For Our Health

The medical field is an extremely dynamic and innovative one, as the professionals involved in the field are desperate to ensure that they are able to identify the best way of improving the efficacy of the treatment and medication options that are currently available.

With that in mind, there has been a significant increase in the level of interest concerning the relative efficacy and clinical benefits that probiotic products such as probiotic drinks and probiotic supplements have to offer. Not to be confused with prebiotics which are non-digestible food ingredients that stimulate the growth and activity of bacteria in the digestive system.

At first, it was originally believed that probiotic strains such as actobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacteria, Lactobacillus DDS-1 had an extremely limited and narrow range of functionality, providing little benefit beyond the realm of the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders. However, there is some preliminary research studies that have raised the possibility that probiotics can be used for other health benefits.

In particular, probiotics have been cited as a potential treatment option for the management of cholesterol regulation, which itself has significant implications for people who already have a medical history plagued by the likes of cardiovascular pathologies such as myocardial infarction and thinning of the blood.
At first this was merely dismissed as being little more than a cheap and cynical marketing ploy, intended to capitalise on people’s fears concerning heart disease and the associated mortality rates that come with it.

However, studies have identified a correlation between the ingestion of probiotic agents including probiotics based yoghurt and cholesterol. It was identified that at the end of the study, there was a recordable reduction in the concentration of low density lipids (LDLs).Research conducted into the relationship between cholesterol and the risk of cardiovascular pathologies has identified that it is LDLs which pose the greatest threat and risk of a heart attack.

To claim that based upon this study that the ingestion of probiotics on a daily basis will effectively mean that a person is immune from the ravages of heart disease is both optimistic and highly misleading. That said, although there is still significant research still to be conducted into this relationship, it does provide a small glimmer of potential hope for people who suffer from heart disease, or who are unfortunate enough to suffer from an elevated risk thereof.

Some studies have also gingerly suggested a relationship between milk fermented with very specific strains of probiotics and an associated reduction in the measurable blood pressure rate of the person who has ingested the milk. These findings also echo the conclusions inferred from the cholesterol study.