Is Yoghurt Good for Allergies?

If, like me, you enjoy a good dollop of yogurt on just about anything but also suffer from seasonal allergies then there might just be some good news.

Before you get too excited and buy every yogurt in your local store there are a few caveats, the main one being it must be ‘live’ or bio yoghurt. This means the yogurt has either been fermented with live bacteria or has had this bacteria added in afterwards. Either way, this probiotic yoghurt contains live bacteria – which admittedly, doesn’t sound great! But it is – these are ‘good bacteria’, the kind that already live in our guts and help keep our digestion healthy and fight off ‘bad bacteria’. The official definition of probiotics (WHO) is something containing “live microorganisms which, when administered in adequate amounts as part of food, confers a beneficial health effect by producing gut microflora on the host”.

So far, so good – probiotic yogurt is good for my guts. But how does this help my allergies? Well, recent research appears to show that the friendly bacteria in probiotic yogurt could be beneficial to allergic conditions, and in particular allergic rhinitis. A recent review by Doctors Zajac, Adams & Turner (2015) looked at 23 previous studies involving more than 1,900 people who suffer seasonal allergies. They found that the vast majority of these studies (74%) showed evidence that people taking some form of probiotic felt their seasonal allergy symptoms had been reduced compared to those taking a placebo.

Whilst all this is very promising there are many factors involved and the exact reason probiotics might help allergies is not fully understood. Across this selection of studies a range of probiotics were used which contained various bacterial strains, most commonly varieties of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. Both these strains were often seen to reduce IgE, the immune system’s antibodies involved in allergic reactions. So, when you are buying your probiotic yogurt it is worth checking that it includes at least Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium bifidum; most do and some include several more. For more details check out the table at the bottom of the article which has details of the bacterial strains found in various live yogurts.

For those of you who don’t like yogurt, ‘friendly bacteria’ can be found in other products such as miso, fermented milk, sauerkraut , and dietary supplements.

Whilst all this is quite exciting the findings are still far from concrete enough for probiotic allergy treatment to be considered mainstream. However, whilst research continues maybe you should consider moving over to probiotic yogurt with a good dollop of honey as part of your seasonal allergy management.