The idea, therefore, is to give people pills<\/a> or supplements containing these potentially beneficial bacteria. If we can alter the gut microbiome<\/a>, we could make people healthier and reduce their risk of all sorts of nasty health problems.<\/p>\n The issue with this idea is that your gut is very complicated, and adding a single bacterial strain to your diet is very simple.<\/p>\n “I once went to a presentation where the researcher described probiotics as going to the middle of the Amazon and dropping 10,000 of one tree into the forest and assuming that would fix any problems.” \u2013 Dr Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I once went to a presentation where the researcher described probiotics as going to the middle of the Amazon and dropping 10,000 of one tree into the forest and assuming that would fix any problems. <\/p>\n It might help with some stuff, but there could be all sorts of unintended consequences<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n We also have a huge wealth of evidence looking into probiotics. While there are definitely positive trials, many of them are very low-quality<\/a> and don’t really help with the question of whether probiotics actually work.<\/p>\n Probiotic supplements are also one of the worst areas for academic misconduct \u2013 many dozens<\/a> of randomized trials looking into the impact of probiotics have been retracted for all sorts of problematic reasons.<\/p>\n The bigger trials, on the other hand, tend not to find benefits for probiotics. <\/p>\n The biggest study<\/a> looking at probiotics for the prevention of common colds found that there was no difference between probiotics and a matched placebo<\/a> for the primary outcome of cold severity in 2021.<\/p>\n There are no apparent benefits of probiotics for eczema<\/a>. And the biggest randomized trial<\/a> of probiotics for preterm infants \u2013\u00a0which included 618 babies \u2013 did not find a benefit.\u00a0<\/p>\n Even where we’d definitely expect to see a benefit for probiotics \u2013\u00a0in preventing infections that cause diarrhea \u2013\u00a0we don’t see any improvements. <\/p>\n In 2020, a massive systematic review<\/a> of trials looking at probiotics for the prevention of infectious diarrhea, which included 82 studies and more than 12,000 participants, found no benefit for the probiotic pills.<\/p>\n Worse still, there are potential problems that probiotics may cause. A 2021 Cochrane Collaboration review<\/a> of probiotics for the prevention of gestational diabetes<\/a> \u2013 high blood sugar that happens in pregnancy \u2013 found little to no evidence that probiotics had any benefits, but probably increased the risk of pre-eclampsia.<\/p>\n Oddly enough, a Cochrane review<\/a> looking at probiotics for women who were already diagnosed with gestational diabetes found some possible benefits \u2013 but this may be because most of the trials included in the review<\/a> were from a research group that has had over a dozen papers retracted due to serious integrity concerns.<\/p>\n Part of the issue with all of this research is that the term ‘probiotics’ is itself a little bit meaningless. <\/p>\n People use it for all sorts of bacterial pills, most of which are not standardized and many of which may have different effects. <\/p>\n It may be that you have to get the balance of bifidobacteria<\/a> to lactobacillus<\/a> exactly right for it to have the benefit that we’re hoping for, or it could be that probiotics need to be highly personalized to have the right effect. Thus far, we simply don’t know.<\/p>\n There are also just so many health issues where people have proposed probiotics of some kind as a treatment. <\/p>\n I’ve discussed nearly a dozen so far, but there are many, many more. There may be areas of medicine where a specific probiotic is effective for a specific problem and I simply haven’t managed to get to it in the research for this piece.<\/p>\n That being said, I think the overall data is not very positive for probiotics. If you look at the biggest randomized trials \u2013 of which there are quite a few \u2013 the results are not promising. <\/p>\n Related: <\/strong>Scientists Have Found an Important Reason You Might Want to Reconsider Taking Probiotics<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n They may be beneficial for things that are directly related to gut health, like preventing antibiotic-associated diarrhea, but for everything else the data does not look very strong<\/a> at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n There are plenty of foods that contain beneficial bacteria. If you like foods like kimchi, yogurt, or sauerkraut, it’s probably not a bad idea to keep eating them. <\/p>\n At worst, you’ll be treating your taste buds to a wonderful adventure, and it’s plausible that you’ll be improving your health. <\/p>\n But as to the many pills, powders, and other probiotic concoctions? <\/p>\n I think that the evidence shows fairly clearly that they are unlikely to be of great benefit to your health.<\/p>\n Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz\u00a0is an epidemiologist working in chronic disease in Sydney, Australia. He writes a regular health\u00a0blog<\/a>\u00a0covering science communication, public health, and what that new study you’ve read about actually means.\u00a0He’s\u00a0previously helped ScienceAlert<\/a>\u00a0break down the real science behind the most\u00a0viral papers.<\/a><\/p>\n This article was fact-checked by Michael Irving<\/a> and edited by Michael Irving<\/a>. While we pride ourselves on our process, we are only human. If you spot a mistake, please let us know<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Probiotics are one of those pills that you see literally everywhere. 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