You’ve probably heard the word probiotic or seen the words live active cultures on yogurt containers. These are popular terms found on food and supplement labels to describe living bacteria that your digestive tract need for good health.
Let’s back up. You may not have even realized that you have good bacteria in your intestinal tract. You weren’t born with them. In fact, at birth you had a weak immune system and no bacteria at all living inside you. When you started to consume food for the first time—mother’s milk and other foods introduced later—you also ingested beneficial bacteria that attached themselves to your gut wall and started to grow. They helped you build a strong immune system.
During your childhood, a healthy camp of good bacteria naturally took up residence in your gut. As a young adult, you are supposed to have trillions of these helpful microorganisms living in your gut. Your camp of intestinal flora is like a fingerprint. No other human on Earth has the same exact camp of microorganisms. Good bacteria protect you from bad bacteria. It’s shocking, but a healthy gut should have about 3 pounds of normal intestinal flora. A 2009 study published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology and conducted at the University of Arizona College of Medicine found that some of the healthy flora is stored in the appendix, which had long been thought to be useless. People without an appendix need to be vigilant about creating and maintaining a constant camp of flora because they have lost their storage unit.
The good bacteria colonize the entire surface of our intestinal tracts and affect every single aspect of our health. In fact, people with enough healthy bacteria in their guts are less likely to develop heartburn, gas, diarrhea, and constipation. The good news is that if for some reason you don’t have this colony of happy campers in your gut, if something has happened to wipe them out—more on this in a moment—you can introduce them with a probiotic supplement. This supplement is helpful for anyone with any type of gastrointestinal complaint. In fact, I think everyone should take probiotics if they are willing to take one supplement a day.
Probiotic supplements contain many different strains of bacteria, but they all generally come from two genuses, either Lactobacillus or Bifidobacterium. These two groups are known to regulate the immune response by increasing secretory immunoglobulin A (IgA), which means that they strengthen your ability to fight off germs. They also reduce dangerous inflammatory chemicals in your body, produce antimicrobial substances, improve the gut’s mucosal lining (which may prevent food allergies), modulate gene expression, and, in a process known as decreasing pathogen adhesion, prevent pathogens from infecting the gut.
Why do I tell you all this scientific stuff when we are just talking about gut bugs? Because I want you to have enough information to inform your health-care practitioners of your desire to supplement with probiotics, and why. These bacteria are very, very important to people with chronic illnesses, but virtually everything you put in your mouth, from foods to drugs, will mug beneficial bacteria. In my book, restoring these friendly organisms is key to optimal health. Getting your individual camp to flourish is better than taking doses of probiotics into your system that your body may not even recognize.
If you want to learn more about this important topic, follow the work of Doug Kaufmann, the host of the Know the Cause television program (www.knowthecause.com) and the author of numerous books on the subject, including The Fungus Link to Health Problems and Infectious Diabetes. His books offer life-changing information that can help you restore good health. Within a minute of meeting Doug, you know you are in the presence of someone special who genuinely cares about your health and wants to make your life better. Watch him on TV and you’ll see exactly what I mean. Some of our TV shows together are posted at his Web site, and I do a medical minute on his show now, too.
When I interviewed Doug Kaufmann for this book, he talked about fires, as in the kind that burn down forests! Just go with him on this, as it’s a fantastic way to look at your gut:
“Reforestation is the necessary process of landscape restoration that occurs when fire burns through the natural terrain of a forest. Soon thereafter, in an effort to save not only the terrain of the forest itself, but the wildlife, forest keepers quickly plant new fledgling indigenous trees and plants. Disease in the forest and the animals will be successfully abated by this process.
“Why hasn’t anyone thought of restoring the terrain of the intestines after a similar ‘fire’? Antibiotics are analogous to the forest fire because life-forms (bacteria) are destroyed. Unbeknownst to many physicians, antibiotics are most often poisonous fungal by-products called mycotoxins. I have long contended that intestinal damage caused by antibiotics often comes back to haunt a patient long after the antibiotic therapy has stopped.
“I suspect that serious systemic diseases known to be caused by mycotoxins could be averted if doctors would understand the importance of mandating probiotics with each and every antibiotic prescribed. If you have ever taken antibiotics and now suffer from any number of symptoms and/or diseases, a 30-day trial run of probiotics and a grain-free diet should be instituted. It seems that even the human body needs to ‘go green’ with regard to reforestation!”
Antibiotics save lives and I like them as a class of drugs, but they are the worst drug muggers of beneficial bacteria. If you’ve ever taken an antibiotic, you’ve decimated your healthy camp of bacteria; the antibiotic goes off like a shotgun in your gut. That’s not an excuse to stop taking your antibiotic, though. Naturally, you need them if you can’t fight off dangerous infections yourself. But I personally think the entire category of antibiotics should be renamed Normalfloricus stupidicus. They are stupid because they can’t distinguish the good guys from the bad guys, so they kill everything in sight, normal flora included. That’s why you end up with diarrhea, cramps, vaginal yeast infections, or jock itch every time you take an antibiotic.
