Study: Kefir beats yogurt in treating H. pylori

reference

Bekar O, Yilmaz Y, Gulten M. Kefir improves the efficacy and tolerability of triple therapy in eradicating Helicobacter pylori.J Med Food.2011;14(4):344-347.

design

Randomized, double-blind study

Participant

82 consecutive patients with symptoms of dyspepsia andHeliobacter pyloriInfection confirmed by urea breath test

Study medications and dosage

All patients received standard triple antibiotic therapyH. pyloriInfection consisting of two weeks of treatment with lansoprazole, amoxicillin and clarithromycin. In addition, 46 of the patients drank a cup of kefir twice a day and the remaining 36 drank a cup of milk.

Target parameters

A urea breath test was performed in all patients 45 days after starting treatment. To assess side effects, a questionnaire was completed 15 days after the start of treatment.

Key findings

Kefir significantly improved eradication by triple antibiotic therapyH. pylori.The infection was eradicated in more than three-quarters of patients who drank kefir (36 of 46 (78.2%)), compared with only half of those who received antibiotics plus placebo (18 of 36 (50.0%)). Reported side effects were significantly less frequent and less severe in those who received kefir.

Effects on practice

A cup of kefir twice daily should be added to the standard antibiotic protocol for treating kefirH. pylori. Kefir increased the effectiveness of standard treatment by about 30%. Standard pharmaceutical protocols that use proton pump inhibitors and three separate antibiotics to treat these infections are not 100% successful. Cure rates have fallen below 80%.¹

Yogurt doesn't seem to have the same benefit. An article published in January 2011 reported that treatment should use a yogurt containing multiple strains of probiotic bacteria, along with triple antibiotic therapyH. pyloriInfection “hasn’t improved eitherH. pylorineither eradication rates nor treatment adverse events decreased.”²

Those who received kefir had significantly fewer side effects and were less serious.

Kefir is significantly different from yogurt. Yogurt is milk that has typically been fermented by multiple strains of lactic acid-producing bacteriaLactobacillus acidophilus. Kefir, on the other hand, “is produced by microbial activity of “kefir grains,” which have a relatively stable and specific balance of lactic acid bacteria and yeast.” Yoghurt cultures do not contain yeast. Fermentation of yogurt requires incubation at warm temperatures, while kefir is fermented at room temperature.

Kefir has gained popularity in recent years due to its many claimed health benefits, including “reducing symptoms of lactose intolerance, stimulating the immune system, lowering cholesterol levels, and antimutagenic and anticarcinogenic properties.”³

In the literature, kefir is often lumped together with other probiotic supplements, and search engines do not distinguish studies on kefir from studies on yogurt. For example, a 2009 meta-analysis on fermented milk products and whether they are improvingH. pyloriExtermination made no difference between them. In this review, the combined data actually showed a small benefit: “Probiotic supplements based on fermented milk improve.”H. pyloriIncrease repayment rates by approximately 5-15%.”⁴

A 2007 meta-analysis that combined data from previous studies also examined the effects of probiotic supplementsH. pyloriEradication by triple antibiotic therapy. This previous work also reported slightly improved eradication rates – about 10% compared to placebo. All studies in this previous review examined yogurt made from itLactobacilli acidophilusand no kefir.⁵

When kefir increases the effectiveness of antibioticsH. pyloriDoes it improve antibiotic action against other types of intestinal infections? Possibly. A 2009 publication reported an open study in which kefir appeared to be helpful in treatmentClostridium difficileInfections in combination with antibiotics.⁶