Half as less often ill with Lactobacillus reuteri probiotic

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09.05.2011

Half as less often ill with Lactobacillus reuteri probiotic

We all know what a pain it is being ill. So many of us are just in control of things, and a couple of days off sick are usually enough to create havoc with your tight schedule. If this is the case you may be interested in the experiment done by researchers at the Swedish company BioGaia and the Swedish branch of Tetra Pak. Their results show that the probiotic Lactobacillus reuteri Protectis can halve the chance of you becoming ill.

Half as less often ill with Lactobacillus reuteri probiotic

Lactobacillus reuteri Protectis
The bacteria that the researchers used, Lactobacillus reuteri Protectis, also goes by the name of ATCC55730. It originates from the milk of a woman from Peru, but is now found in probiotic supplements and functional foods. BioGaia puts Lactobacillus reuteri Protectis in chewing tablets for example, like the ones shown here. BioGaia also supplies Nestle with the bacteria, which it adds to baby food.

For their experiment, the researchers used the Probiotic Straws, also shown here. If you use the straws to drink, you should be able to consume "100,000,000 Colony Forming Units (CFU) of Lactobacillus reuteri Protectis". The straws can also be bought OTC.

The idea behind probiotics like Lactobacillus reuteri Protectis, which line your gut, is that it makes your immune system more alert to viral and bacterial infections. This should reduce your chances of developing food poisoning, flu or a cold.

Study
The researchers gave 181 employees from the Tetra Pak carton factory for a period of 80 days, either a placebo or 100 ml of a drink that the employees had to drink with a probiotic straw. During the experiment, the employees who got a daily dose of Lactobacillus reuteri Protectis were only half as often ill as the employees in the placebo group.

Half as less often ill with Lactobacillus reuteri probiotic

In the figure above the left-hand bar shows the percentage of all employees who called in sick during the 80 days. The black bar represents the placebo group; the grey bar represents the probiotic group. The bar on the right represents employees doing shift work. Of the shift workers, nobody in the probiotic group fell ill. The researchers have no idea why this is the case.

Conclusion
Interesting as the study is, the researchers were not totally objective. Research leader Anders Zachrisson not only works for BioGaia, he's also a shareholder in the company. On top of that he's got a couple of patents filed in his name for the use of Lactobacillus reuteri.

Source:
Environ Health. 2005 Nov 7;4:25.

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