 0.88 [95% confidence interval 0.53-1.47]). Although no significant difference was observed, the cumulative cancer incidence rose at a slightly lower rate in the BLP extension group. Both groups showed a significant weight decrease over the course of 20 years, although the decrease in the BLP extension group was only 1.4 kg, compared with 2.8 kg in the non-BLP extension group. Very long-term treatment with a Lactobacillus probiotic preparation suppressed weight loss in the elderly."
  • In vitro inhibitory effect of two commercial probiotics on chromogenic actinomycetes - Eur Arch Paediatr Dent 2020 Feb 7 - "Streptococcus salivarius M18 and Lactobacillus reuteri were tested against Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans and Actinomyces naeslundiiusing their cell-free fermentative broth in a planktonic growth inhibition test." - [Nutra USA]
  • Does Streptococcus Salivarius Strain M18 Assumption Make Black Stains Disappear in Children? - Oral Health Prev Dent 2020;18(2):161-164 - "This randomised controlled study evaluated the effectiveness of an oral probiotic, Streptococcus salivarius M18 (SsM18), in children with black stains (BSs) in order to counteract their reformation ... BSs formation in children could be prevented by administering S. salivarius M18" - [Nutra USA]
  • A randomised controlled study shows supplementation of overweight and obese adults with lactobacilli and bifidobacteria reduces bodyweight and improves well-being - Sci Rep. 2020 Mar 6 - "220 Bulgarian participants (30 to 65 years old) with BMI 25–34.9 kg/m2 received Lab4P probiotic (50 billion/day) or a matched placebo for 6 months. Participants maintained their normal diet and lifestyle ... Significant between group decreases in body weight (1.3 kg, p < 0.0001), BMI (0.045 kg/m2, p < 0.0001), WC (0.94 cm, p < 0.0001) and WtHR (0.006, p < 0.0001) were in favour of the probiotic. Stratification identified greater body weight reductions in overweight subjects (1.88%, p < 0.0001) and in females (1.62%, p = 0.0005). Greatest weight losses were among probiotic hypercholesterolaemic participants (-2.5%, p < 0.0001) alongside a significant between group reduction in small dense LDL-cholesterol (0.2 mmol/L, p = 0.0241). Improvements in QoL and the incidence rate ratio of URTI (0.60, p < 0.0001) were recorded for the probiotic group. No adverse events were recorded. Six months supplementation with Lab4P probiotic resulted in significant weight reduction and improved small dense low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (sdLDL-C) profiles, QoL and URTI incidence outcomes in overweight/obese individuals" - [Nutra USA]
  • Lactobacillus acidophilus DDS-1 and Bifidobacterium lactis UABla-12 Improve Abdominal Pain Severity and Symptomology in Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Randomized Controlled Trial - Nutrients. 2020 Jan 30 - "The primary outcome was the change in Abdominal Pain Severity - Numeric Rating Scale (APS-NRS). Over the intervention period, APS-NRS was significantly improved in both probiotic groups vs. placebo in absolute terms (DDS-1: -2.59 ± 2.07, p = 0.001; UABla-12: -1.56 ± 1.83, p = 0.001) and in percentage of significant responders (DDS-1: 52.3%, p < 0.001); UABla-12 (28.2%, p = 0.031). Significant amelioration vs. placebo was observed in IBS Symptom Severity Scale (IBS-SSS) scores for L. acidophilus DDS-1 (-133.4 ± 95.19, p < 0.001) and B. lactis UABla-12 (-104.5 ± 96.08, p < 0.001) groups, including sub-scores related to abdominal pain, abdominal distension, bowel habits and quality of life. Additionally, a significant normalization was observed in stool consistency in both probiotic groups over time and as compared to placebo. In conclusion, L. acidophilus DDS-1 and B. lactis UABla-12 improved abdominal pain and symptom severity scores with a corresponding normalization of bowel habits in adults with IBS" - [Nutra USA]
  • Lactobacillus salivarius Subspecies salicinius SA-03 is a New Probiotic Capable of Enhancing Exercise Performance and Decreasing Fatigue? - Microorganisms 2020, 8(4), 545 - "Probiotics are increasingly being used as a nutritional supplement by athletes to improve exercise performance and reduce post-exercise fatigue. Lactobacillus salivarius is a natural flora in the gastrointestinal tract of humans and animals. Lactobacillus salivarius subspecies salicinius (SA-03) is an isolate from the 2008 Olympic women’s 48 kg weightlifting gold medalist’s gut microbiota. In this study, we investigated its beneficial effects on physical fitness. Male ICR mice were divided into four groups (n = 10 per group) and orally administered with SA-03 for 4 weeks at 0, 2.05 × 109, 4.10 × 109, or 1.03 × 1010 CFU/kg/day. Results showed that 4 weeks of SA-03 supplementation significantly improved muscle strength and endurance performance, increased hepatic and muscular glycogen storage, and decreased lactate, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), ammonia, and creatine kinase (CK) levels after exercise. These observations suggest that SA-03 could be used as a nutritional supplement to enhance exercise performance and reduce" - [Nutra USA] - See Lactobacillus salivarius at Amazon.com.
  • The Role of Probiotics in Colorectal Cancer Management - Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2020 Feb 14 - "The recent scientific evidence suggested that probiotic supplementation protects the CRC patients from treatment-associated adverse effects. The manuscript summarizes the influence of probiotic supplementation on the health status of CRC patients and discusses the possible mechanism behind the protective effect of probiotics against CRC. The literature survey revealed that beneficial impact of probiotic supplementation depends on several factors such as strain, dosage, duration of the intervention, host physiology, and other food supplements. The probiotic intervention improves the microbiota, releases antimicrobials and anticarcinogenic agents, helps to remove carcinogens, and improves the intestinal permeability, tight junction function, and enzyme activity in CRC patients. Besides, not all probiotic strains exhibit anti-CRC activities; it is necessary to screen the potent strain for the development of a probiotic-based therapeutic agent to control or prevent the incidence of CRC."
  • International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: Probiotics - J Inter Society of Sports Nutri, 19 Dec 2019 - "Given all the known benefits and favorable safety profile of probiotic supplementation reported in the scientific and medical literature, probiotics are commonly used to optimize the health of athletes. Regular consumption of specific probiotic strains may assist with immune function and may reduce the number of sick days an athlete experiences when training or during competition. Certain probiotic strains may reduce the severity of respiratory infection and GI disturbance when they occur. Probiotic benefits are strain specific and dose dependent, and include improved gut-barrier function, nutrient absorption, recovery and performance in athletes. When choosing a probiotic product, athletes are encouraged to use clinically researched strains with validated benefits, matching the athletes desired health benefit. Studies investigating the effects of probiotics in athletic populations and on sports performance are limited and warrant further investigation" - [Nutra USA] - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Lactobacillus rhamnosus Granules Dose-Dependently Balance Intestinal Microbiome Disorders and Ameliorate Chronic Alcohol-Induced Liver Injury - J Med Food. 2019 Nov 20 - "Previously, we have demonstrated that Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) can prevent alcoholic liver injury ... We found LGG granules dose-dependently protected against chronic alcoholic liver disease. When alcohol was consumed for 8 weeks with LGG treatment during the last 2 weeks, we demonstrated that the dose dependence of LGG granules can improve alcohol-induced liver injury through decreasing the levels of lipopolysaccharide and tumor necrosis factor-α in serum and prevent liver steatosis by suppressing triglyceride, free fatty acid, and malondialdehyde production in liver. Alcohol feeding caused a decline in the number of both Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, with a proportional increase in the number of Clostridium perfringens in ileum, and expansion of the Gram-negative bacteria Proteobacteria, Campylobacterales, and Helicobacter in cecum. However, LGG granule treatment restored the content of these microorganisms. In conclusion, LGG granule supplementation can improve the intestinal microbiota, reduce the number of gram-negative bacteria, and ameliorate alcoholic liver injury" - [Nutra USA]
  • Cell-free extracts of Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii display antiproliferative and antioxidant activities against HT-29 cell line - Nutr Cancer. 2019 Nov 11:1-10 - "cell viability was significantly reduced to 42.2 ± 0.01% and 19.40 ± 0.01% by 5 and 8 mg ml-1 of L. acidophilus and L. delbrueckii extracts, respectively. Apoptosis induction was shown with both bacterial extracts. Caspase-9 and caspase-3 overexpression as well as Bax/Bcl-2 ratio increase revealed the ability of both probiotics to induce intrinsic pathway-dependent apoptosis. The extrinsic pathway was also activated by L. acidophilus. At the concentration of 198 µg ml-1, L. acidophilus and L. delbrueckii had a DPPH scavenging activity of 59.37 ± 3.97% and 71.19 ± 3.64%, respectively. Taken together, these findings provide evidence for antiproliferative, proapoptotic, and antioxidant effects driven by these probiotic lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains"
  • Probiotic treatment using a mix of three Lactobacillus strains for lumbar spine bone loss in postmenopausal women: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre trial - Lancet Nov 2019 - "Lactobacillus treatment reduced the LS-BMD loss compared with placebo (mean difference 0·71%, 95% CI 0·06 to 1·35). The LS-BMD loss was significant in the placebo group (–0·72%, −1·22 to −0·22), whereas no bone loss was observed in the Lactobacillus-treated group (–0·01%, −0·50 to 0·48). The adverse events were similar between the two groups" - [Nutra USA]
  • The probiotic Lactobacillus fermentum 296 attenuates cardiometabolic disorders in high fat diet-treated rats - Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2019 Aug 14 - "High-fat (HF) diet consumption has been associated with gut dysbiosis and increased risk of dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes mellitus and hypertension. Probiotic administration has been suggested as a safe therapeutic strategy for the treatment of cardiometabolic disorders. This study was designed to assess the effects of probiotic Lactobacillus (L.) fermentum 296, a fruit-derived bacteria strain, against cardiometabolic disorders induced by HF diet ... The administration of L. fermentum 296 for 4 weeks recovered fecal Lactobacillus sp. counts and alleviated hyperlipidemia, sympathetic hyperactivity, and reduced systolic blood pressure in HF rats without affecting baroreflex sensibility ... Our results suggest the ability of L. fermentum 296 improve biochemical and cardiovascular parameters altered in cardiometabolic disorders"
  • Can Bugs be Drugs? The Potential of Probiotics and Prebiotics as Treatment for Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease - Medscape, 10/16/19 - "The most promising strategies thus far developed to alter the microbiome in NAFLD-NASH are probiotics and prebiotics. However, pre- and probiotic treatment of NAFLD-NASH is relatively new and still under development. Actual understanding of the involved mechanisms is lacking and changes in the intestinal microbiota composition after treatment are rarely measured. Furthermore, large clinical trials with comparative endpoints are unavailable. Personalised treatment based on metagenomics gut microbiota analysis will probably be part of the future diagnosis and treatment of NAFLD-NASH"
  • Hypnotic Effects of Lactobacillus fermentum PS150TM on Pentobarbital-Induced Sleep in Mice - Nutrients. 2019 Oct 9;11(10) - "The bidirectional communication between the gastrointestinal tract and the central nervous system appears to be functionally linked to the intestinal microbiome, namely the microbiome-gut-brain axis (MGBA). Probiotics with health benefits on psychiatric or neurological illnesses are generally called psychobiotics, and some of them may also be able to improve sleep by targeting the MGBA. This study aimed to investigate the effects of a psychobiotic strain, Lactobacillus fermentum PS150TM (PS150TM), on sleep improvement by using a pentobarbital-induced sleep mouse model. Compared with the vehicle control group, the oral administration of PS150TM, but not the other L. fermentum strains, significantly decreased the sleep latency and increased the sleep duration of mice, suggesting strain-specific sleep-improving effects of PS150TM. Moreover, the ingestion of diphenhydramine, an antihistamine used to treat insomnia, as a drug control group, only increased the sleep duration of mice. We also found that the sleep-improving effects of PS150TM are time- and dose-dependent. Furthermore, the oral administration of PS150TM could attenuate a caffeine-induced sleep disturbance in mice, and PS150TM appeared to increase the expression of the gene encoding the adenosine 1 receptor in the hypothalamus of mice, as assessed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Taken together, our results present a potential application of PS150TM as a dietary supplement for sleep improvement"
  • The neuroactive potential of the human gut microbiota in quality of life and depression - Nat Microbiol. 2019 Apr;4(4):623-632 - "The relationship between gut microbial metabolism and mental health is one of the most intriguing and controversial topics in microbiome research ... Butyrate-producing Faecalibacterium and Coprococcus bacteria were consistently associated with higher quality of life indicators. Together with Dialister, Coprococcus spp. were also depleted in depression, even after correcting for the confounding effects of antidepressants. Using a module-based analytical framework, we assembled a catalogue of neuroactive potential of sequenced gut prokaryotes. Gut-brain module analysis of faecal metagenomes identified the microbial synthesis potential of the dopamine metabolite 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid as correlating positively with mental quality of life and indicated a potential role of microbial γ-aminobutyric acid production in depression. Our results provide population-scale evidence for microbiome links to mental health, while emphasizing confounder importance" - [Full Text] - [Nutra USA] - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • The gut microbiota influences skeletal muscle mass and function in mice - Sci Transl Med. 2019 Jul 24;11(502) - "We compared the skeletal muscle of germ-free mice that lacked a gut microbiota to the skeletal muscle of pathogen-free mice that had a gut microbiota. Compared to pathogen-free mouse skeletal muscle, germ-free mouse skeletal muscle showed atrophy, decreased expression of insulin-like growth factor 1, and reduced transcription of genes associated with skeletal muscle growth and mitochondrial function. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry analysis of skeletal muscle, liver, and serum from germ-free mice revealed multiple changes in the amounts of amino acids, including glycine and alanine, compared to pathogen-free mice. Germ-free mice also showed reduced serum choline, the precursor of acetylcholine, the key neurotransmitter that signals between muscle and nerve at neuromuscular junctions. Reduced expression of genes encoding Rapsyn and Lrp4, two proteins important for neuromuscular junction assembly and function, was also observed in skeletal muscle from germ-free mice compared to pathogen-free mice. Transplanting the gut microbiota from pathogen-free mice into germ-free mice resulted in an increase in skeletal muscle mass, a reduction in muscle atrophy markers, improved oxidative metabolic capacity of the muscle, and elevated expression of the neuromuscular junction assembly genes Rapsyn and Lrp4 Treating germ-free mice with short-chain fatty acids (microbial metabolites) partly reversed skeletal muscle impairments" - [Nutra USA]