When you need to take an antibiotic, you should supplement with a probiotic to replenish what the drug mugger steals. While I realize that antibiotics destroy the beneficial bacteria—including a probiotic supplement—I still recommend that you take a supplement even while you’re on your course of antibiotics. By doing this, you reseed the gut with healthy flora and can significantly reduce the gastrointestinal side effects of the drug therapy. Basically, you are just running damage control. It may translate into getting softer stools on day 10, rather than terrible cramps and diarrhea on day 4.
I recommend that you take probiotics at least twice a day, but more often if you want to. If you can get only two doses in, take the first one 4 to 6 hours after your morning antibiotic dose, and again at night 2 hours after your last antibiotic dose (if you take the antibiotic at night, that is).
Studies conducted on lactobacillus GG, a special strain of bacterium, showed that the supplement reduced antibiotic-induced diarrhea. However, I recommend probiotic supplements every day, not just during antibiotic usage.
You need to have normal flora to help you digest and absorb your food. A person with a lot of beneficial bacteria has a stronger immune system because these small friends neutralize many dangerous and cancer-causing substances. When you have a healthy camp of bacteria in your gut, dangerous organisms can’t take over so easily. Without enough beneficial flora, you wind up with an overgrowth of Candida albicans yeast, gut dysbiosis, Escherichia coli, parasites, and other bad bugs. People who lack beneficial flora frequently experience yeast infections, urinary tract infections, skin problems, fatigue, jock itch, irritable bowel syndrome, belching, diarrhea, heartburn, and chronic fatigue.
Most people who don’t have enough good bacteria inside them experience a lot of gas, bloating, or cramps after eating. Did I say gas? Yes, a lot of that! People tend to get used to these symptoms and chalk them up to irritable bowel syndrome, or perhaps bad genetics, so I want to emphasize the importance of probiotics. Having healthy levels of intestinal flora can help you feel better and may, in some cases, relieve bowel conditions like those I mentioned above as well as constipation.
Remember, it’s not just the following list of drug muggers that can create an imbalance in your intestinal tract. Stress, illness, junk foods, sugary foods, alcohol, and coffee also tilt your gut flora in the wrong direction.
The lactobacillus and bifidobacterium strains are the most popular of the probiotic supplements you find in health food stores. They help your body make B vitamins such as biotin, folic acid, B6, B12, and niacin, among others. They also can increase the bioavailability of minerals such as magnesium, iron, copper, and manganese. The added minerals are important and help boost mood, improve immunity, increase energy, stabilize blood pressure, and regulate heart rhythm. Beneficial bacteria also help maintain a healthy pH, which is slightly acidic, between 5.5 and 6.5. The slightly acidic environment is conducive for the friendly microorganisms and helps to drive out the harmful ones. This means a healthy environment for your beneficial bacteria to grow and thrive. Good bacteria help process estrogen and thyroid hormones, so indirectly they can help ease menopausal symptoms and protect against breast cancer.
When it comes to picking a supplement, you need to understand the terms on product labels. Living bacteria in supplements are often measured in CFUs, or colony-forming units. Taking 10 billion to 40 billion CFUs per day is not uncommon, but 1 billion to 5 billion units is more typical. More is not better, because you don’t want an unfavorable reaction. Supplements commonly contain 5 to 15 different strains of friendly bacteria. You may find some of the following names on your product: Lactobacillus acidophilus, L. paracasei, L. rhamnosus, Bifidobacterium lactis, B. bifidum, and many others. CFU is a bit of a marketing concept. The CFU doesn’t matter to me as much as that you take a probiotic that is alive and viable.
This list could fill a book. Pretty much anything that goes into your mouth (meaning processed foods, alcohol and medications) can destroy the gut flora so to save space I am just summarizing. Consider probiotic replenishment the foundation of getting better. Take a high-quality brand to strengthen your immune system and to help you digest all the other foods and vitamins that you take each day.
Acid Blockers
All
Antacids
All
Antibiotics
All
Antivirals
All
Hormone Replacement Therapy/Oral Contraceptives
Estrogen containing drugs
OTC Medicines
Virtually all
Prescription Medicines
*Virtually all
SERMs (medications used for breast cancer which modify estrogen levels)
Sulfonamides
Sulfa antibiotics
Some diabetes medications
MISC:
Estrogen dominance
Many herbal products that disrupt integrity in the GI tract
Nutrients like prescription-strength folic acid, Lovaza, Nephro-vite, and prenatals
Vitamin K (phylloquinone) found in some multivitamins
*The drug muggers list would take a hundred pages if I were to list all of them.
