A recenty study conducted by a group of Iranian researchers revealed how a daily dose of probiotics taken for three months could help improve memory and thinking abilities of people living with Alzheimer's disease.

The team of researchers found that patients who consumed milk with beneficial live bacteria every day for a period of 12 weeks showed remarkable improvements in cognitive functioning.

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The team, led by Prof. Mahmoud Salami, set out a study to find how probiotics could affect the cognitive functioning of 52 people who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

Participants, aged between 60 and 95, were recruited and randomly assigned into two groups. One group was asked to consume 200 milliters of normal milk daily for 12 weeks, while the other group drank 200 milliliters of milk containing probiotic bacteria.

Researchers collected blood samples before and after the 12-week experiment period.

After assessing the blood samples, the researchers discovered that the participants who consumed the milk laced with probiotics had lower levels of cholesterol. Furthermore, they also have reduced high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, which is an inflammation marker.

The participants who consumed the milk enriched with probiotics also demonstrated marked improvements in cognitive functioning as compared with the group that received the untreated milk.

"In a previous study, we showed that probiotic treatment improves impaired spatial learning and memory in diabetic rats," Prof. Salami said.

He, however, noted this is the first time that probiotic supplementation has been shown to benefit cognition in cognitively impaired humans.

The researchers believe that their findings show that the cognitive advantages of probiotics may be due to the metabolic changes they catalyze.

TagsAlzheimer's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease research, Alzheimer's Disease test, Probiotics, Probiotics Alzheimer's Disease