  • Probiotics Reduce Health Care Cost and Societal Impact of Flu-Like Respiratory Tract Infections in the USA: An Economic Modeling Study - Front. Pharmacol., 28 August 2019 - "The analysis showed that generalized probiotic intake in the US population for 2017–2018 would have allowed cost savings for the health care payer of 4.6 million USD based on the YHEC scenario and 373 million USD for the Cochrane scenario, by averting 19 million and 54.5 million RTI sick days, respectively, compared to no probiotics" - [Nutra USA]
  • Probiotic treatment improves the impaired spatial cognitive performance and restores synaptic plasticity in an animal model of Alzheimer's disease - Behav Brain Res. 2019 Aug 28 - "Studies demonstrate that damage to gut microbiota is associated with some brain disorders including neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). Accordingly, supporting gut microbiota has been considered as a possible strategy for AD treatment ... Two groups of Alzheimeric animals were treated by either vehicle (Alz) or probiotics (Pro + Alz) ... long-term potentiation (LTP) ... We found that while the Alz animals displayed a weak spatial performance, probiotic treatment improved the maze navigation. Whereas basic synaptic transmission remained unchanged in the Alz rats, LTP was suppressed in this group. Probiotic treatment significantly restored LTP in the Pro + Alz group and further enhanced it in the Pro + Con rats. The intervention also showed a favorable effect on balance of the anti-oxidant/oxidant biomarkers in the Pro + Alz rats. This study provides the first proof on positive effect of probiotics on synaptic plasticity in an animal model of AD"
  • Probiotics for the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes: A Review of Randomized Controlled Trials - Diabetes Metab Res Rev. 2019 Aug 29 - "Based on the evidence reviewed, multi-strain probiotics that contain seven million to 100 billion colony forming units of Lactobacillus acidophilus, Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, and/or Bifidobacterium lactis administered for six to twelve weeks may be efficacious for improving glycemic control in adults with T2DM"
  • Lactobacillus reuteri V3401 Reduces Inflammatory Biomarkers and Modifies the Gastrointestinal Microbiome in Adults with Metabolic Syndrome: The PROSIR Study - Nutrients. 2019 Jul 31;11(8) - "Previous studies have reported that probiotics may improve clinical and inflammatory parameters in patients with obesity and metabolic syndrome (MetS). Lactobacillus (L.) reuteri V3401 has shown promising results on the components of MetS in animal studies ... 53 adult patients newly diagnosed with MetS. Patients were block randomly allocated by body mass index (BMI) and sex to receive a capsule containing either the probiotic L. reuteri V3401 (5 × 109 colony-forming units) or a placebo once daily for 12 weeks ... interleukin-6 (IL-6) and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (sVCAM-1) diminished by effect of the treatment with L. reuteri V3401. Analysis of the gastrointestinal microbiome revealed a rise in the proportion of Verrucomicrobia"
  • Altered microbiome composition in individuals with fibromyalgia - Pain. 2019 Jun 18 - "When comparing FM patients to unrelated controls using differential abundance analysis, significant differences were revealed in several bacterial taxa. Variance in the composition of the microbiomes was explained by FM-related variables more than by any other innate or environmental variable and correlated with clinical indices of FM. In line with observed alteration in butyrate metabolising species, targeted serum metabolite analysis verified differences in the serum levels of butyrate and propionate in FM patients. Using machine learning algorithms, the microbiome composition alone allowed for the classification of patients and controls (ROC AUC 87.8%)" - [Nutra USA]
  • The combination of sport and sport-specific diet is associated with characteristics of gut microbiota: an observational study - J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2019 May 3 - "Results suggest that high-protein diets may have a negative impact on gut microbiota diversity for athletes, while athletes in resistance sports that carry out the high protein low carbohydrates diet demonstrate a decrease in short chain fatty acid-producing commensal bacteria" - [Nutra USA]
  • Lactobacillus acidophilus Exerts Neuroprotective Effects in Mice with Traumatic Brain Injury - J Nutr. 2019 Jun 7 - "Our results demonstrate that LA exerts neuroprotective effects that may be associated with gut microbiota remodeling in TBI mice" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Lactobacillus plantarum DR7 alleviates stress and anxiety in adults: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study - Benef Microbes. 2019 Apr 19 - "One hundred and eleven (n=111; DR7 n=56, placebo n=55) stressed adults were recruited based on moderate stress levels using the PSS-10 questionnaire. The consumption of DR7 (1×109 cfu/day) for 12 weeks reduced symptoms of stress (P=0.024), anxiety (P=0.001), and total psychological scores (P=0.022) as early as 8 weeks among stressed adults compared to the placebo group as assessed by the DASS-42 questionnaire. Plasma cortisol level was reduced among DR7 subjects as compared to the placebo, accompanied by reduced plasma pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as interferon-γ and transforming growth factor-α and increased plasma anti-inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin 10 (P<0.05). DR7 better improved cognitive and memory functions in normal adults (>30 years old), such as basic attention, emotional cognition, and associate learning (P<0.05), as compared to the placebo and young adults (<30 years old). The administration of DR7 enhanced the serotonin pathway, as observed by lowered expressions of plasma dopamine β-hydroxylase (DBH), tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase and tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase accompanied by increased expressions of tryptophan hydroxylase-2 and 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor-6, while stabilising the dopamine pathway as observed via stabilised expressions of TH and DBH over 12 weeks as compared to the placebo" - [Nutra USA]
  • Effect of Cell Concentration on the Persistence in the Human Intestine of Four Probiotic Strains Administered through a Multispecies Formulation - Nutrients 2019, 11(2), 285 - "The overall persistence of the probiotic strains was significantly higher for the 70 billion formulation than for the 7 billion formulation. Furthermore, probiotic strains were detected earlier and for longer for the 70 billion formulation compared to those for the 7 billion formulation. All probiotic strains were recovered alive from the 70 billion preparation, whereas recovery was not possible in a few fecal samples upon administration of the 7 billion preparation. In addition, the overall number of viable probiotic cells recovered on day 14 (i.e., the last day of consumption) was significantly higher for the 70 billion formulation than that for the 7 billion formulation. Finally, we found that the viability of the probiotic cells was stable over the course of the trial independent of volunteers’ handling, demonstrating good manufacturing of the product. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that strains belonging to different taxa may coexist in the human gastrointestinal tract upon ingestion of a multispecies probiotic formulation. Moreover, this study suggests that higher doses of bacterial cells in probiotic formulations may permit a higher, earlier, and longer recovery of the probiotics in the feces of healthy adults" - [Nutra USA] - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.The Effects of Lactobacillus casei on Glycemic Response, Serum Sirtuin1 and Fetuin-A Levels in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Randomized Controlled Trial - ibj 2019, 23(1): 68-77 - "daily capsule containing 108 cfu of L. casei for eight weeks ... Fasting blood sugar, insulin concentration, and insulin resistance significantly decreased in probiotic group compared with placebo group (-28.32 [-50.23 to -6.41], 0.013; -3.12 [-5.90 to -0.35], 0.028; -32.31 [-55.09 to -9.54], 0.007, respectively). Moreover, HbA1c reduced after intervention, but the reduction was not significant (-0.45 [-0.96 to 0.05], 0.077). In comparison with placebo, the L. casei supplementation significantly increased SIRT1 and decreased fetuin-A levels at the end of the trial (0.52 [0.026 to 1.02], 0.040; -17.56 [-32.54 to -2.58], 0.023, respectively)" - [Nutra USA] - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Beneficial Effects of Probiotic Consumption on the Immune System - Ann Nutr Metab. 2019 Jan 23;74(2):115-124 - "Once administered, oral probiotic bacteria interact with the intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) or immune cells associated with the lamina propria, through Toll-like receptors, and induce the production of different cytokines or chemokines ... Specifically, probiotics activate regulatory T cells that release IL-10. Interestingly, probiotics reinforce the intestinal barrier by an increase of the mucins, the tight junction proteins and the Goblet and Paneth cells. Another proposed mechanism of probiotics is the modulation of intestinal microbiota by maintaining the balance and suppressing the growth of potential pathogenic bacteria in the gut. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that long-term probiotics consumption does not affect the intestinal homeostasis. The viability of probiotics is crucial in the interaction with IECs and macrophages favoring, mainly, the innate immune response ... In malnutrition models, such as undernourishment and obesity, probiotic was able to increase the intestinal and systemic immune response. Furthermore, probiotics contribute to recover the histology of both the intestine and the thymus damaged in these conditions. Probiotic bacteria are emerging as a safe and natural strategy for allergy prevention and treatment. Different mechanisms such as the generation of cytokines from activated pro-T-helper type 1, which favor the production of IgG instead of IgE, have been proposed" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Probiotic Lactobacillus reuteri Prevents Postantibiotic Bone Loss by Reducing Intestinal Dysbiosis and Preventing Barrier Disruption - J Bone Miner Res. 2019 Jan 28 - "Antibiotic treatment, commonly prescribed for bacterial infections, depletes and subsequently causes long-term alterations in intestinal microbiota composition. Knowing the importance of the microbiome in the regulation of bone density, we investigated the effect of postantibiotic treatment on gut and bone health ... A link between the microbiome composition and bone density was demonstrated by supplementing the mice with probiotic bacteria. Specifically, Lactobacillus reuteri, but not Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG or nonpathogenic Escherichia coli, reduced the postantibiotic elevation of the Firmicutes:Bacteroidetes ratio and prevented femoral and vertebral trabecular bone loss. Consistent with causing bone loss, postantibiotic-induced dysbiosis decreased osteoblast and increased osteoclast activities, changes that were prevented by both L. reuteri and MDY. These data underscore the importance of microbial dysbiosis in the regulation of intestinal permeability and bone health, as well as identify L. reuteri and MDY as novel therapies for preventing these adverse effects"
  • The effects of a multispecies probiotic supplement on inflammatory markers and episodic and chronic migraine characteristics: A randomized double-blind controlled trial - Cephalalgia. 2019 Jan 8 - "Forty episodic and 39 chronic migraine patients who completed this randomized double-blind controlled trial received two capsules of multispecies probiotic or placebo ... After a 10-week intervention, among episodic migraineurs the mean frequency of migraine attacks significantly reduced in the probiotic group compare to the placebo group (mean change: -2.64 vs. 0.06; respectively, p < 0.001). A significant reduction was also evident in the migraine severity (mean decrease: -2.14 in the probiotic group and 0.11 in the placebo group; p < 0.001). Episodic migraineurs who received the probiotic also showed significant reduction in abortive drug usage per week (mean change: -0.72; p < 0.001) compare to baseline, while there was no significant changes within the placebo group. In chronic migraine patients, after an 8-week intervention, the mean frequency of migraine attacks significantly reduced in the probiotic compared to the placebo group (mean change: -9.67 vs. -0.22; p ≤ 0.001). In contrast to the placebo, probiotic supplementation significantly decreased the severity (mean changes: -2.69; p ≤ 0.001), duration (mean changes: -0.59; p ≤ 0.034) of attacks and the number of abortive drugs taken per day (mean changes: -1.02; p < 0.001), in chronic migraine patients." - [Nutra USA] - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Effects of probiotic supplements on the progression of chronic kidney disease: a meta-analysis - Nephrology (Carlton). 2018 Dec 18 - "urea level was significantly reduced in probiotics-administrated non-dialysis patients"
    • What Is a Blood Urea Nitrogen Test? - WebMD - "The blood urea nitrogen test, which is also called a BUN or serum BUN test, measures how much of the waste product you have in your blood. If your levels are off the normal range, this could mean that either your kidneys or your liver may not be working properly."
  • The intestinal microbiome and its relevance for functionality in older persons - Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2019 Jan;22 - "The intestinal microbiome composition represents a possible determinant of functional performance in older people, and a promising target for antiaging therapeutic interventions"
  • Gut microbiota in common elderly diseases affecting activities of daily living - World J Gastroenterol. 2018 Nov 14 - "Gut microbiota are involved in the development or prevention of various diseases such as type 2 diabetes, fatty liver, and malignancy such as colorectal cancer, breast cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma. Alzheimer's disease, osteoporosis, sarcopenia, atherosclerotic stroke and cardiovascular disease are major diseases associated with decreased activities of daily living (ADL), especially in elderly people. Recent analyses have revealed the importance of gut microbiota in the control of these diseases. The composition or diversity of these microbiota is different between patients with these conditions and healthy controls, and administration of probiotics or prebiotics has been shown effective in the treatment of these diseases. Gut microbiota may affect distant organs through mechanisms that include regulating the absorption of nutrients and/or the production of microbial metabolites, regulating and interacting with the systemic immune system, and translocating bacteria/bacterial products through disrupted mucosal barriers. Thus, the gut microbiota may be important regulators in the development of diseases that affect ADL" - [Nutra USA] - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • The Effects of Probiotic Formulation Pretreatment (Lactobacillus helveticus R0052 and Bifidobacterium longum R0175) on a Lipopolysaccharide Rat Model - J Am Coll Nutr. 2018 Oct 11:1-9 - "The role of gut microbiota in the pathogenesis of several neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), via the gut-brain axis has recently been demonstrated; hence, modification of the intestinal microbiota composition by probiotic biotherapy could be a therapeutic target for these conditions ... These results suggest that the management of gut microbiota with this probiotic formulation could be a promising intervention to improve neuroinflammation-associated disorders such as AD"
  • Effects of Turmeric and Curcumin Dietary Supplementation on Human Gut Microbiota: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Pilot Study - J Evid Based Integr Med. 2018 Jan-Dec;23:2515690X18790725 - "Turmeric tablets with extract of piperine (Bioperine) (n = 6), curcumin with Bioperine tablets (n = 5), or placebo tablets (n = 3) were provided to healthy human subjects and subsequent changes in the gut microbiota were determined by 16S rDNA sequencing ... All participants' microbiota displayed significant variation over time and individualized response to treatment. Among the responsive participants, both turmeric and curcumin altered the gut microbiota in a highly similar manner, suggesting that curcumin may drive the majority of observed changes observed in turmeric-treated subjects" - [Nitra USA] - See curcumin products at Amazon.com.
