3 ms·
Are probiotics bunk? Or do they only include a few species and not the complete biodiversity really needed in the human digestive system?
by api 12y ago
Are probiotics bunk? Or do they only include a few species and not the complete biodiversity really needed in the human digestive system?
- ll123 12y agoWe don't even know the complete biodiversity needed for the digestive system
- derefr 12y agoProbiotics contain individual bacterial species, to help people who might be missing that one species, where we know that species serves an important function—they make sense for the same reason people missing one nutrient would take a supplement for that one nutrient (e.g. vitamin C.) The alternative to taking one of these foecal pills would be to take lots of different probiotics, in appropriate portions, over time. This is, after all, what animals do naturally to create gut microbiomes in the first place. (It's hypothesized that this is why we like the taste of things like blue cheese: maximizing gut-biome biodiversity is apparently good for reproductive fitness, so we've evolved to enjoy the taste of things with novel bacteria on them.)