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Consuming dairy products boosts the effectiveness of probiotics, according to a new study.

New research suggests that the success of probiotics may depend largely on an individual's diet.

"Our findings indicate that the manner in which a probiotic is delivered--whether in food or supplement form--could influence how effective that probiotic is in delivering the desired health benefits," study author Maria Marco, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Food Science and Technology, of the University of California at Davis, said in a news release.

The latest study involved mice with colitis. The disease causes inflammation of the colon.

Study results revealed that mice that consumed milk infused with the probiotic strain Lactobacillus casei BL23 had significantly more reduced symptoms compared to mice given milk without the probiotic and other given the probiotic without milk.

"Strains of L. casei are commonly added to dairy products as probiotics and, while strain BL23 is not commercially available, it is genetically similar to commercial strains and has also been studied for its capacity to prevent or reduce intestinal inflammation," Marco explained.

"Remarkably, the question of whether it makes any difference to consume probiotics in dairy products rather than other foods or nutritional supplements has not been systematically or mechanistically investigated in clinical or preclinical studies," she added.

"Because we know that bacteria can adapt to their surroundings, we thought the conditions that probiotics are exposed to prior to ingestion might influence their capacity to maintain or improve human health," Marco concluded.

The findings are published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.