Research Update on Probiotics

Probiotics are the beneficial microbes that reside in and on our body. When a health headline suggests that taking probiotics may be hazardous to our health, that gets my attention. As a result, I spent the weekend going through two studies published in the journal Cell. That will form the basis of this week’s Memos.

The researchers used a different approach in assessing the microbiome of the subjects before and after the interventions. Typically this type of research uses fecal samples to assess changes in bacterial content. In this case, they used endoscopic procedures to sample the microbiome throughout the digestive system.

The studies had different purposes. The first placebo-controlled trial compared the change in the microbiome before and after administration of a commercially available probiotic. The second trial examined the microbiome before and after the administration of a course of antibiotics in a group of control subjects, a group given probiotics, and a group given a fecal transplant collected before the study began. We’ll cover the results on Thursday.

What are you prepared to do today?