Supplements: The popular supplement that can have ‘potentially harmful’ effects – warning
The health benefits of probiotics explained
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Any medication consumed will have altering effects on the body, for better or worse. The gut’s microbiome is a vital determinant of overall wellbeing, often dictating whether a body is healthy or not. Probiotics, which consist of health promoting microbes, are prescribed with the intention of restoring the gut’s microbiome. They are taken by millions to restore the gut’s ecosystem after a dose of antibiotics. However, studies have found they could actually prevent bacteria recolonising the gut.
A healthy gut contains bacteria and immune cells that ward off infectious agents, such as bacteria, viruses and fungi.
There are 300 to 500 different kinds of bacteria containing nearly two million genes residing inside the gut. When paired with other organisms, they form what is known as the microbiome.
Researchers studying the response of the gut to probiotics warned of prolonged microbiome disturbances, which could be linked to allergies, inflammation, and obesity.
Immunologist Eran Elinav of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, and colleagues sampled the microbiomes of healthy volunteers using endoscopies and colonoscopies.
READ MORE: The best-selling probiotic supplements for gut health
Participants were fed commercially available probiotic supplements or a placebo.
Surprisingly, the results showed that microbes found in the faeces were not presentative of those that had colonised the gut.
The team also observed that in some cases the probiotics had colonised the gastrointestinal tract of some people, while in others the microbiome was expelled.
Probiotic colonisation patterns varied from person to person, with results highlighting how unlikely it is that one universal probiotic could benefit all.
Elinav told the New Scientist: “Relying on faecal samples as an indication of what goes on inside the gut is inaccurate and wrong.
“Some people accept probiotics in their gut, while others just pass them from one end to the other.”
Concerns arose when scientists studied the microbiome after individuals took probiotics in the hope of restoring their gut’s ecosystem following a course of antibiotics.
A total of 21 individuals were included in the analysis, each took the same course of antibiotics then were assigned to one of three groups.
The microbiome of the first group was left to recover by itself, while individuals in the second group were administered probiotics.
Individuals in the first group, on the other hand, were treated with a dose of their own pre-antibiotic microbiome by faecal microbiota transplant.
Researchers noted that probiotics successfully colonised the gut of everyone in the second group after antibiotics had cleared the way.
However, this prevented the return of a person’s normal microbiome for up to six months, the team observed.
Elinav added: “The probiotics potently and persistently prevented the original microbiome returning to its original situations.
“This is very surprising and alarming to us. This adverse effect has not yet been described to date.”
The third group who were given a dose of their own pre-antibiotic microbiome saw the opposite effect.
Their microbiome returned to normal within days, confirming that probiotics may not be as effective as was once thought.
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