Effect of Yogurt and Yogurt Supplemented with Bifidobacterium and/or Lactulose in Healthy Persons: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Three types of yogurt supplemented with Bifidobacterium alone, lactulose alone, or both Bifidobacterium and lactulose were fed to healthy persons, who were tested before and after administration. Plain yogurt was fed during a control period. Yogurt containing both Bifidobacterium and lactulose resulted in greater improvement in the form and frequency of feces than the other yogurts. No differences were noted in blood chemistry test results before and after the administration of each type of yogurt. There were no side effects of yogurt administration. The number of Bifidobacterium in the feces increased after the administration of yogurt containing Bifidobacterium and/or lactulose, but there were no differences among the three test yogurts. Not only the administered Bifidobacterium species but also the original Bifidobacterium species was increased by eating Bifidobacterium and lactulose-containing yogurt, but the administered Bifidobacterium species was not increased more than the dominant original species. The ammonia content in the feces decreased more after the administration of Bifidobacterium-and/or lactulose-containing yogurt than after that of plain yogurt but there were no differences among the three test yogurts.

Health benefits of probiotics for the elderly: a review

“…1998; De Preter et al. 2004, 2007, 2008), and similar results have been reported with other probiotics (Goldin & Gorbach 1976; Tomoda et al. 1991; Brigidi et al.…”

Molecular Monitoring of the Fecal Microbiota of Healthy Human Subjects during Administration of Lactulose and Saccharomyces boulardii

“…The increase in fecal bifidobacteria after lactulose ingestion has been reported in various studies using culture-based methodologies (1,3,31,39,40) and fluorescent in situ hybridization analysis (41). To our knowledge, this is the first human study using DGGE and RT-PCR in an integrated approach to indicate an in vivo bifidogenic effect of lactulose.…”

Effect of Probiotics on Constipation, Fecal Azoreductase Activity and Fecal Mucin Content in the Elderly

“…However, relatively few studies have been performed in this field and the results have been conflicting. Some studies noted an increase in defecation frequency [8][9][10] or a reduction in the need for laxatives [11], while in other studies no improvement could be observed [12][13][14][15]. Because of these conflicting results it remains unclear whether probiotics can relieve constipation.…”