Advances in Probiotics

There have been many probiotic products on the market for some years now, and although the principal of using probiotic cultures to "balance" or "re-balance" intestinal microflora is based on sound theories, most products have fallen dismally short of providing sufferers of severe intestinal disorders any real relief. The reasons for this are manifold. One is the strains of culture used. Dr. James Chin, at the Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute near Camden NSW, has tested more than one hundred different strains of Lactobacillus acidophilus and found that half of them actually stimulated pathogens instead of suppressing them as they are supposed to. In the words of that old Castrol advert "oils ain't oils". LAFTI strain L10 was carefully screened by researchers from CSIRO and The University of NSW to ensure that it (and Bifidobacterium lactis LAFTI strain B94 - both produced by DSM) were effective in this regard.