AsianScientist (Dec. 17, 2013) – Taking probiotics has health benefits, but preventing childhood asthma is not one of them, according to a study led by medical scientists at the University of Alberta in Canada . The findings have been published in the British Medical Journal.
Meghan Azad, a post-doctoral fellow in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta, led a team that reviewed data from 20 clinical trials in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan. The trials involved more than 4,800 children whose mothers either took probiotics during pregnancy or gave probiotics to their babies in the first year. The rate of doctor-diagnosed asthma was 11.2 percent among infants who received probiotics and 10.2 per cent among babies who received the placebo.
“Taking probiotics had no effect on the asthma rate,” said Azad. “We haven’t shown there’s any harm in giving probiotics, but it can’t really be advised as a strategy to prevent asthma. That doesn’t mean probiotics aren’t good for other reasons. There’s really good evidence that probiotics are beneficial to infants who are born preterm and suffer from a bowel condition. There’s also good evidence that probiotics might prevent eczema.”
Her team made another finding that warrants more research: babies who received probiotics as infants or in utero had higher incidences of lower respiratory infections.
“This study identified a potential association between probiotics and lower respiratory infections,” said Azad. “But more research is required to see if the two are indeed linked.”
Azad hopes that her research will help physicians make evidence-based decisions relating to childhood asthma prevention.
The article can be found at: Azad M et al. (2013) Probiotic supplementation during pregnancy or infancy for the prevention of asthma and wheeze: systematic review and meta-analysis.
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Source: University of Alberta; Photo: Ashley Steel/Flickr/CC.
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