Results
The literature provides lowto-moderate
evidence that probiotics
are effective in preventing
UTIs in women (see Table 1).
Abdulwahab, Abdulazim, Nada,
and Radi (2013) examined the
effect of vaginal Lactobacillus
from 100 healthy women on the
growth of uropathogenic E. coli
isolates from 100 women with
recurrent UTIs. They found that
the majority of Lactobacilli in
healthy women without UTIs
were L. acidophilus, L. fermentum,
and L. delburekii. In addition,
they found that all vaginal
Lactobacilli strains (from asymptomatic
women) could inhibit
the growth of E. coli on the agar
plate. The weakness of this
study, however, is that it was
done in a laboratory. The women
with recurrent UTIs did not actually
receive Lactobacillus (al -
though it was their E. coli strains
that received them).