There is an increasing interest in MICROBIOME, the large number of bacteria that inhabit our guts.
Once certain relationships became clearer to scientists: good and bad bacteria, lack of diversity, production of inflammatory molecules by gut bacteria.. the industry was not too far behind. they began promoting PROBIOTICS
So far there is no evidence that PROBIOTICS is beneficial for anybody or everybody.
My personal take that the PROBIOTICS that you buy off the shelf is are not beneficial, but with a nutritional guidance from an expert who can interpret your Microbiome, woul be beneficial.
Do things naturally..
FROM THE BBC NEWS
Given the very heavy involvement of the industry, clear conclusions as to whether probiotics are truly helpful to humans remain to be proven – Erin Elinav
The rate of continued moderate to severe gastroenteritis within two weeks was slightly higher (26.1%) in the probiotic group than in the placebo group (24.7%). And there was no difference between the two groups in terms of the duration of diarrhoea or vomiting.
Despite evidence such as this, the demand for probiotics is large and growing. In 2017, the market for probiotics was more than $1.8bn, and it is predicted to reach $66bn by 2024.
“Given the very heavy involvement of the industry, clear conclusions as to whether probiotics are truly helpful to humans remain to be proven,” says Elinav. “This is the reason why regulatory authorities such as the US’s Food and Drug Administration and European regulators have yet to approve a probiotic for clinical use.”
But that is not to write off probiotics completely. The problem with them may not be with the probiotics themselves, but the way we are using them. Often probiotics are bought off the shelf – consumers may not know exactly what they are getting, or even whether the culture they are buying is still alive.
Elinav and his colleagues have also carried out research on who will benefit from probiotics and who won’t. By measuring the expression of certain immune-related genes, the team was able to predict who would be receptive to probiotic bacteria colonising their gut, and for whom they would simply “pass through” without taking hold.
“This is very interesting and important as it also implies that our immune system participates in the interactions with [probiotic] bacteria,” says Elinav.
The lack of consistency in the findings on probiotics comes in part because they are being treated like conventional drugs
This opens the door to developing personalised probiotic treatments based on someone’s genetic profile. Such a system is “realistic and could be developed relatively soon”, says Elinav, but at this stage it remains a proof of concept. To become a reality, it will need more research on probiotic tailoring and testing more bacterial strains in larger groups of people.
This kind of personalisation may release the full potential of probiotic treatments for gut health. At the moment, the lack of consistency in the findings on probiotics comes in part because they are being treated like conventional drugs. When you take a paracetamol tablet, you can be more or less sure that the active component will do its job and work on receptors in your brain, dulling your sensation of pain. This is because most people’s pain receptors are similar enough to react in the same way to the drug.
But the microbiome is not just a receptor – it is closer to an ecosystem, and sometimes likened to a rainforest in its complexity.
As a result, finding and tailoring a probiotic treatment that will work on something as intricate and individual as your own internal ecosystem is no easy task. And with that in mind, it’s not so surprising that a dried-out pack of bacteria from a supermarket shelf may well not do the trick.
