GI Docs Changing Their Probiotic Tune

A healthy and balanced diet, as well as probiotics, have been known to be helpful in preserving gastrointestinal health for quite a long time. This was one of the topics presented at the Gut Microbiota for Health World Summit on March 8-9, 2014.

"Diet is a central issue when it comes to preserving our gastrointestinal health, because by eating and digesting we literally feed our gut microbiota, and thus influence its diversity and composition," says the distinguished microbiota expert Professor Francisco Guarner. "If this balance is disturbed, it might result in a number of disorders, including functional bowel disorders, inflammatory bowel diseases and other immune mediated diseases, such as celiac disease and certain allergies. Also, metabolic conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, and perhaps even behavioral disorders, such as autism and depression, can be linked to gut microbial imbalances. Although a disrupted microbial equilibrium can have many causes -- infectious pathogens or use of antibiotics among them -- the role of our daily food and lifestyle is crucial. Thus, the maintenance of our gastrointestinal health is to a considerable extent in our own hands."

"The mechanisms underlying the beneficial outcome of probiotics are becoming increasingly clear. Through different molecules, probiotics interact with the host via various mechanisms and pathways. Some probiotics, for example, can hold pathogens at bay: by improving the intestinal barrier function, they defend the host against disease-causing microorganisms trying to invade."

According to Prof. Guarner, further useful "services" of probiotics include strengthening the immune system by stimulating immune mechanisms inside and outside the gut, helping to regulate the gut motility, and acting as anti-inflammatory compounds in the gut, with an impact beyond the gut.

Probiotics have beneficial effects at all stages of life, including the very early ones. Studies that show the beneficial effect of certain probiotics on gastroenteritis, colic, eczema, diarrhea and necrotizing enterocolitis in children. Moreover, according to several prevention studies, probiotics, may support disease prevention in children who tend to have a reduced microbiota diversity as they are not breast-fed, have been exposed to antibiotics or are born via Caesarean section. In all these cases, the development of a rich and balanced gut microbiota is likely to be delayed or impeded.

The members of this conference left with the notion that the microbial communities that reside in the human gut and their impact on human health and disease are one of the most exciting new areas of research today.