Probiotics improve quality of life for people with inflammatory arthritis

Published August 19, 2020

probiotics, arthritis diet, inflammation, healthy gut, arthritis gut, arthritis food, arthritis digest

A relatively new foodie fad, probiotics are heralded as having various health benefits, especially where our gut is concerned. More research is looking at the relationship between the gut and inflammation and some believe there is a link. So experts recently analysed the research that specifically looks at the impact probiotics have on inflammatory arthritis and report their findings in Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice.

After an extensive trawl through the evidence, 12 studies were found that were of a high enough quality to include; four involved people with spondyloarthropathies and eight focused on rheumatoid arthritis. Probiotics were taken for an average of 60 days. While a variety of different probiotics were used, Lactobacillales was the most popular.

Taking probiotics was found to:

Benefit quality of life, especially Lactobacillales-only formulations;
Reduce pain;
Have a positive impact on the inflammatory marker C-reactive protein, particularly in people with rheumatoid arthritis and from combined Bifidobacteriales and Lactobacillales formulations;
Have no negative side effects.

“This review indicates there may be differential benefits to combined formulations of Bifidobacteriales and Lactobacillales compared to purely Lactobacillales formulations, with respect to reducing pain, lowering C-reactive protein and improving quality of life,” the experts conclude. “It also suggests variable benefits associated with the type of inflammatory arthritis.”

Click here to read the original research.

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