In most chapters so far I have offered a list of foods, but with probiotics it’s a little more complicated. Allow me to share with you a couple of the most important foods to add to your diet—kombucha tea and kefir.
Drinking kombucha (kombu) tea is a new health craze. Some health food stores carry it or can order it for you. It’s almost like drinking vinegar or sparkling apple cider to me. You get used to the taste, and some brands taste really good. It’s fermented tea (Camellia sinensis), and it’s superpacked with probiotics. I think kombucha is a notch up from kefir because it also contains some healthy organic acids, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes. It contains all the B vitamins, which give you energy and help you process fats and carbs. It also contains vitamin C, a strong immune system booster.
Research has shown that kombucha may have antibiotic-like effects against harmful bacteria (like E. coli) and dangerous fungi. If you have C. albicans or multiple allergies, I would pass on this drink because we can’t predict how you will react to the multitude of various bacteria and yeasts in kombucha. Others can drink it anytime, but be warned, it can spark energy. That’s a good thing.
Kefir is a sort of fermented milk. As you just saw with kombucha, fermented foods can be good for us. Think of it as liquid yogurt. It contains enzymes and lots of friendly microorganisms to help the ecosystem of your gut thrive. Drink kefir on an empty stomach any time of day.
Speaking of yogurt, you probably already know that the right kind of yogurt is replete with healthy, friendly bacteria. What’s the right kind? Preferably one that’s homemade or from the farmer’s market. Store-bought yogurt sometimes contains beneficial bacteria, but it also may contain additives or colorants. Many of these products are laden with sugar and candylike toppings. That very likely means that the probiotics inside will be rendered useless. That’s because fruit additives and sweeteners may kill off the bacteria after the product has been on the shelf. If you want fruit on your yogurt, it’s better to wash fresh organic blueberries or strawberries and put them there yourself.
Store-bought yogurt is okay as long as it says “live active cultures” and is plain—no artificial sweeteners, sugar, colors, candy, or added fruits. I really hesitate to recommend manufactured yogurt because I know that you will go straight to the store and buy yourself a great big tub of Double Dutch Brownie Caramel Fudge Banana Split Yogurt with sprinkles on top. I really want you to buy it plain, which is important because you want your yogurt to contain living cultures of probiotic strains, not dead bacteria that have been killed off by all the sugar and flavorings, not to mention pasteurization, which also kills off those live active cultures. Let’s not go there today. Trust me on this. Plain yogurt is better than processed kinds, and supplements are a step up from that. I’d prefer that you buy plain yogurt or kefir since these are sure to contain live active cultures that actually are alive. Sauerkraut, preferably organic and raw, is another healthy choice.
For general health: 10–40 billion CFU per day, on an empty stomach. Take it 4 hours away from medicine and 2 hours away from food if possible. Many people find that taking it at bedtime works best.
Drug mugger dose: Take probiotics one to three times daily on an empty stomach.
It’s virtually impossible to overdose on probiotics, but you may be getting too much if you start to develop gas or other intestinal symptoms. Remember, these supplements are supposed to relieve intestinal problems, not cause them. If you experience any discomfort at all, it may be related to a die-off reaction of the bad bugs. It shouldn’t last more than 3 days. Not all brands are created equal, and some contain starch, gluten, fillers, and prebiotics, which may be upsetting to a few sensitive people. Prebiotics are different from probiotics. They are basically just food for the probiotics, or beneficial bacteria. Prebiotics are nondigestible substances that stimulate the growth of certain bacterial flora species such as bifidobacteria and lactobacilli. Probiotics flourish in the presence of prebiotics, so some supplements combine the two. That said, some people are sensitive to this additive and get sicker from the combo. This discomfort is the result of your taking a probiotic that contains microorganisms that are not natural to your own camp. If you recall, at the outset of this chapter, I said that each human has a unique fingerprint of flora. So when you take a probiotic that is perceived as foreign to your own individual camp, your immune system wakes up and starts attacking your body to get rid of these new and “dangerous” gut bugs. This is why it’s best to take probiotics (and prebiotics) that allow your own camp to flourish. It’s better than taking a smorgasbord of foreign gut bugs. Dr. Ohhira’s brand is a good choice if this is a concern for you. (See What’s in My Cupboard? on page 230.) Some examples of prebiotics you might see on a formula label include: lactulose, lactitol oligofructose (and sc-FOS), inulin, galactooligosaccharides (GOS), tagatose, isomaltooligosaccharides, polydextrose, and digestion-resistant maltodextrin.
