Probiotics Usage in Heart Disease and Psychiatry

Abstract

Probiotics has emerged as a target for the treatment of coronary heart disease (CHD), gut-brain axis alterations, and mental illnesses. CHD is one of the major causes of death in adults in recent years. CHD known risk factors have been categorized as hyperlipidaemia, hypertension, obesity, smoking, and lack of exercise. Probiotics, as a live microbial food supplements beneficially affects the host by improving its intestinal microbial balance, may prevent CHD by reducing its risk factors. The supposed health benefits of probiotics include improved resistance to gastrointestinal infections, reduction in total cholesterol and triacylglycerol levels, and stimulation of the immune system. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which is co-morbid with stress-related psychiatric conditions, can be treated by probiotics. Thus, modulation of the gut microbiota could be proposed as a new strategy, not only for the treatment of IBS, but also as an adjuvant for the psychiatric treatment of anxiety and depression. é 2016 Elsevier Inc.