What Can Probiotics Really Do?

Some claims make it sound like probiotics are a cure-all, but what has research found so far? Learn more about these supplements for your microbiome in this episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Lauren vogelbam. Here. What if you could take a pill
that would treat depression, constipation, diarrhea, eczema, urinary tract infections,
and allergies while also preventing cavities and strengthening your overall immunity.
And what if it promised to shield you from the
impurities of the world and re establish a right and

(00:24):
correct balance in your body's ecology. First of all, everybody
settled down, there is no such thing as a pill
that does all of that. But to hear some people talk,
probiotics might just come close. The popularity of products containing friendly,
live microorganisms has exploded over the past decade. At this point,
you can walk into almost any grocery store and find

(00:45):
probiotics and capsules, lozenges, gum, facial toner, and yes, even
in pet products, in addition to the more traditional delivery
systems like culture dairy products, yogurt, and fermented products like
sarakraut and kombucha. Some folks are making a lot of
money on these little bacterial helpers, but what are they
actually able to do for us? And are they safe?

(01:06):
We spoke with Dr Chris Irwin, a dietitian and lecturer
in nutrition and dietetics at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia.
He said that unless you have an extremely poor diet
or drink alcohol to excess, there's not a lot of
evidence that a probiotic dietary supplement will help your overall health.
He said. If you're taking probiotics, you'll likely need to

(01:27):
take them every day, and it's best to feed the
healthy bacteria with prebiotics. The bottom line is that healthy
people are likely to get more benefit from getting regular exercise,
avoiding smoking or consuming too much alcohol, and having a
diet rich in foods that increase fiber and natural prebiotics
intake like vegetables, fruit and whole grains, rather than consuming

(01:47):
a probiotic supplement. However, probiotics might be an effective treatment
for specific cases or conditions. While there's not a lot
of evidence supporting the idea that probiotics could help with
your exema, allergies, or dental woes, sorry they might actually
help people looking to avoid vaginal yeast infections or upper
respiratory infections picked up from a cold virus. Other studies

(02:08):
have found that probiotics can help with digestive issues like
irritable bell syndrome, and may improve the frequency and consistency
of your poop. So, as a consumer, what should you
look for in a probiotic If you want to get
the most bang for your buck. Basically, you've got some
homework to do, Irwin said. Different probiotic strains have different effects,
so it's important to look for a probiotic supplement that

(02:30):
contains the strains of bacteria most likely to match your condition.
The dose of bacteria called colony forming units or CFU,
is also important and should be high enough to meet
benefits observed in clinical trials. The short answer here is,
if someone is looking for probiotic to take, go for
something that provides the greatest diversity in bacterial strains and
the highest CFU. Irwin also suggests getting advice from your

(02:54):
doctor or dietitian for the strains that might be right
for you, and making sure you're buying probiotic strains that
are reputable and have committed to transparency in scientific research. However,
that latter is more easily said than done. A study
published in Jamma Internal Medicine in ten pointed out that
there's very little government oversight of factories that manufacture probiotics,

(03:15):
and the US Boon and Drug Administration, or FDA, found
that about half of the six and fifty factories that
manufacture probiotics supplements in the United States were cited for violations,
most having to do with the product not living up
to what was promised on the label. The study also
said the probiotics may lead to infections in people with
immune deficiencies. Another study published this year in the journal

(03:35):
Cell suggests some people may be resistant to supplemented probiotic bacteria,
and therefore we'll get no benefit from it at all.
The researchers also investigated whether probiotics can help the gut
microbiome bounce back after a round of antibiotics, and they
found that though probiotics might have helped with diarrhea related
to the antibiotic, they seem to have delayed the reconstitution

(03:56):
of gut bacteria. Of course, more research is needed to
understand just how helpful probiotics are to our overall health,
and it's important not to give them more credit than
their due. Irwin said it's unlikely probiotic supplements are dangerous,
but I don't think that they're a magic bullet. Healthy
people are likely to get more benefit from having a
diet rich in vegetables, fruit, and whole grains. On the

(04:19):
other hand, if someone has a poor diet and doesn't
exercise regularly, they're digestive. Bacteria may benefit from probiotic supplements,
but they'll likely need to keep taking them to get
lasting effects. Stay's episode was written by Jesselyn Shields and
produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots
of other gutsy topics, visit our home planet, how Stuff

(04:41):
Works dot com.