Not all yogurts are equally useless
Biologists have proved that probiotics have useful qualities
The use of large amounts of popular probiotics increased bone density in mice, which indicates the presence of beneficial properties in such products. Biologists write about this in an article published in the journal Immunity (Tyagi et al., The Microbial Metabolite Butyrate Stimulates Bone Formation via T Regulatory Cell-Mediated Regulation of WNT10B Expression).
"We didn't know how probiotics worked, so many people considered them one of the subspecies of alternative medicine, something esoteric and unscientific. We not only tested their work, but also tried to find out what biological mechanisms caused their action, which, we hope, will accelerate the penetration of these products into medicine," said Roberto Pacifici from Emory University in Atlanta (in a press release Probiotics increase bone volume in healthy mice - VM).
The Invisible Puppeteer
The human body contains about 10 times more unicellular representatives of the microflora than our own cells. Observations of recent years show that microflora can not only affect a person's metabolism and the likelihood of developing cancer and other diseases, but also his behavior and habits.
For example, experiments on mice show that transplantation of "healthy" microflora into the intestines of obese rodents can make them lose weight. In turn, thin people on average have a richer and more diverse microflora, and fatty foods promote the reproduction of special bacteria in the intestine that promote fat absorption and accelerate the development of obesity.
Scientists have been arguing for more than a century about whether it is possible to improve the microflora and make it more useful for the body with the help of various probiotic products containing various beneficial bacteria. For example, back in 1907 Ilya Mechnikov, the Nobel laureate and founder of Russian biology, linked the longevity of Bulgarian peasants with the fact that they drank a large amount of yogurt.
In the following years, many supporters and opponents of this idea appeared, and so far biologists and doctors have no unambiguous confirmation or refutation that probiotics can directly change the microflora. Skeptics' doubts are related to the fact that gastric juice kills most of the microbes even before they have time to get into the intestine, which makes probiotics as useful as regular food.
The power of microflora
Pacifisi and his colleagues proved that probiotics still have useful properties by observing how several popular varieties of yogurt and other dairy products contain a large number of Lactobacillus rhamnosus bacteria.
These microbes, as scientists have long known, tolerate the "journey" through the stomach quite well, but their benefits for the human body have so far remained the subject of controversy among scientists. For example, some biologists believed that they help strengthen the bones of women, while other researchers doubted this.
American researchers proved that this is the case by feeding several dozen mice with a special "yogurt" with Lactobacillus rhamnosus for a month. Such a diet, according to them, increased the bone density of rodents by 10%, which significantly reduced the risk of osteoporosis and fractures in old age.
The reason for this, as scientists discovered, were two things – these bacteria stimulated the growth of other microbes from the Clostridium family, which released large amounts of butyrate, or butyric acid. This substance, in turn, penetrated into the bone marrow and increased the activity of the Wnt10b gene, one of the main stimulators of bone growth.
A picture from an article in Immunity – VM.
"In the past, we have argued about whether probiotics work and, if so, which ones are the most beneficial. It turned out that they really affect bone health. It is not yet clear which of them are the most useful, but it is gradually becoming clear that the number of microbes in a probiotic affects its properties no less than the type of bacteria itself," concludes Pacifisi.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru