Probiotics stop menopause-like bone loss in mice  - Science Daily, 4/27/16 -  "treated female mice twice a week with Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) ... A month after ovary removal, mice that were not treated with probiotic bacteria had lost half of their bone density. But the bone density in probiotic-treated mice stayed the same ... In mice that did not have their ovaries removed, probiotic treatment actually led to an increase in bone density"  - Note: Lactobacillus rhamnosus is one of the bacterial in the  Garden of Life Primal Defense ULTRA  I take.

Gut bacteria could help prevent cancer - Science Daily, 4/13/16 - "In the UCLA study the bacterium reduced gene damage and significantly reduced inflammation -- a critical goal because inflammation plays a key role in many diseases, including cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, heart disease, arthritis and lupus, and in the aging process ... the mice that were receiving only the beneficial microbiota produced metabolites that are known to prevent cancer. Those mice also had more efficient fat and oxidative metabolism, which the researchers believe might also lower the risk for cancer ... Among the other results, in the mice receiving only the good bacteria, lymphoma formed only half as quickly as it did in the other mice. In addition, mice with the good bacteria lived four times longer and had less DNA damage and inflammation" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com .

 

'Psychobiotic' May Help Ease Stress, Improve Memory - Medscape, 10/20/15 - "The emerging concept of the gut microbiome as a key regulator of brain and behavior represents a paradigm shift in neuroscience. Precise targeting of the microbiome-gut-brain axis with psychobiotics - live microorganisms with a potential mental health benefit - is a novel approach for the management of stress-related conditions ... 22 healthy male volunteers (mean age, 25.5 years) ingested a capsule containing B longum NCIMB 41676 daily for 4 weeks and a matching placebo capsule for another 4 weeks ... B longum NCIMB 41676 led to a reduction in cumulative output of the stress hormone cortisol, as well as a blunted increase in subjective anxiety. On the questionnaire, the men reported being less stressed and anxious while taking the probiotic. They also showed subtle improvement on a visual memory task after receiving the probiotic, as well as altered EEG output" - See  probiotic products at Amazon.com .

 

Gut Bugs May Affect Body Fat, 'Good' Cholesterol - WebMD, 9/10/15 - "The size of your waistline may depend to some degree on the specific bacteria dwelling within your gut ... As recent research has revealed, those bugs do much more than support good digestion: They aid in everything from immune function, to metabolizing drugs to producing vitamins, anti-inflammatory compounds and even chemicals that relay messages among brain cells ... C-sections deprive newborns of beneficial bacteria from the birth canal, while breast milk feeds gut bacteria ... Diets filled with processed foods are also thought to be at fault ... the gut microbiome can be changed through diet"  - See  probiotic products at Amazon.com .

 

Probiotics improve behavioral symptoms of chronic inflammatory diseases in mice - Science Daily, 7/28/15 - "Mice that received the probiotics spent more time engaging in social behaviors compared to mice that received a placebo ... Mice that received the probiotics had lower blood levels of TNF-a and fewer activated immune cells in the brain compared to mice that received a placebo ... The findings suggest that probiotics improved behavioral symptoms by altering communication between the immune system and the brain"  - See  probiotic products at Amazon.com .

 

Link between intestinal bacteria, depression found - Science Daily, 7/28/15 - "We are starting to explain the complex mechanisms of interaction and dynamics between the gut microbiota and its host. Our data show that relatively minor changes in microbiota profiles or its metabolic activity induced by neonatal stress can have profound effects on host behaviour in adulthood"  - See  probiotic products at Amazon.com .

 

People less focused on recurrent bad feelings when taking probiotics - Science Daily, 4/14/15 - "Rumination is one of the most predictive vulnerability markers of depression ... Compared to subjects who received the placebo intervention, participants who received the multispecies probiotics intervention showed significantly reduced ruminative thoughts ... Even if preliminary, these results provide the first evidence that the intake of probiotics may help reduce negative thoughts associated with sad mood. As such, our findings shed an interesting new light on the potential of probiotics  to serve as adjuvant or preventive therapy for depression"  - See  probiotic products at Amazon.com .

 

Probiotics Benefit Blood Pressure in Meta-Analysis - Medscape, 7/21/14 - "the Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation (HOPE) study showed a 3.3 mmHg reduction in systolic blood pressure, along with a 1.4 mmHg reduction in diastolic blood pressure, which were associated with a 22% relative reduction in risk of cardiovascular mortality, MI, or stroke ... Probiotic species varied among the trials; four studies used yogurt as the source of probiotic bacteria, two used fermented and sour milk, one used probiotic supplements in capsule form, one used probiotic rosehip drinks, and one used probiotic cheese ... For those who ate more than one probiotic species, the reduction in systolic blood pressure was 5.8 mmHg. Those who consumed probiotics for more than eight weeks had a 4.9 mmHg reduction in systolic blood pressure" - [ Abstract]  - See  probiotic products at Amazon.com .

 

Certain probiotics could help women lose weight, study finds - Science Daily, 1/28/14 - "researchers recruited 125 overweight men and women ... half the participants swallowed 2 pills daily containing probiotics from the Lactobacillus rhamnosus family, while the other half received a placebo ... After the 12-week diet period, researchers observed an average weight loss of 4.4 kg in women in the probiotic group and 2.6 kg in the placebo group. However, no differences in weight loss were observed among males in the two groups ... We don't know why the probiotics didn't have any effect on men. It may be a question of dosage, or the study period may have been too short" - Note: 4.4 kg is 9.7 pounds.  - See  probiotic products at Amazon.com .

