Probiotics, the popular gut health supplements, are live microorganisms that are said to perform a variety of useful tasks in our digestive system.
But for one elderly Japanese man, these supposedly helpful microscopic allies did quite the opposite, causing his gut to “die” after triggering a massive, fatal infection.
Doctors in Toyoake City said the man was initially taken into their care after being found collapsed at his home.
Tests revealed that the man, aged in his 70s, had a number of worrying health problems.
These included a Covid infection, a separate bacterial infection in the lungs, high blood pressure and signs of alcoholism and severe kidney damage.
CT scans of the Japanese man showed how the probiotic caused a build-up of gas within the tissues and connected to the digestive system.
He had also previously suffered from colon cancer and was a smoker.
He suffered cardiac arrest during his initial round of treatment, although doctors managed to resuscitate him.
As part of his treatment, he was prescribed antibiotics due to a suspicion of bacterial pneumonia, which was confirmed three days after admission thanks to tests.
At the same time, the man, whose name does not appear in the case report, was also given various medications to alleviate complications from his Covid infection.
However, during his stay in hospital he developed diarrhea.
Writing in the diary, BMJ Case ReportsThe authors said this could be because the antibiotics upset the balance of their gut microbiome.
Antibiotics, while a crucial component of medicine, do not discriminate and can kill both the bad bacteria that doctors prescribe them for and the good bacteria that aid digestion in our gut.
The man was therefore prescribed the probiotic treatment Clostridium butyricum (C. butyricum) in tablet form for one month to help his microbiome recover. This occurred approximately one week after his initial admission.
However, on his 58th day of hospitalization, the man began complaining of abdominal swelling and fatigue.
Then the next day this progressed to ongoing stomach pain and when doctors examined him they found the man’s belly was distended and tender to the touch.
Blood tests revealed worrying signs of organ failure and the patient immediately underwent a CT scan.
This revealed a build-up of gas within the tissues connected to his digestive system and as a result, the man was suffering from non-occlusive mesenteric ischemia (NOMI).
NOMI is a medical term that means the blood supply to the intestine has been interrupted without the cause being a blood clot.
The man, aged in his 70s, was prescribed the probiotic treatment Clostridium butyricum (C. butyricum) in tablet form for a month to help his microbiome recover after a course of antibiotics (file image)
Subsequent blood tests revealed the presence of C. butyricum in his blood, a condition called bacteremia.
Genetic analysis revealed that this bacteria was exactly the same strain used in the probiotic treatment, leading doctors to conclude that the infection triggered her NOMI.
“While probiotics are routinely prescribed to sick patients with various gastrointestinal symptoms and conditions, rare but serious adverse events can occur, as exemplified in this report,” they wrote.
The patient rapidly developed multiple organ failure but surgery was ruled out as an option due to the extent of the damage and his multiple existing health conditions.
Instead, he was transferred to palliative care and died the next day, his 60th death since being admitted to the hospital.
Doctors also said there were other cases of NOMI induced by the probiotic C. butyricumin in the medical literature, but the certainty surrounding such cases was often clouded by the fact that the bacteria can also live naturally in the body.
They added that C. butyricum is widely used as a probiotic treatment for diarrhea in Japan and their case demonstrated that its use, as well as other probiotic treatments, should be reviewed in patients with serious ongoing health problems.
Probiotics in general are thought to help the body by helping to rebalance the microbiome in the gut, but the NHS warns that patients with existing health conditions or a weakened immune system should speak to a doctor before taking probiotic supplements.
C. butyricum can be purchased online in the UK from health supplement stores as a probiotic or digestive aid for as little as £20 for a bottle of 60 tablets.
Probiotics in general are believed to help the body in two ways.
First, they help facilitate digestion, reducing symptoms such as stomach cramps, bloating, diarrhea and constipation.
Secondly, their very presence reduces the chances that bad bacteria, which can directly make people sick, have enough space to colonize our digestive system.
The NHS says there is some evidence that probiotics can help with digestive problems in some cases, but adds that some health claims about them helping with other conditions such as eczema are not backed by science.
She adds that while it is safe for most people, patients with existing health problems or a weakened immune system should speak to a doctor before taking probiotic supplements.
Japanese doctors did not detail exactly when the case occurred, but said the patient’s family agreed to have his case documented.