  • Effects of a 6-month multi-strain probiotics supplementation in endotoxemic, inflammatory and cardiometabolic status of T2DM patients: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial - Clin Nutr. 2018 Aug 17 - "Multi-strain probiotics supplementation for 6 months caused a significant decrease in circulating levels of endotoxin by almost 70% over 6 months, as well as glucose (38%), insulin (38%), HOMA-IR (64%), triglycerides (48%), total cholesterol (19%), total/HDL-cholesterol ratio (19%), TNF-α (67%), IL-6 (77%), CRP (53%), resistin (53%), and a significant increase in adiponectin (72%) as compared with baseline. Only HOMA-IR had a clinically significant reduction (-3.4, 64.2%) in the probiotics group as compared to placebo group at all time points" - [Nutra USA]
  • Longevity extension in Drosophila through gut-brain communication - Scientific Reportsvolume 8, Article number: 8362 (2018), 30 May 2018 - "With age, the body become less efficient at handling environmental stresses leading to a myriad of physiological imbalances including elevated inflammation, oxidative stress, metabolic dysregulation and mitochondrial damage. There will never be a single therapeutic or dietary solution to manage the mounting chronic diseases associated with aging; however, maintaining a healthy gut microbiota through the use probiotic and prebiotic supplements can delay chronic disease onset and promote longevity by simultaneously affecting each of the main triggers of aging" - [Nutra USA]
  • Effect of probiotic and prebiotic vs placebo on psychological outcomes in patients with major depressive disorder: A randomized clinical trial - Clin Nutr. 2018 Apr 24 - "Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) ... major depressive disorder (MDD) ... From baseline to 8 weeks, probiotic supplementation resulted in a significant decrease in BDI score (17.39-9.1) compared to the placebo (18.18-15.55) and prebiotic (19.72-14.14) supplementation" - See See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Probiotics useful in the fight against Clostridium difficile infection - Science Daily, 4/26/18 - "probiotics reduced the odds of CDI by about two-thirds in both their non-adjusted and adjusted models (adjusting for age, sex, hospitalization status, use of multiple antibiotics, and exposure to high-risk antibiotics). Additionally, they found that compared to no probiotics, multi-species probiotics were more beneficial than single-species probiotics"
  • Effect of Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Bifidobacterium lactis on gingival health, dental plaque, and periodontopathogens in adolescents: a randomised placebo-controlled clinical trial - Benef Microbes. 2018 Apr 10:1-10 - "Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) and Bifidobacterium lactis BB-12 ... Both groups received two probiotic-laced or placebo lozenges twice a day during a four-week period ... Probiotic lozenges significantly reduced levels of A. actinomycetemcomitans and F. nucleatum in saliva and plaque (P<0.05) and levels of P. gingivalis in plaque (P<0.05), while no significant changes were found in the control group. A significant reduction (P<0.001) was also noted in the total salivary bacterial counts of the test group. The short-term daily consumption of LGG and BB-12 probiotic lozenges improved the gingival health in adolescents and decreased the microbial counts of A. actinomycetemcomitans, and P. gingivalis. Hence probiotic supplements may serve as a simple adjunct to standard oral care for promoting the oral health in adolescents" - [Nutra USA]
  • Randomized, Double Blind and Placebo Controlled Study Using a Combination of Two Probiotic Lactobacilli to Alleviate Symptoms and Frequency of Common Cold - Food and Nutrition Sciences, 2013, 4, 13-20 - "Although the number of episodes was similar in both groups, cold episodes in the active group were significantly shorter than in the placebo group. The total sum scores of cold symptoms were significantly lower in the active group as compared with the placebo group, as well as in the intention-to-treat (ITT) as in the per-protocol (PP) collectives (ITT: 75.2 ± 40.3 vs. 113.4 ± 66.3" - [Nutra USA] - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Probiotic treatment protects against the pro-depressant-like effect of high-fat diet in Flinders Sensitive Line rats - Brain Behav Immun. 2017 Oct;65:33-42 - "Major depressive disorder (MDD) is highly associated with dysmetabolic conditions, such as obesity and diabetes mellitus type 2, and the gut microbiota may interact with both disease entities ... Our findings suggest that MDD may hold a dysmetabolic component that responds to probiotic treatment. This finding has wide implications owing to the high metabolic comorbidity in MDD. Furthermore, the close association between depressive-like behaviour and cerebral T cell populations demonstrate lymphocyte-brain interactions as a promising future research area in the field of psychoneuroimmunology" - [Nutra USA] - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • A preliminary examination of gut microbiota, sleep, and cognitive flexibility in healthy older adults - Sleep Med. 2017 Oct;38:104-107 - "Better sleep quality was associated with better Stroop performance and higher proportions of the gut microbial phyla Verrucomicrobia and Lentisphaerae. Stroop Word and Color-Word performance correlated with higher proportions of Verrucomicrobia and Lentisphaerae. Partial correlations suggested that the relationship between Lentisphaerae and Stroop Color-Word performance was better accounted for by sleep quality; sleep quality remained a significant predictor of Color-Word performance, independent of the Lentisphaerae proportion, while the relationship between Lentisphaerae and Stroop performance was non-significant. Verrucomicrobia and sleep quality were not associated with Stroop Word performance independent of one another" - [Nutra USA]
  • Effect of Probiotics and Prebiotics on Immune Response to Influenza Vaccination in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials - Nutrients. 2017 Oct 27;9(11) - "Participants who took probiotics or prebiotics showed significant improvements in the H1N1 strain seroprotection rate (with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.83 and a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 1.19-2.82, p = 0.006, I² = 0%), the H3N2 strain seroprotection rate (OR = 2.85, 95% CI = 1.59-5.10, p < 0.001, I² = 0%), and the B strain seroconversion rate (OR = 2.11, 95% CI = 1.38-3.21, p < 0.001, I² = 0%). This meta-analysis suggested that probiotics and prebiotics are effective in elevating immunogenicity by influencing seroconversion and seroprotection rates in adults inoculated with influenza vaccines" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Effects of microencapsulated Lactobacillus plantarum LIP-1 on the gut microbiota of hyperlipidaemic rats -  Br J Nutr. 2017 Oct;118(7):481-492 - "microcapsulation enhanced the colon colonisation of LIP-1 cells, which subsequently exhibited more pronounced effects in improving the gut microbiota composition of hyperlipidaemic rats and lipid reduction" - See microencapsulated probiotics at Amazon.com.
  • The effect of probiotics as a treatment for constipation in elderly people: A systematic review - Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2017 Jul;71:142-149 - "Overall, our analysis of the randomised and placebo-controlled trials suggests that administration of probiotics significantly improved constipation in elderly individuals by 10-40% compared to placebo controls in which no probiotic was administered" - [Nutra USA]
  • Synbiotic supplementation and the effects on clinical and metabolic responses in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial - Br J Nutr. 2017 May 11:1-8 - "After the 8-week intervention, compared with the placebo, synbiotic supplementation resulted in a significant reduction in serum high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels (-1427·8 (sd 3267·2) v. +2833·4 (sd 5639·7) ng/ml, P=0·001). In addition, compared with the placebo, synbiotic supplementation improved disease activity score-28 joints (DAS-28) (-1·6 (sd 0·8) v. -0·3 (sd 0·5), P<0·001) and visual analogue scales (VAS) pain (-30·4 (sd 18·7) v. -11·5 (sd 15·9), P<0·001). In addition, a significant elevation in plasma nitric oxide (NO) (+0·8 (sd 4·4) v. -2·6 (sd 4·5) µmol/l, P=0·008), and significant reductions in insulin values (-13·8 (sd 26·4) v. +4·2 (sd 28·2) pmol/l, P=0·01), homoeostasis model of assessment-estimated insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) (-0·5 (sd 1·0) v.+0·1 (sd 1·1), P=0·03) and homoeostatic model assessment-β-cell function (HOMA-B) (-9·4 (sd 17·9) v. +3·3 (sd 18·9), P=0·01) following supplementation with the synbiotic compared with the placebo. Compared with the placebo, synbiotic supplementation also resulted in a significant increase in plasma GSH (+36·6 (sd 63·5) v. -58·5 (sd 154·4) µmol/l, P=0·005). Overall, our study demonstrated that synbiotic supplementation for 8 weeks among patients with RA had beneficial effects on hs-CRP, DAS-28, VAS, NO, insulin levels, HOMA-IR, HOMA-B and GSH levels" - See synbiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
  • Gastrointestinal Microbiota and Cognitive Function in Adult Females - fasebj, Apr 2017 - "These results indicate that women with greater relative abundances of Bacteriodetes exhibited greater ability to maintain cognitive performance when faced with greater task demands. These findings are among the first to relate bacterial phylogenetic characteristics to executive function among adult humans. Further study is required to elucidate a causal relationship between dietary manipulation of microbiota composition and changes in selective aspects of cognitive performance" - [Nutra USA] - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Age-Associated Microbial Dysbiosis Promotes Intestinal Permeability, Systemic Inflammation, and Macrophage Dysfunction - Cell Host Microbe. 2017 Apr 12 - "Levels of inflammatory mediators in circulation are known to increase with age, but the underlying cause of this age-associated inflammation is debated ... These data suggest that aging-associated microbiota promote inflammation and that reversing these age-related microbiota changes represents a potential strategy for reducing age-associated inflammation and the accompanying morbidity" - [Nutra USA] - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Probiotics (Lactobacillus gasseri KS-13, Bifidobacterium bifidum G9-1, and Bifidobacterium longum MM-2) improve rhinoconjunctivitis-specific quality of life in individuals with seasonal allergies: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial - Am J Clin Nutr. 2017 Feb 22 - "The probiotic group reported an improvement in the MRQLQ global score from baseline to pollen peak (-0.68 ± 0.13) when compared with the placebo group (-0.19"
  • Probiotics and Subclinical Psychological Symptoms in Healthy Participants: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis - J Altern Complement Med. 2016 Nov 14 - "These results show that probiotic consumption may have a positive effect on psychological symptoms of depression, anxiety, and perceived stress in healthy human volunteers"
  • Probiotic With or Without Fiber Controls Body Fat Mass, Associated With Serum Zonulin, in Overweight and Obese Adults—Randomized Controlled Trial - j.ebiom.2016.10.036 - "We investigated the possible effects of Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. lactis 420 (B420) and the dietary fiber Litesse® Ultra polydextrose (LU) on body fat mass and other obesity-related parameters ... For relative change in body fat mass, LU + B420 showed a − 4.5% (−1.4 kg, P = 0.02, N = 37) difference to the Placebo group, whereas LU (+0.3%, P = 1.00, N = 35) and B420 (−3.0%, P = 0.28, N = 24) alone had no effect (overall ANOVA P = 0.095, Placebo N = 35). A post-hoc factorial analysis was significant for B420 (−4.0%, P = 0.002 vs. Placebo). Changes in fat mass were most pronounced in the abdominal region, and were reflected by similar changes in waist circumference. B420 and LU + B420 also significantly reduced energy intake compared to Placebo" - [Nutra USA] - See probiotic products at Amazon.com and polydextrose at Amazon.com.
  • Anti-obese effects of two Lactobacilli and two Bifidobacteria on ICR mice fed on a high fat diet - Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2016 Nov 11;480(2):222-227 - "high fat diet (HFD) ... The beneficial effects of the probiotic bacteria are suggested to be strain dependent. In this study, two candidate lactobacteria strains, Lactobacillus casei IBS041, Lactobacillus acidophilus AD031 and two bifidobacteria strains, Bifidobacterium bifidum BGN4 and Bifidobacterium longum BORI, were individually administered to HFD-fed mice for 8 weeks. B. longum BORI significantly suppressed mouse weight gain without affecting food intake. L. acidophilus and B. bifidum BGN4 significantly decreased triglyceride levels in mouse liver while B. longum BORI significantly lowered total cholesterol levels in liver. L. acidophilus and B. bifidum BGN4 significantly inhibited serum activities of aspartate transaminase and alanine transaminase. Diet supplementation with L. acidophilus, B. bifidum BGN4 and B. longum BORI efficiently improved hepatocyte hydropic degeneration and hepatic steatosis. Of the four probiotic candidates, the bifidobacteria B. longum BORI and B. bifidum BGN4, developed in our laboratory, and L. acidophilus AD031showed excellent anti-obesity effects and suppressed lipid deposition in liver"
  • The use of probiotic L. fermentum ME-3 containing Reg'Activ Cholesterol supplement for 4 weeks has a positive influence on blood lipoprotein profiles and inflammatory cytokines: an open-label preliminary study - Nutr J. 2016 Oct 28;15(1):93 - "Reg'Activ Cholesterol (RAC) ... Forty-five clinically asymptomatic participants consumed an RAC containing an antioxidative and antiatherogenic probiotic Lactobacillus fermentum ME-3 (LFME-3) for 4 weeks ... The reduction of total cholesterol (from 6.5 ± 1.0 to 5.7 ± 0.9 mmol/l, p = 9.90806E-11) was on the account of LDL cholesterol as the HDL cholesterol level rose from 1.60 ± 0.31to 1.67 ± 0.34mml/l, p = 0.01. HbA1c% was reduced from 5.85 ± 0.28 to 5.66 ± 0.25 p = 4.64E-05 and oxLDL decreased from 84 ± 20 to 71 ± 15 U/l" - See Reg'Activ Cholesterol at Amazon.com.
