Applied Microbiology: Open Access
Open Access

Nutrition and Probiotics

Martin Hammer^{* *}Correspondence: Martin Hammer, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia, Email:

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Editorial

Probiotics are live microorganisms promoted with claims that they provide health benefits when devoured, for the most part by improving or reestablishing the gut microbiota. Probiotics are viewed as safe to consume, yet may cause bacteria-host interactions and undesirable side effects in rare cases. There is little evidence that probiotics bring the health benefits asserted for them.

The first discovered probiotic was a pure strain of Bacillus in Bulgarian yogurt, called Lactobacillus bulgaricus . A developing probiotic market has prompted the requirement for stricter necessities for scientific substantiation of putative advantages conferred by microorganisms claimed to be probiotic. Albeit various asserted advantages are promoted towards utilizing consumer probiotic products, like decreasing gastrointestinal discomfort, developing immune health, relieving constipation, or avoiding the common cold, such cases are not upheld by scientific evidence, and are denied as tricky publicizing in the United States by the Federal Trade Commission. Various applications for endorsement of health claims by European manufacturers of probiotic dietary supplements have been rejected by the European Food Safety Authority for deficient evidence of beneficial mechanism or efficacy.

World Health Organization (WHO) characterizes probiotics as "live microorganisms which when administered in sufficient amounts confer a health benefit on the host." As food items or dietary supplements, probiotics are under preliminary research to assess if they give any positive impact on wellbeing. The scientific evidence remains insufficient to demonstrate a causeand- effect relationship between consuming probiotics and any health benefit. There is no scientific basis for extrapolating an impact from a tested strain to an untested strain. Improved health through gut microbiota regulation is related to long-term dietary changes.

Probiotics have shown promising effects on health, including prevention of antibiotic-associated diarrhea (diarrhea caused by clostridium difficile ), prevention of necrotizing enterocolitis and sepsis in premature infants, treatment of infant colic, treatment of periodontal disease, and induction or maintenance of remission in ulcerative colitis.

Antibiotics are a typical treatment for children, with 11% to 40% of antibiotic treated children developing diarrhea. Antibiotic-Associated Diarrhea (AAD) results from an imbalance in the colonic microbial flora brought about by antibiotic therapy. These microbial community alterations bring about changes in carbohydrate metabolism, with decreased short-chain fatty acid absorption and osmotic diarrhea as a result. The known risk of utilizing probiotics for treating clostridium difficile outweighs the uncertain advantages. Probiotic treatment may lessen the occurrence and seriousness of AAD. For instance, treatment with probiotic details including Lactobacillus rhamnosus may decrease the danger of AAD, further develop stool consistency during antibiotic treatment, and improve the immune response after immunization.

Probiotic treatment of bacterial vaginosis is the application or ingestion of bacterial species found in the healthy vagina to fix the bacterial infection causing bacterial vaginosis. This treatment depends on the perception that 70% of healthy females have a microbial community in the genus Lactobacillus that dominates the number of microorganisms in the vagina. Specific strains of Lactobacilli restrain the development of microorganisms causing bacterial vaginosis by delivering H₂O₂ , lactic acid, or potentially bacteriocins, and additionally hinder the adherence of Gardnerella vaginalis to the vaginal epithelium, which keeps the disease from occuring in the vagina. Currently, the accomplishment of probiotic treatment has been mixed, since the utilization of probiotics to reestablish healthy Lactobacillus population has not been standardized. Regularly, standard antibiotic treatment is utilized while probiotics are being tested. In 2013, researchers found that organization of hydrogen peroxide-producing strains, like Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus rhamnosus , had the option to standardize vaginal pH and rebalance the vaginal microbiota, forestalling and lightening bacterial vaginosis.