The Hub’s selection of products containing ‘friendly’ bacteria have been carefully selected to ensure that they really do deliver the health benefits they claim – they’re all produced by reputable companies with well-researched clinical proof that the probiotics work

There’s been quite a bit of bad press recently trying to disprove that probiotics work: claims that they’re destroyed by the acids in the stomach, they don’t survive if they’re not kept in the fridge, or that half the products on the market are dead by the time they reach the sales shelf. That’s why we’ve carefully chosen the probiotic range we supply at The Hub – they are all proven to:

  • survive stomach acid
  • stay alive to reach the gut alive
  • provide the number of billions of live bacteria stated at manufacture
  • survive at room temperature

Plus their effectiveness is backed by clinical research (on humans, not just in a lab) that has been published in reputable scientific journals. Here are just two examples of the proof that our probiotics work…

Kids taking probiotics take less time off school

In a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial* of 135 children, 62 received Optibac’s For Babies & Children probiotics daily and 73 a placebo over a three-month winter period. The group taking For Babies & Children had 25% fewer infections and were 40% less likely to have to take a day off school sick.

People on antibiotics suffer fewer side-effects if they take an Optibac probiotic

It’s well documented that sometimes antibiotics make you feel grotty – the problem is that, as well as killing the harmful bacteria causing your illness, antibiotics also clobber your healthy beneficial gut flora so you can get an overgrowth of harmful yeasts or bacteria, leading to thrush and diarrhoea. So research shows that one in five people stop taking a course of antibiotics due to such side-effects.

Take a good probiotic, however, and you could cut your risk of side-effects by preventing the overgrowth of harmful yeasts or bacteria. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial* 244 people, ranging in age from birth to 17, who were suffering from acute respiratory, urinary or digestive problems, were randomly split into two groups. 127 took antibiotics alone, and 117 were given Optibac’s For Those on Antibiotics as well as their antibiotics. Results showed the For Those on Antibiotics group were 1.5 times less likely to develop antibiotic-associated diarrhoea, and 10 times less likely to test positive for the harmful bacteria Chlostridium difficile, a chief culprit for diarrhoea). Proof positive that probiotics work to reduce side-effects both while you’re on a course of antibiotics and just afterwards.

The more specific the label the better as proof probiotics work

A key indication that a probiotic is good quality is if it states not only the number of microbes present, but also their type of probiotic. You can look up the credibility of a particular strain by checking it on a database of scientific research such as PubMed. Take the probiotic Lactobacills acidophilus (often shortened to L. acidophilus): if it has the initials NCFM after its name this will yield over 100 publications documenting its effectiveness in PubMed. However, were a product to list merely L acidophilus, you have no way of knowing if it is the well-documented NCFM strain or a strain with no research behind it.

All our products at The Hub list the exact genus, species and strain of probiotic, backed by plentiful research.

Check it’s tested on humans

Beware of probiotics that advertise that they’re proven by ‘in vitro’ tests – they’ve been tested merely in the lab, and the test might have been on one small element of a probiotic’s use. While in-vitro tests are extremely important, just because a bacterial strain has been shown to survive stomach acid in the lab, it doesn’t necessarily indicate that it has positive health benefits on a human host.

Plus it’s crucial that any research conducted on humans had a big enough number of people taking part to be clinically significant.

* Double-blind, placebo-controlled trials are the gold standard of medical research. Double-blind means that both those taking part and those handing out the medication do no know what is being given, placebo-controlled that one group are taking the real drug whereas the rest have been given a placebo (or ‘dummy’ pill)

To choose the probiotic that’s right for you click here

Posted in Probiotics