“Supplements containing a combination of Lactobacillus salivarius and fructo-oligosaccharide for eight weeks were associated with significant reductions in measures of the severity of eczema, compared with a control group receiving only prebiotics, according to findings published in the British Journal of Dermatology.”
In addition to the usual yogurt bugs, I am starting to see salivarius popping up more frequently. It’s from the mouth, by the way.
Read this article…
 When I lived in the US in the 90s, it was hard to find live-culture yogurt in supermarkets (you could find them in natural food stores, of course). The only one I could find was Stonyfield yogurt.
When I lived in Finland, not only were there a bunch of live-culture milk products, but there was one in particular “Valio A+” that was specifically recommended for women to balance their flora.
Now back in the US, it’s hard not to find live-culture yogurt, and some are specifically marketed, yes, for women to balance their flora. Furthermore, the use of live bacterial cultures for health purposes, called probiotics, has become mainstream enough that you can find probiotic supplements for children in the supermarket.
What does this mean?
It means that folks are becoming aware of functional foods, of the importance of microorganism in their diet, and that the feeding desire to find a short cut (a pill rather than eating wholesome yogurt) is always a good business.
I’ve been seeking out all these probiotic products to get an idea of what’s out there, what the message is, and, for me, always on the look out for practical use of microbes, I’ve been trying to understand what microorganisms are in fashion.
OK, so the science behind probiotics is still in progress, so I will not go into that right now.
But, going on the premise that yogurt is the gold standard for beneficial live (with microorganisms) food, then my standard for all probiotic products used for digestive health is Stonyfield’s yogurt. Stonyfield’s has 6 bacteria (S thermophilus, L bulgaricus, L acidophilus, Bifidus, L casei, and L rhamnosus). I’d say that most of the products I have seen have one or more of these bugs. There are some proprietary sub-species and I’ve been pleased to see a few products with S salivarius or some other bacteria.
For me, the type, variety, and number of bacteria in a probiotic food or supplement is key. And I think it’s just snake oil if the product only has one bug.
Nonetheless, I think as probiotics go mainstream, buyers will be more astute as to what they are looking for. Also, I hope that new applications show up, beyond gut and vaginal flora health (I can think of a few).
What I do know, is that doctors are starting to suggest probiotics to patients on antibiotics or with digestive issues such as colitis or C diff.*
And that’s great.
Do you eat probiotic foods or take supplements? Send me pics of the ones you see or take! I could/should create a database of products and attach reviews or commentary. Hm…. not another project….
*Ego boost: A gastroenterologist aked me recently what probiotics I recommended. Ha! My first probiotic consulting gig?
 As you know, I’m always looking for practical uses of microbes. One that I stumbled upon a long while back was “transfaunation”, or, seeding one person’s gut with microbes from another’s. Yes, transfering poop microbes from one to another.
Be an adult. Don’t get grossed out. I’ve read some great papers on the process how our guts get colonized after birth. Also, there are some really interesting papers on how our gut microbes (or lack thereof) are involved in various intestinal disorders. And there are some promising papers on how diet affect the bacterial ecology in the gut. [Sorry, I'll link to the papers in a larger gut related set of posts at some point in the future - you can also just search for gut and microbes in my posts.]
Here’s the basic idea. People suffering from the hardy C. diff bacteria are generally prescribed a powerful antibiotic. Problem is, the drugs don’t just kill the invaders; they also wipe out much of the beneficial bacteria in the gut. With these “good” microorganisms out of the way, any C. diff stragglers have a much easier time regrouping for a second bout of illness. If there were some way to respawn the beneficial bacteria in the intestines, such re-infections could be warded off. Some people, like Ruth, turn to expensive probiotic supplements. (At one point she was spending $350 on them every week.) But in certain cases, a patient who has lost nearly all of her good bacteria will find it nearly impossible to get them back. A fecal transplant seems to work as a sort of mega-probiotic, allowing doctors to repopulate a patient’s intestines with the appropriate microorganisms by placing a robust sample directly into her gut.
Slate had a nice article on the subject (quoted above). It’s a serious subject and for many, the only hope to get a better and healthier bacterial gut fauna (hence the term, transfaunation).
My wife’s a vet and she’s not only heard of this procedure, but performed it on animals. It’s not uncommon to jumpstart an animal’s ability to digest grass by grabbing bugs from one animal and putting it in the right place. And, did you know, some animals eat poop on purpose for this very reason – rabbits, capibaras, hamsters, elephants, termites, pandas, koalas, and hippos – to colonize their gut?
