Probiotics
From ‘Pro’ and ‘Biota’ meaning ‘For’ and ‘Life’.
What are probiotics?
Probiotics are live microorganisms (good bacteria and or yeasts that naturally live in your body). They improve or restore the gut flora, aid digestion, and maintain gut health – good bacteria help eliminate bad bacteria keeping our system balanced.
Probiotics are part of a larger picture concerning bacteria and your body known as Your Microbiome. The microbiome is a diverse community of organisms that work together to keep your body healthy. This community is made up of microbes, you have trillions of microbes on and in your body, they are a combination of: Bacteria, Fungi (including yeasts), Viruses, Protozoa.
Everyone’s microbiome is unique, no two people have the same microbial cells – not even identical twins!
For a microbe to be called a probiotic it must have several characteristics, these include being able to; Be isolated from a human, survive in your intestine after ingestion (being eaten), have a proven benefit to you and be safely consumed.
The most common place linked to beneficial microbes is your gut (mostly large intestines) however, you have several locations in and on your body that host good microbes, these locations are in contact with the ‘outside world’ and include the Gut, Mouth (top of gut), Vagina, Urinary tract, Skin and Lungs.
Probiotics keep your body in neutral not only helping your body digest food but keeping bad bacteria from getting out of control and making you sick, they create vitamins and help support the cells that line your gut to prevent bad bacteria you may have consumed from entering your blood and they breakdown and absorb medications.
This balancing act is naturally happening in your body all the time you do not actually need to take probiotics to make it happen. Good bacteria are a natural part of your body eating a well-balanced diet, rich in fibre, every day to help keep the number of good bacteria at proper levels, however, in our hectic, busy lives maintaining that well- balanced diet can be tricky therefore my advice is always PRO active and PRO biotics.
Some digestive disease experts are recommending probiotic supplements for disorders that frustrate conventional medicine, such as irritable bowel syndrome, since the mid-1990s. Clinical studies suggest that probiotic therapy can help treat several gastrointestinal illnesses, delay the development of allergies in children and treat and prevent vaginal and urinary infections in women.
Potential benefits have been seen in the treatment or prevention of; Diarrhoea, Irritable bowel syndrome, Ulcerative colitis, Crohns disease, H. pylori (the cause of ulcers), Vaginal infections, Urinary tract infections, Reoccurrence of bladder cancer, Infection of the digestive tract caused by Clostridium difficile (C. diff), Pouchitis (a possible side effect of surgery that removes the colon), Eczema in children., Gum disease, Lactose intolerance, Upper respiratory infections (ear infections, common cold, sinusitis) and Sepsis (especially in infants).
Adding probiotics to your diet
You can add probiotics through foods, drinks, and supplements. You may already have certain foods in your daily diet that contain probiotics, fermented foods in particular, yogurt and pickles for example are home to a host of good bacteria that benefit your body. There are also fermented drinks like Kombucha (fermented tea) or kefir (fermented dairy drink) that introduce extra probiotics into your diet. Check food labels for live and active cultures.
There are several ways to increase your probiotics, Foods, Drinks, Capsules or pills, Powders and Liquids.
Adding through food
For breakfast:
Try yoghurt, buttermilk, sourdough bread.
For lunch:
Try cottage cheese, Kombucha, Tempeh.
For snack:
Try fermented pickles.
For dinner:
Try fermented sauerkraut, Kimchi, Miso soup.
Make sure you are still creating a balanced and healthy meal each time you sit down to eat balance is key.
Adding through dietary supplements
These may be combined with a prebiotic; prebiotics are complex carbohydrates that feed the microorganisms in your gut. Basically, the prebiotics are the food source for the good bacteria they include inulin, pectin, and resistant starches.
When you have a supplement that combines a probiotic and a prebiotic it is called a symbiotic.
Caution with Probiotic supplements.
They may in rare cases trigger allergic reactions and they can cause a mild stomach upset, diarrhoea, a flatulence (passing gas) and bloating for the first few days after starting to take them. There are certain people who need to exercise caution when using probiotic supplements as there is a risk of infection in some people. This includes those who have a weakened immune system (those going through chemotherapy - see ‘Lifemel Honey’ blog), a critical illness or recently had surgery. Caution should also be used when giving probiotics to very sick infants.
Benefits
Probiotics can be beneficial for both adults and children. If your child has an illness that requires an antibiotic medication for treatment, then taking a probiotic can help shorten symptoms. Probiotics can relieve constipation, acid reflux, diarrhoea, gas, and eczema in children.
Foods like yogurt and cottage cheese are a safe way to introduce probiotics through diet and there are commercially available probiotic supplements specifically designed for infants and children.
Probiotics after antibiotics
Antibiotic medications are often needed to fight an infection, however, whilst antibiotics are killing the bad bacteria, they are also knocking out the good bacteria in your body. This may allow for bad bacteria to take over and populate the gut., for example as with C. diff.
Probiotics can repopulate the good bacteria that was destroyed, and reboot your system, the extra good bacteria help to repopulate your gut and fight off any remaining bad bacteria. There is a lot of research ongoing and talk of GP’s prescribing a probiotic alongside an antibiotic to reset the gut flora after courses of antibiotics to minimise damage.
The Ohh! family have been taking a daily probiotic capsule every day for several years now as I am a busy chief cook bottle washer etc I find it easier to ensure that first thing in the morning the supplements are done and dusted (it also satisfies the control freak element in my helicopter parenting persona).
Talk to us today about probiotics and how they could factor in helping you, drop us a message at Ohh! We are here to help and to ensure you stay fabulous!
