Lee Swanson Research Update

Probiotics Show Benefits for Mother and Child

January 2011

Daily supplements of select probiotic strains may reduce the risk of premature birth, and the complications that result from being born pre-term, two new studies say.

According to findings published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Bifidobacterium breve and Lactobacillus casei were associated with protection against necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a devastating complication of pre-term birth.

A second and separate study, published in the same journal, also found that consumption of milk-based probiotic products by women during pregnancy was associated with an 18% reduction in the risk of premature delivery.

Both studies add to a small but compelling body of science supporting the potential benefits of specific probiotic strains for mother and child.

For the first study, which focused on NEC, Brazilian researchers led by Taciana Duque Braga from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Instituto de Medicina Integral Professor Fernando Figueira in Recife, Brazil, 231 pre-term infants participated in the double-blind, randomized trial. Infants were fed either control milk or milk fortified with B. breve and L. casei. Infants were followed for 30 days.

Data showed a positive effect of probiotic use on the risk of NEC, with no infants in the probiotic group developing the condition, but four infants in the control group being diagnosed with NEC. As a result, the study was stopped early.

"The number of studies published that have evaluated the role of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria in the prevention of NEC is extremely low," explained the Brazilian researchers.

"Considering that the effects of probiotics are species-specific, it remains to be determined whether there are any probiotic strains more suitable for preventing NEC in pre-term infants," they concluded.

The second study, led by Ronny Myhre from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, was not an intervention study, but an epidemiologic/observational study. Data from 18,888 healthy, pregnant women was analyzed and the incidence of premature birth correlated with probiotic consumption.

Women with the highest amounts of probiotic consumption were 18% less likely to experience premature delivery, compared with women reporting no probiotic use, reported the researchers.

"Our results imply that high intake (in mL) of probiotic food items, which in this study corresponded to a mean intake of 138.4 mL/d, had an effect with a range of 2.85x109 to 2.0x1011 probiotic bacteria/d in the high-intake group," explained the researchers.

"Further investigation is warranted with the use of randomized controlled trials for evaluation as to whether to view presence of foods containing probiotics as protective and their absence as a risk factor for [spontaneous pre-term delivery] and to improve understanding of health complications during pregnancy to further facilitate effective health-promotion strategies," they concluded.

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Published online ahead of print.

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