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Probiotics labelled 'quite useless' (AMP link)
A group of scientists in Israel claim foods that are packed with good bacteria - called probiotics - are almost useless.
[...] The team at the Weizmann Institute of Science made their own probiotic cocktail using 11 common good bacteria including strains of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria. It was given to 25 healthy volunteers for a month. They were then sedated and samples were surgically taken from multiple places in the stomach and small and large intestines.
The researchers were looking to see where bacteria successfully colonised and whether they led to any changes in the activity of the gut. The results in the journal Cell [open, DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.08.041], showed in half of cases the good bacteria went in the mouth and straight out the other end. In the rest, they lingered briefly before being crowded out by our existing microbes.
[...] The research group also looked at the impact of probiotics after a course of antibiotics, which wipe out both good and bad bacteria. Their trial on 46 people, also in the journal Cell [open, DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.08.047], showed it led to delays in the normal healthy bacteria re-establishing themselves.
Dr Elinav added: "Contrary to the current dogma that probiotics are harmless and benefit everyone, these results reveal a new potential adverse side effect of probiotic use with antibiotics that might even bring long-term consequences."
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Friday September 07 2018, @10:11AM (7 children)
From the summary:
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Friday September 07 2018, @01:53PM (6 children)
So, I went on a course of heavy IV antibiotics for 6 weeks once to treat a case of osteomyelitis. Mandatory with that treatment are regular examinations by the attending physician to check for, among other things, thrush - heavy fungal overgrowth in the mouth and throat. My physician was surprised I didn't present with thrush at all during the treatment, in her words "most" of her patients do. Semi-coincidentally, I was making my own kefir at the time - a process which generated over a gallon of kefir a week, most of which I consumed myself. YMMV, anecdotes related over internet chat boards are not medical advice, etc.
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(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday September 07 2018, @04:05PM (3 children)
Got anything for me?
https://soylentnews.org/~takyon/journal/3348 [soylentnews.org]
Kefir seems like more work, plus I don't have the "grains" although I'm sure I could get them.
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(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday September 07 2018, @07:48PM (2 children)
Kefir is really easy to do, once you get the grains from someplace you trust. The problem is: it's continuous, you can not stop. There's a minimum size of container you'd want to use to age it in, say a quart, and there's a maximum time you want to age it, say 3 days (at most), so that's creating over 1/2 gallon of kefir per week. I mostly added strawberries or honey, blueberries were good too, and plain isn't bad, but after a few months of that much dairy product, I was done - let it go.
Supposedly you can put the grains "on hold" and revive them later, but the quality (consistency and flavor) really improves when you establish a consistent and preferred aging cycle.
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(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Saturday September 08 2018, @10:39AM (1 child)
Actually, kefir grains are some of the most resilient things -- you can even dry them or freeze them or neglect them for a long time, and they can easily be revived... as long as they were "healthy" before storage.
I've had grains for quite a few years now. I commonly get tired of kefir for a while and let the grains sit in the fridge (in milk) for weeks or months at a time and be dormant. The longest span I think I've gone has been nine months or so -- and the grains revived completely after daily feedings for three days.
My experience (and after reading a lot online) is that feeding daily will keep them healthiest. And as long as you're doing that, I find I can take a break for a week or two by storing them in the fridge, and they bounce right back. If I go more than two weeks or so, I generally feed them once and discard the milk after a day (whether it has clabbered or not) and usually the next feeding produces normal consistency and good quality kefir. If you go for several months without feeding, it might take a few more feedings to reestablish. But I've also seen them revive INSTANTLY after 4-5 months of dormancy in the fridge -- as in, 12 hours after taking them out, I had what looked like normal kefir... I still discarded it and did another feeding before trusting it as safe to drink, but they're hardy buggers.
And you can certainly make smaller amounts. I don't think I've ever made more than 1-2 cups at a time on a regular basis. The key is keeping the grains small enough or few enough to make small batches. If they multiply and grow too much, you just remove some or break up a large one.
There's a lot of lore about kefir on the internet about things you're "never" supposed to do or it will kill them -- but if you have real kefir grains, it's mostly BS. Same for sourdough bread starters -- the vast majority of info online is BS. A good quality starter is resilient and can be maintained with a lot of different feeding regimes.
If it's easy to kill your kefir or sourdough starter or whatever SCOBY you have, it probably wasn't healthy to begin with... and frankly I'd question the quality and safety of what it was producing because healthy communities of microorganisms are necessary to keep other bad stuff from growing in them.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday September 08 2018, @05:44PM
I was happy with whatever it was I was making for several months... I was using quart jars about 2/3 full with whole milk, kept in an airconditioned space on a counter in our old house. My grains grew pretty large, I did split them once, but just discarded the excess (didn't have anyone interested in starting their own line). I did try slowing them down by keeping them in the refrigerator but it took a couple of batches after a "refrigerator rest" before I'd be happy with the consistency of the product again. Our current house doesn't have a good protected space like that to age the kefir in, I might make one, but that's a project onto itself and I finally just settled for store bought greek yogurt instead - I typically buy about 1/4th as much yogurt as I was making kefir, overall cost is less and flexibility is much higher.
I think I got my grains from The Kefir Lady: https://kefirlady.com/ [kefirlady.com] it was back around 2010.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by crafoo on Friday September 07 2018, @04:45PM (1 child)
I really don't get this study. I'll wait for it to be confirmed by a few other, more reputable institutions.
Also, people have been eating yoghurt, sauerkraut, fermented cucumbers, etc. for thousands of years. I think we'll be OK.
(Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Friday September 07 2018, @07:55PM
The proverbial axe to grind has a strong presence in this one...
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