The Importance of a Healthy Gut

The importance of maintaining a healthy bacterial balance in our body cannot be overstated. Our wellbeing depends on the condition of our digestive system because the gut directly affects our overall physical and mental health. There are at least 30 chemicals in the gut that also are found in the brain, and the majority of our immune system originates in this region. Therefore, if your gut is out of balance, immunity can suffer.

Probiotics are beneficial bacteria essential for our health. The human body contains trillions of “good” bacteria that are critical to the immune system and proper functioning of our brain chemistry.

The word “Probiotic” is derived from the Greek phrase meaning “for life.” We live in constant cooperation with our gut bacteria, since the body consists of 10 trillion cells (building blocks), but we also have 100 trillion cells of bacteria within our gut region.

A healthy intestinal function is critical to overall health. Growing numbers of people lack vitality and suffer from complaints like allergies, headaches, lack of energy, excessive fatigue, digestive disorders, along with a variety of emotional states ranging from depression to mood swings, insomnia and anxiety. Probiotics help to restore the critical bacterial balance our health depends upon.

TOPICS INCLUDED:(quick links for topics)

1. What Are Probiotics?

2. Why Do We Need Bacteria?

3. Conditions That May Be Helped by Probiotics

4. Replenishing Healthy Bacteria

5. Signs of Low Flora Count

6. Gut Flora and Mental Health

7. Gut Flora and the Immune System

8. What Destroys the Beneficial Bacteria?

9. Probiotics and Obesity

10. Probiotics and Aging

11. Breast Feeding and Probiotics

12. Cesarean-Delivered Children

13. Who Needs Probiotics?

14. Why Natren Probiotics?

 

What are Probiotics?
The human gastrointestinal tract contains more than 400 types of natural probiotics, also known as "friendly" or beneficial bowel bacteria, gut microorganisms, or intestinal flora. These "friendly" microorganisms protect the GI tract and control "unfriendly" microorganisms such as bacteria, parasites, viruses, yeasts, and fungi that cause disease. Beneficial bacteria improve immune system function, which is why the majority of immune cells line the intestinal wall.

Within every human being is a flourishing, living colony of approximately three pounds of friendly, helpful probiotics. Most of the probiotics reside in the digestive tract although some are found elsewhere (mouth, throat, etc.). Without a sufficient number of beneficial probiotics, human life would cease to exist. Consequently, if we fail to maintain a sufficient number of healthy bacteria in the body, disease will occur.

It is extremely important to cultivate and maintain a large colony of helpful bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract. Ideally, the colony of microflora should be composed of a ratio of 85% friendly bacteria to 15% harmful bacteria. Unfortunately the ratio is reversed in many people. The regular consumption of a high quality probiotic containing multiple strains of living bacteria can enhance the helpful bacteria in the digestive tract. Probiotics help prevent or reduce infections caused by a pathogenic organism, as they are beneficial, nutritional and therapeutic, and a natural part of immune system.

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Why Do We Need Bacteria?
There is a false perception that all bacteria are harmful. There are more bacterial cells in the body than human ones. Trillions of cells of bacteria assist in manufacturing vital nutrients such as B vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, biotin, pantothenic acid, pyridoxone, cobalamine), Folic Acid, and vitamin K. Friendly bacteria also increase the absorption of various essential minerals including calcium, copper, iron and magnesium. The gut flora is estimated to be 3 pounds of your body weight and also contribute to the production of 30 chemicals that are also found in the brain. Brain function is vastly improved when your body can absorb adequate levels of vitamins and minerals.

Microbes are a natural part of the human nutrition system. Digestive bacteria convert plant and animal products to nutrition that is then usable to the body. Humans are complicated organisms that require nutrients we cannot make ourselves. Therefore it must come from other living things including plants or animals, and requires bacteria for proper digestion.

Conditions that may Benefit from Probiotics
Many studies have investigated the benefits of taking Probiotics for a wide range of different health challenges.

Diarrhea – Researchers found probiotics to be beneficial in diarrhea associated with antibiotic use.

Lactose Intolerance is the inability to fully digest lactose, a sugar found in dairy. Lactic acid bacteria found in live yogurt contain the enzyme lactase that can breakdown this sugar and curb symptoms such as flatulence, bloating and cramps.

