Probio’Stick (Lactobacillus helveticusRosell-52 and Bifidobacterium longum Rosell-175 in a stick format) from Lallemand Health Solutions, Montreal, Canada,has been recognized by the Canadian Health Authorities for its benefits on stress, anxiety, and mood balance, becoming the first and only probiotic with approved health claims in the gut-brain axis area.
 
The Natural and Non-prescription Health Products Directorate (NNHPD), the regulatory agency for natural health products in Canada, has approved the following new strong claims for Probio’Stick (Claim NPN 80021343):

• Helps to moderate general feelings of anxiety
• Promotes a healthy mood balance
• Helps to reduce stress-related gastrointestinal complications such as abdominal pain
• Helps to reduce gastrointestinal complications like abdominal pain and nausea in healthy people experiencing mild to moderate stress
• Helps to reduce gastrointestinal discomfort (e.g abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting) in those experiencing mild to moderate stress resulting from life events (e.g academic exams).
• These specific claims come in addition to previously approved claim “Helps to reduce stress-related gastro-intestinal complications like nausea”, and generic probiotic claims (“Probiotic that contributes to a natural healthy gut flora”, and “Probiotic to benefit health and/or to confer a health benefit”.)

Solange Henoud, regulatory affairs manager Americas for Lallemand Health Solutions, commented, “This recognition is based on a strong clinical and pre-clinical dossier examining the interactions of our probiotic with the brain-gut axis, or second brain, an area of growing interest for the scientific community and consumers alike and for which we have been dedicated research efforts for nearly a decade. This lead to the publication of the first clinical study evaluating probiotics benefits on psychological symptoms of stress and anxiety as early as 2010.”
 
Celia Martin, head of regulatory affairs concluded: “Such specific claims are the achievement of great team work. We are confident that they will help us not only in Canada but also in other territories to support our customers position in an expanding and competitive market”.