Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that many are waiting for help with any intestinal problem, they are often prescribed by doctors simultaneously with the treatment with antibiotics. New research shows that they may not be as useful as expected.
The intestinal microbiome is the total of all microbes living in the human gut. It is shown that it plays a significant role in human health.
The study showed that probiotics, usually taken in the form of supplements or drinks (yogurt, kefir), may prevent the restoration of the normal human microbiome. Different people react to probiotics is very different
In the first study, published in Cell, the scientists conducted a series of endoscopies and colonoscopies, to take a sample of the microbiome of people before and after taking probiotics. Another group of people received micro-organisms that were collected from their intestines up to antibiotics.
The scientists saw that the microbiome of people who received probiotics were significantly damaged. After bacteria probiotics colonized the intestine, they suppress the recovery of their own human microbiome disrupted by use of antibiotics. Also disrupted the expression of genes, i.e. the synthesis of proteins on DNA.
In the group treated with their own bacteria, these negative changes were not observed, their intestinal microbiome was restored in a few days.
The scientists also found that the study of bacteria in the stool of a person may not be a reliable way to study the condition of the intestinal microbiome.
In the second study, the researchers studied the change in the microbiome of the intestine under the action of probiotics. One group received common probiotics, the other a placebo.
The authors were surprised to find two different reactions to probiotics. Some people resisted intestinal colonization with these bacteria, other probiotics survive, changed macroom and affect the work of DNA. This shows that the current concept of probiotics, which are suitable for all equally, must be replaced by a more individual approach.
These studies have not studied the clinical effect of probiotics, scientists are going to investigate in this direction.
Ukrainian Andrei