Most consumers think that taking a probiotic is all they need to do, and they just randomly pick any one of dozens on the store shelf. But the bacterial strain matters because you have a flora fingerprint. Certain strains are more helpful than others at beating particular issues, so learn to be choosier if you want to install a good security system for your body. More specifically, if you are trying to prevent allergic responses and asthma attacks, then L. reuteri has been shown to help. If you are riddled with C. albicans or gut dysbiosis and get yeast infections all the time, then perhaps the friendly yeast Saccharomyces boulardii is your best bet. S. boulardii is also strongly recommended for preventing antibiotic-associated diarrhea and traveler’s diarrhea, according to a review article published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology in 2010. And if Helicobacter pylori (known to cause ulcers) is your problem bug, then products containing L. salivarius could help. And if you have an autoimmune disorder, your best probiotic might be Nutrex Hawaii’s Spirulina Pacifica or Dr. Ohhira’s brand.
Probiotic supplements should be purchased with care because if you’re not taking live active cultures, you may not be getting the very best effect, although some Israeli research suggests that even carcasses of dead lactic acid bacteria are beneficial in certain persons. Probiotic supplements are very fussy. They’re sort of fragile because they are so sensitive to heat, light, oxygen level, and loud noise.
So Delicious Coconut Milk Yogurt by Turtle Mountain: It’s in my fridge because it’s dairy free and soy free and really yummy. The company does not use artificial sweeteners or artificial colors. It contains six live and active cultures including L. bulgaricus, S. thermophilus, L. plantarum, and others. I don’t rely on this for my probiotic supplementation, though.
Pro-Bio by Enzymedica: I often recommend the Enzymedica line because they are high-quality supplements with no fillers. This enteric-coated product contains various strains of probiotics that are guaranteed potent at room temperature (many supplements require refrigeration). The capsules are small and easy to swallow. One of the strains in Pro-Bio is Bacillus subtilis, which is the source of an enzyme, nattokinase, that supports heart health and circulation. It is one of the most useful heart-healthy strains in the world and can also improve intestinal flora. The other living strains in this brand improve immune function, digestion, and detoxification, and help you manufacture essential enzymes and vitamins. It is sold at health food stores nationwide, or visit www.enzymedica.com.
Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics 12 Plus by Essential Formulas: This product was developed by a Japanese microbiologist and his team. It contains a synergistic blend of living beneficial bacteria along with amino acids, vitamins, minerals, organic acids, and bacteriocins. The beneficial bacteria remain with their original food source to stimulate growth and create the perfect environment for your own beneficial bacteria—what I call your flora fingerprint. Dr. Ohhira’s probiotics are safe for the entire family, although the dosage changes from children to adults. The product is vegetarian and never genetically modified. It is free of gluten, soy, and dairy.
Primal Defense HSO Probiotic Formula by Garden of Life: This is Jordan Rubin’s whole food blend of probiotics. He is the author of The Maker’s Diet. This brand contains the nutrients and beneficial bacteria that you would normally get from healthy soils, those that are untouched by pesticides, herbicides, and other chemicals. The product contains 14 species of hardy, nondairy organisms that survive stomach acid and bile.
Saccharomyces boulardii by NutriCology: This particular brand of S. boulardii is found in the fridge in most health food stores. This company has a lot of integrity. Its product is very pure and may be an excellent addition to any probiotic supplementation because it is a yeast and we need friendly yeast, too. S. boulardii has nothing to do with C. albicans strains. In fact, this dietary supplement can help you beat C. albicans infections by running them out of the house. It has been extensively studied and found to support gastrointestinal health and to increase secretory IgA, which improves immunity. There are no preservatives or diluents in this brand, and it’s hypoallergenic.
Probiotic All-Flora by New Chapter: This product is organic and contains nine strains of live probiotics cultured together on a nondairy, whole food base. The makers combine the live bacteria with growth-promoting prebiotics to feed the probiotics so they work better. The prebiotics come from organic apples and organic inulin sourced from Jerusalem artichokes. The bacteria strains in this blend provide billions of units per dosage; the strains used are S. thermophilus, L. rhamnosus, Bacillus breve, L. acidophilus, Bacillus infantis, B. longum, L. plantarum, L. salivarius, and L. helveticus. The product is gluten free, but it does contain fermented soy and fish.
Kyo-Dophilus Probiotics Plus Enzymes by Kyolic: This product is used in thousands of hospitals and university research centers. Kyolic manufactures this high-quality product from three specially cultured, nondairy, heat-stable strains of friendly bacteria. The trio survives stomach acid. I really like the fact that this product does not require refrigeration for stability, as many probiotics do. This supplement provides digestive enzymes to help you break down your meals, in addition to the probiotics. It could be helpful for people with nonspecific digestive problems. It contains L. acidophilus, Bifidobacterium bifidum, and Bifidobacterium longum.
Spirulina Pacifica by Nutrex Hawaii: Spirulina contains a host of naturally occurring probiotics that will also help you manufacture your own.