The proportion of stressed individuals who, on any given day, do not have a cold/flu may be increased by the intake of bifidobacteria: a randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled study (639.13)

Abstract

Psychological stress is associated with cold/flu. This study determined whether probiotics increased the proportion of academically stressed students who, on any given day, did not have a cold/flu (ie, healthy day). Before, during, and after final exams (6‐wk period), students (20±2 y) took a probiotic (L. helveticus R0052, B. bifidum R0071, or B. longum ssp. infantis R0033) or placebo (n=142 to 147/grp) and self‐reported level of stress and symptom intensity (SI, 0=not experiencing to 3=severe) of 9 cold/flu symptoms. SI scores were summed; a score 蠄6 was counted as a healthy day. The effects of intervention, week, gender, sleep, stress, and categorized baseline SI scores (to control for individual variation), and 2‐way interactions were in the generalized linear mixed model. There was an effect of gender and an interaction between the intervention and stress, sleep, and SI category on the proportion of “healthy” individuals on any given day. B. longum showed a positive relationship with hrs of sleep on likelihood of reporting a healthy day. Pairwise comparisons (averaged over other effects) indicated that B. bifidum (0.99 ± 0.003) and B. longum (0.99 ± 0.003) differed from the placebo (0.97 ± 0.005) in the proportion of healthy individuals but L. helveticus (0.98 ± 0.004) did not. The data suggest that the proportion of stressed individuals who, on any given day, do not have a cold/flu may be increased by Bifidobacteria.Grant Funding Source: Lallemand Health Solutions