A team at the Weizmann Institute of Science found out that foods and pills packed with probiotics are most of the times useless. This study comes as shocking news, considering until now, they were hailed as the best way to keep a gut healthy.
In their study, researchers detailed the processes that happen after a person consumes probiotics.
Probiotics are seen as good and healthy for the gut, but this study shows that they have almost no effect on the body.
Researchers wanted to see if the bacteria from the pills would successfully colonize the gut and see if it changed the activity of the gut. The results published in the journal Cell showed that half of the participants in the study were not affected by probiotics.
Probiotics Don’t Work For Everyone
The study found out that not everyone is affected by probiotics. Half of the participants’ tests showed the good bacteria passed through the system with no sign of colonization. The other half showed probiotics lingering for a brief moment before existing microbiome crowded them out.
One of the study’s authors, Dr. Eran Elinav concluded that probiotics should be created for the needs of each person:
“And in that sense just buying probiotics at the supermarket without any tailoring, without any adjustment to the host, at least in part of the population, is quite useless.”
The team conducted a second study, this time focusing on probiotics taken after a course of antibiotics (a treatment that wipes out good and bad bacteria).
The research team saw that this time probiotics colonized the gut, but it also delayed the original and normal healthy bacteria recover in the gut. Dr. Elinav explains:
“Contrary to the current dogma that probiotics are harmless and benefit everyone, these results reveal a new potential adverse side effect of probiotic use with antibiotics that might even bring long-term consequences.”
Doris’s passion for writing started to take shape in college where she was editor-in-chief of the college newspaper. Even though she ended up working in IT for more than 7 years, she’s now back to what he always enjoyed doing. With a true passion for technology, Doris mostly covers tech-related topics.