Clinical use of probiotics
Dr Robert Martindale, Professor of Surgery and the Chief of the Division of General and Gastrointestinal Surgery, Oregon Health & Science University, gave a clinician's view of probiotics. The clinical use of probiotics in the USA has risen exponentially in the past five years, he told attendees, but widespread support is hampered by the lack of randomized prospective studies.
Dr Martindale also noted that a lack of strain-specific data sets or dose response, poor understanding of the clear links to mechanism and general misinformation about probiotic products and their therapeutic uses have limited their routine adoption by clinicians.