Probiotics may protect children against infections: Study...

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Daily supplements of the probiotic bacterial strain Lactobaccilus casei

rhamnosus may boost the immune health of children, and prevents many

infections, says new research. Writing in the journal Vaccine,

researchers from Taiwan report that supplements of the probiotic led to

an 18 and 17 per cent reduction in the incidence of viral and

respiratory infections, respectively, according to a study with about

1,000 children under the age of five. " This randomized,

double-blind study shows that bio-therapeutic agents may be useful in

preventing viral and bacterial infectious disease, " wrote lead

author Jun-Song Lin from Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital in Hualien.

According to the FAO, probiotics

<http://www.nutraingredients.com/content/search?SearchText=probiotics>

are defined as live microorganisms which when administered in adequate

amount confer a health benefit on the host. This definition is

important, and the Taiwanese researchers do use the term

`probiotic' incorrectly. Study details Working in

collaboration with researchers from National Chiao Tung University, Tzu

Chi University, and National Dong-Hwa University, Dr Lin recruited 986

children and randomly assigned them to one of four groups: the first

received no supplements and acted as the control group, the second group

received a daily supplement of L. casei rhamnosus (200 million colony

forming units (cfu), Antibiophilus, Laboratoires Lyocentre, France). The

third group received daily supplements of L. rhamnosus T cell-1 (10

billion cfu, T Cell-1 Probiotics, Chang Gung Biotechnology Corp, Taipei,

Taiwan). The fourth group received a supplement containing 12 bacterial

strains (seven species of Lactobacillus, three types of bifidobacteria,

one type of Streptococcus, and one type of Enterococcus). Significant

reductions in bacterial infections

were observed in the single strain (1.8 times) and the T-cells

1 (1.92 times) groups, but no reductions were observed in the multiple

strain group. Reductions in gastrointestinal diseases were observed in

the multiple strain group, with a 42 and 44 per cent decrease in the

short- and long-term. A non-statistically significant reduction in GI

disease was also observed in the group receiving L. casei rhamnosus.

Viral infections reduced by 18 per cent in the L. casei rhamnosus group,

but no reduction was observed in the multiple probiotic T cell-1 groups.

" This large population study has successfully demonstrated that

probiotics could induce differential effects upon infectious disease in

preschoolers among the three orally administered commercial

probiotics, " wrote the researchers. When is a probiotic, not a

probiotic? " The efficacy of many commercial probiotics is suspect,

due to insufficient growth of various strains in the human intestinal

tract, and hardly any probiotic manufacturers have solid evidence to

match their claims, " said the Taiwanese researchers. Furthermore,

poor adherence to FAO's definition is also a problem. Commenting

independently on the study, Professor Gregor Reid from the Canadian R & D

Centre for Probiotics at the Lawson Health Research Institute, and The

University of Western Ontario, told NutraIngredients.com that, although

the study is interesting, errors exist in the manuscript " Unless a

strain is designated and shown to confer health benefits in humans, it

should not be referred to as probiotic. In the case of the one strain

termed L. rhamnosus T cell-1, this is a strange designation, and the

journal should have questioned it, " said Prof Reid. " The name

implies that the strain somehow confers an anti-infectious benefit

through T cell modulation, yet the study does not examine T cell

activation. " The authors state that " The investigation clearly

showed that single strain probiotic supplementation significantly

reduced the incidence of bacterial infections by an average of 1.8 times

for L. casei rhamnosus and 1.92 times for L. rhamnosus T cell-1 " . Yet,

Figure 3 shows a drop from 0.6 to 0.5 infections per month which is not

a 2 fold drop! " added Prof Reid.

 

Source: Vaccine

11 February 2009, Volume 27, Issue 7, Pages 1073-1079

" Different effects of probiotic species/strains on infections in

preschool children: A double-blind, randomized, controlled study "

Authors: J.-S. Lin, Y.-H. Chiu, N.-T. Lin, C.-H. Chu, K.-C. Huang, K.-W.

Liao, K.-C. Peng