Bullish on Probiotics

A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that you can treat and even prevent some illnesses with foods and supplements containing certain kinds of live bacteria, or probitoics. A quote from The Yellow Emperor Book of Internal Medicine dating back to 240 BC roughly translated says “name any disease and I will explain to you how it originates in the large intestine.” This holds true for the most part today.

In today’s world we consume foods that lower our immune system by bombarding it with sugar and creating an imbalance of healthy bacteria. If I had to pick four supplements everyone should take it would be 1) a multi mineral, 2) a multi vitamin, 3) a high quality omega 3, and 4) a quality probiotic. Lack of good bacteria can lead to increased inflammation throughout the entire body and has been found to be associated with irritable bowel syndrome, colon cancer, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, obesity, atherosclerosis and heart disease, insulin resistance and allergies among other problems.

I highly encourage everyone to use probiotics daily.  Benefits also include decreased fat and ending sugar cravings. Why? Because most people who have fat to lose and are having trouble losing it are at times dealing with an immune response that shows up in the gut.

Northern Europeans consume a lot of probiotics because of their tradition of eating foods fermented with bacteria, such as yogurt.

But yogurt doesn’t cut it as far as all of the bacteria your body needs to gain all of the benefits. The reason is due to not enough variety. While the theory is good and close to being correct, the truth is that you need many strains of bacteria to aid in a healthy immune system. It’s almost like saying we only need fish, or only butter or only nuts to reap all of the benefits we gain from eating healthy fat. Of course that just isn’t true. We need many sources of fat and the case is true with probiotics as well.

For instance have you ever heard of taking acidophilus when you are taking antibiotics? One inherent problem with antibiotics is that they will tend to kill off things in you that you don’t want killed off. This includes good bacteria that you are supposed to have in the intestines. Acidophilus help’s replace them.

One study a few years ago demonstrated a 50% decrease in the incidence of eczema, an allergic skin disease, in infants whose families were treated with a particular probiotic, a probiotic that came from a female over 100 years ago and kept alive. In this same study the probiotic also demonstrated to balance blood glucose (blood sugar) and actually decrease it by 50% using this female’s bacteria. But lowering blood sugar was not reproduced when standard store bought probiotics where used. This doesn’t mean store bought doesn’t work, however. It just means they do not have the same or the most profound benefits.

Since the mid-1990s, clinical studies have established that probiotic therapy can help treat several gastrointestinal ills, delay the development of allergies in children, and treat and prevent yeast infections. Clinical trial results are mixed, but several small studies suggest that certain probiotics may also help maintain remission of ulcerative colitis and prevent relapse of Crohn’s disease.

Some facts for you:

There are 10x as many bacterial cells in your gut as there are human cells in your entire body.

Your brain weighs about three pounds. The bacteria in your gut weights 3-3/12 pounds.

Healthy bacteria break down food that you can’t digest.

Healthy bacteria compete and inhibit the growth of “bad” bacteria that makes us sick.

Healthy bacteria train the immune system to function in a balanced manner, and prevent a healthy immune system from becoming too active.

Healthy bacteria synthesize important vitamins such as vitamin k2 (essential in prevention of osteoporosis and atherosclerosis).

Probiotics found in supplements are taken from plant sources and although they are beneficial in the gut, they are not equipped to survive long term. These colonies do not tend to survive for longer than 3-4 days after a person stops taking the probiotics.  So it’s important that you find a high quality probiotic and keep taking it. You will be loving life within a short time!