Eczema in infants is often associated with an abnormal balance of gut bacteria. The reduced bacteria may hinder the development of the immune system.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease has been associated with immune hyperactivity in the gut region.

 

Probiotics can also assist:

• Digestion and therefore nutrient absorption.	• Controlling bowel toxicity
• Human immune function.	• Reduce gas caused by microorganisms.
• Protect from pathogens and infectious agents	• Protect from accumulated toxins and carcinogenic substances.
• Lowering cholesterol by metabolizing it	• Production of short chain fatty adds into energy.

 

Replenishing Healthy Bacteria
Digestive microbes come from ingesting uncooked fruits, vegetables, and dairy products that contain live probiotics. Our first microbes are introduced in the vaginal canal after the natural birth process and are delivered through breast milk. Routinely eating some live culture containing foods 
such as yogurt, kefir, etc., can also assist in replenishing healthy bacteria. Be sure the products are guaranteed to contain live cultures since many brands destroy the essential bacteria during the manufacturing process. It is actually best to make your own yogurt to 
be assured of its bacteria content.

Consuming a daily Probiotics supplement is also a natural and safe way to replenish our beneficial bacteria.

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Signs of Low Flora Count (The following symptoms may result from low intestinal bacterial:)

Gas, Bloating and Indigestion	Skin problems such as Acne, Eczema and Psoriasis
Diarrhea and/or Constipation	Delayed development in children
Bad Breath and Body Odor	High Cholesterol Levels
Candida Yeast Infections	Frequent Colds and Flu
Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia	Cold Sores (herpes simplex)
Parasites	Vaginitis
IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) and Colitis	Headaches
Crohn's Disease	Hypoglycemia

 

Gut Flora and Mental Health
More than 95% of the body’s Serotonin is actually in the gut, so it only serves to reason that depression issues can occur if the stomach region is out of balance. Recent studies indicate that healthy bacteria have a direct impact on mood and behavior by influencing the production of brain chemicals including Serotonin and GABA. Likewise, bad bacteria can have an adverse effect. For example, small amounts of the C.jejuni bacteria can activate parts of the brain that cause anxiety and fear.

Friendly bacteria, specifically Bifidobacteria, help prevent bad bacteria from taking over and colonizing the intestines. Of particular interest to people with mood disorders is the prevention of the bacteria Candida. Candida is often unrecognized as a cause of anxiety and depression.

Lactobacilli bacteria in sufficient numbers can help encourage a relaxed state. During fermentation, lactobacilli release Tryptophan, which produces the calming neurotransmitter Serotonin. Taking high-quality supplemental Probiotics containing lactobacilli can certainly be a positive step in easing stress.

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Gut Flora and the Immune System
70% of the immune cells line the intestinal wall. Your immune cells biochemically communicate with the 100 trillion bacteria that also reside in the G.I. tract. This is your first line of defense for your immune system. The immune cells interact with bacteria to determine when to mount an attack against an invader. Bacteria are smart and are constantly assessing when your stress level has increased and your immunity has decreased and then respond accordingly.

Any medication or over-the-counter item that disrupts acid production creates a harmful environment. Stopping acid production in our stomach prevents the necessary preventive shield from eliminating harmful and disease-causing bacteria from entering our intestinal tract and possibly our blood stream. Additionally, without the acid production, the gut cannot break down protein. Without protein digestion, you do not have the ability to repair cells, including your immune system.

An estimated 100 trillion microorganisms representing more than 500 different species inhabit every normal, healthy bowel. Most of these microorganisms are helpful, and in sufficient quantities can protect from attack. Gut-dwelling bacteria keep pathogens (harmful microorganisms) in check, while aiding in digestion and nutrient absorption, therefore contributing to proper immune function.

Probiotics may also maintain urogenital health. Like the intestinal tract, the vagina is a finely balanced ecosystem that depends upon the dominant Lactobacilli strains to create an acidic environment where harmful microorganisms cannot survive. But the system can be thrown out of balance by a number of factors, including antibiotics, spermicides, and birth control pills. Probiotic treatment that restores the balance of microflora may be helpful for such common female problems including vaginitis, yeast infections, and urinary tract infection.

Healthy bacteria help modulate the immune system by influencing the activity of immune cells. This prevents the release of harmful agents (pro-inflammatory cytokines) while encouraging the release of calming ones (anti-inflammatory cytokines). This healthy mechanism also protects the gut wall from damage by the body’s own immune cells.

