DO PROBIOTICS MARKETED FOR WOMEN
REALLY WORK, OR IS IT ALL JUST A MARKETING
GIMMICK? LINDA MUSIC INVESTIGATES
DIGEST
A lot to
W
e’ve been hearing about the
benefits of probiotics for a
few years now, but recently
an influx of probiotics, marketed
specifically towards women, have hit
the shelves. The question that you
might be asking is, do women really
need different probiotics to men? Turns
out,theanswerisnotsoclearcut.
ProfessorGeorginaHold,fromthe
MicrobiomeResearchCentreinSydney,
explainsthatwhileitisknownthat
menandwomenhavedifferencesin
theirmicrobiomes(microbiomesare
themicroorganismslivinginaspecific
environmentsuchasthegutorvagina),
thereisn’talotofdocumentedresearch
lookingatthesedifferences.
“It’soneofthoseareaswheremore
explorationisneeded,”shesays.
Butgenderisn’ttheonlyfactor
affectingdifferencesinmicrobiome.
“Ethnicity,geographyanddietall
haveahugeinfluenceonmicrobes
ingeneral,sowhat’shealthyfor
onegeographicalbackgroundisn’t
necessarilyhealthyforsomeoneelse.
There’s a lot of variation and we’re still
in the infancy of trying to understand
these variations.”
So, with a multitude of factors
affecting your microbiome, can
probiotic manufacturers really claim
a probiotic is beneficial just for women?
According to ProfessorGregor
Reid,fromtheUniversity
ofWesternOntarioin
Canada,itdepends
onthestrainsof
probioticsusedand
whatyou’retaking
themfor.Professor
Reidhasbeenstudying
probioticsandtheir
applicationsinwomen’s
healthsincetheearly’80s,
inparticular,thebenefitsof
lactobacillionvaginalhealth.
Thefoundationofhisworkcame
fromresearchin 1973 byDrAndrew
Brucewhoshowedthatwomenwho’d
neverhadaurinarytractinfection
(UTI)werecolonisedinthevagina
bylactobacilliwhereaswomenwithrecurrent UTIs were not. Instead,
women with recurrent UTIs were
colonised by different pathogens, known
as coliforms, that moved up into the
bladder causing frequent infections.
“We hypothesised that lactobacilli
could play a protective role in healthy
womenand that replenishing
thelactobacilliinwomen
withpersistentinfections
couldhelpwiththeir
symptoms,”says
ProfessorReid.
Reducedlevels
oflactobacillusare
linkedtobacterial
vaginosis,acondition
wherethevagina
iscolonisedbytoo
manybacteria.
“However,inyeastinfectionssuch
asthrush,lactobacilliarenotdepleted,
whichiswhycertainprobioticstrains
suchasLactobacillusrhamnosusGR-1
areadministeredastheyhaveanti-yeast
activity,”hesays.
ProfessorReidexplainsthatthe»DID YOU
KNOW?
Gender, ethnicity,
geography and diet
can all influence
an individual’s
microbiome.I depend o th train o probiotic use