People carry a community of microbes in and on our bodies, and they can have a powerful influence on our physiology in many ways.

Probiotics, which are live microbes, are intended to improve human health, and they sometimes given to intensive care unit (ICU) patients of all ages.

Antibiotics can cause diarrhea, and probiotics can help relieve it, and studies are researching whether they can prevent complications that arise in the ICU, like pneumonia.

A new study reported in Nature Medicine has advised caution, however; probiotics may lead to bloodstream infections (bacteremia) in ICU patients.

At Boston Children’s Hospital, the Infection Prevention and Control group began to find ICU patients with bacteremia caused by Lactobacillus bacteria, which are often found in probiotics.

Pediatric infectious diseases physician Kelly Flett, M.D. and Thomas Sandora, M.D., M.P.H., medical director of Infection Prevention and Control found that from 2009 to 2014, 1.1 percent of ICU patients exposed to probiotics got bacteremia. These alarming findings led to further investigation.

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