Is there evidence to support probiotic use for healthy people?

Probiotics are typically marketed as foods and dietary supplements, categories for products intended to maintain health in generally healthy populations and which, unlike drugs, cannot claim to treat or cure disease. This review addresses the existing evidence that probiotics are beneficial to healthy people. Our approach was to perform a descriptive review of efficacy evidence that probiotics can prevent urinary, vaginal, gastrointestinal, and respiratory infections, and improve risk factors associated with cardiovascular health or reduce antibiotic use. Other endpoints such as mental, dental or immune health were not specifically addressed. We concluded that there is sufficient evidence of efficacy and safety for clinicians and consumers to consider using specific probiotics for some indications - such as use probiotics to support gut function during antibiotic use – for certain people. However, we did not find a high level of evidence to support recommendations for other endpoints we reviewed for healthy people. Although evidence for some indications is suggestive of preventive benefits of probiotics, additional research is needed.