By Jonathan Evans
Information Specialist for The Herbarium
Happy Holiday season to you all.
I would wish you a Merry Christmas, but not all my readers celebrate that holiday, and others have holidays around this time.
I am not christocentric.
Anyway, I promised to write about probiotics and I am a man of my word.
What’s in your gut
Awareness of microflora or probiotics has blossomed over the last decade. Over 10,000 scientific articles have been published on the subject in this century alone!
Our gut flora outnumbers our body cells by 10 to 1. Each of us hosts 160 or more microbial species. Unfortunately, due to medicines, diet, stress and chronic illnesses we are destroying our gut flora. Most people understand that taking antibiotics destroys gut flora. Did you know you are probably being exposed to a number of antibiotics in your diet? Many animals are fed antibiotics to help protect them from infection and help fatten them up for market. NSAIDs, over the counter medication, even chlorine in the drinking water can affect your beneficial bacteria.
Good gut flora is terribly important. You cannot live for five minutes without them. Healthy gut flora make up 70-90 percent of your immune system .
The two powerhouses
There are two main groups of bacteria in the gut, Lactobacillus and bifidobacterium.
Lactobacillus species are found in the small intestine and help produce enzymes to digest and metabolize proteins and carbohydrates, make vitamin K and B vitamins and inhibit inflammatory mediators among other things.
Bifidobacteria populations constitute 95 percent of the gut bacteria in healthy individuals and are found in the large intestine. They metabolize lactose, generate lactic acid, help ferment and digest carbohydrates, make B vitamins, protect against diarrhea and make fatty acids, again, just to name a few of its functions.
Stress has a detrimental effect on your gut flora which impacts bacterial cell wall breakdown. This has been linked to chronic depression, anxiety, hyperactivity,Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
Picking a probiotic
Now that you have a general idea of what these little beauties do, how do you choose a good probiotic to help support them?
Glad you asked.
Look for products that have a good mixture of both Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium and several species of both. Find a product with at least 10 strains of the combination. The label should read “...contains (x amount) billions per capsule at time of manufacture.” Most formulas will have a die off of several billion within 60 days of manufacture and tend to overpopulate the amount per capsule to make up for the die off.
Refrigeration is crucial
Most important to remember is heat and moisture are deadly to probiotics and speed up the die off process. In our experience, the room stable products you may find online, in the grocery or drug store just do not measure up. A probiotic product must be refrigerated at the store and at home.
During the summer months I only carry one brand of probiotic because it comes in an insulated refrigerated container. There are reports that the back of some delivery trucks are measuring 120-plus degrees in the summer. Add to that the idea that the products were in a warehouse for however long and you can see why I am hesitant to put them out in my fridge for sale.
In my younger days, I worked at All Star Dairies. We made cottage cheese. There was a refrigerator at our house that contained nothing but bacterial cultures to make the cheese. One little vial of culture was added to 1,500 gallons of skim milk. The agitator was switched on and eight hours later voila! A humongous hunk of cheese was floating in a sea of whey. Please do not try to tell me room stable products are anywhere as good as a refrigerated product.
What’s with the prebiotics?
Most products will also contain prebiotics. These are basically fertilizer for the bacteria
Vegetables and whole grains can also help as well as fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi and pickled vegetables. Most old-world cultures had some form of fermented foods as a staple in their diets, which added to their overall gut health. One last note. Eating yogurt is not going to repopulate your gut flora to any degree. In the old days when people made their own it was more beneficial. Today, most yogurts have only one or two species of bacteria – but with added sugar ,which does not help - and they are pasteurized. The heating in pasteurization destroys much of the goodness of the culture. So eat yogurt if you like it but it’s not going to help you the way you are led to believe in the commercials.
I hope this gives you a beginning look at probiotics. We have free literature at the Herbarium for more detail.
Send questions on botanical remedies to: Nature’s RX: Jonathan Evans at Herbarium258@gmail.com or by regular mail to: The Herbarium, 254 Exchange St., Chicopee MA 01013. If requesting information, please include a stamped, self-addressed envelope.
