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The yogurt
section in the grocery store has gotten pretty complicated. Instead of just
choosing between regular and light, or fruit on the bottom versus premixed
varieties, customers can now select what kind of bacteria they wish to devour
with each cold spoonful.
Yogurt
manufacturers have long marketed the "live, active cultures" in their
products, but Dannon, Yoplait and other industry giants have recently
introduced new brands of specialized yogurts containing trademarked microbial
strains. Scientists continue to conduct research into how these microbes
may contribute to healthy living. A study
published in the British
Medical Journal last year supported the medicinal benefits of
yogurt, though in a limited setting. It showed that geriatric hospital patients
who drank a probiotic yogurt beverage were less likely to suffer from diarrhea
caused by ongoing antibiotic treatment. But some nutritionists remain skeptical
about the potential advantages that probiotics can offer most people.
Despite its
narrow range of participants, the study confirmed that probiotic yogurt
aided many of those involved. "We have shown that simply giving a
probiotic drink to elderly patients who are prescribed antibiotics reduces their
risk of getting diarrhea," says Mary Hickson, a research dietician at Imperial College
in London and
the lead author of the study.
Gastrointestinal
illness is a common side effect in an antibiotic’s battle against bacterial
infection. Antibiotics don’t just go after the bad guys — they also kill some
of the beneficial or neutral place-holding flora in our digestive tracts. This
collateral damage allows deleterious organisms to establish themselves, often
inflicting abdominal distress and discomfort as a result. Yogurt, like other
"probiotic" foods, helps to promotes the growth of favorable bacteria
in our digestive tracts. These microorganisms assist us in absorbing nutrients
from our food and also occupy valuable real estate so that pathogens cannot
proliferate and make us sick.
The British
study monitored 113 patients taking antibiotics
predominantly for respiratory ailments or prophylactic reasons before or after
surgery. During antibiotic treatment, subjects consumed two daily servings of a
Dannon probiotic yogurt drink called Actimel. Half of the participants drank a
sterile milkshake as a placebo instead. Stool samples were analyzed for
solidarity and for the presence of a particularly harmful bacterium, Clostridium difficile.
This opportunistic microbe afflicts about one in five hospital patients on
antibiotics.
The study
found that just over one in 10 of those patients ingesting the probiotic
product was stricken with diarrhea, but none caught C. difficile. In contrast, a third of those
on the placebo had diarrhea, and 17 percent came down with a case of C. difficile.
"This
is exciting research as it provides evidence for a new treatment that can be
put into practice now and could save the health service money," says
Hickson.
Her paper
refers to a previous study led by Lorraine Kyne of University College
Dublin in Ireland,
which indicated that hospital patients with bouts of C. difficile incur almost
$3,700 each in additional expenses. Increased hospital stays and antibiotic
reinforcements to eradicate the infection lead to these higher bills, but
fortunately for sufferers, insurance picks up the tab. All told though, Kyne’s
paper conservatively estimates the annual cost overruns related to C. difficile as $1.1
billion in the United States
alone. Comparatively, a full course of the Actimel supplements in Hickson’s
study that help ward off the malignant microbe only costs about $100.
For the
Dannon Company, the growing buzz about probiotics has translated into
impressive sales figures for Actimel, which is sold under the name DanActive in
the United States.
In 2007, the product raked in approximately $1.8 billion in worldwide sales. As
Dannon unveils new probiotic lines of yogurt, Michael Neuwirth, the senior
director of public relations at the company, points to 30 published scientific
studies that bolster the health benefits of DanActive and other probiotic
foods.
But some
consider Dannon’s claims to be dubious at best, and the impact of the British
study as rather limited in scope. "It’s good news if you’re over 70 and so
sick you need to be hospitalized and prescribed antibiotics," says David
Schardt, senior nutritionist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest,
a nutrition advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. Schardt also states in an
e-mail that contrary to Dannon’s position, no studies conclusively show that
DanActive "will help the people depicted in their commercials and on their
Web site — harried mothers, active grandparents,
busy kids — keep from getting sick."
Others have
also taken issue with Dannon’s marketing strategies. In January, a Los Angeles firm served
Dannon with a class-action lawsuit alleging that the company intentionally
hyped its probiotic wares and made millions based on false claims.
Nonetheless,
Roberta Lee, the medical director at the Continuum
Center for Health and Healing, a
holistic service center run by Beth Israel Medical
Center in New York City, is convinced that probiotics
are beneficial, especially when used in concert with other treatments. She says
that probiotics have appeared in clinical settings in the past and their
prevalence is on the rise.
"Seventy
percent of our immune response is directed toward catching foreign invaders
introduced through our guts," says Lee. As probiotics may offer a helping
hand in tamping down unwelcome bodily invaders, Lee states: "I would be
happy to recommend yogurt to a patient."
This answer is provided by Scienceline,
a project of New York
University's Science,
Health and Environmental Reporting Program.
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