Probiotics
Modulating Gut Immunity and Enhancing Long-Term Health

Probiotics have become a household term, largely thanks to the marketing efforts of big brands like Yakult and Vitagen, which are credited with creating the category. But behind the consumer brands, considerable research has been going on into the specific health benefits of probiotics. Probiotics have been used as a form of treatment for a variety of gastrointestinal diseases including irritable bowel, lactose intolerance, traveller's diarrhoea, and antibiotic-induced diarrhoea.

Our digestive tracts are lined with more than 400 different kinds of good bacteria that help fight off infection and keep us healthy. Dr. Allan Walker, MD, a Conrad Taff professor of nutrition at Harvard, said that measures intended to improve public health, such as food pasteurisation and sterilisation and use of antibiotics means that there is a decreased exposure to microorganisms - leading to a gap in colonisation and weaker defences against disease. The idea is that probiotics could act as surrogate colonisers in such cases.

What are some of the health benefits of Probiotics?

According to the British Medical Association (BMA), stress plays a role in 80% of all illness. Regardless of your age and occupation, you will increasingly need to learn to live with high levels of stress. The trouble with stress is that while in the short term it really can boost your performance, it will take a deadly serious toll on your health in the long run.

The effects of stress are especially pronounced on your digestion. One of the more common symptoms of a body under stress is diarrhoea, and general stress has now been named as one of the primary causes of “Digestive Stress Disorders”. Stress depletes the immune system, which is inextricably linked with digestive health. Taking a probiotic supplement will support your digestion when the going gets tough and is the first all-important step in breaking this unhealthy cycle.

A weakened immune system leaves the body vulnerable to virtually every type of illness and disease - fatigue, lethargy, repeated infections, slow wound healing, allergies, thrush, colds, and flu are all signs that the body’s immune system is functioning well below par.

In a healthy gut, the good bifidobacteria that make up about a third of the gut flora naturally produce antimicrobial agents, which kill off or inhibit the more harmful micro-organisms. When this balance is disturbed and the bad bacteria are allowed to flourish, they can bind to the gut wall where the damage they can cause includes a disturbing condition called ‘Leaky Gut’. When this happens, the small, sieve-like holes in the lining of the wall, which allow only certain nutrients to pass through, become enlarged allowing larger molecules, including partially digested foods to get into the bloodstream. The immune system then springs into action attacking these larger molecules and leading to food intolerances and even allergies. This not only creates a problem with what you eat, it also over-taxes the immune system leaving it less resilient against those serious foreign invaders that, (if not destroyed), bring disease into the body. Probiotic helps to keep levels of bad bacteria or pathogens under control.

Candida albicans is a yeast that lives in the upper bowel of almost every man, woman and child. Scientists have found no good reason for it to be there, but it does no harm either - until our immune and digestive systems become compromised and allow it to multiply out of control. Once this happens, the toxins it produces can interfere with almost every bodily function. Candida thrives on moulds, so avoid mushrooms, fermented drinks (including alcohol), and foods that may carry mould. Cut out sugar-rich soft drinks and fruit juices, moderate your intake of tea, coffee, and diet drinks and aim for eight glasses of pure water a day to help flush out the bowel. Take a probiotic supplement to replenish levels of the good bacteria that will stop Candida from running riot and growing out of control.

The symptoms of this common and distressing digestive problem alternate between constipation and diarrhoea. IBS is believed to affect up to one in five adults, and is twice as common in women as men. Nausea, bloating, food intolerances, and abdominal pain are typical additional symptoms. Since the condition interferes with the proper absorption of nutrients, there may also be underlying deficiencies causing a range of other associated problems from skin complaints to dry and cracking skin. The symptoms are always worse under stress.

People with this condition usually have low levels of the good bacteria that would otherwise maintain harmony in the gut. Probiotics can help by normalising digestion and boosting the absorption of nutrients from the diet. They have been shown in clinical trials to relieve the symptoms of IBS. Probiotics also help the body make the B vitamins, which are known as nature’s own stress-busters, and so can help further reduce symptoms even when stress levels are high.

Even if you suffer from a serious skin complaint such as acne, you will notice a dramatic improvement to your skin if you take a probiotic supplement. This is because acne has been linked in some studies to intestinal health with researchers reporting increased blood levels of toxins absorbed from the gut in acne sufferers.

These toxins come from those pathogens or bad bacteria that we talked about earlier. It has been shown that in about 50% of cases of acne, the natural balance of the gut bacteria has been disrupted and the bad bacteria are running rings around the good bacteria. In other words, dysbiosis - the disturbance of the natural balance - is an underlying cause, which means that probiotics really can make a difference to your skin, whether you are suffering from an acne outbreak or the odd embarrassing spot.

Probiotics will help prevent travellers’ diarrhoea, which may be caused by infection, eating or drinking contaminated food and water. A lot of IBS sufferers find their symptoms worsen when they travel and eat unfamiliar foods, so taking probiotics both before and during the holiday will help.

The trouble with antibiotics is that while they will indeed kill off viruses that may be causing infection, they are non-discriminatory and so will attack those friendly bugs in the digestive tract that actually work to keep us healthy.

The over-prescribing of antibiotics is one of the most common causes of Digestive Stress. However, supplementing the diet with a good quality probiotic will help redress the balance and put those good bacteria back in control. Whenever you are prescribed antibiotics you need to take a probiotic as well, to counter the negative effects on your digestive system.

It takes about 80% of your energy to digest and eliminate your food. If you suffer from Digestive Stress, this figure will be higher leaving less and less energy for the body’s important rest & repair mechanisms and even for dancing the night away or running a marathon. Since probiotics improve digestive health, they bring this figure back to the normal level of 80% leaving you with enough energy to get on with the more important things in life.

Recommended Probiotics:
Bifidobiotics http://www.pluslife.com.sg/products/bifidobiotics_60_caps.html
Culturelle http://www.pluslife.com.sg/products/culturelle.html
GI Flora http://www.pluslife.com.sg/products/GI_Flora.html
Lactobacillus http://www.pluslife.com.sg/products/lactobacillus_plantarum_rhamnosus_salivarius.html