Probiotic supplementation was found to reduce rheumatoid arthritis pain and inflammation in a recent randomized controlled study. While probiotics can be taken in pill form, it is generally better, and less expensive, to obtain nutrients from food. Fortunately, the probiotics that were effective in this study can be found in Greek Yogurt. We would recommend Fage Greek Yogurt. It is the best brand available in our opinion for many reasons: including high protein content, low calorie count, creamier consistency (which differentiates Greek from plain yogurt due to its being strained three times instead of two), excellent taste plain, and no added sugar. Most of the lactose is removed from Greek yogurt, and most of the little that remains is digested by the probiotics in the Greek yogurt itself so that even most lactose-intolerant individuals are usually able to digest it without a problem. The fact that it has therapeutically proven probiotics is one more reason to use it. The tested probiotics were lactobacillus casei – which has been shown effective in other studies, lactobacillus acidophilus, and bifidus.
A prior study from this same group showed that Interleukin cytokines were affected as well as a substance called tnf-alpha. Cytokines are also modulated by the platelet rich plasma and stem cell injections we perform at our center. While the arthritis they evaluated was rheumatoid arthritis, these substances are also active in the less severe osteoarthritis that is more commonly seen.
