Probiotics – how effective are they?

Abstract

For most of the last century lactobacilli and bifidobacteria have been actively promoted as being beneficial to health. Most of the time, evidence for their benefits has been limited to anecdotal recordings. Only since the 1980s have there been well-designed animal experiments and human clinical trials conducted on probiotic bacteria. Unfortunately, the health professionals? view of probiotics is based on the mystique and chicanery used in earlier days to market probiotics. Marketing of this kind is still commonplace. However, research conducted primarily in the last 10 years has started to identify health benefits imparted by specific strains of probiotic microorganisms. This paper presents the evidence accumulated so far for beneficial effects on the health of consumers.