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Effects of probiotic yogurt consumption on metabolic factors in individuals with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Many nutraceutical and other health supporting attributes of probiotic yogurts have been showed in the past. Demonstrations of direct impact on impaired health conditions are less common; one being non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The possibility of this being the case has been studied by Dr Nabavi and colleagues with the title:Effects of probiotic yogurt consumption on metabolic factors in individuals with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which was reported in the Journal of Dairy Science, Volume 97 of 2014, pages 7386 to 7393.

The aim of their study was to investigate the effects of probiotic yogurt consumption on some metabolic factors in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) patients. They designed a double-blind, randomized, controlled clinical trial with 72 patients with NAFLD (33 males and 39 females), aged 23 to 63 years. Thirty seven patients in the intervention group consumed 300 g per day of probiotic yogurt containing cultures of Lactobacillus acidophilus La5 and Bifidobacterium lactis Bb12 and 35 patients in the control group consumed 300 g per day of conventional yogurt for 8 weeks. Fasting blood samples, body measurements, and dietary records (24 hour per day for 3 days) were collected at the start and the end of the trial.

Consumption of the probiotic yogurt resulted in reductions of respectively 4.67 and 5.42% in blood serum levels of the enzymes alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase.  It also reduced total cholesterol in the seum by 4.1% and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (which is the “bad” cholesterol) by 6.9%, compared with the control group. No significant changes were observed in levels of serum glucose, triglycerides, or high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (the “good” cholesterol) in either group. Consumption of the probiotic yogurt also improved the liver enzymes in the studied patients. The results suggest that consumption of probiotic yogurt might be useful in management of NAFLD risk factors.