Summary and Conclusion: Probiotics General Information
For treatment of gastrointestinal conditions other than bacterial overgrowth and infectious diarrhea, yogurt with 3-5 or more live active strains of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium cultures should consumed 2-7 times per week. Yogurt with active cultures typically contain the several billion microorganisms necessary for it to be beneficial. A probiotic supplement should also contain several billion microorganisms for it to be effective.
Probiotics were reviewed for use in acute infectious diarrhea (abrupt onset of nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea related to viruses and bacteria ) in a meta-analysis with 63 studies and a total of 8014 subjects and noted that the studies were extremely variable in the types and dosage of probiotics used. In the analysis, it was not possible to determine the difference in effectiveness between various probiotic strains due to the variability. Nonetheless, use of probiotics in the analysis did not show any adverse effects, and actually reduced the average duration of the illness by 24.76 hours when used for acute infectious diarrhea. (2)
Probiotics are considered safe and well tolerated, however caution should be taken in patients who are critically ill and should not be used by neutropenic or immunocompromised patients. The most common side-effects of oral probiotics include bloating and flatulence. Probiotics may contribute to bacterial overgrowth of the gastrointestinal tract resulting in excess gas, bloating and sometimes abdominal pain.
