Katarzyna W Jasinska
Jagiellonian University Medical College, Poland
Title: Probiotics as functional food in neurocognitive disorder
Biography
Biography: Katarzyna W Jasinska
Abstract
Introduction & Aim: Probiotics are living micro-organisms which may confer a health benefit on the host, allowing consider them as functional food. Numerous evidences suggest that probiotics have advantageous impact on diseases such as constipation, several types of diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome, melioration of lactose intolerance, inhibition of Helicobacter pylori and reduction in serum cholesterol level. However, current evidence on the effect of probiotics on neurocognitive functions is limited. This systematic review aims to assess the efficacy of probiotics in dementia.
Methods: This is a systematic review conducted following Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Protocol of the study has been registered in PROSPERO at CRD42019123490. We have searched four electronic databases, three clinical trial registers and carried out a hand searching to find relevant studies. All titles and abstracts of studies were reviewed independently by two reviewers and eligible full texts were assessed similarly. To assess risk of bias in included studies we use Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool for RCTs.
Results: Searching identified 3088 records (3071 from databases and 17 additional from clinical trials registers). After removing duplicates, we screened 2548 references. We included 12 papers into full texts screening, 7 of them was included into qualitative synthesis. Main interventions used were Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria. Predominantly evaluated dementia was related to Alzheimer’s disease and predementia state was related to minimal hepatic encephalopathy. All of the included studies have shown improvement in cognitive function in predementia, nevertheless results for severe dementia seems to be uncertain. One of the papers presents increase in quality of life after probiotic administration.
Conclusion: This review suggests the potential advantages of using probiotics in neurocognitive disorder. However, this field seems to be unexplored and more high quality RCTs is needed.