SS 145 – Probiotics and Seasonal Allergies

Grant and Heavey discuss probiotics once again, this time around they dig into the effect of probiotics on seasonal allergies. Seasonal allergies have become a much bigger issue in recent years and it’s good that explore all treatment options. Will probiotics pass the test? Let’s find out!

 

[00:53] Grant Hits the Midwest

Grant is taking a trip to Des Moines, Iowa to get a little taste of the midwest. He’s going to a state fair where all they serve is deep fried food. Let’s see. Heavey used to live in Kansas and his memory from going to Kansas State Fairs as a kid is watching the demolition derby. Another cool thing about state fairs are butter carved statues. There was actually a movie of this called Butter, where a bunch of people were sculpting butter inside a cooled chamber and grabbing the prize of top butter sculpture at the end.

 

A shout out to State and Liberty for sponsoring this episode today. They are the makers of the best athletic fitted gear. Listen to Episode 137 for Grant and Heavey’s in-depth review on the product.

 

[04:54] Klotho Hormone – Cure for Dementia?

 

Grant reads an article called Can a Hormone Called Klotho Enhance Cognition and Hold Up Dementia? Klotho is apparently a real thing. It’s a hormone. When we’re born, we have a lot of it in our system. They’re produced by the kidneys and by some small amount of cells that line the brain’s fluid-filled ventricles. Although humans are born with an abundance of the klotho hormone, the level decreases as we get older and older. So the study questioned the effect of introducing klotho in older age mice/people with different brain problems such as dementia and other neurological diseases.

 

There are toxic proteins that create clumps and tangles in our brains. They found that these mice who had these couldn’t do mazes and they weren’t able to fulfill the actions to get their rewards. After giving them this hormone, these messed up, old mice were suddenly able to do the mazes and were able to get the rewards. Additionally, the researchers only had to get the hormones into the bloodstream. They didn’t necessarily have to reach the brain.

 

The study had two goals – one was to understand the mechanism of action and two, is to try to get into human trials. They have no idea how it works but they were able to measure not only their external evidence where the mice got smarter, but they were also able to measure the synapses or the strength of the electronic signals improving. And though there was no klotho reaching the brain, the electronic signals that were jumping from cell to cell in the hippocampus increased. Grant adds that the improvement were apparent not only after injection but it was still evident two days later.

 

[11:01] Seasonal Allergies: To Shoo or Achoo!

 

As a kid, Heavey had his share of seasonal allergies where his eyes would swell shut during springtime. They were so itchy and he couldn’t open his eyes for more than a day at a time. Seasonal allergies have become an important topic as they’ve increased dramatically over the last fifty years. You see a lot of people having issues with seasonal allergies. Symptoms include itchy nose, mouth, eyes, throat, and skin, as well as problems with runny nose, sneezing, and watery eyes. They may also include longer term symptoms that can be debilitating for people in a way that leads to fatigue and irritability. So it can really affect people’s well-being especially during that time of year.

 

[13:50] How Are They Treated?

 

The current primary treatment for seasonal allergies are prescription medications such as an allergy shot or some other drug. The problem with those is they can lead to another set of symptoms such as dry mouth, drowsiness, and sleepiness.

 

[14:22] Probiotics for Seasonal Allergies

 

Heavey cites a study on the effect of probiotics on seasonal allergies. There is a lot of research out there that supports a gut-allergy connection. But just to give you an overview, probiotics are living organisms, the most common are lactobacillus and bifidobacteria strains. Back on episode 135, we talked about probiotics for athletes and how taking them can help mitigate upper respiratory tract infections from their training intensity. So there is this heritage of research that supports modulation of immune function through probiotics. This is the basis for pursuing treatment of seasonal allergies with probiotics.

 

[15:46] Are These the Same Creatures?

 

One of the issues with a lot of these research is that the exact same strains oftentimes are not used. Back to the study on athletes, they were not using the exact same strains but they’re from the same families. A recent meta analysis reported that majority of studies demonstrated some improvement in seasonal allergies in response to probiotic treatment. But this doesn’t give people much to act on since the actual strains they’re using and the delivery mechanism for those probiotics differ from study to study. So it’s hard to draw conclusions from this type of meta analysis. For instance, one may use yogurt to deliver the bacteria while another study may use capsules. Then both may have different strains and different families of probiotics.

 

[17:05] The Overview of the Study

 

So this study Heavey found is a randomized controlled study that set out to measure the effect of specific strains in adults on seasonal allergies. It’s a double-blind, placebo-controlled random trial so we should be able to trust the results that come from it. The study was actually funded by the supplier of the probiotic capsules used in the study. It’s important to be aware of that but also, keep in mind that this type of research would not be conducted were it not for these companies funding it themselves.

