IF YOU love probiotic food products, you may have eaten already any of the non-harmful species of Lactobacillus bacteria. One popular species is the L. casei, its Shirota strain being found in the milk-like product Yakult.
They are used in fermenting ingredients in yogurt production and cheese, pickles, beer, wine, cider, and kimchi as well.
Lactobacilli are normal flora in the vagina and the gastrointestinal tract, including the throat. Their sheer number prevents harmful bacteria, by way of competition, from colonizing these areas and cause disease.
Their byproducts (bacteriocin and hydrogen peroxide) also help in this beneficial function.
The throat is a known breeding favorite for harmful bacteria, such as Streptococcus pyogenes. Virulent in large volumes, they release toxins that cause 90 percent of sore throats (pharyngitis).
Like Lactobacillus, they may exist in the vagina, and cause bacterial vaginosis when conditions become favorable.
Scientists even believe that the source of bacterial vaginosis is the throat, making the disease an oral hygiene issue as well.
As much 1,000 colony-forming units (CFU) of the bacteria per milliliter sample can already cause bacterial vaginosis.
So scientists recently wondered if Lactobacilli work in the gastrointestinal tract can also happen in the vagina. Mark Westbroek led a team of four researchers from the Weber State University (Ogden, Utah, USA) to investigate the capability of one million CFU of L. crispatus and L. jensenii to inhibit the growth of S. pyogenes, and two other species of S. epidermidis and S. aureus, in a laboratory setting.
It has been widely accepted in scientific circles that Lactobacillus bacteria inhibit S. aureus.
Results published in the Infectious Diseases in Obstetrics and Gynecology (2010) show that the two species of Lactobacillus failed to inhibit S. pyogenes. It may take, this suggests, more than twice more colony size of Lactobacillus to prevent S. pyogenes from growing disproportionately.
Well, this study may still need more but similar investigations by other researchers to ensure the repeatability of the results. But the information allows for an understanding that once bacterial vaginosis sets in, it has to be treated with antibiotics, and not ignored in the hope that they may simply pack up their colonies and go somewhere else.
Meanwhile, the results do not discredit the preventive use of probiotic bacteria in warding off disease either. At times less definite info can allow us excellent results. Our intelligence as Homo sapiens ensures that.
That’s the mystery of divine providence. That’s the mystery of everything we see and do not in this world.