The Wall Street Journal did an article this week on probiotics and how they may be very important to human health. You can see it here http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324784404578143402702878118.html. This is not news to us. Every day my son and I take a morning probiotic. We vary the strains between a few brands. I take mine as capsules and he gets his mixed into his chocolate coconut milk yogurt.
We do this for a variety of reasons all of which are related to intestinal health. There are literally thousands of studies on the health benefits of probiotics on PubMed. Some of the newest ones include the following
A review of probiotics in human health including diabetes.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23181893
The full article is available as a not fully formatted PDF, so this is in beta, but the information is still good. Just skip past the doctor bios.
http://www.gutpathogens.com/content/pdf/1757-4749-4-15.pdf
Probiotics seem to reduce the risk of death from some of our scarier pathogens (E Coli 57, Staph)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22955353
They seem to reduce heart disease
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23182355
Oh yes and autism. There seems to be some evidence it helps with the tantrums and sleep issues. Go to section three on microbiota abnormalities. Try not to scream. Has anyone thought about how irritable any person would become if they had a stomachache that lasted for years.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3205659/
But if none of that has you interested, perhaps this one will. Apparently fermented food (kimchi in this case) kept the rats from getting fat.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22978326
Which makes sense if you think that obesity is caused by bad gut microflora
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23159341
So yes, there is a pill you can get at most stores that research shows reduces your risk of getting a cold, or food poisoning or getting fat.
It is definitely something to ask your doctor about. Many will tell you that they take a daily probiotic as well.