 

The microbes in your gut may be making you fat or keeping you thin - The Washington Post, 12/6/13 - "naturally occurring bacteria and other microbes in the body, and possibly even viruses, can influence weight in ways that scientists are only just beginning to understand ... Studies in mice have shown that intestinal microbes may contribute to weight gain. A novel experiment published this fall, for example, took gut bacteria from human twins - in which one was lean and the other obese - and transferred them into lean mice. The animals with bacteria from fat twins grew fat; those that received bacteria from lean twins stayed lean"  - See  probiotic products at Amazon.com .

 

The Role of the Gut Microbiome in Health and Disease - Medscape, 11/5/13 - "Disturbances to the microbial equilibrium of the gut may mean that some microbes become overrepresented while others are diminished. "It's like a garden-you're less likely to have weeds growing if you have lush vegetation, but without this vegetation the weeds can potentially take over," Mazmanian says. When the gut moves toward a state of microbial imbalance, normally benign gut microbes may begin to induce inflammation and trigger disease throughout the body, even in the nervous system ... although 70% of the immune cells in the body at any one time can be found in the intestine, they circulate throughout the body, and the microbiota of the gut environment help determine how immune cells will behave elsewhere. He gives an example: "If T-cells, while in the gut, are programmed by the microbiota to have anti-inflammatory properties, then they may suppress inflammation even after they leave the gut.""  - See  probiotic products at Amazon.com .

 

Lactobacillus plantarum TWK10 Supplementation Improves Exercise Performance and Increases Muscle Mass in Mice - Nutrients 2016, 8(4), 205 - "Lactobacillus plantarum (L. plantarum) is a well-known probiotic among the ingested-microorganism probiotic ... few studies have examined the effects of L. plantarum TWK10 (LP10) supplementation on exercise performance, physical fatigue, and gut microbial profile ... LP10 significantly decreased final body weight and increased relative muscle weight (%). LP10 supplementation dose-dependently increased grip strength (p < 0.0001) and endurance swimming time (p < 0.001) and decreased levels of serum lactate (p < 0.0001), ammonia (p < 0.0001), creatine kinase (p = 0.0118), and glucose (p = 0.0151) after acute exercise challenge. The number of type I fibers (slow muscle) in gastrocnemius muscle significantly increased with LP10 treatment. In addition, serum levels of albumin, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, and triacylglycerol significantly decreased with LP10 treatment. Long-term supplementation with LP10 may increase muscle mass, enhance energy harvesting, and have health-promotion, performance-improvement, and anti-fatigue effects" - [ Nutra USA] - See  probiotic products at Amazon.com .

 

Protective effects of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG against dyslipidemia in high-fat diet-induced obese mice - Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2016 Mar 23 - "Recent reports suggest that gut microbiota can be a major determinant of dyslipidemia and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and its modulation by treating probiotics is a valid strategy to exert a protective effect. In this study, high-fat diet (HFD)-fed mice were orally administrated with Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) for 13 weeks. Significant reductions in the weights of the liver, mesenteric and subcutaneous adipose tissues were observed in LGG-treated HFD-fed mice compared to LGG-non-treated controls. The serum levels of triglyceride and cholesterol were also significantly reduced in LGG-treated mice. Gut microbial composition analysis showed that shifts in the diversity of dominant gut bacteria were caused by HFD and restored by LGG treatment. A remarkable decrease of hepatic fat content was also observed in LGG-treated mice, accompanied by downregulated expressions of lipogenic and pro-inflammatory genes in the liver. LGG-treated mice had lower expression levels of genes involved in cholesterol synthesis, but conversely, higher expression levels of cholesterol efflux-related genes compared to LGG-non-treated controls"  - See  probiotic products at Amazon.com .

 

Clinical efficacy of probiotic as an adjunctive therapy to non-surgical periodontal treatment of chronic periodontitis: A systematic review and meta-analysis - J Clin Periodontol. 2016 Mar 1 - "root planing (SRP) ... chronic periodontitis (CP) ... Meta-analysis showed a statistically significant CAL gain (-0.42 mm, p=0.002) and bleeding on probing (BOP) reduction (-14.66, p=0.003) for SRP + probiotic treatment versus SRP at short-term. Only a tendency (p=0.06) has been observed in terms of overall PPD reduction, whereas results were significant when stratified for moderate (-0.18, p=0.001) and deep pockets (-0.67" - [ Nutra USA]  - See  probiotic products at Amazon.com .

 

Effect of Lactobacillus rhamnosus CGMCC1.3724 supplementation on weight loss and maintenance in obese men and women - Br J Nutr. 2013 Dec 3:1-13 - "The present study investigated the impact of a Lactobacillus rhamnosus CGMCC1.3724 (LPR) supplementation on weight loss and maintenance in obese men and women over 24 weeks ... The intention-to-treat analysis showed that after the first 12 weeks and after 24 weeks, mean weight loss was not significantly different between the LPR and placebo groups when all the subjects were considered. However, a significant treatment × sex interaction was observed. The mean weight loss in women in the LPR group was significantly higher than that in women in the placebo group (P= 0.02) after the first 12 weeks, whereas it was similar in men in the two groups (P= 0.53). Women in the LPR group continued to lose body weight and fat mass during the weight-maintenance period, whereas opposite changes were observed in the placebo group. Changes in body weight and fat mass during the weight-maintenance period were similar in men in both the groups. LPR-induced weight loss in women was associated not only with significant reductions in fat mass and circulating leptin concentrations but also with the relative abundance of bacteria of the Lachnospiraceae family in faeces. The present study shows that the Lactobacillus rhamnosus CGMCC1.3724 formulation helps obese women to achieve sustainable weight loss"  - See  probiotic products at Amazon.com .