Indian-Origin Researcher Develops Probiotic Cocktail To Fight Dementia

New Delhi: An Indian-origin researcher in the US has developed a probiotic cocktail that will help prevent dementia -- a condition that affects memory, thinking, and the ability to perform daily activities of more than 57 million people worldwide.

The cocktail, developed by Hariom Yadav from the University of South Florida, is a unique blend of probiotics that can positively impact the microbiome -- the unseen community of microorganisms that live by the trillions in a person's gut.

While in healthy individuals, the microorganisms live harmoniously in their vast internal community, the gut also can become populated with certain bacteria and viruses.

This can cause disruptions throughout the body, ultimately triggering a progression over time that contributes to dementia and Alzheimer's disease -- the most common cause of dementia.

The probiotic cocktail, detailed in the journal Scientific Reports, suggest that the concoction could become a novel therapy to help lower the risk of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. In the study, the team mixed the cocktail in mice’s drinking water for 16 weeks and then subjected them to a "water maze" test.