For people suffering from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, eating probiotics for a month can help diminish the accumulation of fat in the liver.
In lab experiments performed on obese rats, scientists demonstrated that administration of probiotics diminishes the accumulation of fat in the liver of obese rats.
University of Granada researchers worked with three probiotic strains: Lactobacillus paracasei, Bifidobacterium breve and Lactobacillus rhamnosus.
The strains were administered for 30 days in the diet of obese rats.
The probiotics led to an accumulation of lipids (most of them triacylglycerides) in the liver which was significantly lower than that occurring in rats fed with a placebo.
The accumulation of fat in the liver is called steatosis which is closely related to obesity and diabetes.
"The liver disease will not be cured with probiotics, but these microorganisms can certainly be used as support therapy in joint use with other treatment," researchers noted in a paper published in the journal PLOS ONE.
