Probiotics: The Key to a Healthier Gut

There are lots of good and bad bugs in your body – are the bad ones bugging you?

The Insider Scoop
It’s like a blockbuster action movie, the epic battle between good and evil that wages war inside your body everyday. Inside your mouth, intestines, urinary tract – and for women, the vaginal tract – there are 100 trillion bugs fighting for space. Collectively, scientists call this throng of microbes your microbiome.

Who is winning? You can tell by how well you feel. According to a 2014 review, the microbiome (the microorganisms in a particular environment, including the body or a part of the body) influences the body’s health in many ways: from dental cavities to digestive gas, and from eczema to your mood.

The microbes in your gut can also seriously affect your overall health. Grab some popcorn, and keep reading to find out how to defeat the villains and win back your health!

Ridding Your Body of the “Bad”
Like a galaxy, your body is a vast place in which microbes are trying to find a space to call their own. The villains in this battle are bad microbes, such as E. coli or Salmonella. They spew out harmful substances and are disruptive to the body. The heroes are probiotics, including those in the Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria family.

According to the peer-reviewed Gastroenterologist’s Guide to Probiotics, probiotics do a lot of things to keep your body healthy: they aid in the digestion of food, absorption of nutrients and modulation of the immune system. Probiotics also ward off bad microbes. Sounds like probiotics are our superheroes!

Probiotic Superpowers!
Ensuring the vast reaches of your microbiome are infiltrated by superheroes requires a microbiome hosting a variety of probiotic species. For example, Bifidobacteria prefer to roam the lower intestine, while Lactobacilli are present in large numbers in healthy vaginal tracts.

Health First ProBio Supreme contains 14 probiotic species including the extremely well researched species, Lactobacilli plantarum, Lactobacilli acidophilus, and Bifidobacterium longum. These strains are natural to our microbiome and able to cover our entire intestinal tract with protection. Taking one capsule daily helps pass these probiotics through the stomach and into the intestines to support overall gut health and digestion.

What are Colony-Forming Units (CFUs)?
Like all epic battles, numbers can be a factor. Measured in colony forming units (CFUs), probiotics offer health benefits when administered in adequate amounts. The higher the CFUs found in a probiotic supplement, the more bacteria being administered per capsule. With ample amounts being taken, we can be sure that enough bacteria will withstand the digestive process and live to proliferate through our microbiome.

Health First ProBio Supreme is a great source of probiotics with 55 Billion CFUs per capsule. That’s a lot of fighting power!

Choosing a Probiotic:

1) Make a Match
If you desire a specific health benefit (e.g. antibiotic associated diarrhea relief), seek out the probiotic species that matches your needs.

2) Be Diverse
For general health, consider that a person’s gut contains a diverse number of probiotics. A multi-species probiotic supplement promotes a favourable gut flora.

3) Get Adequate Amounts
To be effective, probiotics have to be administered in adequate amounts. Health Canada recommends a minimum dosage of 10 billion CFUs.

4) Quality
Choose a supplement with probiotic species backed by science, and known for high standards in purity and potency.

5) Ask for Help
Quality health food retailers have qualified staff in store to help you choose a probiotic supplement. Visit your local Health First Network Member store for assistance.

May the ‘good microbes’ be with you!

References:
Front Microbiol. 2015; 6: 1050.
Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2012 Sep; 10(9): 960–968.
Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2015 Mar;49(3):207-14
Int J Mol Sci. 2015 Apr 2;16(4):7493-519
Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 Aug;80(2):245-56.
Am Fam Physician. 2008 Nov 1;78(9):1073-8.
BiomedJ.2014Sep-Oct;37(5)-259-68

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