Bakers Yeast Beta-Glucan Decreases Episodes of Common Childhood Illness in 1 to 4 Year Old Children during Cold Season in China

Abstract

Infections are common in early childhood and create a large economic burden on both the healthcare system and individual family. To solve this problem, we evaluated the ability of baker’s yeast beta glucan (BYBG) to reduce the number of episodes of common childhood illness in 174 Chinese children with 1 to 4 years old in a 12 week randomized, double-blinded, placebo controlled study. We found that children in BYBG group experienced less common childhood infectious illness episodes during the study compared to the placebo group and BYBG were well tolerated for the children with 1 to 4 years old.