Impact of maternal atopy and probiotic supplementation during pregnancy on infant sensitization
A few comments here, beginning with my decade long frustration about medicine’s refusal to accept normal, protective flora as being important. We destroy it only in infancy with antibiotics, with never a thought as to the physiological ramifications of this approach.
In this study, the authors used probiotics in mothers who were allergy-prone (which meant that their infant, as well, would be allergy prone) and nursing to lower the risk in the infants for developing allergies. This likely occurs through 2 mechanisms–one with the modulation of the mom’s own immune status, and two, but direct translocation of the bacteria from the gut into breast milk. Couple this with findings of greatly reduced allergies and asthma in infants whose mothers took in higher levels of EFAs and we would see a drastic reduction in the prevalence of this chronic condition.