According to a recent study published in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, yogurt containing probiotic bacteria successfully protected children and pregnant women against the effects of heavy metal exposure.

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The researchers wondered if regularly consuming Lactobacillus rhamnosus could be an effective way to prevent metals from being absorbed in the diet.

The researchers – from the Canadian Centre for Human Microbiome and Probiotics – had previously studied the protective effects of microbes against environmental health damage in poor regions of the world. They found that one bacteria, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, was particularly adept at binding toxic heavy metals.

From this finding, the team wondered if regularly consuming this probiotic strain could be an effective way to prevent metals from being absorbed in the diet.

In addition, the team had been working with kitchens in Mwanza, Tanzania, to produce a probiotic yogurt for the local communities. As Mwanza is built on the shores of a lake polluted with pesticides, mercury and other toxic metals, the team used this network to trial a new type of yogurt containing L. rhamnosus.

The L. rhamnosus yogurt was distributed among pregnant women and children in Mwanza, and the researchers measured the levels of toxic metals in this group, both before and after the yogurt was distributed.

A “significant protective effect” against mercury and arsenic was measured in the pregnant women. Project leader Dr. Gregor Reid says that “reduction in these compounds in the mothers could presumably decrease negative developmental effects in their fetus and newborns.”

However – although the children in the study showed lower toxin levels after consuming the probiotic yogurt – because of the small sample size and duration of treatment, the results were not statistically significant. Medical News Today did not have access to information on the number of participants in the trial at our time of publication.

Dr. Reid’s team – who receive funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – are continuing to investigate how basic foodstuffs can provide protection from toxins for pregnant women.

Various strains of probiotic bacteria have been identified as providing protective benefits against a wide range of adverse health conditions.

In July of this year, we reported on a study from researchers at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, who genetically modified the bacteria Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 to craft an anti-obesity treatment that was found to be effective at lowering food intake in a mouse trial.

In the same month, researchers from the Griffith Health Institute and School of Medicine at Griffith University in Australia published a study suggesting that blood pressure may be improved by consuming probiotics.

And in 2013, MNT looked at a study published in the journal Gastroenterology that found brain function changed among healthy women who consumed probiotics in yogurt.

In that study, women consuming probiotics were shown to have enhanced connectivity between a brainstem region called the periaqueductal grey and the brain regions responsible for cognition. The researchers claimed their results demonstrate “that the gut-brain connection is a two-way street.”