What Are The Health Benefits Of Probiotics?

You might have heard of the word "probiotics" before either on social media or even television. Probiotics have been told as something that has live bacteria or more specifically good bacteria that benefit the gut.

It can be found in pills, yogurt or even certain drinks. Some people claimed that taking these probiotics will help solve problems involving the gut as well as allergy issues. In fact, the market for probiotics is very large with an estimated $40 billion in just 2017 alone.

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In Asian countries, products related to probiotics are usually sold as cultured drinks and one popular brand is Yakult. The price is relatively cheap for one small bottle and most kids love to have a taste of it.

Some might argue whether the intake of probiotics can really benefit humans. Despite the claim of all the good things to certain people, scientific evidence of the benefits of probiotics to humans is still in research.

Several Positive Studies Have Been Conducted

It is true that there have been some studies with promising results towards probiotics and the benefits that it brings. However, there have been reasons or limitations to the studies that have been conducted resulting in it not being able to be used as scientific proof for this claim.

In 2013, research has been done by the California Institute of Technology found that probiotics are capable of reducing the symptoms of autism(autism-like behaviors). But because the research that was done was tested on lab rats and not humans, the results cannot prove that probiotics will have the same effects on humans.

In 2008. a report was published in the American Journal of Clinical Dermatology which successfully showed that probiotics are able to treat atopic dermatitis or more commonly known as eczema. Eczema is a condition when the skin becomes red and very itchy due to an allergen.

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This research was also not sufficient enough to prove the claims as it was only done on 3 pregnant women and its child. Since the number of samples is too small, it cannot give us the big picture of how it will affect other people too unless it was tested on more people.

Even the author of the journal also concludes that since the limitation of the study is a small sample, the use of probiotics in overcoming problems or diseases needs to be done with precaution.

Another study report published in 2014 showed the positive effect of probiotics to treat diseases related to the bowel such as irritable bowel syndrome(IBS) or diarrhea. According to the Scientific American portal, despite many studies being conducted to show the good effects of probiotics in treating many diseases, there has not been a study that showed taking probiotics will give benefits to the healthy ones and does not have the stated diseases.

Who Will Get The Benefits of Probiotics?

Even though the benefits of probiotics to a healthy person cannot be proven scientifically, most experts agreed that it does give positive effects on three types of individuals:

A) Premature baby - Studies in 2017 have shown that 4500 babies that have just been born in India were found to have taken the probiotics Lactobacillus plantarum had a lower risk to get sepsis, a life-threatening condition that causes low blood pressure and organ malfunction. From that research, there has been a low rate of babies getting sepsis which was from 40% to only 5.4%.

B) Individual with IBS - The International Foundation for Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders Organization(IFFGD) states that probiotics can give benefits to those with IBS or diarrhea. The statement was also supported by several studies that have been done.

C) Patients taking antibiotics - Antibiotics are commonly used to treat many infectious diseases. The intake of antibiotics can kill bacteria in the gut whether it is good or bad. Not just that but according to statistics antibiotics can also cause diarrhea in 1 in 3 people. Some studies have shown that taking probiotics has effectively prevented diarrhea while on antibiotics.

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The Difficulty in Knowing the Effectiveness of Probiotics

One might ask why is it so hard for medical professionals to prove that probiotics really do give benefits to specific diseases? This is due to that there are around 300 to 500 species of bacteria that are present in the human bowel making the overall total of bacteria in it reach a trillion.

If that's not enough, every human being is very unique and rather different physically with various metabolic rates. It is hard to come to a conclusion that probiotics can treat certain diseases or conditions as the probiotics might have an effect on specific bacteria only.

Due to these reasons, doctors and medical organizations have stated that probiotics are not a replacement for medication and if unsure, one must consult their physicians. In fact, taking probiotics that are commonly sold as drinks might not be that good after all since most of them contain high sugar,

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