El potencial de la manipulación de la flora intestinal por medios dietéticos sobre la salud humana

Resumen

The human intestinal flora maintains a close relationship in equilibrium with the host’s health. It is possible to manipulate the composition of the intestinal flora by dietetic methods to ensure their associated benefits on human health. Dietary methods for achieve this objective have been developed. The first is the probiotic approach, which introduces to the human gut living bacteria that reach the small intestine and colon. As a consequence of the metabolic activity of these living bacteria, the host shows some beneficial effects such as assistance in lactose intolerance, reduction in duration of several types of diarrhea, immunopromoting effect and anticancer properties. The second approach is the use of prebiotics, which provides specific carbon sources for probiotics bacteria. Despite there are many scientific and clinic evidences that validates their use, we also need to know the specific mechanisms behind these benefits associated with the manipulation of intestinal flora. The present paper shows an overview of the probiotics and prebiotic strategies for the management of intestinal flora.