Probiotic use linked to improved sleep, bowel and sexual health in men
image: Reported health changes among 44 men after six months of probiotic supplementation. Questionnaire-based assessments revealed significant improvements in several health-related measures, including coated tongue (56.8%), bowel regularity (92%), erectile function (63%), and sleep quality (50%).
Credit: Jun Wu; Hua-Jun Zheng; Peng-Hui Cheng; Qun Kuang; Mei Sun; Jian-Hui Li; Xiao-Hua Yu; Jun-Biao Zheng; Jun Wang; Liang Chen; Jun Qian; Fang Xu; Hui-Juan Shi.
As men age, changes in sleep, digestion, metabolism and sexual health often develop together. Scientists are increasingly investigating whether the gut microbiome could connect these seemingly separate aspects of health through immune, metabolic and hormonal pathways.
An exploratory study published in Reproductive and Developmental Medicine suggests that two spore-forming probiotics, Clostridium butyricum and Bacillus coagulans, may be associated with improvements in several health indicators among middle-aged and older men.
Researchers from the Shanghai Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Technologies, Shanghai Fourth People’s Hospital affiliated with Tongji University, and collaborating institutions studied 126 Chinese men aged 48 to 64. Participants took the probiotic combination daily for six months.
Participants reported improvements in bowel regularity, sleep quality and erectile function. Among 27 men who had erectile dysfunction at the beginning of the study, 17 showed improvement after six months.
“The findings point to a possible connection between the gut microbiome and several aspects of men’s health that are usually considered separately,” the researchers noted. “The association with erectile function is particularly interesting and deserves further clinical investigation.”
Changes were also detected in blood indicators related to inflammation, lipid metabolism and hormones. These included lower levels of C-reactive protein, an indicator of systemic inflammation, as well as a more favorable balance between high- and low-density lipoproteins. Other hormonal and metabolic markers changed during the intervention, although the clinical meaning of some changes remains uncertain.
The overall diversity and structure of the gut microbial community did not change significantly. However, the abundance of certain bacterial groups shifted. Parabacteroides distasonis, for example, increased among participants reporting improvements in erectile function, bowel regularity or sleep. These associations do not yet demonstrate that any particular bacterium produced the observed benefits.
The study had no untreated comparison group, meaning that natural changes, lifestyle factors or participants’ expectations could have contributed to the results.
“This study was intended to generate hypotheses rather than establish cause and effect,” the authors cautioned. “Larger randomized controlled trials are needed to determine whether the probiotics directly produce these improvements and which microbial changes may be involved.”
The findings provide a basis for investigating microbiome-based approaches to healthy aging, but they do not yet support probiotics as a proven treatment for erectile dysfunction or other age-related conditions.