Asthma is a common lung disease that causes difficulty breathing. 334 million people globally, at all ages, are impacted by it. It usually starts in children and is marked by inflammation of the airways, restricted airflow, and changes in the shape of the bronchi.

A Brazilian research using male mice found that taking a daily dose of the brewer’s yeast used to make cachaça, a distilled alcohol created from fermented sugarcane juice, may prevent asthma.

An paper from the journal Probiotics and Antimicrobial Proteins details the findings. Researchers from the Federal University of Minas Gerais and the University of So Paulo (USP) are the authors (UFMG).

The yeast strain utilized in the investigation was Saccharomyces cerevisiae UFMG A-905.

Asthma is a common lung disease that causes difficulty breathing. 334 million people globally, at all ages, are impacted by it. It usually starts in children and is marked by inflammation of the airways, restricted airflow, and changes in the shape of the bronchi.

Even though there is growing interest in using probiotics to prevent or cure allergies as well as a variety of dermatological, gastrointestinal, and neurological illnesses, more study is required to establish the optimal dosage and delivery method that will provide the desired results.

S. cerevisiae UFMG A-905 is a well-known probiotic that has been shown to lessen the symptoms of asthma in animal models. It is frequently employed in the manufacturing of beer, bread, and cachaça.

While this has been known for some time, there has been a dearth of specific details on the most effective way to employ it. The latest research demonstrates that 10 billion (109) colony-forming units per milliliter (CFU/mL) is the optimal daily dosage. For example, 65 mL of Yakult fermented milk has 16 billion CFUs.

“It’s important to understand that probiotics work like medication. Taking them occasionally or in the wrong amount is useless,” points out last author Marcos de Carvalho Borges.

In the research, the effects of giving a daily dosage of 100 microliters (L) of a solution containing the probiotic at three distinct concentrations—107, 108, and 109 CFU/mL—for 27 straight days were examined.

The effects of giving 100 L of the solution containing 109 UFC/mL of S. cerevisiae UFMG A-905 three times a week on alternate days for five weeks were also studied.

Ovalbumin nasal challenges were administered to male laboratory mice after intraperitoneal sensitization to elicit allergic airway inflammation. Yeast was administered to them via a catheter that ran from their neck to their stomach (gavage).

In contrast to the control group, which received just saline solution, the researchers from FMRP-USP and the Institute of Biological Sciences at UFMG found that probiotic delivery on alternate days as well as on a daily basis dramatically decreased bronchial hypersensitivity.

One of the key features of asthma is bronchial hypersensitivity, which is the abnormal constriction of the airways in reaction to a stimulus.

But only giving the mice with asthma the highest dose every day made their airways less inflamed.

“We measured the degree of inflammation in terms of eosinophil count and interferon levels,” Borges adds.

Eosinophils are cells of the immune system, and interferons are also chemicals that help the body fight infection. Both are indicators of inflammation in asthma.

“They were both considerably reduced in the mice treated with the probiotic.”

They “concluded that S. cerevisiae isolated from artisanal cachaça has significant potential to prevent asthma only if a high dose is taken every day.”

Administration of the probiotic at doses of 107 and 108 UFC/mL either daily or on alternate days did not appreciably diminish airway and pulmonary inflammation.

“From the public policy standpoint, having a natural product like a probiotic, which has practically no side-effects, with the potential to prevent a health problem as widespread as asthma is very important,” Borges adds.

After the animal study, the researchers want to determine if the probiotic has the same good benefits in people and, if so, to examine the processes involved using fermented food components as opposed to a simple capsule containing the solution.

In master’s research supervised by Borges and done with colleagues at UFMG and the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), yeast-containing bread was made and found to have the same effect. Scientific journals will report on the patented product.

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