The Probiotic Conundrum: Regulatory Confusion, Conflicting Studies, and Safety Concerns
Abstract
This Viewpoint characterizes reasons for the lack of evidence about the health effects of probiotic supplements and cautions against a “can’t hurt, can’t help” presumption made by consumers and clinicians.
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Probiotic-borne AR genes could be transferred to resident potential pathogens, other microbes harbored by the host, and/or environmental microbes, thereby increasing the ecological pool of antimicrobial resistance genes.
“one concern is the theoretical situation in which probiotic-borne AR genes could be transferred to resident potential pathogens, other microbes harbored by the host, and/or environmental microbes, thereby increasing the ecological pool of antimicrobial resistance genes.15–17”
From Emerging issues in probiotic safety: 2023 perspectives (2023) · cites this paper as [16]
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“(cid:129) A treatment duration shorter than 4 weeks and Bacillus probiotics were associated with larger effect sizes. probiotics, are in the conundrum of ‘ no harm, might help ’ [4] .”
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- Authors
- Freedman, S. B., Schnadower, D., & Tarr, P. I.
- Affiliations
- University of Calgary (CA)
- Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (US)
- St. Louis Children's Hospital (US)
- Venue
- JAMA
- Publisher
- American Medical Association (AMA)
- Published
- 2020-03-03
- Volume
- 323
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 823
- ISSN
- 0002-9955 (ISSN-L)
- 0098-7484
- OpenAlex
- W3009339137
- Cited by
- 55
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 5
- FWCI
- 4.37
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- JAMA (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Probiotics and Fermented Foods
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Complementary and Alternative Medicine Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Consumer Attitudes and Food Labeling
- Keywords
- probiotics, probiotic supplements, health effects, evidence base, customer expectations, clinical practice, risk-benefit assessment
- MeSH terms
- Clinical Trials as Topic, Consumer Product Safety, Humans, Legislation, Drug, United States, United States Food and Drug Administration, Probiotics, Government Regulation
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