  • Probiotic Streptococcus thermophilus FP4 and Bifidobacterium breve BR03 Supplementation Attenuates Performance and Range-of-Motion Decrements Following Muscle Damaging Exercise - Nutrients. 2016 Oct 14;8(10) - "Probiotic supplementation resulted in an overall decrease in circulating IL-6, which was sustained to 48 h post-exercise. In addition, probiotic supplementation likely enhanced isometric average peak torque production at 24 to 72 h into the recovery period following exercise (probiotic-placebo point effect ±90% CI: 24 h, 11% ± 7%; 48 h, 12% ± 18%; 72 h, 8% ± 8%). Probiotics also likely moderately increased resting arm angle at 24 h (2.4% ± 2.0%) and 48 h (1.9% ± 1.9%) following exercise, but effects on soreness and flexed arm angle and CK were unclear. These data suggest that dietary supplementation with probiotic strains S. thermophilus FP4 and B. breve BR03 attenuates performance decrements and muscle tension in the days following muscle-damaging exercise" - [Nutra USA] - See Garden of Life Primal Defense ULTRA 180 Capsules at Amazon.com.
  • Efficacy of Synbiotics in Patients with Slow Transit Constipation: A Prospective Randomized Trial - Nutrients. 2016 Sep 28;8(10) - "A total of 100 patients with slow transit constipation were randomized to receive either a synbiotic or placebo twice daily for 12 weeks ... Over 12 weeks, 64.6% of the patients who received the synbiotic experienced clinical improvement, compared to 29.2% of the patients in the placebo group (p < 0.01). During the intervention period, patients who were treated with the synbiotic exhibited increased stool frequency, improved stool consistency, decreased CTT, and improved constipation-related symptoms" - [Nutra USA] - See synbiotic products at Amazon.com, probiotic products at Amazon.com and inulin at Amazon.com.
  • The effects of synbiotic supplementation on markers of insulin metabolism and lipid profiles in gestational diabetes: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial - Br J Nutr. 2016 Sep 29:1-8 - "Patients in the synbiotic group received a daily capsule that contained three viable and freeze-dried strains: Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei and Bifidobacterium bifidum (2×109 colony-forming units/g each) plus 800 mg inulin for 6 weeks ... After 6 weeks of intervention, compared with the placebo, synbiotic supplementation led to a significant decrease in serum insulin levels (-1·5 (sd 5·9) v. +4·8 (sd 11·5) µIU/ml, P=0·005), homoeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance (-0·4 (sd 1·3) v. +1·1 (sd 2·7), P=0·003) and homoeostatic model assessment for β cell function (-5·1 (sd 24·2) v. +18·9 (sd 45·6), P=0·008) and a significant increase in quantitative insulin sensitivity check index (+0·01 (sd 0·01) v. -0·007 (sd 0·02), P=0·02). In addition, synbiotic intake significantly decreased serum TAG (-14·8 (sd 56·5) v. +30·4 (sd 37·8) mg/dl, P<0·001) and VLDL-cholesterol concentrations (-3·0 (sd 11·3) v. +6·1 (sd 7·6) mg/dl, P<0·001) compared with the placebo" - [Nutra USA] - See synbiotic products at Amazon.com, probiotic products at Amazon.com and inulin at Amazon.com.
  • Impact of Chlorhexidine Pretreatment Followed by Probiotic Streptococcus salivarius Strain K12 on Halitosis in Children: A Randomised Controlled Clinical Trial - Oral Health Prev Dent. 2016;14(4):305-13 - "Probiotic therapy following oral disinfection with chlorhexidine may reduce the severity of halitosis over longer periods" - [Nutra USA]
  • Probiotic and synbiotic therapy in critical illness: a systematic review and meta-analysis - Crit Care. 2016 Aug 19;19:262 - "Thirty trials that enrolled 2972 patients were identified for analysis. Probiotics were associated with a significant reduction in infections (risk ratio 0.80, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.68, 0.95, P = 0.009; heterogeneity I (2) = 36 %, P = 0.09). Further, a significant reduction in the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) was found (risk ratio 0.74"
  • Clinical Evidence of Effects of Lactobacillus plantarum HY7714 on Skin Aging: A Randomized, Double Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study - J Microbiol Biotechnol. 2015 Dec 28;25(12):2160-8 - "Participants took 1 × 10(10) CFU/day of HY7714 (probiotic group) or a placebo (placebo group) for 12 weeks. Skin hydration, wrinkles, skin gloss, and skin elasticity were measured every 4 weeks during the study period. There were significant increases in the skin water content in the face (p < 0.01) and hands (p < 0.05) at week 12 in the probiotic group. Transepidermal water loss decreased significantly in both groups at weeks 4, 8, and 12 (p < 0.001 compared with baseline), and was suppressed to a greater extent in the face and forearm in the probiotic group at week 12. Volunteers in the probiotic group had a significant reduction in wrinkle depth at week 12, and skin gloss was also significantly improved by week 12. Finally, skin elasticity in the probiotic group improved by 13.17% (p < 0.05 vs. controls) after 4 weeks and by 21.73% (p < 0.01 vs. controls) after 12 weeks. These findings are preliminary confirmation of the anti-aging benefit to the skin of L. plantarum HY7714 as a nutricosmetic agent" - [Nutra USA] - See Garden of Life Primal Defense ULTRA, 180 Capsules at Amazon.com.
  • Probiotic mixture VSL#3 reduce high fat diet induced vascular inflammation and atherosclerosis in ApoE(-/-) mice - AMB Express. 2016 Dec;6(1):61 - "ApoE(-/-) mice were fed high fat diet alone or with VSL#3 or a positive control treatment, telmisartan or both for 12 weeks. All treatments reduced atherosclerotic plaques significantly compared to high fat diet alone. VSL#3 significantly reduced proinflammatory adhesion molecules and risk factors of plaque rupture, reduced vascular inflammation and atherosclerosis to a comparable extent to telmisartan; and VSL#3 treated mice had the most distinctly different intestinal microbiota composition from the control groups. Combining the VSL#3 and telmisartan brought no further benefits. Our findings showed the therapeutic potential of VSL#3 in reducing atherosclerosis and vascular inflammation" - [Nutra USA]
  • Effect of Probiotics on Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials - Nutrients. 2016 Aug 6;8(8) - "It has been reported that gut probiotics play a major role in the bidirectional communication between the gut and the brain. Probiotics may be essential to people with depression, which remains a global health challenge, as depression is a metabolic brain disorder ... Probiotics had an effect on both the healthy population (MD = -0.25, 95% CI (-0.47--0.03), p = 0.03) and patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) (MD = -0.73, 95% CI (-1.37--0.09), p = 0.03) ... probiotics were associated with a significant reduction in depression"
  • Probiotic Bacillus coagulans GBI-30, 6086 reduces exercise-induced muscle damage and increases recovery - PeerJ Jul 21, 2016 - "The strenuous exercise significantly reduced athletic performance in PRO (Wingate Peak Power; PRO: (−39.8 watts, −5.3%, p = 0.03)), whereas PROBC maintained performance (+10.1 watts, +1.7%) ... The results provide evidence that probiotic supplementation in combination with protein tended to reduce indices of muscle damage, improves recovery, and maintains physical performance subsequent to damaging exercise" - [Nutra USA]
  • Probiotics for the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus: A systematic review and meta-analysis - Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2016 Jun 18 - "fasting blood glucose (FBG) ... When compared to placebo, FBG was significantly lower with probiotic consumption (MD=-0.98mmol/L; 95% CI: -1.17, 0.78, p<0.00001), with moderate but insignificant heterogeneity noted"
  • Pterostilbene-induced changes in gut microbiota composition in relation to obesity - Mol Nutr Food Res. 2016 Jul 5 - "gut microbiota (GM) ... Pterostilbene exerted protective anti-obesity effects, improved metabolic function (insulin sensitivity) and induced structural changes in GM composition ... Pterostilbene modifies intestinal bacteria composition towards a healthier microbial profile and suggests that the anti-obesity effects induced in Zucker rats could be associated with an enrichment of the mucin-degrading bacterial members, namely Akkermansia and Odoribacter genus"
  • Probiotic Lactobacillus gasseri SBT2055 improves glucose tolerance and reduces body weight gain in rats by stimulating energy expenditure - Br J Nutr. 2016 Jun 8:1-8 - "Probiotic Lactobacillus gasseri SBT2055 (LG2055) reduces postprandial TAG absorption and exerts anti-obesity effects in rats and humans; however, the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood ... Rats fed the LG2055-containing diet demonstrated significantly higher carbohydrate oxidation in the dark cycle (active phase for rats) compared with the control group, which resulted in a significant increase in energy expenditure. LG2055 significantly reduced cumulative blood glucose levels (AUC) compared with the control diet after 3 weeks and increased the molar ratio of butyrate:total SCFA in the caecum after 4 weeks. Furthermore, the LG2055-supplemented diet significantly reduced the levels of serum amyloid P component - an indicator of the inflammatory process" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Effects of high doses of vitamin D3 on mucosa-associated gut microbiome vary between regions of the human gastrointestinal tract - Eur J Nutr. 2016 Jun;55(4):1479-89 - "We sampled stomach, small bowel, colon, and stools before and after 8 weeks of vitamin D3 supplementation ... Vitamin D3 modulates the gut microbiome of the upper GI tract which might explain its positive influence on gastrointestinal diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease or bacterial infections" - [Nutra USA]
  • Beneficial effects of Bifidobacterium lactis on lipid profile and cytokines in patients with metabolic syndrome: A randomized trial. Effects of probiotics on metabolic syndrome - Nutrition. 2016 Jun;32(6):716-9 - "Daily ingestion of 80 mL fermented milk with 2.72 × 10(10) colony-forming units of B. lactis HN019 showed significant reduction in body mass index (P = 0.017), total cholesterol (P = 0.009), and low-density lipoprotein (P = 0.008) compared with baseline and control group values. Furthermore, a significant decrease in tumor necrosis factor-α (P = 0.033) and interleukin-6 (P = 0.044) proinflammatory cytokines was observed" - [Nutra USA] - Note: Bifidobacterium lactis is one of the bacterial in the Garden of Life Primal Defense ULTRA I take.
  • Effect of probiotics on body weight and body-mass index: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized, controlled trials - Int J Food Sci Nutr. 2016 May 5 - "Probiotic consumption significantly reduced body weight by 0.59 kg (95% CI, 0.30-0.87) and BMI by 0.49 kg/m2 (95% CI, 0.24-0.74). A greater reduction in BMI was found with multiple species of probiotics. Subgroup analysis of trials with intervention duration ≥8 weeks found a more significant reduction in BMI. Limiting analysis to trials with a baseline BMI ≥25 kg/m2 showed a greater reduction in BMI" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Lactobacillus plantarum TWK10 Supplementation Improves Exercise Performance and Increases Muscle Mass in Mice - Nutrients 2016, 8(4), 205 - "Lactobacillus plantarum (L. plantarum) is a well-known probiotic among the ingested-microorganism probiotic ... few studies have examined the effects of L. plantarum TWK10 (LP10) supplementation on exercise performance, physical fatigue, and gut microbial profile ... LP10 significantly decreased final body weight and increased relative muscle weight (%). LP10 supplementation dose-dependently increased grip strength (p < 0.0001) and endurance swimming time (p < 0.001) and decreased levels of serum lactate (p < 0.0001), ammonia (p < 0.0001), creatine kinase (p = 0.0118), and glucose (p = 0.0151) after acute exercise challenge. The number of type I fibers (slow muscle) in gastrocnemius muscle significantly increased with LP10 treatment. In addition, serum levels of albumin, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, and triacylglycerol significantly decreased with LP10 treatment. Long-term supplementation with LP10 may increase muscle mass, enhance energy harvesting, and have health-promotion, performance-improvement, and anti-fatigue effects" - [Nutra USA] -Note:  Lactobacillus plantarum is the top probiotic in the Garden of Life Primal Defense Ultra that I take.
