Supplements Aim To Boost Body's 'Good' Bacteria

BOSTON -- Millions of Americans take antibiotics to fight off illness, but those same antibiotics can also kill off the good bacteria your body needs to stay healthy -- probiotics.

"These are real bacteria that, when taken in sufficient numbers, promote good health," said Dr. Sherwood Gorbach, of Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston.

Good bacteria can be found in some yogurts, but you'd have to eat a lot to get the health benefits, reported WCVB-TV in Boston. And without enough good bacteria, intestinal problems can ravage your system. That's what happened to Rhoda Sapers.

"I took an antibiotic, and I reacted to it and developed severe diarrhea and nothing would take it away," Sapers said.

She tried a probiotic product called Culturelle. It's the brainchild of Gorbach.

"(The probiotics) go into your intestine and establish residence and then protect you against bad bacteria," Gorbach said.

Culturelle is one of dozens of probiotic supplements on the market. It is a strain of bacteria called Lactobacillus GG, or LGG. More than 250 studies have shown LGG effective for gastrointestinal problems and food allergies -- even in unborn children.

"In one large study, this was given to pregnant women in the final trimester, the final three months of pregnancy, and it reduced the incidence of food allergy by 50 percent in their infants," Gorbach said.

Gorbach, who has financial ties to the company that makes Culturelle, suggests even healthy adults can benefit with a daily probiotic. But some doctors say that is overzealous marketing and that more research needs to be done.

"We don't really have any evidence for a person who is healthy that that is going to make them healthier or maintain their health," said Dr. Robert Burakoff, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

If you buy probiotic supplements, make sure they have between 1 billion and 10 billion colony-forming units, or CFUs, and be aware that probiotics are classified as dietary supplements, which means they are not regulated or approved by the Food and Drug Administration.