Kombucha

[Mr. Guru]

Hahah, no it's good to get different opinions.

Theres some ncbi.com studies that 'prove' that Kombucha help with an array of things.

At the end of the day every body is different and what works for you may not work for me and blah blah blah.

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Hahah, no it's good to get different opinions.

Theres some ncbi.com studies that 'prove' that Kombucha help with an array of things.

At the end of the day every body is different and what works for you may not work for me and blah blah blah.

[doulos]

Hahah, no it's good to get different opinions.

Theres some ncbi.com studies that 'prove' that Kombucha help with an array of things.

At the end of the day every body is different and what works for you may not work for me and blah blah blah.

Shoot me a link to those studies. Would be interested in seeing them.

[Mr. Guru]

This is a good one pertaining to the benefits of lactic acid.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4348356/

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This is a good one pertaining to the benefits of lactic acid.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4348356/

[doulos]

This is a good one pertaining to the benefits of lactic acid.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4348356/

Thanks, taking a look at it!

[Loch]

This is a good one pertaining to the benefits of lactic acid.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4348356/

Not to be adversarial, but that article is about the effects of lactic acid upon kombucha and makes no conclusion about health benefits from kombucha or lactic acid. The conclusion of the article is that the addition of certain lactic acid strains increases the production of items with purported health benefits within kombucha but there is nothing there scientifically showing that: a) lactic acid is good for people, or b) kombucha is good for people.

In citing the claims of health benefits they make reference to a study which is in itself a meta-study. There is nothing in that article that be considered a scientific endorsement of kombucha.

[Mr. Guru]

So how and why does he conclude that?



Heres more.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21800502
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21388793
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21776478

Is this ncbii.com not credibile? I thought it was.

[doulos]

Not to be adversarial, but that article is about the effects of lactic acid upon kombucha and makes no conclusion about health benefits from kombucha or lactic acid. The conclusion of the article is that the addition of certain lactic acid strains increases the production of items with purported health benefits within kombucha but there is nothing there scientifically showing that: a) lactic acid is good for people, or b) kombucha is good for people.

In citing the claims of health benefits they make reference to a study which is in itself a meta-study. There is nothing in that article that be considered a scientific endorsement of kombucha.

The conclusion of the study makes it clear that it's still just a preliminary finding as well. But even then the study was on adding a very specific type of lactic acid, and studying whether certain specific things happened (glucuronic acid production, antibacterial activity, and antioxidant activity).

To make decisions on whether those things are good in and of themselves requires one to go further down the rabbit hole. Science is a lot of bloody work...haha.

At best you could say there is a preliminary study done on adding a specific type of lactic acid to kombucha that may induce other potentially beneficial processes to occur.

That's not a bad thing. It's incremental and exactly how science works. But it's a long way from stating categorically that kombucha has health benefits. Hopefully there is more work done in the area, because maybe they will find that there is indeed a benefit to it down the road! I wouldn't be opposed to that at all

[Mr. Guru]

At best you could say there is a preliminary study done on adding a specific type of lactic acid to kombucha that may induce other potentially beneficial processes to occur.

Thats what I got out of it.

[Loch]

So how and why does he conclude that?



Heres more.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21800502
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21388793
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21776478

Is this ncbii.com not credibile? I thought it was.

Short answer is, the original article does not make that conclusion (the final line of the conclusion is speculative and not related to the research of the article).

The 3 articles you list there involve research on mice (or mouse cells) and while there can be indication of possible benefits they don't prove anything for human consumption. You can scientifically show that chocolate is toxic as f*** if your test subjects are cats or dogs but people are fine with chocolate (as are mice, funnily enough). This is not to say that the research you cite is not scientifically valid, but we have to be careful in drawing conclusions that are not supported by the facts.

[doulos]

NCBII is credible. It's just difficult to parse out exactly what is being studied, how the studies were done, and what the conclusions were. Particularly for us regular folk who are not experts in the fields.

The third study was only done on mice. The first two studies (done by the same group I think) are a little beyond me to be honest but appear to be looking at the effects on specific types of liver damage caused by oxidative stress, and how kombucha may counteract some of that. So essentially antioxidants and potential benefits. The whole issues of antioxidants was a big deal years ago but there is conflicting evidence on the value of it now. It would be interesting to see more work done in that area for sure!

Anyways, none of this is to say don't drink kombucha, or to claim that it absolutely does not have health benefits, but rather that there is not a lot of science out there that supports that it does - for now. That may change as more work is done.

I just get tired of every new day a new superfood, wonder drug, world's best supplement, being trotted out and people wasting money and time on it assuming that it does something it may not.

I say drink the stuff if you like it, and enjoy the process of brewing it as a hobby, but any expectations beyond that are probably too early yet.

I do have it from time to time because I don't mind the taste. There is a place in Kimberley BC that has several different versions on tap when you go into the store and I quite enjoyed the one I had there.

[Loch]

The first two studies (done by the same group I think) are a little beyond me to be honest but appear to be looking at the effects on specific types of liver damage caused by oxidative stress, and how kombucha may counteract some of that.

That's pretty much it for the first two... though it should be noted the studies were on liver cells from mice, not live mice. They also used some pretty toxic stuff on the cells (and paracetamol, ie Tylenol, which has a documented history of risks for the liver)

[2014olympicgold]

Didn’t something come out recently that Detox’s are a waste of time because the body does it naturally?

And it’s probiotics in kombucha, not anti-biotics. Probiotics tend to help digestion, but if that’s what you drink kombucha for, it’s better to just take a probiotic (also it’s one of those things that can be good for you, but might not. Depends person to person). But like most things it’s beneficial in moderation, but the biggest benefit is digestion I do believe, and just take the probiotic bill.

Drink on taste and fun, but don’t overdo it.

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Didn?t something come out recently that Detox?s are a waste of time because the body does it naturally?

And it?s probiotics in kombucha, not anti-biotics. Probiotics tend to help digestion, but if that?s what you drink kombucha for, it?s better to just take a probiotic (also it?s one of those things that can be good for you, but might not. Depends person to person). But like most things it?s beneficial in moderation, but the biggest benefit is digestion I do believe, and just take the probiotic bill.

Drink on taste and fun, but don?t overdo it.