  • Protective effects of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG against dyslipidemia in high-fat diet-induced obese mice - Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2016 Mar 23 - "Recent reports suggest that gut microbiota can be a major determinant of dyslipidemia and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and its modulation by treating probiotics is a valid strategy to exert a protective effect. In this study, high-fat diet (HFD)-fed mice were orally administrated with Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) for 13 weeks. Significant reductions in the weights of the liver, mesenteric and subcutaneous adipose tissues were observed in LGG-treated HFD-fed mice compared to LGG-non-treated controls. The serum levels of triglyceride and cholesterol were also significantly reduced in LGG-treated mice. Gut microbial composition analysis showed that shifts in the diversity of dominant gut bacteria were caused by HFD and restored by LGG treatment. A remarkable decrease of hepatic fat content was also observed in LGG-treated mice, accompanied by downregulated expressions of lipogenic and pro-inflammatory genes in the liver. LGG-treated mice had lower expression levels of genes involved in cholesterol synthesis, but conversely, higher expression levels of cholesterol efflux-related genes compared to LGG-non-treated controls"
  • Clinical efficacy of probiotic as an adjunctive therapy to non-surgical periodontal treatment of chronic periodontitis: A systematic review and meta-analysis - J Clin Periodontol. 2016 Mar 1 - "root planing (SRP) ... chronic periodontitis (CP) ... Meta-analysis showed a statistically significant CAL gain (-0.42 mm, p=0.002) and bleeding on probing (BOP) reduction (-14.66, p=0.003) for SRP + probiotic treatment versus SRP at short-term. Only a tendency (p=0.06) has been observed in terms of overall PPD reduction, whereas results were significant when stratified for moderate (-0.18, p=0.001) and deep pockets (-0.67" - [Nutra USA]
  • 'Psychobiotic' May Help Ease Stress, Improve Memory - Medscape, 10/20/15 - "The emerging concept of the gut microbiome as a key regulator of brain and behavior represents a paradigm shift in neuroscience. Precise targeting of the microbiome-gut-brain axis with psychobiotics — live microorganisms with a potential mental health benefit — is a novel approach for the management of stress-related conditions ... 22 healthy male volunteers (mean age, 25.5 years) ingested a capsule containing B longum NCIMB 41676 daily for 4 weeks and a matching placebo capsule for another 4 weeks ... B longum NCIMB 41676 led to a reduction in cumulative output of the stress hormone cortisol, as well as a blunted increase in subjective anxiety. On the questionnaire, the men reported being less stressed and anxious while taking the probiotic. They also showed subtle improvement on a visual memory task after receiving the probiotic, as well as altered EEG output" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Effects of Multistrain Probiotic Supplementation on Glycemic and Inflammatory Indices in Patients with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A Double-Blind Randomized Clinical Trial - J Am Coll Nutr. 2015 Oct 2:1-6 - "Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a condition defined by exceeding triglycerides accumulation in the liver. The condition can develop into fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma ... Subjects in the intervention and control groups consumed 2 capsules/day probiotic or placebo, respectively, for 8 weeks. Fasting blood sugar (FBS) ... Means of FBS, insulin, insulin resistance, and IL-6 were significantly different between groups after intervention (p < 0.05), whereas TNF-α was not significantly modified (p > 0.05). In the probiotic group, insulin, insulin resistance, TNF-α, and IL-6 decreased significantly at the end of the study compared to the beginning of study" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Effect of the probiotic strain Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis, BB-12®, on defecation frequency in healthy subjects with low defecation frequency and abdominal discomfort: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group trial - Br J Nutr. 2015 Sep 18 - "The OR for having a defecation frequency above baseline for ≥50 % of the time was 1.31 (95 % CI 0.98, 1.75), P=0.071, for probiotic treatment overall. Tightening the criteria for being a responder to an increase of ≥1 d/week for ≥50 % of the time resulted in an OR of 1.55 ... A treatment effect on average defecation frequency was found (P=0.0065), with the frequency being significantly higher compared with placebo at all weeks for probiotic treatment overall (all P<0.05). Effects on defecation frequency were similar for the two doses tested, suggesting that a ceiling effect was reached with the one billion dose. Overall, 4 weeks' supplementation with the probiotic strain BB-12® resulted in a clinically relevant benefit on defecation frequency" - [Nutra USA] - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • The impact of gut microbiota on brain and behaviour: implications for psychiatry - Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2015 Sep 12 - "Recently, the gut microbiota has been profiled in a variety of conditions including autism, major depression and Parkinson's disease ... The current narrative suggests that certain neuropsychiatric disorders might be treated by targeting the microbiota either by microbiota transplantation, antibiotics or psychobiotics"
  • Probiotics Improve Inflammation-Associated Sickness Behavior by Altering Communication between the Peripheral Immune System and the Brain - J Neurosci. 2015 Jul 29 - "Patients with systemic inflammatory diseases (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, chronic liver disease) commonly develop debilitating symptoms (i.e., sickness behaviors) that arise from changes in brain function. The microbiota-gut-brain axis alters brain function and probiotic ingestion can influence behavior ... This research shows that probiotics, when eaten, can improve the abnormal behaviors (including social withdrawal and immobility) that are commonly associated with inflammation. Probiotics are able to cause this effect within the body by changing how the immune system signals the brain to alter brain function. These findings broaden our understanding of how probiotics may beneficially affect brain function in the context of inflammation occurring within the body and may open potential new therapeutic alternatives for the treatment of these alterations in behavior that can greatly affect patient quality of life"
  • Supplementation with two probiotic strains, Lactobacillus curvatus HY7601 and Lactobacillus plantarum KY1032, reduces fasting triglycerides and enhances apolipoprotein A-V levels in non-diabetic subjects with hypertriglyceridemia - Atherosclerosis. 2015 Jun 18 - "After the treatment, the probiotic group showed an 18.3% (P < 0.001) reduction in TGs and increases of 21.1% (P = 0.001) and 15.6% (P < 0.001) in the apo A-V and LDL particle size, respectively. The probiotic group had a significant reduction in TGs (P = 0.040) and increases in the plasma apo A-V (P = 0.003) and LDL particle size (P < 0.001) compared with the placebo group"
  • Symbiotics in irritable bowel syndrome - better than probiotics alone? - Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2015 Jun 23 - "Probiotics appear to be beneficial in IBS. Data supporting the use of symbiotics is sparse. Whether symbiotics are superior to probiotics is unclear"
  • The triglyceride-lowering effect of supplementation with dual probiotic strains, Lactobacillus curvatus HY7601 and Lactobacillus plantarum KY1032: Reduction of fasting plasma lysophosphatidylcholines in nondiabetic and hypertriglyceridemic subjects - Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2015 May 14 - "After 12 weeks of treatment, the probiotic group displayed a 20% reduction (p = 0.001) in serum TGs and 25% increases (p=0.001) in apolipoprotein A-V (apoA-V). At the 12-week follow-up assessment, the following 11 plasma metabolites were significantly reduced in the probiotic group than the placebo group"
  • Probiotics as beneficial agents on the management of diabetes mellitus: a systematic review - Diabetes Metab Res Rev. 2015 May 11 - "We found that probiotics have beneficial effects on glycemic controls, as all human studies showed significant reductions in at least one of the primary outcome endpoints which were the levels of fasting plasma glucose, postprandial blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin, insulin, insulin resistance and onset of diabetes; similarly, all the animal reports, except for two, documented significant changes in these parameters"
  • The effects of probiotics on mental health and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in petrochemical workers - Nutr Neurosci. 2015 Apr 16 - "divided into three groups to receive 100 g/day probiotic yogurt + one placebo capsule (n = 25) or one probiotic capsule daily + 100 g/day conventional yogurt (n = 25) or 100 g/day conventional yogurt + one placebo capsule (n = 20) for 6 weeks. Mental health parameters including general health questionnaire (GHQ) and depression anxiety and stress scale (DASS) scores were measured ... After 6 weeks of intervention, a significant improvement of GHQ was observed in the probiotic yogurt (18.0 ± 1.5 vs. 13.5 ± 1.9, P = 0.007) and in the probiotic capsule group (16.9 ± 1.8 vs. 9.8 ± 1.9, P = 0.001), as well as a significant improvement in DASS scores in the probiotic yogurt (23.3 ± 3.7 vs. 13.0 ± 3.7, P = 0.02) and the probiotic capsule group (18.9 ± 3.2 vs. 9.4 ± 4.0, P = 0.006). However, there was no significant improvement in the conventional yogurt group (P = 0.05 for GHQ and P = 0.08 for DASS)"
  • Gut Dysbiosis Is Linked to Hypertension - Hypertension. 2015 Apr 13 - "These observations demonstrate that high blood pressure is associated with gut microbiota dysbiosis, both in animal and human hypertension. They suggest that dietary intervention to correct gut microbiota could be an innovative nutritional therapeutic strategy for hypertension"
  • People less focused on recurrent bad feelings when taking probiotics - Science Daily, 4/14/15 - "Rumination is one of the most predictive vulnerability markers of depression ... Compared to subjects who received the placebo intervention, participants who received the multispecies probiotics intervention showed significantly reduced ruminative thoughts ... Even if preliminary, these results provide the first evidence that the intake of probiotics may help reduce negative thoughts associated with sad mood. As such, our findings shed an interesting new light on the potential of probiotics"
  • Probiotic supplementation prevents high-fat, overfeeding-induced insulin resistance in human subjects - Br J Nutr. 2015 Jan 29:1-7 - "The purpose of the present study was to determine whether probiotic supplementation (Lactobacillus casei Shirota (LcS)) prevents diet-induced insulin resistance in human subjects. A total of seventeen healthy subjects were randomised to either a probiotic (n 8) or a control (n 9) group ... Glucose AUC values increased by 10 % (from 817 (se 45) to 899 (se 39) mmol/l per 120 min, P< 0.05) and whole-body insulin sensitivity decreased by 27 % (from 5.3 (se 1.4) to 3.9 (se 0.9), P< 0.05) in the control group, whereas normal insulin sensitivity was maintained in the probiotic group (4.4 (se 0.8) and 4.5 (se 0.9) before and after overeating, respectively (P>0.05). These results suggest that probiotic supplementation may be useful in the prevention of diet-induced metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes"
  • Bifidobacterium bifidum R0071 results in a greater proportion of healthy days and a lower percentage of academically stressed students reporting a day of cold/flu: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study - Br J Nutr. 2015 Jan 21:1-9 - "B. bifidum resulted in a greater proportion of healthy days than placebo (P≤ 0·05). The percentage of participants reporting ≥ 1 d of cold/flu during the 6-week intervention period was significantly lower with B. bifidum than with placebo (P< 0·05) ... The proportion of participants reporting a cold on any given day was lower at weeks 2 and 3 with B. bifidum and B. infantis than with placebo for the average level of stress and the most commonly reported number of hours of sleep. Daily intake of bifidobacteria provides benefit related to cold/flu outcomes during acute stress"
  • The Protective Effects Of Selenium-enriched Probiotics On Carbon Tetrachloride-induced Liver Fibrosis In Rats - J Agric Food Chem. 2014 Dec 16 - "Se-enriched probiotics (SP) ... SP significantly decreased serum alanine aminotransferase (48.2%), aspartate aminotransferase (26.8%), hepatic hydroxyproline (29.3%) and malondialdehyde (30.1%) levels" - See se-methyl l-selenocysteine at Amazon.com and probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • A systematic review and meta-analysis of the prebiotics and synbiotics effects on glycaemia, insulin concentrations and lipid parameters in adult patients with overweight or obesity - Clin Nutr. 2014 Oct 20 - "Thirteen trials, representing 513 adult participants with Body Mass Index ≥25 kg/m² were included. Prebiotic supplementation reduced plasma total cholesterol (SMD -0.25; 95% CI -0.48, -0.02) and LDL-c (SMD -0.22; 95% CI -0.44, -0.00) concentrations in overall analysis, and reduced triglycerides (SMD -0.72; 95% CI -1.20, -0.23) and increased HDL-c (SMD 0.49; 95% CI 0.01, 0.97) concentrations in diabetic trials. Synbiotic supplementation reduced plasma fasting insulin (SMD -0.39; 95% CI -0.75, -0.02) and triglycerides (SMD -0.43; 95% CI -0.70, -0.15) concentrations"
  • Impact of personalized diet and probiotic supplementation on inflammation, nutritional parameters and intestinal microbiota - The "RISTOMED project": Randomized controlled trial in healthy older people - Clin Nutr. 2014 Oct 8 - "Addition of VSL#3 increased bifidobacteria and supported adequate folate and vitamin B12 concentrations in subjects with low-grade inflammation. Decrease in homocysteine with VSL#3 was clinically relevant. suggesting protective potentials for aging-associated conditions, e.g. cardiovascular or neurological diseases"
  • Brain and liver fatty acid composition changes upon consumption of Lactobacillus rhamnosus LA68 - Int J Food Sci Nutr. 2014 Nov 28:1-5 - "This study was designed to test the effects of a particular Lactobacillus strain, Lactobacillus rhamnosus LA68 on fatty acid composition of the liver and the brain of C57BL/6 mice in the absence of an underlying pathological condition. Female mice were supplemented with live L. rhamnosus LA68 bacteria for the duration of 1 month ... Significant changes in liver and brain fatty acid composition were detected. In the liver tissue we detected an increase in palmitoleic acid (p = 0.038), while in the brain compartment we found an increase in palmitic (p = 0.042), stearic (p = 0.017), arachidonic acid (p = 0.009) and docosahexaenoic acid (p = 0.004) for control versus experimental group. These results show discrete changes caused by LA68 strain consumption. Even short duration of administration of LA68 influences the fatty acid composition of the host which adds to the existing knowledge about Lactobacillus host interaction, and adds to the growing knowledge of metabolic intervention possibilities"
  • Potential probiotic Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. lactis 420 prevents weight gain and glucose intolerance in diet-induced obese mice - Benef Microbes. 2014 Dec 1;5(4):437-45 - "Treatment with B. lactis 420 significantly decreased fat mass in obese (7.83 ± 0.67 g, P=0.007 compared to obese with vehicle) and diabetic mice (1.89 ± 0.16 g, P=0.02 for highest dose). This was reflected as reduced weight gain and improved glucose tolerance. Furthermore, B. lactis 420 decreased plasma lipopolysaccharide levels (P<0.001), liver inflammation (P=0.04), and E. coli adhesion in the distal gut (P<0.05)" - [Nutra USA] - See Bifidobacterium animalis products at Amazon.com.