 

The study is an eight-week duration that was timed during the peak of allergy season in the spring. They looked at 173 adults between the ages of 18 and 63 that all self-identified as having seasonal allergies. The authors excluded anybody that was regularly getting allergy shots or taking medication because they didn’t want any of that to influence the outcomes. Heavey stresses the fact that people who are probably the most affected by seasonal allergies are probably on these medications. So the people in this study may not necessarily be those that are worst affected by seasonal allergies.

 

Another interesting thing is that since they’re given probiotics which primarily affects the gut, they had them take a GI status questionnaire each week in the study as well.

 

[19:15] Poopies from Probiotics

 

Grant took probiotics at one point in time and he didn’t really notice that many GI differences. He actually took them because he was having too many bad poopies and so he took probiotics out of his doctor’s recommendation. What he noticed was an improvement a couple of months down the line.

 

Grant has this valid point that as humans develop this healthy gut system over time, where are probiotics coming from and why are they messing up with our guts these days? Heavey suspects it may be because of the changes in our food consumption and the composition of the food we eat now. Another factor is we may only be having a lot less fermentable fibers that help propagate good bacteria in the gut while we’re having more of the inflammatory-producing food.

 

[21:05] Fermented Foods, Probiotics, and Prebiotics

 

Heavey explains that fermented foods have the bacteria in them. Examples of these would be yogurt, sauerkraut, etc. You consume them and they help. While the capsules are just an isolated form of probiotics. Now, the prebiotics are the food that the probiotics use to munch on and help proliferate gut bacteria. Fibers are the driver here. A lot of fibers are prebiotics. But we have a definite decrease in fiber consumption over the recent past.

 

Arguably, probiotics are good bacteria. But Heavey points out that this may not always be the case. This is the reason research must be conducted and at the same time, it must be taken with a grain of salt.

 

Grant draws out another valid point that if we eat a bunch of prebiotics, does this mean we’re giving food to the bad bacteria in our guts. Again, Heavey says there’s a lot of complexity that goes into gut bacteria. So to succinctly say that prebiotics will only feed the good bacteria and that the good bacteria are abc, anybody selling that is selling a bunch crap. However, there are patterns emerging and that’s what we’re trying to extract from this research. And they believe that these lactobacillus strains and the bifidobacteria strains are largely  beneficial.

 

[23:14] Effects of Probiotics on the Immune System

 

Back in episode 135 where they talked about probiotics for athletes, they took a couple of measurements of blood markers in the study to try to understand the mechanism. What they thought they were going to identify was markers of improved immune function but they actually found no difference. They did see an improvement in immune function for those individuals but they don’t why. In this study, they actually took blood and stool measurements along the way to try to understand if they could see mechanisms and understand what the differences are.

 

[24:10] Study Protocol and Results

 

Back to the study, they subjected these people to two capsules per day for eight weeks. They took one after breakfast and another one after dinner. What they noted was that individuals in the probiotic group reported statistical improvement in the quality of life. But note that the score was measured on a scale of 0-7 and the symptoms dropped by 0.5 on that scale. So while the difference was statistically significant in improving their nasal symptoms, it wasn’t a major change but only a minor drop in a group of people that were probably not the worst sufferers of seasonal allergies.

 

Another interesting finding was that the constipation scores decreased in the probiotic group. Heavey says that if you want to decrease your constipation and very slightly improve your response to seasonal allergies then this is definitely the product for you.

 

[25:31] Is Cheaper the Better?

 

Grant notices this enormous range in prices for probiotics. Heavey explains that with probiotics, cost doesn’t necessarily equate to quality but there’s certainly some of that going on. There are products that need to be refrigerated while others don’t need to be refrigerated like soil-based probiotics. That said, not all probiotics need to be refrigerated but a lot of them do. It basically depends on the strain and how they’re captured. Those that need to be refrigerated really have to be refrigerated otherwise they’re going to die. And a lot of times for cheaper probiotics, you may be buying something that has a lot of dead bacteria in it.

 

[27:43] Whole Foods versus Probiotic Supplementation

 

Heavey is generally a fan of supplementation. We have seen a good body of evidence building to show that certain bugs can be beneficial for us. Heavey has personally done a lot of gut testing and he can see measurements of quantities of different strains in his gut to help him understand his gut microbiome more. That said, Heavey thinks you can get much value from consuming whole food sources of probiotics. But you may have to pay for it or work for it a little bit more.

 

For instance, you can buy a cheap jar of sauerkraut from the store but it’s been pasteurized. This means they’ve killed everything off. So if you really want to get the bugs from the sauerkraut, you have to buy the unpasteurized stuff which can be expensive. Or you have to make it on your own although it isn’t that hard to do. Other good sources of probiotics are yogurt and kimchi. Heavey thinks it’s valuable to get exposed to a variety of fermented foods.

 

Finally, Grant and Heavey agreed on playing around with fermented foods once they get together.

 

Links:

State and Liberty

Can a Hormone Called Klotho Enhance Cognition and Hold Up Dementia?

Strength and Scotch Episode 135: Probiotics for Athletes

Strength and Scotch Episode 137 (Listen to the State and Liberty review here)