We all heard that probiotics can help with immunity and boost your gut heath, but what about its connection with arthritis? As early as 2012, a study in mice has found a potential link between gut microbiome and susceptibility to arthritis. Later, it was found that probiotics, the beneficial bacteria, might even help with inflammatory arthritis, because it potential can reduce those symptoms by reducing inflammation biomarkers. In a group of forty-six patients who had rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and were divided to two different groups, those who took probiotics had several inflammation markers significantly lowered in them. While the leading researchers concurred that further studies were required, they also claimed that probiotics might be an effective adjunct therapy for RA patients. Indeed, in a meta-analysis of 9 studies that tried to evaluate the potential of probiotics as an adjuvant therapy, researchers used nine databases, including PubMed and Web of Science, to gather those 9 studies. They found that in those 361RA patients, pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6 was significantly lowered in the experimental group as opposed to placebo group. Moreover, according to nutrition consultant Sonya Angelone, probiotics can also help strengthen the intestinal barrier, so that less harmful bacteria can across that and trigger inflammation. While more high-quality randomized trials are needed to translate those findings to clinical benefits, we can see probiotics can be promising to treat inflammatory arthritis.
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