Probiotics may offer liver benefits to alcoholics 21 April 2008
Probiotic supplements may restore the immune function of white blood cells in alcoholics, according to a recent study at University College London.
This small study assigned patients with alcoholic cirrhosis (a disease which gradually causes the liver to lose its ability to function) to receive probiotic supplements and reports show that white blood cell function was restored after four weeks, helping to fight alcohol cirrhosis.
The researchers recruited 20 people with alcoholic cirrhosis, 12 of whom were assigned to consume probiotic supplements three times a day for four weeks. The other eight were used as control subjects, as were a further 13 healthy people, and received no probiotics.
As expected, the white blood cell capacity was 25 per cent lower in the people with alcoholic cirrhosis compared to the healthy controls. At the end of the study, however, this capacity was normalized in the people receiving the probiotics. No improvements were observed in the alcoholic cirrhosis controls.
Previous studies have reported benefits from probiotics for the immune response, but no research has ever studied their potential benefits in immune function of people with alcoholic cirrhosis.
