Beneficial Bacteria (Probiotics) May Halt Allergi
Beneficial Bacteria (Probiotics) May Halt Allergies In Babies
Giving soon-to-be mothers and newborns doses of "good" bacteria may help
prevent
childhood allergies, new research suggests. Allergy experts say they offer the
first good evidence that harmless bacteria can train infants’ immune systems to
resist allergic reactions.
Researchers in Finland used a type of bacteria found naturally in the
gut–called Lactobacillus GG (Lactobacillus rhamnosus), which is safe at an
early age and effective in treatment of allergic inflammation and food
allergy–to try to prevent allergy development in at-risk infants.
Cultured bacteria that can potentially promote health are called probiotics.
Investigators gave a group of pregnant women probiotic capsules every day for a
few weeks before their due dates. For 6 months after delivery, women who
breast-fed continued on the probiotics, while bottle-fed infants were given the
treatment directly. All of the babies were considered to be at high risk of
developing allergies because a parent or sibling was affected.
By the age of 2 years, 35% of the children had developed allergic eczema, a
condition in which the skin becomes irritated, red and itchy.
But children who had received probiotics were half as likely to develop the
skin condition.
This cut in eczema risk is the most spectacular, single result to come out of
studies on preventing allergic disease.
Exactly why friendly gut bacteria might protect against allergies is unclear,
but the effect may be an "extension of the hygiene hypothesis."
This hypothesis holds that the worldwide growth in allergic disease is in part
due to our increasingly sterile surroundings. When babies are exposed to germs
early on, some experts suggest, their immune systems are steered toward
infection-fighting mode–and away from the tendency to overreact to normally
benign substances. Support for this idea comes from studies showing that
infants who have more colds and other infections have lower asthma rates later
in life.
The results of this study suggest that intestine-dwelling bacteria may also
play an important role in pushing the immune system away from allergic
reactions.
The Lancet April 7, 2001;357:1076-1079
This is one of the rare articles that is fully on line. Registration is
required, but that is free. If you are a health care professional I would
highly encourage you to copy this as I believe it is a landmark article.
I have also summarized the entire article.
DR. MERCOLA’S COMMENT:
This is a "classic article" and one of the best and most well documented,
regarding the use of probiotics. This is the one supplement that I recommend
for ALL new patients. They normally do not need to be on it for very long if
their diet is good.
But exposure to sugar and chemicals will disrupt our gut microflora and
contribute to long term illness. The answer of course is not to only use
probiotics, but to use them in conjunction with changing one’s diet.
There are 3 POUNDS of bacteria in our gut and some investigators state
there are
from 6 to 60 trillion actual bacteria in our guts. As the article above
references, they outnumber us ten to one.
So it is not to much of a stretch to think that balancing one’s gut flora has
quite a bit to do with health.
One concern with the supplement Culturelle is that it is produced by ConAgra,
which is a big producer of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. They own
the patent on Lactobacillus GG. However, I do believe the product has merit and
many patients in our office do well with it.
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