  • A 10-Patient Case Study on the Influence of Two Different Probiotics on Individual Intestinal Microbiota - J Altern Complement Med. 2014 Sep 24 - "Ten outpatients were enrolled. Study A: Five patients took Lactobacillus buchneri (SU) for 4 weeks and mixed probiotics (NS) for the following 4 weeks. Study B: One year after study A, the other five patients took NS for 4 weeks at first and SU for the following 4 weeks ... Study A: Three of the five patients had a decreased percentage of beneficial bacteria (Lactobacillales, Bifidobacteria species) after taking SU ... All five patients had increased beneficial bacteria after taking NS" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Probiotics and vitamin C for the prevention of respiratory tract infections in children attending preschool: a randomised controlled pilot study - Eur J Clin Nutr. 2014 Sep 10 - "children aged 3-6 years, 57 received 1.25 × 1010 colony-forming units of Lactobacillus acidophilus CUL21 (NCIMB 30156), Lactobacillus acidophilus CUL60 (NCIMB 30157), Bifidobacterium bifidum CUL20 (NCIMB 30153) and Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis CUL34 (NCIMB 30172) plus 50 mg vitamin C or a placebo daily for 6 months.Results:Significant reductions in the incidence rate of upper respiratory tract infection (URTI; 33%, P=0.002), the number of days with URTI symptoms (mean difference: -21.0, 95% confidence interval (CI):-35.9, -6.0, P=0.006) and the incidence rate of absence from preschool (30%, P=0.007) were observed in the active group compared with the placebo. The number of days of use of antibiotics, painkillers, cough medicine or nasal sprays was lower in the active group and reached significance for use of cough medicine (mean difference: -6.6, 95% CI: -12.9, -0.3, P=0.040)" - [Nutra USA]
  • Consuming probiotics for a month helps diminish fat accumulation in the liver, according to a new study - Science Daily, 7/18/14 - "In this current study, the strains were administered during thirty days in the diet of Zucker rats ... the administration of probiotics led to an accumulation of lipids (most of them triacylglycerides) in the liver which was significantly lower than that occurring in rats fed with a placebo" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Effects of synbiotic supplementation on insulin resistance in subjects with the metabolic syndrome: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot study - Br J Nutr. 2014 May 22:1-8 - "placebo-controlled pilot study on thirty-eight subjects with the metabolic syndrome; they were supplemented with either synbiotic capsules containing 200 million of seven strains of friendly bacteria plus fructo-oligosaccharide or placebo capsules twice a day for 28 weeks ... After 28 weeks of treatment, the levels of fasting blood sugar and insulin resistance improved significantly in the G1 group" - See synbiotic products at Amazon.com, probiotic products at Amazon.com and fructo-oligosaccharide at Amazon.com.
  • Effectiveness of probiotics on the duration of illness in healthy children and adults who develop common acute respiratory infectious conditions: a systematic review and meta-analysis - Br J Nutr. 2014 Apr 29:1-14 - "Meta-analysis revealed significantly fewer numbers of days of illness per person (standardised mean difference (SMD) - 0.31 (95 % CI - 0.41, - 0.11), I 2= 3 %), shorter illness episodes by almost a day (weighted mean difference - 0.77 (95 % CI - 1.50, - 0.04), I 2= 80 %) (without an increase in the number of illness episodes), and fewer numbers of days absent from day care/school/work (SMD - 0.17 (95 % CI - 0.31, - 0.03), I 2= 67 %) in participants who received a probiotic intervention than in those who had taken a placebo"
  • Lactobacillus gasseri SBT2055 reduces postprandial and fasting serum non-esterified fatty acid levels in Japanese hypertriacylglycerolemic subjects - Lipids Health Dis. 2014 Feb 19;13(1):36 - "Lactobacillus gasseri SBT2055 (LG2055) inhibits dietary fat absorption in rats and exerts preventive effects on abdominal adiposity in rats and human ... non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA) ... The consumption of probiotic LG2055 reduced postprandial and fasting serum NEFA levels, suggesting its possible contribution to the reduction of the risk for obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus"
  • Synbiotic supplementation in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot study - Am J Clin Nutr. 2014 Jan 8 - "52 patients with NAFLD were supplemented twice daily for 28 wk with either a synbiotic or a placebo capsule ... Synbiotic supplementation in addition to lifestyle modification is superior to lifestyle modification alone for the treatment of NAFLD, at least partially through attenuation of inflammatory markers in the body" - See prebiotic supplements at Amazon.com and probiotic products at Amazon.com.
    • Synbiotics - Wikipedia - "Synbiotics refer to nutritional supplements combining probiotics and prebiotics in a form of synergism, hence synbiotics"
  • Effect of Lactobacillus rhamnosus CGMCC1.3724 supplementation on weight loss and maintenance in obese men and women - Br J Nutr. 2013 Dec 3:1-13 - "The present study investigated the impact of a Lactobacillus rhamnosus CGMCC1.3724 (LPR) supplementation on weight loss and maintenance in obese men and women over 24 weeks ... The intention-to-treat analysis showed that after the first 12 weeks and after 24 weeks, mean weight loss was not significantly different between the LPR and placebo groups when all the subjects were considered. However, a significant treatment × sex interaction was observed. The mean weight loss in women in the LPR group was significantly higher than that in women in the placebo group (P= 0.02) after the first 12 weeks, whereas it was similar in men in the two groups (P= 0.53). Women in the LPR group continued to lose body weight and fat mass during the weight-maintenance period, whereas opposite changes were observed in the placebo group. Changes in body weight and fat mass during the weight-maintenance period were similar in men in both the groups. LPR-induced weight loss in women was associated not only with significant reductions in fat mass and circulating leptin concentrations but also with the relative abundance of bacteria of the Lachnospiraceae family in faeces. The present study shows that the Lactobacillus rhamnosus CGMCC1.3724 formulation helps obese women to achieve sustainable weight loss" - See Garden of Life, Primal Defense at Amazon.com which includes Lactobacillus rhamnosus.
  • Probiotic supplementation for respiratory and gastrointestinal illness symptoms in healthy physically active individuals - Clin Nutr. 2013 Oct 10 - "Four hundred and sixty five participants (241 males; age 35 ± 12 y (mean ± SD) and 224 females; age 36 ± 12 y) were assigned to one of three groups: Group 1 - Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis Bl-04 (Bl-04) 2.0 × 109colony forming units per day, CFU per day, Group 2 - Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM and Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis Bi-07 (NCFM & Bi-07) 5 × 109 CFU each per day) or Group 3 - placebo mixed in a drink ... The risk of an upper respiratory illness episode was significantly lower in the Bl-04 group (hazard ratio 0.73; 95% confidence interval 0.55-0.95; P = 0.022) compared to placebo. There was no significant difference in illness risk between the NCFM & Bi-07 group (hazard ratio 0.81; 0.62-1.08; P = 0.15) and the placebo group. There was a 0.7 and 0.9 month delay in the median time to an illness episode in the Bl-04 and NCFM & Bi-07 groups respectively compared to placebo (placebo 2.5 months; Bl-04 3.2 months; NCFM & Bi-07 3.4 months). There were insufficient GI illness episodes for analysis" - See Bifidobacterium animalis products at iHerb.
    • Activia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - "Activia products thus contain Bifidobacterium animalis DN 173,010, a proprietary strain of Bifidobacterium, a probiotic which is marketed by Dannon under the trade names Bifidus Regularis, Bifidus Actiregularis, Bifidus Digestivum and Bifidobacterium Lactis" - See my yogurt recipe which is made with Activia on my yogurt page.
  • Probiotics determine hypolipidemic and antioxidant effects in hyperlipidemic hamsters - Mol Nutr Food Res. 2013 - "probiotic mix (Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium animalis) ... Male Golden Syrian hamsters developed hyperlipidemia after 21 weeks of fat diet. For the last 5 weeks of experiment, ten HL were treated with the probiotic mix (HLP), ten received water (HL). Ten animals received standard chow (N). Increase of plasma total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), phospholipids (PL), oxidized LDL, glucose, of 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE) in plasma, liver, and myocardium, and of intestinal Niemann Pick C1 like 1 (NPC1L1) and microsomal TG transfer protein (MTTP) expression was observed in HL versus N. The probiotic mix decreased plasma TC, TG, PL, oxidized LDL, 4-HNE, and glucose levels and increased paraoxonase-1 activity, decreased NPC1L1 and MTTP protein expression compared to HL. In HLP liver, a significant reduction of TC, TG, and fatty acids was observed. PL increased and 4-HNE levels decreased in the liver and myocardium of HLP versus HL"
  • Oral Lactobacillus reuteri GMN-32 treatment reduces blood glucose concentrations and promotes cardiac function in rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetes mellitus - Br J Nutr. 2013 Sep 4:1-8 - "diabetic cardiomyopathy (DC) ... In conclusion, the administration of L. reuteri GMN-32 probiotics can regulate blood glucose levels, protect cardiomyocytes and prevent DC in DM rats" - See Garden of Life, Primal Defense at Amazon.com.
  • Effect of probiotic fermented milk on blood pressure: a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials - Br J Nutr. 2013 Jul 3:1-7 - "PubMed, Cochrane library and the ClinicalTrials.gov databases were searched up to March 2012 to identify eligible studies ... probiotic fermented milk, compared with placebo, produced a significant reduction of 3.10 mmHg (95 % CI - 4.64, - 1.56) in systolic BP and 1.09 mmHg (95 % CI - 2.11, - 0.06) in diastolic BP. Subgroup analyses suggested a slightly greater effect on systolic BP in hypertensive participants than in normotensive ones ( - 3.98 v. - 2.09 mmHg). Analysis of trials conducted in Japan showed a greater reduction than those conducted in European countries for both systolic BP ( - 6.12 v. - 2.08 mmHg) and diastolic BP ( - 3.45 v. - 0.52 mmHg)"
  • Effects of synbiotic food consumption on metabolic status of diabetic patients: A double-blind randomized cross-over controlled clinical trial - Clin Nutr. 2013 Jun 7 - "This randomized double-blinded cross-over controlled clinical trial was performed among 62 diabetic patients aged 35-70 y. After a 2-wk run-in period, subjects were randomly assigned to consume either a synbiotic (n = 62) or control food (n = 62) for 6 weeks ... The synbiotic food consisted of a probiotic viable and heat-resistant Lactobacillus sporogenes (1 × 107 CFU), 0.04 g inulin (HPX) as prebiotic with 0.38 g isomalt, 0.36 g sorbitol and 0.05 g stevia as sweetener per 1 g. Control food (the same substance without probiotic bacteria and prebiotic inulin) was packed in identical 9-gram packages. Patients were asked to consume the synbiotic and control foods three times a day ... In conclusion, consumption of a synbiotic food for 6 weeks among diabetic patients had significant effects on serum insulin, hs-CRP, uric acid and plasma total GSH levels" - Note:  I not sure whether they are talking about probiotic supplements added to the food or something like yogurt.  See probiotic products at Amazon.com and my yogurt recipe at the top of my Yogurt Page.
  • Effect of Lactobacillus gasseri SBT2055 in fermented milk on abdominal adiposity in adults in a randomised controlled trial - Br J Nutr. 2013 Apr 25:1-8 - "Lactobacillus gasseri SBT2055 (LG2055) ... A multi-centre, double-blind, parallel-group RCT was conducted using 210 healthy Japanese adults with large visceral fat areas ... These findings demonstrate that consumption of LG2055 at doses as low as the order of 108cfu/d exhibited a significant lowering effect on abdominal adiposity, and suggest that constant consumption might be needed to maintain the effect"
  • Lactobacilli versus antibiotics to prevent urinary tract infections: a randomized, double-blind, noninferiority trial in postmenopausal women - Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 2013;157(7):A5674 - "In postmenopausal women with recurrent UTIs, L. rhamnosus GR-1 and L. reuteri RC-14 do not meet the noninferiority criteria in the prevention of UTIs when compared with CTX. However, unlike CTX, lactobacilli do not increase antibiotic resistance"
  • Attenuation of post-myocardial infarction depression in rats by n-3 fatty acids or probiotics starting after the onset of reperfusion - Br J Nutr. 2012 Oct 15:1-7 - "Proinflammatory cytokines play a central role in depression-like behaviour and apoptosis in the limbic system after myocardial infarction (MI). A PUFA n-3 diet or the combination of Lactobacillus helveticus R0052 and Bifidobacterium longum R0175 probiotics, when given before the ischaemic period, reduce circulating proinflammatory cytokines as well as apoptosis in the limbic system ... These results indicate that a high-PUFA n-3 diet or the administration of probiotics, starting after the onset of reperfusion, are beneficial to attenuate apoptosis in the limbic system and post-MI depression in the rat" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com and probiotic products at Amazon.com.