And really, folks eat yogurt to populate their gut with good bacteria. Why not poo bacteria as probiotics? I actually think, as we learn more about our gut fauna, this will be come a more accepted course of action for folks with nasty bowel infections, colitis, or inflammatory bowel diseases.
What do you think?
Image of Kristen Paulson’s Anatomy and Guts Embroidery Hoop Art on Etsy (get your own!)
“Health claims for probiotics are evaluated by the Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies of the European Food Safety Authority. Despite a substantial amount of basic and clinical research on the beneficial effects of probiotics, all of the evaluated claim applications thus far have received a negative opinion. With the restrictions on the use of clinical endpoints, validated biomarkers for gut health and immune health in relation to reduction in disease risk are needed. Clear-cut criteria for design as well as evaluation of future studies are needed. An open dialogue between basic and clinical scientists, regulatory authorities, food and nutrition industry, and consumers could bridge the gap between science and marketing of probiotics.”
Not sure what to make of this other than the comment that ‘clear-cut criteria’ will be needed to actually turn claims into science.
Read this article…
“Horizontal gene transfer — the exchange of genetic material between different species or lineages — is an important factor in bacterial evolution. A study of human microbiome data comprising more than 2,000 full bacterial genomes shows that this environment is a hotbed of horizontal gene transfer: pairs of bacteria isolated from the human body are 25-fold more likely to share transferred DNA than pairs from other environments. Thus microbial ecology — rather than phylogeny or geography — is the most important driver of the patterns of horizontal gene exchange. Further analysis revealed 42 unique antibiotic-resistance genes that had been transferred between human and agricultural isolates, and 43 transfers across national borders.”
This paper sets me spinning due to it being about microbes, microbes on humans, human microbial ecology, and horizontal gene transfer. The other thing that is intriguing about this paper is the mention of unique antibiotic-resistance genes.
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“During the upcoming holidays, many events will involve traditional foods, such as turkey at Thanksgiving and Christmas. That microorganisms can spoil any of these foods, and thereby the entire party, is well known, but perhaps less obvious is the fact that microbiological processes are involved in the production of nearly all types of food. … As made clear by the recent Position statement on food security and safety … microbiologists can have a pivotal role in this important field. The position statement outlines nine research themes through which microbiologists can participate in food safety and security, including the investigation of microorganisms that cause food poisoning or kill crops and livestock, as well as research into the ways in which microorganisms can improve food production.”
Interesting overview of the impact of microorganisms in food production and safety.
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“In their constant battles with competitors and the host immune system, (opportunistic) microbial pathogens have developed sophisticated cell–cell communication systems termed quorum sensing (QS) that allow exchange of critical information. In return, competing microbes, as well as the host immune system, have developed means to intercept and decode these messages. The information obtained by this molecular espionage is used for their benefit, either to win the war (microbe against microbe), or to prepare for an upcoming battle (microbe against immune system).”
Not surprising, but quite fascinating.
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“What’s the news: If bacteria had blood, the predatory microbe Micavibrio aeruginosavorus would essentially be a vampire: it subsists by hunting down other bugs, attaching to them, and sucking their life out. For the first time, researchers have sequenced the genome of this strange microorganism, which was first identified decades ago in sewage water. The sequence will help better understand the unique bacterium, which has potential to be used as a “living antibiotic” due to its ability to attack drug-resistant biofilms and its apparent fondness for dining on pathogens.”
Absolutely awesome. And if there’s one bug that does this, there must be many many more.
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“There is a multimillion-dollar industry based on the concept that introducing beneficial bacteria into the human intestines will improve our health. The trillions of symbionts in the large intestine profoundly affect our metabolism and immunity. Accordingly, abnormal bacterial communities have been identified in several human diseases such as inflammatory bowel diseases (1–3), colon cancer (4, 5), irritable bowel syndrome (6), and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (7). The composition of microbial communities is generally stable within each individual. Past studies of the gut microbiota emphasized the huge impact of nutrition (8), which is likely to outweigh that of the host genotype (9).”
Nice review, with some references too. But it really rounds up and summarizes the latest. Also points to an article in the same issue that reports on some really interesting findings. Alas, not Open Access.
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“There is growing evidence that the intestinal microbiota interacts with the host central nervous system (CNS) to modify stress responses and anxiety behaviour; this is the so-called gut–brain axis. Bravo et al.Lactobacillus rhamnosus JB-1 can alter the transcript level for receptors of the neurotransmitter GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid) in the CNS in a region-dependent manner.”
Yet one more data point on the bugs-gut story.
[This is not an open access article. Boo. Hiss.]
Read this article…
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