Probiotics up gastric-bypass weight loss

STANFORD, Calif., July 14 (UPI) -- Using the dietary supplement probiotics after gastric-bypass surgery can help obese patients lose weight more quickly, U.S. researchers have learned.

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Stanford Hospital & Clinics also said combining Roux-en-Y gastric-bypass with probiotics -- the so-called "good" bacteria found in yogurt -- helps avoid deficiency of a critical B vitamin.

The researchers tracked 44 patients on whom gastric-bypass surgery had been performed in 2006 and 2007. Patients were randomized into either a probiotic or a control group.

Both groups received the same bariatric medical care and nutritional counseling, as well as the support of weight-loss study groups. Both groups also were allowed to consume yogurt.

The probiotic group consumed one pill per day of Puritan's Pride, a probiotic supplement.

"Surprisingly, the probiotic group attained a significantly greater percent of excess weight loss than that of control group," Dr. John Morton, an associate professor of surgery at the medical school, said in a statement.

The study was published in the Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery.