Giving elderly people live yogurt to eat could significantly reduce the time they need to spend in hospital, say UK researchers. When patients are given antibiotics it destroys the ‘friendly’ bacteria that live in the gut, leaving patients wide open to infections. However, researchers at Hammersmith Hospital in London believe that they will be able to protect patients from gastrointestinal infections by giving them live yoghurt to eat. Professor Chris Bulpit, leader of the study, says that the yoghurt will help the body to help maintain sufficiently high levels of ‘friendly’ bacteria. Results of a small-scale trial were promising – the main problem being persuading the patients to eat the yoghurt!
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Reported by www.bbc.co.uk on the 27th May 2001
