There is no denying that in terms of benefits for your health, probiotics are having a moment right now.
In fact, these tiny microbes have been hailed as key solution to so many health issues, from depression to constipation.
Many have jumped on the bandwagon, and now a team of researchers have found an even bigger benefit: The right strain of good bacteria can even prevent newborn sepsis and, in turn, contribute to saving hundreds of thousands infants deaths worldwide every year.
A team of scientists at the University of Nebraska Medical Centre have for the past nine years tried to find a way to prevent sepsis (a severe (and usually bacterial) infection that spreads through the body, and is a major cause of newborn deaths worldwide) and have as part of their project screened hundreds of strains of bacteria to find the one that would make a difference.
What they wanted to find out, was if maybe probiotics could help push out harmful bacteria in baby’s gut by changing the environment, and if the beneficial bacteria could also help prevent infections by serving as barriers to the bloodstream.
And now, after testing one particular strain of bacteria in a large scale study, Pinaki Panigrahi and his team have had some amazing results.
According to the recent study, published in Nature, newborns in India who ate the microbes for a week were 40 percent less likely to develop sepsis. About 5.4 percent of those newborns developed sepsis in the first two months of life, compared to 9 percent of those in the placebo group. NPR reports that the probiotic also warded off several other types of infections, even in distant organs like the lungs.
The team had planned on enrolling 8,000 infants in the study, but stopped at 4,557 because the trial worked so well.
According to the scientists, a course of probiotic would only cost about $1 per baby, as it can be manufactured easily.
“We may need to test this in different settings and we’re working with the government to do so,” Panigrahi tells The Atlantic. “But this should be the standard of care. The money involved is very small.
