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> > Over-sixties advised to boost daily diet with good bacteria
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Over-sixties advised to boost daily diet with good bacteria
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EVERYONE over the age of 60 should be encouraged to take probiotic products daily to
boost their declining levels of "good" bacteria and protect them against intestinal
infections including hospital superbugs, experts say.
A group of leading food microbiologists yesterday called for wider use of probiotics,
particularly among elderly people, as well as tighter rules on labelling, so that specific
details are provided about the bacteria in products.
They said that about half of the probiotics available were inaccurately labeled and did
not do what they claimed, while some were found to contain unhealthy pathogens. Most
of the serious offenders were sold over the internet and from unorthodox health food
shops. The warning did not apply to mainstream brands used by the majority of people,
such as those made by Danone, Yakult and Nestlé and sold as supermarkets own brands.
"Friendly" bacteria aid digestion in the gut and reduce the chances of stomach upsets.
Research suggests that they also help to prevent bowel conditions and protect children
against allergies, and may reduce the risk of colon cancer. Recently there has been an
explosion in the use of probiotics, including yoghurt-style drinks, supplements and
powders.
The group of scientists, led by Glen Gibson, Professor of Food Microbiology at the
University of Reading, said that people should be aware of the benefits of maintaining
balanced gut flora, including high levels of good bacteria. The most common types are
species belonging to the lactobacillus and bifidobacillus families.
Experts believe that high-fat, low-fibre Western diets may contribute to a lack of friendly
bacteria and an increase in harmful bacteria.
About 90 per cent of the bacteria in the gut of a newborn infant are friendly microbes, but
this is reduced to 10-15 per cent in the average adult. After the age of 60 to 65, levels of
friendly bacteria plummet 1,000-fold. "The elderly are definitely an excellent market for
probiotic intake," Professor Gibson said.
"Awareness in the UK is increasing slowly but
it is not great. It is a tricky concept to get over to people."
He said it was no accident that in the world's worst recorded case of food poisoning by
the stomach bug E. coli 0157, all those who died were elderly. A total of 21 people were
killed in Lanarkshire, Scotland, in 1996.
The research group said that one of the biggest obstacles in the way of useful probiotics
was price, with a week's supply sometimes costing about £3.
Probiotic products need to contain at least ten million bacteria to be effective. It is also
vital that the bacteria survive their passage through the gastro-intestinal system. A recent
study indicated that nine patients with ulcerative colitis, a form of inflammatory bowel
disease that causes bloody bowel movements and abdominal pain, had 30-fold reduced
levels of Bifidobacteria.
Four weeks after being given a Bifidobacteria probiotic, plus a sugary supplement to
promote growth of the bacteria, they reported fewer symptoms. Many less well-known
products did not live up to the promises made on their labels, the scientists said. They
may not contain the numbers of bacteria advertised, and the microbes may not survive in
the gut long enough.
Consumers were also advised not to trust brands of healthy yoghurt promoted as being
probiotic without any specific information about the bacteria they contain. "There are a
lot of products out there that no one has ever heard of, and this is where the problems
arise. There's no legislation," Professor Gibson said. "You could buy a yoghurt-maker
from Tesco, make your own probiotics, and sell them." There were moves under way
within the European Parliament to introduce controls on probiotics but the "wheels turn
very slowly".
PROMOTING PROBIOTICS
More than two million Britons regularly buy drinks, yoghurts and capsules containing
probiotics, in a market worth an estimated £135 million a year.
About 20 per cent of the population suffer from irritable bowel syndrome, which is often
traced to a bacterial imbalance in the gut
Ilya Mechnikov, a Nobel prize-winning scientist, was the first to link yoghurt to
improved life expectancy in the early 1900s after observing that a group of Bulgarian
peasans lived for much longer than their peers. He discovered that they drank large
quantities of sour milk.
Experts believe that the sale of prebiotics — supplements that boost bacteria already in
the gut rather than introduce more, as probiotics do —will soar in the next few years
Prebiotics are a form of dietary fibre and do not create the same storage and consumption
problems as live bacteria in probiotics
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