Yoghurt 'could cut hospital stays'

Eating live supermarket yoghurt could cut hospital stays

Live yoghurt could help cut the time pensioners need to spend in hospital, say scientists.

Researchers at Hammersmith Hospital in London are hoping to launch a trial to test whether live yoghurt can tackle gastrointestinal tract infections.

Dr Chris Bulpitt, professor of geriatric medicine at Imperial College, said taking antibiotics for infections could destroy levels of "friendly" bacteria in the gut, leaving patients open to infection.

In sickly pensioners this could have fatal consequences, as their weakened bodies found it difficult to combat the infection.

We are hoping that giving live yoghurt to people with antibiotics will stop people getting antibiotic diarrhoea

Professor Chris Bulpit

He hoped the live yoghurt would help the body maintain sufficiently high levels of "friendly" bacteria.

Beating infection

Professor Bulpitt said the hospital trial would concentrate on one particular form of infection - Clostridium difficile diarrhoea (CDD).

Doctors found that pensioners who have undergone a course of antibiotics sometimes get an inflammation of the lining of the colon, leading to long periods of diarrhoea.

A course of antibiotics can lead to long periods of diarrhoea

This infection can then only be treated with a second course of powerful antibiotics, meaning longer periods in hospital.

Professor Bulpitt said the infection was extremely contagious and could spread rapidly in hospital wards.

"We are hoping that giving live yoghurt to people with antibiotics will stop people getting antibiotic diarrhoea.

"CDD goes round wards and is very difficult to get rid of."

He said the trial would use live yoghurt similar to that bought in supermarkets.

But Professor Bulpitt said they had already carried out a very small trial with about 20 pensioners in the ward, but that the hardest problems had been persuading the elderly to eat the yoghurt.

Elderly patients often need extensive periods in hospital

"The elderly think it is rather strange - they are not the usual eaters of yoghurt and we found it difficult to persuade them."

If the trials prove a big success, doctors at Hammersmith say it could have a big impact on the NHS, freeing up many more hospital beds.