The study, published in the journal Nutrients, found that nausea hours (the number of hours participants felt nauseous) were reduced by 16%, and vomiting frequency was reduced by 33%.
Probiotic consumption also significantly improved quality-of-life symptoms such as fatigue, poor appetite, and difficulty maintaining normal social activities, as measured by questionnaires.
“To this day, the cause of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy is unknown. Several hypotheses have been proposed, but none of them are conclusive “Albert T. Liu of the University of California, Davis, is the study’s lead author.
“During pregnancy, nausea, vomiting, and constipation can all have a negative impact on a patient’s quality of life. When nausea and vomiting during pregnancy worsen, they can be difficult to control, and the patient may need to be hospitalised “Liu elaborated.
The team used a small but significant number of participants for the study, who took a probiotic capsule twice a day for six days and then took two days off. They then went through the process again.
The probiotics were available without a prescription and primarily contained Lactobacillus, a type of good bacteria. At the time of manufacture, each capsule contained approximately 10 billion live cultures.
During the study, participants kept 17 daily observations of their symptoms, for a total of 535 observations for the researchers to statistically analyse.
Probiotics were also found to significantly reduce constipation, according to the team.
Another finding was that taking probiotics increased vitamin E levels. Higher vitamin E levels were linked to lower vomiting scores.
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