Probiotics are preparations of live bacteria intended for consumption by humans or animals.
Before you say yuck, the concept goes back to the early 1900s when a Nobel Prize winner suggested that Bulgarian peasants lived long healthy lives because they consumed fermented milk products. Today, single bacterial species and complex mixtures of dozens of types are being studied, and some are sold for various conditions. Probiotics can help prevent this condition. However, probiotics are being pushed for therapy of cancer, hypertension, allergies, and other conditions for which there is virtually no evidence. Now when nutrition news gets confusing, there IS a place to go to get the real story.