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Reduced By Probiotic Bacteria Sepsis Risk (and more) For Newborns

Jennifer J

Senior Member
Messages
997
Location
Southern California
I heard this on the radio yesterday, another promising study involving probiotics! :thumbsup: (Highlighted parts were done by me.)

http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsan...-could-protect-newborns-from-deadly-infection

If you're in desperate need for some good news, look no further. Scientists in the U.S. and India have found an inexpensive treatment that could possibly save hundreds of thousands of newborns each year.

And it turns out, the secret weapon was sitting in Asian kitchens all along: probiotic bacteria that are common in kimchi, pickles and other fermented vegetables.

Feeding babies the microbes dramatically reduces the risk newborns will develop sepsis, scientists report Wednesday in the journal Nature.

For the past 20 years, Panigrahi has been working on a way to prevent sepsis.

Early on he thought probiotic bacteria might be the answer because they work well on another infection that affects preemies, called necrotizing enterocolitis. It damages the intestines.

The tricky part, Panigrahi says, was figuring out the best strain of bacteria to protect against sepsis.

"We screened more than 280 strains in preliminary animal and human studies," Panigrahi says. "So it was a very methodical process."

In the end, the one that seemed the most promising was a strain of Lactobacillus plantarum isolated from the diaper of a healthy Indian baby. So Panigrahi and his team decided to move forward with a large-scale study on thousands of babies in rural India.

They were shocked by how well the bacteria worked.

Babies who ate the microbes for a week — along with some sugars to feed the microbes — had a dramatic reduction in their risk of death and sepsis. They dropped by 40 percent, from 9 percent to 5.4 percent.

But that's not all. The probiotic also warded off several other types of infections, including those in the lungs. Respiratory infections dropped by about 30 percent.

"That was a big surprise, because we didn't think gut bacteria were going to work in a distant organ like the lung," Panigrahi says.

Now if you think about what's going on here, it almost seems counterintuitive. Remember sepsis is a bacterial infection. So the researcher are preventing a bacterial infection with bacteria.

How is that possible? "Essentially these bacteria have a whole number of health benefits that we have just started to understand in the past couple of years, says Dr. Pascal Lavoie, a neonatologist at BC Children's Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia.

First off, these beneficial bacteria can push out harmful bacteria in the baby's gut by changing the environment or simply using up resources, Lavoie says.

The probiotic bacteria also produces a compound that strengthens the wall of the intestine. "It acts as a barrier to prevent the bad bacteria from going through the wall into the blood," he says.

And, the probiotic bacteria can jump-start a baby's immune system.


"Sepsis is such a important problem around the world," Lavoie says. "This study has huge potential."
 

Hutan

Senior Member
Messages
1,099
Location
New Zealand
And it turns out, the secret weapon was sitting in Asian kitchens all along: probiotic bacteria that are common in kimchi, pickles and other fermented vegetables.

This was interesting although the article gives no further details on these bacteria in the Asian fermented vegetables.

Thank-you Wikipedia:
Lactobacillus kimchii is a bacteriocin-producing lactic acid bacterium of the genus Lactobacillus. It is named for and found in the Koreanfermented-vegetable food kimchi.​

Bacteriocins are proteinaceous or peptidictoxins produced by bacteria to inhibit the growth of similar or closely related bacterial strain(s).​

Which leaves me uncertain - would it be good to eat kimchi when taking probiotic supplements? Perhaps the kimchi bacteria will help kill the bad bacteria. But perhaps they will kill other good lactobacillus species. Maybe it's best when first trialling a probiotic supplement to not start eating any new fermented food.

Ha, the more we know, the more questions there are.

By the way, I'm still feeling, after a couple of weeks, that the Vivomixx probiotic (=VSL#3) (which has a number of Lactobacillus species) is helping. Stools have gone from Bristol #6 or 7 (mushy/liquid) to #5 (solid). And my skin has cleared. Those two things are very objective and welcome changes and happened in the first week. I think I also have more energy so long as I don't get excited and do too much.
 

ME3

Messages
11
Thank you for all this information. I'm not medically trained, nor am I good with social media, but I do follow all these threads. They are so helpful. I would like to say that I have taken probiotics for about 4 years now and doubled up on my dose after an episode of what has been called by several different names. Psychosis, Sepsis and Encephalitis is another possibility. I was interested to hear Dr Charles Shepherd say he had encephalitis with chickenpox.

Infections cause delirium for me and also caused a TIA (mini stroke). I have never had any signs of mental illness or depression, anxiety etc. I have constant pressure in my head and at one time said my scalp felt so sore, only washing my hair eased the pain. It was as sleeping on bricks and I use soft pillow protectors rathe than pillow cases for my face pain. I also suffer with Episcleriti(Inflammation of the whites of the eyes). Light sensitivity and neuropathic pain in the eyes.

I was told it could only be diagnosed correctly in hospital, but I was put into a mental health ward as many have said happens to them. I'm desperate to know the correct diagnosis. Perhaps some suggestions please?

Since I doubled the probiotics, I have remained well with regard to having no further infections that caused delirium so I do believe they work well for me. They mainly contain Lactobacilus acidopholus, L Bulgaricus, L salivarius and Bifidobactarium. 3 Billion per capsule. (now 2 per day). I don't understand the differences but hope it means something to those more knowledgable.

There was a programme here where I think 2 people were making their own fermented vegetables and it showed how. They were saying about the beneficial bacteria, but it must be done correctly. Sorry I can't provide a link or remember which programme. Maybe someone else saw?

I hope more studies are done around this and of course all others continue with break throughs for us all.