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What Destroys Beneficial Bacteria?
There are many ways healthy digestive microbes are killed. Our modern lifestyle, which includes antibiotic use, chlorinated water, medications, chemical ingestion, pollution and poor diet, is responsible for eradicating much of the beneficial bacteria in our bodies. The process of cooking food kills the undesirable bacteria, but it also destroys the beneficial microbes. The microbes in processed foods are destroyed when preservatives are added.

Over the last 50 years our soil has been sterilized with pesticides and herbicides, destroying most bacteria both bad and good. Antibiotics are designed to kill germs and disease (bad microbes) but they also kill the beneficial microbes in your gut flora. This alters our ability to maintain a healthy balanced microbial population that is essential to our health.

It is important to kill the bad microbes in our food in order to avoid sickness and disease. It is also important to have a healthy balance of beneficial bacteria to avoid sickness, disease and to keep your body nutritionally sound.

Dairy products can be a good source of friendly lactobacillus, especially yogurt and kefir. Yogurt in the United States is required to be produced by the fermentation by Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. However, post-fermentation heat treatment of yogurt is also allowed, which kills all live cultures.

The milk in most grocery stores is pasteurized, or 
heated to about 165 degrees F, and can be heated further by ultra-pasteurization. Unfortunately, this also kills the friendly bacteria and other nutrients and enzymes that naturally occur in milk. Raw milk straight from the cow or goat is chock full of the benefits of wonderfully healthy bacteria, vitamins, and enzymes that you simply will not get from store-bought milk. However, in 2005 the FDA stated that raw milk was not safe for the public, and as a result, pasteurization of milk was deemed the only way to protect the public.

Many commercial dairies do not feed their cows grass and hay, which are the natural food for cows. Instead, some herds are kept in small feedlots and given large amounts of grain. As a result, the cows are prone to disease and must be fed antibiotics, which in turn end up in the milk. Often bleach is added to ensure the milk is white.

As a result, we have lost 
this source of lactobacillus in our diets and therefore are not receiving the 
quantities of bacteria we used to.

Antibiotics, which are potent immunosuppressant, are prescribed for 
dozens of common ailments. But in the process of 
killing the bacteria for which they are prescribed, they also kill off 
all the friendly lactobacteria in your intestines, severely impairing 
digestion and assimilation of nutrients at a time when your body needs 
them most.

At times, antibiotics can be necessary, even life saving. When we take them to kill off infectious bacteria, we also destroy 
large amounts of the beneficial flora in our digestive tracts.

“We’re now finding that eliminating all the good microbes from our body results in a weaker immune system, which we believe is leading to problems such as increased incidence of chronic disease, including allergies like asthma,” states Dr. Huffhagle, a renowned expert on Probiotics. “Once you take antibiotics as your physician prescribed, follow it with some form of probiotic supplement to get the microflora in your gut back to where it should be. Your recovery and your health will be much greater.”

Healthy "friendly" intestinal bacteria is essential not only to good 
intestinal health, but without it overall vibrant health is quite 
difficult to achieve and/or maintain.

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Probiotics and Obesity
Many researchers have determined that beneficial bacteria not only stimulate digestive health but also the immune system. Probiotic bacteria may even contribute to understanding obesity. 

Gary Huffhagle, PhD. Of the University of Michigan Health System, is a leading researcher into the world of probiotics.  “We should have known that probiotics and the gut microflora play a role in metabolism – it’s a connection that’s been known in the agriculture industry for years,” states Huffhagle.

It was noted that sick livestock gained weight when dosed with antibiotics. This led to an industry practice of routinely rotating various low-dose antibiotics in livestock feed. Huffhagle says that antibiotics actually altered the metabolism of the animals, creating a condition called “enhanced feed efficiency,” which is an improved ability to retain fat. “We take the antibiotics to recover from a microbial illness, but the trade-off is that the fat we eat may be staying with us instead of being metabolized and converted to energy,” Huffhagle says.

An imbalanced digestive tract may contribute to obesity. Taking friendly flora or taking other steps to improve digestion may be vital to promoting normal metabolism of calories and fat. 

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Probiotics and Aging
Aging does not only affect the way we look, but the microflora living in our gut also changes as we age.

