Probiotics not effective in alleviating anxiety

Washington : Consuming probiotics - live bacteria that are good for health - does not reduce anxiety in humans, a study has found. The researchers from the University of Kansas in the US reviewed data from 22 preclinical studies involving 743 animals and 14 clinical studies of 1,527 individuals, "Probiotics did not significantly reduce symptoms of anxiety in humans and did not differentially affect clinical and healthy human samples," said Daniel J Reis, a doctoral student and lead author of the study published in the journal PLOS ONE. 

 Reis said rodents showing reduced anxiety after ingesting probiotics took a lot more probiotics than people in clinical studies, which could explain the difference in results. The researchers pointed out that humans in the existing studies weren't suffering from especially high levels of anxiety. 

"We looked at clinical studies with people, and, in terms of the current literature, we didn't find evidence that probiotics were reducing self-reported anxiety," Reis said. However, the researchers said their findings should not close the door on probiotics - the microorganisms in yogurts and other products that take up residence in our guts - as a potentially useful therapy for anxiety and other cognitive issues in the future.