PROBIOTICS – The Healthy Bugs That You WANT, and Why

– by Dr. Nick Araza

The Good, The Bad & the Ugly

Probiotics are health-promoting bacteria (normal flora) that are supposed to line the walls of our digestive tract.  There are 100 trillion of these cells in your guts – that’s 10x more cells than in the rest of your entire body.

Okay, got it.  Healthy bacteria…why’s that important?  Why should I spend my hard-earned dollars on these little so-called “friendly” bugs?

Great question – here’s why this is so important:

PROBIOTICS have many functions and are ESSENTIAL for you to be HEALTHY.  Sadly, AMERICANS ARE DANGEROUSLY DEFICIENT in these essential organisms!

The TOP 3 FUNCTIONS OF PROBIOTICS:

1.  Probiotics help normalize (which will mean improve to pretty much all Americans) the function of your immune system, which should be high on your list of bodily functions to keep in prime working order coming into the flu season.  Improving your immune system should not just be a goal for the cold and flu season, but all seasons, considering we’re entering the cancer decade and the diabetes century - and that’s because all lifestyle diseases are directly related to your immune system.

*  Probiotics are able to improve your immune system by out-competing bad (pathogenic, disease-causing) bacteria, yeast, fungus, and other harmful microorganisms for space on the wall of your digestive tract.  80% of your immune system is in your digestive tract because it is the largest area of our body that is exposed to the outside world (ie. the largest area for bad stuff to get into us, through the food that we eat).

2. Probiotics improve (normalize) our digestion by helping to break down certain foods and nutrients that we can’t otherwise break down.

3. Probiotics make certain vitamins that we don’t typically get enough of.  These include many of the B vitamins, which have to do with energy production, as well as vitamin K, which is important in clotting/coagulation in wound repair.

So, if we have so many of these things in our guts, why should I take any more?

Well, there have been massive amounts of research done on this topic, and as always it boils down to this:  we aren’t living a life that anyway remotely resembles our hunter-gatherer ancestors, and our lifestyle wreaks havoc on everything, including our friendly bacteria.

Here are the 5 reasons why:

1.   We aren’t eating dirty foods covered in healthy bacteria; we now wash our foods and spray them with terribly toxic things.  This translates into you getting roughly 1,000,000 times less of these probiotics into your GI tract (keep in mind, you want to be like a healthy lake or pond - i.e. good inflow and outflow, because outflow only – stagnation - equals death).

2.  Many of the things we do eat here in America (processed foods, unhealthy meats, dairy and grains) are as terrible for our little helpers as they are for us.  Toxic foods produce acidic environments that kill off our healthy bacteria and promote the environment where yeasts and fungi thrive.

3.  We consume antibiotics by the truckload.  I know that roughly 20 million prescriptions are written incorrectly each year, not to mention all of the antibacterial soaps and other ridiculous products that straight up target and destroy our bacterial buddies.

4.  We rarely play in the dirt!  We now play computers, Nintendo, or work out in swabbed gyms.  This would be absolutely absurd to a hunter-gatherer; dirt was the only thing they could play in.  This not only ensured enough of the good bacteria, but it also ensured that his or her immune system was challenged in the right time and way to guarantee an extremely powerful immune system.

5.  Chronic stress – wreaks such havoc on us and our synergistic bugs, they don’t even have a chance.

Now that you know the WHY, you are ready for the HOW…

ACTION STEPS:

1.   Buy some probiotics - but not just any probiotics.

*  They should come refrigerated or out of the freezer (because they are alive, they need to be cold to keep them alive long enough to ingest them).  Also, there are certain strains (types) of healthy bacteria that have been shown to be more beneficial than others.

2.  Take the probiotics!!  This is something you take daily for life, to address a deficiency.

* I take the brand Innate Choice Probiotic Sufficiency (retail about $35 for a month’s supply) because I feel that it is the healthiest, most congruent brand out there.   There are some decent brands I have found at Whole Foods, but just make sure it is cold and contains some, if not all, of the above strains of bacteria.

* Note — DURING THE FIRST WEEK OR TWO OF STARTING PROBIOTICS, THERE MAY BE SIDE EFFECTS, SUCH AS HEAD OR BODY ACHES, GAS, BLOATING AND/OR DIARRHEA  … This is okay, this is normal.  This happens because the harmful microorganisms are fighters, and as they get pushed out and/or killed by the good bacteria, they often produce more toxins as they die…stick to it because you are worth it!!  (Isn’t it interesting how differently wellness doctors handle side effects, verses the pharmaceutical industry?   Hmmmm… who’s hiding what and why?  I’ll tell you right now, I’m not trying to sneak nothing by nobody!).

* If you experience any of the above side effects, start slowly by taking one capsule every other day for the first week, then one/day for another week or two, then up to the full 2 capsules per day recommendations.  I like to take mine morning and night, because I like to spread out my wellness.

Children should take ½ of a capsule/day per 40lbs of body weight (of the Innate Choice’s brand). You can pull the capsule apart and put it in a smoothie, in some water or on some food.  It’s flavorless.

3.  Lastly, enjoy knowing that you are one sufficiency closer to living a wellness lifestyle (kind of gives you that warm and tingly feeling all over doesn’t it?), and that you just increased the quality and the quantity of your (and your family’s) life.

If you want more information and science check out www.innatechoice.com.