ReviewInfection2019
Probiotics in health and disease: fooling Mother Nature?
Review in Infection, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Research status and development trends of probiotics in clinical applications.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- Guideline
- Management of Neurogenic Bowel Dysfunction in Adults after Spinal Cord Injury: Clinical Practice Guideline for Health Care Providers.Topics in spinal cord injury rehabilitationGuideline
- Next Generation Probiotics Challenges: A Road to use as Live Bio-Therapeutics.Current microbiology · 2026Review
- The intricate interplay of microbial metabolomics and carcinogenesis: a spotlight on mechanistic pathways, clinical implications and methodological challenges.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Review
- Review
- Probiotic Bifidobacterium reduces serum TMAO in unstable angina patients via the gut to liver to heart axis.Liver research (Beijing, China) · 2025Article
- A pharmacovigilance study on probiotic preparations based on the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System from 2005 to 2023.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2025Article
- Exploring the interaction and impact of probiotic and commensal bacteria on vitamins, minerals and short chain fatty acids metabolism.Microbial cell factories · 2024Review
- Probiotic Encapsulation: Bead Design Improves Bacterial Performance during In Vitro Digestion.Polymers · 2023Article
- Gut microbiome therapeutic modulation to alleviate drug-induced hepatic damage in COVID-19 patients.World journal of gastroenterology · 2023Review
- Antimicrobial resistance genes and associated mobile genetic elements in Lactobacillales from various sources.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Article
- COVID-19 and the Human Gut Microbiome: An Under-Recognized Association.Chonnam medical journal · 2022Review
- How do intestinal probiotics restore the intestinal barrier?Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Review
- Probiotic Saccharomyces boulardii attenuates cardiopulmonary bypass-induced acute lung injury by inhibiting ferroptosis.American journal of translational research · 2022Article
- Microbiota changes with fermented kimchi contributed to either the amelioration or rejuvenation ofJournal of clinical biochemistry and nutrition · 2021Article
- Lactobacillus Reuteri DSM 17938Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2021Review
- The Immunopathogenesis of Alzheimer's Disease Is Related to the Composition of Gut Microbiota.Nutrients · 2021Review
- Commentary: Dietary methionine influences therapy in mouse cancer models and alters human metabolism.Frontiers in oncology · 2020Article
- A Microbial Community Ecology Perspective on the Gut-Microbiome-Brain Axis.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Probiotics are ubiquitous, consumption by the general public is common, and the dogma remains that they are beneficial for general and gut health. However, evolving evidence suggests a potentially "harmful" impact of many commercially available probiotics. There is also significant variability in formulations that leads to a lack of a universally acceptable definition of probiotics. In this perspective, we review the flaws with definition, relevant observational and randomized studies that showed both positive and negative impacts on health and disease, unbiased interpretation of key trials, emerging evidence from microbiome and immuno-oncological studies, and impact on systemic immunity. We propose that caution be exercised prior to endorsements of their illness-directed consumption and rampant general usage. As a deeper understanding of the human microbiome accrues and our ability to manipulate this complex ecosystem improves, the probiotic of tomorrow might be the precision tool that deals with diseases on a broad front. Gut microbiome, akin to fingerprints, is indigenous to an individual and 'one size fits all' prescription strategy should be discouraged until a more universally acceptable 'favorable taxa' or a 'personalized probiotic,' to complement an individual's native microbiota, gets fashioned.
Indexed as
Identifiers
31478123What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.