  • Effect of Lactobacillus rhamnosus LGG® and Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. lactis BB-12® on health-related quality of life in college students affected by upper respiratory infections - Br J Nutr. 2012 Oct 1:1-9 - "College students are susceptible to upper respiratory infections (URI) due to inadequate sleep, stress and close living quarters. Certain probiotic strains modulate immune function and may improve health-related quality of life (HRQL) during URI ... randomised to receive placebo (n 117) or probiotic-containing powder (daily dose of minimum 1 billion colony-forming units of each Lactobacillus rhamnosus LGG® (LGG®) and Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. lactis BB-12® (BB-12®); n 114) for 12 weeks ... The median duration of URI was significantly shorter by 2 d and median severity score was significantly lower by 34 % with probiotics v. placebo (P < 0.001), indicating a higher HRQL during URI. Number of missed work days was not different between groups (P = 0.429); however, the probiotics group missed significantly fewer school days (mean difference = 0.2 d) compared to the placebo group (P = 0.002). LGG® and BB-12® may be beneficial among college students with URI for mitigating decrements in HRQL"
  • Immunoprotective effects of oral intake of heat-killed Lactobacillus pentosus strain b240 in elderly adults: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial - Br J Nutr. 2012 Sep 5:1-10 - "Oral intake of Lactobacillus pentosus strain b240 (b240) has been shown to enhance the secretion of salivary secretory IgA in elderly adults ... 300 eligible elderly adults were randomly allocated to one of three groups, namely a placebo, low-dose or high-dose b240 group. Participants in the low-dose and high-dose b240 groups were given tablets containing 2 × 109 or 2 × 1010 cells, respectively, of heat-killed b240, while those in the placebo group were given tablets without b240. Each group consumed their respective tablets once daily for 20 weeks ... The accumulated incidence rate of the common cold was 47.3, 34.8 and 29.0 % for the placebo, low-dose b240 and high-dose b240 groups, respectively (P for trend = 0.012). Lower incidence rates were consistently observed throughout the experimental period in the b240 groups (log-rank test, P = 0.034). General health perception, as determined by the SF-36®, dose-dependently increased in the b240 groups (P for trend = 0.016). In conclusion, oral intake of b240 significantly reduced the incidence rate of the common cold in elderly adults, indicating that b240 might be useful in improving resistance against infection through mucosal immunity" - Note:  I calculate that as a 39% reduction in colds [(47.3 - 29)/47.3] = .39
  • Effect of the consumption of a new symbiotic shake on glycemia and cholesterol levels in elderly people with type 2 diabetes mellitus - Lipids Health Dis. 2012 Feb 22;11:29 - "A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was conducted on twenty volunteers (ten for placebo group and ten for symbiotic group), aged 50 to 60 years ... Over a total test period of 30 days, 10 individuals (the symbiotic group) consumed a daily dose of 200 mL of a symbiotic shake containing 10(8) UFC/mL Lactobacillus acidophilus, 10(8) UFC/mL Bifidobacterium bifidum and 2 g oligofructose, while 10 other volunteers (the placebo group) drank daily the same amount of a shake that did not contain any symbiotic bacteria ... The results of the symbiotic group showed a non-significant reduction (P > 0.05) in total cholesterol and triglycerides, a significant increase (P < 0.05) in HDL cholesterol and a significant reduction (P < 0.05) in fasting glycemia. No significant changes were observed in the placebo group"
  • Lactobacilli vs Antibiotics to Prevent Urinary Tract Infections: A Randomized, Double-blind, Noninferiority Trial in Postmenopausal Women - Arch Intern Med. 2012 May 14;172(9):704-12 - "Growing antibiotic resistance warrants studying nonantibiotic prophylaxis for recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs). Use of lactobacilli appears to be promising ... Between January 2005 and August 2007, we randomized 252 postmenopausal women with recurrent UTIs taking part in a double-blind noninferiority trial to receive 12 months of prophylaxis with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, 480 mg, once daily or oral capsules containing 109 colony-forming units of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 and Lactobacillus reuteri RC-14 twice daily ...The mean number of symptomatic UTIs in the year preceding randomization was 7.0 in the trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole group and 6.8 in the lactobacilli group. In the intention-to-treat analysis, after 12 months of prophylaxis, these numbers were 2.9 and 3.3, respectively. The between-treatment difference of 0.4 UTIs per year (95% CI, -0.4 to 1.5) was outside our noninferiority margin. At least 1 symptomatic UTI occurred in 69.3% and 79.1% of the trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and lactobacilli participants, respectively; median times to the first UTI were 6 and 3 months, respectively. After 1 month of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole prophylaxis, resistance to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim, and amoxicillin had increased from approximately 20% to 40% to approximately 80% to 95% in E coli from the feces and urine of asymptomatic women and among E coli causing a UTI. During the 3 months after trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole discontinuation, resistance levels gradually decreased. Resistance did not increase during lactobacilli prophylaxis. CONCLUSIONS In postmenopausal women with recurrent UTIs, L rhamnosus GR-1 and L reuteri RC-14 do not meet the noninferiority criteria in the prevention of UTIs when compared with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. However, unlike trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, lactobacilli do not increase antibiotic resistance" - See lactobacillus products at iHerb.
  • Preoperative Probiotics Decrease Postoperative Infectious Complications of Colorectal Cancer - Am J Med Sci. 2011 Dec 23 - "The preoperative oral bifid triple viable probiotics minimize the postoperative occurrence of infectious complications, with possible mechanisms attributed to the maintenance of the intestinal flora and restriction of bacterial translocation from the intestine. It was representative of the enhancement of systemic/localized immunity and concurrent attenuation of systemic stress response"
  • Cholesterol-lowering efficacy of a microencapsulated bile salt hydrolase-active Lactobacillus reuteri NCIMB 30242 yoghurt formulation in hypercholesterolaemic adults - Br J Nutr. 2011 Nov 9:1-9 - "Over the intervention period, subjects consuming yoghurts containing microencapsulated L. reuteri NCIMB 30242 attained significant reductions in LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) of 8.92 % (P = 0.016), total cholesterol (TC) of 4.81 % (P = 0.031) and non-HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) of 6.01 % (P = 0.029) over placebo, and a significant absolute change in apoB-100 of - 0.19 mmol/l (P = 0.049). Serum concentrations of TAG and HDL-C were unchanged over the course of the study. Present results show that consumption of microencapsulated BSH-active L. reuteri NCIMB 30242 yoghurt is efficacious and safe for lowering LDL-C, TC, apoB-100 and non-HDL-C in hypercholesterolaemic subjects. The efficacy of microencapsulated BSH-active L. reuteri NCIMB 30242 yoghurts appears to be superior to traditional probiotic therapy and akin to that of other cholesterol-lowering ingredients"
  • Comparative effects of six probiotic strains on immune function in vitro - Br J Nutr. 2011 Nov 7:1-12 - "The present study compared the immunomodulatory properties of six probiotic strains of different species and two genera in a human peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) model in vitro. Live cells of lactobacilli (Lactobacillus casei Shirota, L. rhamnosus GG, L. plantarum NCIMB 8826 and L. reuteri NCIMB 11951) and bifidobacteria (Bifidobacterium longum SP 07/3 and B. bifidum MF 20/5) were individually incubated with PBMC from seven healthy subjects for 24 h. Probiotic strains increased the proportion of CD69+ on lymphocytes, T cells, T cell subsets and natural killer (NK) cells, and increased the proportion of CD25+, mainly on lymphocytes and NK cells. The effects on activation marker expression did not appear to be strain specific. NK cell activity was significantly increased by all six strains, without any significant difference between strains. Probiotic strains increased production of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and macrophage inflammatory protein 1α to different extents, but had no effect on the production of IL-2, IL-4, IL-5 or TNF-β. The cytokines that showed strain-specific modulation included IL-10, interferon-γ, TNF-α, IL-12p70, IL-6 and monocyte chemotactic protein-1. The Lactobacillus strains tended to promote T helper 1 cytokines, whereas bifidobacterial strains tended to produce a more anti-inflammatory profile. The results suggest that there was limited evidence of strain-specific effects of probiotics with respect to T cell and NK cell activation or NK cell activity, whereas production of some cytokines was differentially influenced by probiotic strains"
  • Lactobacillus gasseri suppresses Th17 pro-inflammatory response and attenuates allergen-induced airway inflammation in a mouse model of allergic asthma - Br J Nutr. 2011 Oct 14:1-10 - "Our results showed that oral administration of a high dose of L. gasseri (4 × 106 CFU) decreased airway responsiveness to methacholine, attenuated the influx of inflammatory cells to the airways and reduced the levels of TNF-α, thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC) and IL-17A in BAL fluids of Der p-sensitised and -challenged mice. Moreover, L. gasseri decreased IL-17A production in transforming growth factor-α and IL-6 stimulated splenocytes and cell numbers of IL-17 producing alveolar macrophages in L. gasseri-treated mice as compared to non-treated, Der p-sensitised and -challenged mice. In conclusion, oral administration with L. gasseri can attenuate major characteristics of allergen-induced airway inflammation and IL-17 pro-inflammatory immune response in a mouse model of allergic asthma, which may have clinical implication in the preventive or therapeutic potential in allergic asthma"
  • Oral inoculation of probiotics Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM suppresses tumour growth both in segmental orthotopic colon cancer and extra-intestinal tissue - Br J Nutr. 2011 Sep 30:1-12 - "Modulation of the cellular response by the administration of probiotic bacteria may be an effective strategy for preventing or inhibiting tumour growth. We orally pre-inoculated mice with probiotics Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM (La) for 14 d. Subcutaneous dorsal-flank tumours and segmental orthotopic colon cancers were implanted into mice using CT-26 murine colon adenocarcinoma cells. On day 28 after tumour initiation, the lamina propria of the colon, mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN) and spleen were harvested and purified for flow cytometry and mRNA analyses. We demonstrated that La pre-inoculation reduced tumour volume growth by 50.3 %, compared with untreated mice at 28 d after tumour implants (2465.5 (sem 1290.4) v. 4950.9 (sem 1689.3) mm3, P < 0.001)"
  • Evaluation of the immune benefits of two probiotic strains Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. lactis, BB-12® and Lactobacillus paracasei ssp. paracasei, L. casei 431® in an influenza vaccination model: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study - Br J Nutr. 2011 Sep 7:1-9 - "The present study investigated the ability of Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. lactis (BB-12®) and Lactobacillus paracasei ssp. paracasei (L. casei 431®) to modulate the immune system using a vaccination model in healthy subjects. A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study was conducted in 211 subjects (56 % females, mean age 33.2 (sd 13.1) years). Subjects consumed a minimum of 109 colony-forming units of BB-12® (capsule) or L. casei 431® (dairy drink) or a matching placebo once daily for 6 weeks. After 2 weeks, a seasonal influenza vaccination was given. Plasma and saliva samples were collected at baseline and after 6 weeks for the analysis of antibodies, cytokines and innate immune parameters. Changes from baseline in vaccine-specific plasma IgG, IgG1 and IgG3 were significantly greater in both probiotic groups v. the corresponding placebo group (L. casei 431®, P = 0.01 for IgG; P < 0.001 for remaining comparisons). The number of subjects obtaining a substantial increase in specific IgG (defined as ≥ 2-fold above baseline) was significantly greater in both probiotic groups v. placebo (BB-12®, P < 0.001 for IgG, IgG1 and IgG3; L. casei 431®, P < 0.001 for IgG1 and IgG3). Significantly greater mean fold increases for vaccine-specific secretory IgA in saliva were observed in both probiotic groups v. placebo (BB-12®, P = 0.017; L. casei 431®, P = 0.035). Similar results were observed for total antibody concentrations. No differences were found for plasma cytokines or innate immune parameters. Data herein show that supplementation with BB-12® or L. casei 431® may be an effective means to improve immune function by augmenting systemic and mucosal immune responses to challenge"
  • Probiotics and prebiotics in the management of irritable bowel syndrome: a review of recent clinical trials and systematic reviews - Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2011 Sep 1 - "Most systematic reviews indicate that probiotics have a beneficial impact on global IBS symptoms, abdominal pain and flatulence. However, recent trials indicate that different probiotics can improve, have no effect, or even worsen symptoms, confirming that benefits are likely to be strain and symptom-specific. There are no recent clinical trials of prebiotics in IBS, although previous studies indicate potential benefit at lower doses ... Clearly, some probiotics have considerable potential in the management of IBS; however, the benefits are likely to be strain-specific. Preliminary studies suggest low doses of prebiotics may improve symptoms of IBS, although further robust clinical trials are required"
  • Is Bifidobacterium breve effective in the treatment of childhood constipation? Results from a pilot study - Nutr J. 2011 Feb 23;10(1):19 - "Probiotics are increasingly used in the treatment of functional gastrointestinal disorders. Studies in constipated adults with a Bifidus yoghurt (containing Bifidobacterium breve, Bifidobacterium bifidum and Lactobacillus acidophilus) showed a significant increase in defecation frequency ... The defecation frequency per week significantly increased from 0.9 (0-2) at baseline to 4.9 (0-21) in week 4 (p< 0.01). The mean stool consistency score increased from 2.6 (2-4) at baseline to 3.5 (1-6) in week 4 (p = 0.03). The number of faecal incontinence episodes per week significantly decreased from 9.0 (0-35) at baseline to 1.5 (0-7) in week 4 (p <0.01). Abdominal pain episodes per week significantly decreased from 4.2 (0-7) at baseline to 1.9 (0-7) in week 4 (p = 0.01). No side effects occurred" - See Bifidobacterium breve products at iHerb.
  • Fermented milk containing Lactobacillus casei strain Shirota reduces incidence of hard or lumpy stools in healthy population - Int J Food Sci Nutr. 2011 Feb 15 - "Healthy subjects with Bristol Stool Form Scale (BS) score < 3.0 were randomized to fermented milk treatment for 3 weeks or non-intervention control. The primary endpoint was the proportion of subjects that produced hard or lumpy stools (HLS) ≥ 25% of bowel movements (H-HLS). Secondary endpoints included changes in BS score, constipation-related symptom scores and stool parameters. Efficacy was analyzed in 39 subjects. After 3 weeks of treatment the proportion of H-HLS subjects had significantly decreased from 73.7% to 36.8%, whereas in the control group the proportion had increased from 75.0% to 85.0% during the same period (P = 0.002). The BS score was significantly improved after the treatment compared with the control (P < 0.001). In conclusion, daily consumption of fermented milk containing LcS reduced the incidence of HLS" - See Garden of Life, Primal Defense, HSO Probiotic Formula, 180 + 36 = 216 Caplets at iHerb which includes the Lactobacillus casei strain.
  • Synbiotics prevent asthma-like symptoms in infants with atopic dermatitis - Allergy. 2011 Feb;66(2):170-177 - "The prevalence of 'frequent wheezing' and 'wheezing and/or noisy breathing apart from colds' was significantly lower in the synbiotic than in the placebo group (13.9%vs 34.2%, absolute risk reduction (ARR) -20.3%, 95% CI -39.2% to -1.5%, and 2.8%vs 30.8%, ARR -28.0%, 95% CI -43.3% to -12.5%, respectively). Significantly less children in the synbiotic than in the placebo group had started to use asthma medication after baseline (5.6%vs 25.6%, ARR -20.1%, 95% CI -35.7% to -4.5%)" - See synbiotic products at iHerb.
  • Assessment of psychotropic-like properties of a probiotic formulation ( Lactobacillus helveticus R0052 and Bifidobacterium longum R0175) in rats and human subjects - Br J Nutr. 2010 Oct 26:1-9 - "In the preclinical study, rats were daily administered PF for 2 weeks and subsequently tested in the conditioned defensive burying test, a screening model for anti-anxiety agents. In the clinical trial, volunteers participated in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised parallel group study with PF administered for 30 d and assessed with the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL-90), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Perceived Stress Scale, the Coping Checklist (CCL) and 24 h urinary free cortisol (UFC). Daily subchronic administration of PF significantly reduced anxiety-like behaviour in rats (P < 0.05) and alleviated psychological distress in volunteers, as measured particularly by the HSCL-90 scale (global severity index, P < 0.05; somatisation, P < 0.05; depression, P < 0.05; and anger-hostility, P < 0.05), the HADS (HADS global score, P < 0.05; and HADS-anxiety, P < 0.06), and by the CCL (problem solving, P < 0.05) and the UFC level (P < 0.05). L. helveticus R0052 and B. longum R0175 taken in combination display anxiolytic-like activity in rats and beneficial psychological effects in healthy human volunteers" - Note, in case you missed it, it's saying that it also reduced cortisol.
