Department of Family Medicine, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, United States.
Department of Pediatrics, University of California, Davis, CA, United States.
Adv Nutr. 2024 Aug;15(8):100265. doi: 10.1016/j.advnut.2024.100265. Epub 2024 Jul 6.
Probiotics are typically marketed as foods and dietary supplements, categories for products intended to maintain health in generally healthy populations and which, unlike drugs, cannot claim to treat or cure disease. This review addresses the existing evidence that probiotics are beneficial to healthy people. Our approach was to perform a descriptive review of efficacy evidence that probiotics can prevent urinary, vaginal, gastrointestinal, and respiratory infections, and improve risk factors associated with cardiovascular health or reduce antibiotic use. Other endpoints such as mental, dental, or immune health were not specifically addressed. We concluded that there is sufficient evidence of efficacy and safety for clinicians and consumers to consider using specific probiotics for some indications - such as the use of probiotics to support gut function during antibiotic use or to reduce the risk of respiratory tract infections - for certain people. However, we did not find a sufficiently high level of evidence to support unconditional, population-wide recommendations for other preventive endpoints we reviewed for healthy people. Although evidence for some indications is suggestive of the preventive benefits of probiotics, additional research is needed.
益生菌通常作为食品和膳食补充剂销售，这些产品旨在维持一般健康人群的健康，与药物不同，它们不能声称可以治疗或治愈疾病。本综述旨在探讨益生菌对健康人群有益的现有证据。我们的方法是对益生菌可以预防尿路感染、阴道感染、胃肠道感染和呼吸道感染，以及改善与心血管健康相关的风险因素或减少抗生素使用的功效证据进行描述性综述。其他终点，如心理健康、口腔健康或免疫健康，并未专门涉及。我们得出的结论是，有足够的证据表明益生菌的疗效和安全性，临床医生和消费者可以考虑将特定的益生菌用于某些适应症，例如在使用抗生素期间使用益生菌来支持肠道功能，或降低呼吸道感染的风险——对于某些人来说。然而，我们没有发现足够高的证据来支持针对我们为健康人群审查的其他预防性终点的无条件、全人群建议。尽管一些适应症的证据表明益生菌具有预防益处，但仍需要进一步的研究。
