Probiotic-containing yogurt may protect against gut microbiome changes linked to antibiotics
Yogurt containing Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis BB-12 may protect patients against harmful changes in the gut microbiome that may lead to antibiotic-associated diarrhea, according to a study in Nutrients.
“This study is very clear that if one picks a well proven probiotic, they can expect to see important changes such as short chain fatty acid and microbiome protection,” Daniel Merenstein, MD, from the department of family medicine, Georgetown University Medical Center, told Healio Gastroenterology.
Merenstein and colleagues randomly assigned 42 patients to administration of amoxicillin/clavulanate for 7 days plus Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis BB-12 (BB-12)-containing yogurt and 20 control participants to yogurt without the probiotic. At baseline and at days 7, 14, 21 and 30, investigators measured fecal levels of short-chain fatty acid and bacterial composition. Baseline clinical differences were not significant, per study data.
Researchers said both groups had suppressed fecal acetate levels with antibiotic treatment. After halting antibiotics, the probiotic group had an increase in fecal acetate levels over course of the study, but returned to baseline levels on day 30. However, acetate levels in the control group remained suppressed.
Merenstein and colleagues report that on day 7, antibiotic treatment decreased the Shannon diversity for the gut microbiota for all study participants. Further, the change in the control group was larger and more sustained than in the probiotic group. They wrote that this was evidence was consistent with their hypothesis that BB-12 enhanced microbiota recovery.
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