Probiotics can possibly help prevent colon cancer

Chennai: Probiotics, or live bacteria that can improve one’s health, may offer many health benefits, but one that has been receiving more support recently is its possibility to help prevent colon cancer.

Colorectal cancer, which is identified as a disease of the old age, if found developing in an individual following a micro biome analysis, can be prevented by the consumption of probiotics along with antibiotic treatment. Studies suggest that probiotics restore a healthy bacteria population in the gut. At the eighth India Probiotic Symposium that was launched in the city on Saturday, ‘emerging opportunities of Probiotics in Health’ were discussed.

Global experts shared the latest findings on the influence of the intestinal microbiota — or an organism — with the onset of diseases and the benefit of probiotics in alleviating them. They also established a strong link between the benefits of probiotics in building a strong immune system.

“A well-balanced gut microbiota with high diversity ensures good health. However, owing to lifestyle disorders, gut microbiota can be affected by imbalanced diets, severe stress, unhygienic conditions, drugs, antibiotics or pathogenic infection. Our clinical studies confirm that probiotics are regarded as highly valuable to restore the desirable gut microbiota.

“One of the better ways to maintain the health in the elderly is to keep the gut microbiota diverse using probiotics as it improves the gut microenvironment by recovering the well-balanced microbiota in the intestinal tract,” said Dr. Masanobu Nanno, Deputy Director of Yakult Central Institute. at Tokyo, Japan.