Probiotics are modern-day panacea with claims to alleviate or cure everything from diarrhea to obesity and Alzheimer’s disease. They seem effective for numerous conditions (e.g. antibiotic-associated diarrhea), although these views have been challenged recently. Greater issue is the lack of confirmed efficacy for majority of claims provided by producers. While offering products without adequate clinical research, industry has more simplistic approach for probiotic treatments, that is, ‘one-formula-fits-all.’ In contrast, recent studies showed different efficacies of probiotic mixtures with multiple strains without fully understanding factors behind it. Furthermore, important parameter for prescribing probiotic treatment is the individual native microbiota. Interactions among probiotic strains and microbiota need more research, so there is a long way paved with ‘big data’ and chemometric analysis before it is possible to make full use of probiotics.

益生菌是当今的灵丹妙药，声称可以缓解或治愈从腹泻到肥胖和阿尔茨海默氏病的所有疾病。尽管这些观点最近受到了挑战，但它们似乎对许多情况都有效（例如，与抗生素有关的腹泻）。更大的问题是，对于生产者提供的大多数索赔缺乏确定的效力。虽然提供的产品没有经过充分的临床研究，但工业界对益生菌的治疗却采取了更为简单的方法，即“一种配方适合所有人”。相反，最近的研究表明，在没有充分了解其背后因素的情况下，具有多种菌株的益生菌混合物的功效不同。此外，处方益生菌治疗的重要参数是单个天然菌群。益生菌菌株和微生物群之间的相互作用需要更多的研究，