Bugs Can Cure What Ails You

Posting Date: 05/24/2001

I?ve been speaking about germs and how exposure to them can be good for the body, and we?ve been talking about regulating the vitamin and supplement industry in the United States for a long time on this program. Here is a study that brings both these ideas together. This study coming out of Europe is quite interesting.

Probiotics are touted as offering beneficial microbes, such as those from the lactobacillus family, that can assist the body in a variety of functions including aiding digestion and boosting the immune system. Now you can go out and buy germs!

There is a reasonable supposition that probiotics might work. We?ve talked before on this program about how germs can help the body become immune to allergens, especially in children. We?ve talked about how having dirty houses and pets at certain ages can help a child be immune to asthma and allergies. Well, this idea has become a big business -- the probiotics business.

The problem with probiotics is that the literature out there is uneven, so studying the effects of these types of supplements is just in the beginning stages. Here is one study that that is enlightening. This is research coming out of Europe. I don?t know if the products are the same in the United States as they are in Europe. But this study is worth looking at.

Investigators at the University of Ghent in Belgium conducted laboratory analyses of the ingredients in 55 products sold in Europe. They found that only 20 percent (11 of the 55) contained the ingredients that were listed on the label. Nine did not contain any of the probiotics listed on the label.

This is an unregulated industry in Europe as it is in the United States. The chief investigator says he believes that the production and labeling of these supplements should be ?placed under more stringent government control.?

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