  • The colonic microflora and probiotic therapy in health and disease - Curr Opin Gastroenterol. 2010 Oct 1 - "Reciprocal signalling between the immune system and the microbiota plays a pivotal role in linking alterations in gut microbiota with risk of metabolic disease in the host, notably insulin resistance, obesity, and chronic low-grade inflammation. Loss of ancestral indigenous organisms consequent upon a modern lifestyle may contribute to an increased frequency of various metabolic and immuno-allergic diseases. The potential to address this underpins the science of pharmabiotics"
  • Prebiotic effects: metabolic and health benefits - Br J Nutr. 2010 Aug;104(S2):S1-S63 - "Numerous experimental studies have reported reduction in incidence of tumours and cancers after feeding specific food products with a prebiotic effect. Some of these studies (including one human trial) have also reported that, in such conditions, gut microbiota composition was modified (especially due to increased concentration of bifidobacteria). Dietary intake of particular food products with a prebiotic effect has been shown, especially in adolescents, but also tentatively in postmenopausal women, to increase Ca absorption as well as bone Ca accretion and bone mineral density. Recent data, both from experimental models and from human studies, support the beneficial effects of particular food products with prebiotic properties on energy homaeostasis, satiety regulation and body weight gain. Together, with data in obese animals and patients, these studies support the hypothesis that gut microbiota composition (especially the number of bifidobacteria) may contribute to modulate metabolic processes associated with syndrome X, especially obesity and diabetes type 2. It is plausible, even though not exclusive, that these effects are linked to the microbiota-induced changes and it is feasible to conclude that their mechanisms fit into the prebiotic effect. However, the role of such changes in these health benefits remains to be definitively proven. As a result of the research activity that followed the publication of the prebiotic concept 15 years ago, it has become clear that products that cause a selective modification in the gut microbiota's composition and/or activity(ies) and thus strengthens normobiosis could either induce beneficial physiological effects in the colon and also in extra-intestinal compartments or contribute towards reducing the risk of dysbiosis and associated intestinal and systemic pathologies" - See probiotics at Amazon.com.
  • Randomised, double-blind and placebo-controlled study using new probiotic lactobacilli for strengthening the body immune defence against viral infections - Eur J Nutr. 2010 Aug 28 - "The incidence of acquiring one or more common cold episode was reduced from 67% in the control group to 55% in the probiotic group (p < 0.05). Also, the number of days with common cold symptoms were significantly (p < 0.05) reduced from 8.6 days in the control group to 6.2 days, in the probiotic group, during the 12-week period. The total symptom score was reduced during the study period from a mean of 44.4 for the control group to 33.6 for the probiotic group. The reduction in pharyngeal symptoms was significant (p < 0.05). In addition, the proliferation of B lymphocytes was significantly counteracted in the probiotic group (p < 0.05) in comparison with the control group"
  • Pilot study of probiotic dietary supplementation for promoting healthy kidney function in patients with chronic kidney disease - Adv Ther. 2010 Aug 16 - "Oral ingestion of probiotics (90 billion colony forming units [CFUs]/day) was well tolerated and safe during the entire trial period at all sites. BUN levels decreased in 29 patients (63%, P<0.05), creatinine levels decreased in 20 patients (43%, no statistical significance), and uric acid levels decreased in 15 patients (33%, no statistical significance). Almost all subjects expressed a perceived substantial overall improvement in QOL (86%, P<0.05)"
  • The Use of Probiotics in Healthy Volunteers With Evacuation Disorders and Hard Stools: A Double-blind, Randomized, Placebo-controlled Study - J Clin Gastroenterol. 2010 Aug 6 - "Subjects treated with the mixed probiotic strains L. plantarum LP01 and B. breve BR03 or B. animalis subsp. lactis BS01 reported a significant improvement in the number of weekly bowel movements and in the main troubles associated with evacuations, particularly consistency of feces and ease of expulsion. Discomfort items such as abdominal bloating and anal itching, burning, or pain also registered a relevant improvement in the active groups receiving probiotics"
  • Impact of maternal probiotic-supplemented dietary counselling on pregnancy outcome and prenatal and postnatal growth: a double-blind, placebo-controlled study - Br J Nutr. 2010 Jun;103(12):1792-9 - "Firstly, probiotic intervention reduced the frequency of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM); 13 % (diet/probiotics) v. 36 % (diet/placebo) and 34 % (control); P = 0.003. Secondly, the safety of this approach was attested by normal duration of pregnancies with no adverse events in mothers or children. No significant differences in prenatal or postnatal growth rates among the study groups were detected. Thirdly, distinctive effects of the two interventions were detected; probiotic intervention reduced the risk of GDM and dietary intervention diminished the risk of larger birth size in affected cases; P = 0.035 for birth weight and P = 0.028 for birth length. The results of the present study show that probiotic-supplemented perinatal dietary counselling could be a safe and cost-effective tool in addressing the metabolic epidemic. In view of the fact that birth size is a risk marker for later obesity, the present results are of significance for public health in demonstrating that this risk is modifiable"
  • Clinical evidence of skin benefits of a dietary supplement containing probiotic and carotenoids on UV- induced damage - Br J Dermatol. 2010 Jun 9 - "Lactobacillus johnsonii (La1) ... dietary supplement (DS) combining La1 and nutritional doses of carotenoids ... A 10 week DS intake prevented the UV-DL induced decrease in Langerhans cell density and the increase in Factor XIIIa+ type I dermal dendrocytes while it reduced dermal inflammatory cells. Clinical and instrumental MED rose by 20% and 19% respectively, and skin colour was intensified, as shown by the increase in DeltaE parameter. The efficacy of DS was confirmed by dermatologists and subjects in real conditions of use. Conclusion: Nutritional supplementation combining a specific probiotic (la1) and nutritional doses of carotenoids reduced early UV-induced skin damage caused by simulated or natural sun exposure in a large panel of subjects (n=139). Altogether, these results support the use of this nutritional supplement for a global approach in photoprotection, in combination with a sunscreen" - See probiotics at Amazon.comand Jarrow Formulas, CarotenALL, Mixed Carotenoid Complex at Amazon.com.
  • Regulation of abdominal adiposity by probiotics (Lactobacillus gasseri SBT2055) in adults with obese tendencies in a randomized controlled trial - Eur J Clin Nutr. 2010 Jun;64(6):636-43 - "fermented milk (FM) ... In the active FM group, abdominal visceral and subcutaneous fat areas significantly (P<0.01) decreased from baseline by an average of 4.6% (mean (confidence interval): -5.8 (-10.0, -1.7) cm(2)) and 3.3% (-7.4 (-11.6, -3.1) cm(2)), respectively. Body weight and other measures also decreased significantly (P<0.001) as follows: body weight, 1.4% (-1.1 (-1.5, -0.7) kg); BMI, 1.5% (-0.4 (-0.5, -0.2) kg/m(2)); waist, 1.8% (-1.7 (-2.1, -1.4) cm); hip, 1.5% (-1.5 (-1.8, -1.1) cm). In the control group, by contrast, none of these parameters decreased significantly. High-molecular weight adiponectin in serum increased significantly (P<0.01) in the active and control groups by 12.7% (0.17 (0.07, 0.26) microg/ml) and 13.6% (0.23 (0.07, 0.38) microg/ml), respectively. CONCLUSION: The probiotic LG2055 showed lowering effects on abdominal adiposity, body weight and other measures, suggesting its beneficial influence on metabolic disorders"
  • Reducing the risk of infection in the elderly by dietary intake of yoghurt fermented with Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus OLL1073R-1 - Br J Nutr. 2010 May 21:1-9 - "90 g yoghurt or drink 100 ml milk once per d over an 8- or 12-week period. A meta-analysis of the results of these two independent studies showed the risk of catching the common cold was about 2.6 times lower (OR 0.39; P = 0.019) in the yoghurt group than in the milk group and the increase of natural killer cell activity was significantly higher in the yoghurt group than in the milk group" - See Yogourmet Electric Yogurt Maker at Amazon.com.
  • The influence of a probiotic milk drink on the development of gingivitis: a pilot study - J Clin Periodontol. 2009 Oct;36(10):850-6 - "Interproximal PI and papillary bleeding were not different between the groups. In the test group, elastase activity and MMP-3 amount were significantly lower after the intake of the probiotic milk drink (p<0.001 and 0.016). There was a significant increase of MPO activity in the control group; both groups were different at the end of the study (p=0.014). CONCLUSIONS: The data suggest a beneficial effect of the probiotic milk drink on gingival inflammation"
  • Probiotic Effects on Cold and Influenza-Like Symptom Incidence and Duration in Children - PEDIATRICS Vol. 124 No. 2 August 2009, pp. e172-e179 - "Relative to the placebo group, single and combination probiotics reduced fever incidence by 53.0% (P = .0085) and 72.7% (P = .0009), coughing incidence by 41.4% (P = .027) and 62.1% (P = .005), and rhinorrhea incidence by 28.2% (P = .68) and 58.8% (P = .03), respectively. Fever, coughing, and rhinorrhea duration was decreased significantly, relative to placebo, by 32%"
  • The effects of selected probiotic strains on the development of eczema (the PandA study) - Allergy. 2009 Apr 9 - "This particular combination of probiotic bacteria shows a preventive effect on the incidence of eczema in high-risk children, which seems to be sustained during the first 2 years of life. In addition to previous studies, the preventive effect appears to be established within the first 3 months of life"
  • Epigallocatechin-3-gallate inhibits IL-6 synthesis and suppresses transsignaling by enhancing soluble gp130 production - Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Sep 16 - "Results from in vivo studies using a rat adjuvant-induced arthritis model showed specific inhibition of IL-6 levels in the serum and joints of EGCG-treated rats by 28% and 40%, respectively, with concomitant amelioration of rat adjuvant-induced arthritis. We also observed a marked decrease in membrane-bound gp130 protein expression in the joint homogenates of the EGCG-treated group. In contrast, quantitative RT-PCR showed that the gp130/IL-6Ralpha mRNA ratio increased by approximately 2-fold, suggesting a possible mechanism of sgp130 activation by EGCG. Gelatin zymography results showed EGCG inhibits IL-6/soluble IL-6R-induced matrix metalloproteinase-2 activity in RA synovial fibroblasts and in joint homogenates, possibly via up-regulation of sgp130 synthesis. The results of these studies provide previously undescribed evidence of IL-6 synthesis and transsignaling inhibition by EGCG with a unique mechanism of sgp130 up-regulation, and thus hold promise as a potential therapeutic agent for RA" - [Nutra USA]
  • Oral delivery of Lactobacillus casei Shirota modifies allergen-induced immune responses in allergic rhinitis - Clin Exp Allergy. 2008 May 28 - "Lactobacillus casei Shirota (LcS) ... Volunteers treated with LcS showed a significant reduction in levels of antigen-induced IL-5, IL-6 and IFN-gamma production compared with volunteers supplemented with placebo. Meanwhile, levels of specific IgG increased and IgE decreased in the probiotic group"
  • Efficacy of Probiotics in Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized, Controlled Trials - Dis Colon Rectum. 2008 May 9 - "Pooling of eight trials for the outcome of clinical improvement yielded a significant relative risk of 1.22 ... Probiotics may improve symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome and can be used as supplement to standard therapy"
  • Probiotic, as well as conventional yogurt, can enhance the stimulated production of proinflammatory cytokines - J Hum Nutr Diet. 2007 Dec;20(6):590-598 - "Both conventional and probiotic yogurt enhanced the stimulated production of pro-inflammatory cytokines"
  • Anti-ageing effect of a lactococcal strain: analysis using senescence-accelerated mice - Br J Nutr. 2007 Jul 9;:1-9 - "Oral administration of heat-killed Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris H61 (strain H61) to aged SAMP6 mice was associated with reduced bone density loss, a suppression of incidence of skin ulcers and reduced hair loss, compared with controls"
  • Major depressive disorder: probiotics may be an adjuvant therapy - Med Hypotheses. 2005;64(3):533-8 - "Stress, a significant factor in MDD [major depressive disorder], is known to alter GI microflora, lowering levels of lactobacilli and bifidobacterium. Research suggests that bacteria in the GI tract can communicate with the central nervous system, even in the absence of an immune response. Probiotics have the potential to lower systemic inflammatory cytokines, decrease oxidative stress, improve nutritional status, and correct SIBO. The effect of probiotics on systemic inflammatory cytokines and oxidative stress may ultimately lead to increased brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). It is our contention that probiotics may be an adjuvant to standard care in MDD"
  • Probiotics and prebiotics in the elderly - Postgrad Med J. 2004 Aug;80(946):447-51 - "Probiotics have been shown clearly to boost immunity in the elderly"
  • Effects of ingesting Lactobacillus- and Bifidobacterium-containing yogurt in subjects with colonized Helicobacter pylori - Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 Sep;80(3):737-41 - "Regular intake of yogurt containing Bb12 and La5 effectively suppressed H. pylori infection in humans"
  • Dietary factors protecting women from urinary tract infection - AJCN, 3/1/03 - "Frequent consumption of fresh juices, especially berry juices, and fermented milk products containing probiotic bacteria was associated with a decreased risk of recurrence of UTI"
  • Ingested probiotics reduce nasal colonization with pathogenic bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and ß-hemolytic streptococci) - AJCN, 3/1/03 - "The results indicate that regular intake of probiotics can reduce PPB [potentially pathogenic bacteria] in the upper respiratory tract. The results also indicate a linkage of the lymphoid tissue between the gut and the upper respiratory tract"