Probiotic shows promise for obesity and diabetes

Posted on Fri, 15 Aug 14

Probiotics might be able to help improve your blood sugar and body weight, according to a new study showing that the probiotic yeast Saccharomyces boulardii reversed diabetes and obesity by improving gastrointestinal health and reducing inflammation. 

Certain gut bacteria are known to play an important role in the development of chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity, in part by increasing low-grade inflammation in your body, and disrupting your metabolism.

With this in mind a research group set out to see whether the probiotic yeast S. boulardii would have any benefit. S. boulardii is widely available as a probiotic supplement and has been very well studied, but this is the first time its potential effects on obesity and diabetes have been investigated.

Some striking effects of the probiotic were seen.  Within weeks, obese and type 2 diabetic mice given S. boulardii exhibited reduced fatty liver, a 10% reduction in fat mass and body weight, and a 40 to 50% reduction in inflammatory markers. Furthermore, these improvements correlated with improvements to gastrointestinal tissue and several important changes in gut bacterial balance.  

This remarkable study provides new insight into the effects of S. boulardii and further supports the idea that probiotics could help reduce the passage of inflammatory molecules in your gut (known and endotoxin) into you blood, causing inflammation, disrupting your metabolism and damaging your health.

Reference:

Everard A, Matamoros S, Geurts L, Delzenne NM, Cani PD. Saccharomyces boulardii administration changes gut microbiota and reduces hepatic steatosis, low-grade inflammation, and fat mass in obese and type 2 diabetic db/db mice. MBio. 2014 Jun 10;5(3):e01011-14.