Probiotics may help prevent colds

摘要

A study published in The Cochrane Library shows that taking probiotics may provide both children and adults with a mild degree of protection against many upper respiratory tract infections (URTI), including the common cold. Probiotics are in fermented foods like yogurt, soy yogurt and kefir. People also often take probiotics as supplements. The reviewers compared how often colds and other respiratory infections occurred in people who consumed probiotics to people who took placebos and found a statistically significant difference. "Probiotics intervention was better than placebo in reducing the number of participants experiencing episodes of acute URTI infections," said review co-author Qiu-kui Hao, a medical student Sichuan University in China. "Limited information from three of the 14 studies we included in our analysis also showed that probiotics can reduce the prescription of antibiotics." The researchers based their conclusions on 14 randomized controlled trials that included 3,451 participants.