Probiotics, prebiotics, and symbiotics in the treatment of obesity: A new vision

Obesity is a chronic non-communicable disease whose prevalence has doubled during the last three decades, becoming, along with its metabolic complications, a worldwide public health problem. Recently, the alteration of the intestinal microbiota balance, known as dysbiosis, has been identified as a possible pathophysiological process that promotes weight gain in individuals who suffer from it. Dietary intervention with prebiotics, probiotics, or symbiotics aimed at correcting intestinal dysbiosis in obese patients can provide health benefits by facilitating weight loss and maintenance, improving constipation, glucose, and lipid levels, as well as immunity and expression of regulatory cytokines, thus contributing to the reduction of the chronic inflammatory process of intestinal cells.