Take some milk, add a little lactic acid-fermenting bacteria and voila -- you have yogurt! Well, there's a little more to the process than that, but in terms of ingredients, it really is that simple. Milk and live bacterial cultures are the only ingredients necessary to make plain yogurt. The bacteria that are used to make yogurt remain live in the finished product, unless the yogurt is subjected to processes such as pasteurization, which can kill the bacteria. Modern society seems obsessed with eradicating bacteria, but the fact is, they're not all bad for you. The beneficial bacteria found in yogurt, called "probiotics," are helpful in the prevention and treatment of several forms of diarrhea.
Probiotics, Yogurt and Health
The health benefits of yogurt with live bacterial cultures have been studied for many decades, beginning in the early 1900s with Elie Metchnikoff, who later went on to win the Nobel prize. Metchnikoff noticed that Bulgarian peasants who ate lots of yogurt tended to enjoy especially long, robust lives, often living to 100 years or more. Today, science has confirmed that beneficial bacteria have positive effects in the treatment of lactose intolerance, gastric ulcers and diarrhea, among other conditions.
Probiotics and Antibiotic-Associated Diarrhea
Beneficial bacteria already live inside your body. They colonize your intestines, where their presence wards off invasion by less friendly microorganisms. Antibiotics are designed to kill bacteria, and they don't differentiate between the good and the bad forms. When you take antibiotics, they can kill of your normal flora, which is the term used to describe the beneficial bacteria that reside in your gastrointestinal tract. This can cause bouts of antibiotic-associated diarrhea. The Harvard Family Health Guide states that two large reviews of placebo-controlled studies have indicated that probiotics can reduce this form of diarrhea by 60 percent.
Probiotics and Traveler's Diarrhea
When you're in a new country and you consume new foods and beverages, you may be exposed to bacteria that are foreign to you. These bacteria have already been introduced to the folks who live there, and no longer cause the gastrointestinal calamities that may result when you, the tourist, indulges in the same commodities. The result is traveler's diarrhea. Dr. Johnnie Yates of the CIWEC Clinic Travel Medicine Center in Kathmandu, Nepal states that probiotics may provide a natural approach to the prevention of traveler's diarrhea by keeping out the pathogens that can cause this infection.
Considerations
Different types of probiotic microbes are found in different brands of yogurt. Not all types of probiotic bacteria are effective against diarrhea. In order to be effective, you have to ensure you're consuming yogurt that contains bacteria known to fight diarrhea. According to the "Journal of Pediatrics," Lactobacillus GG, Bifidobacterium lactis and Streptococcus thermophilus are three types of probiotic bacteria that have been found to be effective in treating diarrhea.
References
- Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide; Health Benefits of Taking Probiotics; September 2005
- "American Family Physician";Traveler's Diarrhea; Johnnie Yates; June 2005
- "American Journal of Gastroenterology"; Meta-analysis of Probiotics for the Prevention of Antibiotic Associated Diarrhea and the Treatment of Clostridium Difficile Disease; L.V. McFarland; April 2006
- USProbiotics.org: Probiotic Basics
- "Communicating Current Research and Educational Topics and Trends in Applied Microbiology"; Probiotics: 100 years (1907-2007) After Elie Metchnikoff's Observation; Kingsley C. Anukam; 2007
- "The Journal of Pediatrics"; Probiotics in the Prevention of Antibiotic-Associated Diarrhea in Children: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials; Hania Szajewsa, et al.; September 2006