The bifidobacteria dominates the gut of the infant, which contributes to the production of Tryptophan that in turn converts to Serotonin. With age, this bacterium becomes rare and other microbes take over. The decline of gut flora may have a role in the development of diseases in the elderly.

A decline in bifidobacteria also creates a more permissive environment for C. difficile, the most serious cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea that can lead to a severe infection of the colon.

Our bodies act as host to both good and bad bacteria, and aging causes a decline of beneficial bacteria.  When the number of good bacteria is reduced, the unhealthy bacteria can proliferate and spread infection in the body, contributing to disease. It is essential to replenish the friendly intestinal bacteria to support immune function as we age.

Breast Feeding
During birth, probiotics from the mother's birth canal colonize the infant's gut, and then probiotics are provided by mother's milk. The baby’s intestine colonizes with bacteria shortly after birth, through normal contact with the environment and from breast milk.  With age, the bacterial population can diversify to contain up to 500 different species; collectively these are known as microflora. 

Breast fed babies have a lower gut pH (acidic environment) throughout the first six weeks that is dominated by bifidobacteria with reduced microbes such as E coli, and streptococci. But babies fed formula have a high gut pH with a variety of putrefactive bacterial species.

The neonatal GI tract undergoes rapid growth and maturing following birth. Infants have an immature in inmuno-active gut at birth. It takes many weeks to mature and close the gut to whole proteins and pathogens. Intestinal permeability decrease faster in breast fed babies than in those fed formulas. This is because the mother’s antibodies are targeted against pathogens in the baby’s immediate surroundings, since the mother synthesizes antibodies when she ingests, inhales or comes in contact with a microbe. These antibodies ignore the beneficial bacteria normally found in the gut and fight off disease without causing inflammation.

When formula is given to breast fed babies during the first seven days of life, the production of a strongly acidic environment is delayed and it may never reach its full potential.

Bifidobacteria infantis is a natural inhabitant of the gastrointestinal tract of infants, and occurs in small number in the vagina, along with L.acidophilus. The bifidobacteria, including B. infantis, B. bifidum, B. longus and B. breve are the predominant bacteria in the large intestines of babies. They are special varieties not found in adults, and do not require oxygen. These strains of baby bifidobacteria prevent the colonization of invading pathogens.

After infancy, resident probiotics are supplied to the developing child by raw foods, lactic acid bacteria-fermented foods and probiotic supplements.

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Cesarean-Delivered Children
The gastrointestinal tract of a normal fetus is sterile, and the type of delivery has an effect on the development of the intestinal flora. Vaginally born infants are colonized with their mother’s bacteria, whereas infants born by cesarean have their initial exposure of bacteria from environmental microbes in the air, other infants and the nursing staff. As a result, the primary gut flora in infants born by cesarean delivery can be disturbed by up to 6 months after the birth. One way to minimize the disturbances is to provide these babies with fresh breast milk to colonize the intestinal tract with strains of baby bifidobacteria to protect against pathogens.

Childhood allergies have increased significantly in industrialized countries during the past few decades. Researchers theorize that this rising incidence is the result of a lowered exposure to bacteria in early childhood. This exposure to microbes appears to be essential in jump-starting the immune system to develop healthy pathways that do not result in allergic conditions. Babies born by cesarean delivery are more likely to develop asthma.

Additionally, it’s been observed that infants who develop allergies have intestinal bacteria that are distinctly different from those of non-allergic infants, suggesting that the type of intestinal microflora is an important factor in forming allergic conditions.

Therefore it is critical to replenish the beneficial flora through mother’s milk, fermented foods and probiotic supplements.

Who Needs Probiotics?
Everyone including newborns to the elderly need beneficial probiotic bacteria if they want to enjoy optimal immune function, optimal digestion, and in general, good health. These bacteria are essential, and they are no longer available in the foods that we consume on a daily basis.

The food we eat is not sterile, nor is the air we breathe or the water we drink. Our healthy bacteria are under attack on a daily basis through the normal process of living. But we must protect the 100 trillion bacteria that reside in your G.I. tract to support our health. Antibiotics, chlorine, medications, fast food, alcohol and many other items compromise the beneficial bacteria that guard our health. Replenishing the healthy bacteria throughout life is essential.