Can Probiotic and Prebiotic Agents Influence Cholesterol Levels?
These findings were surprising in light of the fact that this trial was designed to see if yogurt ingestion could decrease total cholesterol levels. In particular, the researchers had theorized that a yogurt product with added probiotic bacteria (Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium longum) and a prebiotic agent (oligofructose) could reduce cholesterol levels as observed in earlier research studies. To observe the effect of the enriched yogurt, each woman also ate the probiotic- and prebiotic-containing product for a 7-week stretch during the 21-week trial. During the period when the women consumed the supplemented yogurt, there was a further increase in HDL cholesterol beyond that seen from simply eating plain yogurt. Probiotic agents are live bacteria that have the ability to influence the concentration of different bacterial species in the intestines. Prebiotic agents also influence the concentrations of bacteria in the gut by acting as a food source for beneficial organism
