How well would you rate your gut health? The health of your gut can have an extreme impact on your level of energy, how quickly you recover from illness, and a lot of other daily details that influence your quality of life.
One of the best ways to take care of this part of your body is through the use of probiotics, but there are few people who have a complete grasp of how these microorganisms work together to give you a healthier existence. In the next few pages, you find some great information on how to heal your gut with probiotics.
What Are Probiotics?
If you’re somewhat unfamiliar with the concept of probiotics, then you’ll be happy to know that they could be a step towards some relief for a variety of issues in your gut. To get started, it would probably be beneficial to see where the belief in these tiny organisms began.
To put it simply, probiotics are bacteria that are thought to have a positive effect on the body. The use of probiotics can be traced back to the first creations of cheese. In the early days of humanity, fermentation processes were used to help preserve foods that were considered to be valuable, primarily dairy products.
A Brief History of Probiotics
Later, in the early 1900’s, a scientist by the name of Élie Metchnikoff hypothesized that the human gut could be benefited by the ingestion of microflora. This came about because he found that build up of large numbers of some bacteria could cause a toxic effect on the gut. These harmful bacteria tend to live in the large intestine interwoven with an overabundance of feces that has been trapped in areas of the large intestine.
This same idea would be used to create the practice of colonic therapy, but Élie Metchnikoff’s primary goal was to modify the populations of microorganisms through the introduction of specifically selected bacteria that could combat the harmful bacteria populations such as those of the proteolytic type that are responsible for the complex tasks of breaking down or causing the rot of excess materials in the gut.
Metchnikoff also noticed that people who had a diet the included fermented milk seemed to live longer lives. During this time, it became popular to drink sour milk that had been fermented using a bacteria called Lactobacillales. This practice became so popular that doctors began giving their patients instructions to drink this particular sour milk for all sort of ailments.
What Probiotics Can Do
While it’s important to note that many people have different results with any treatment, it seems to be clear that probiotics have a serious place in health. With what has been discovered about the intestinal flora of infants, it appears that this information can’t be ignored, but what exactly can they do?
They Can Help Prevent or Reduce Diarrhea
As mentioned before, scientists discovered that diarrhea could be helped by introducing bacteria into the intestines infants. Having such a sudden and inconvenient illness can put a damper on your day. Ingesting some probiotics can help you to get rid of that feeling in less than a day. Some studies even seemed to be able to create effective relief in as little as 12 hours.
They Can Stop Constipation
You might be wondering how can probiotics be able to stop diarrhea, and ALSO stop you from being stopped up? This is possible because sickness like constipation and diarrhea can stem from a variety of factors. Hydration issues coupled with the overpopulation of some bacterial populations in your gut can have a massive influence on the way your body handles different foods.
The resulting wastes will have to be eliminated from the body, and an interesting without the right bacteria to break things down can send wastes down the line without proper treatment.
Probiotics Can Help with Eczema
There are a shocking number of children who suffer from the uncomfortable effects of eczema. Over the last few decades, the continued research of diligent doctors looking for cures have found that probiotics can reduce the intensity of eczema. While it’s not completely understood, scientists believe that they have found a door to treating the condition, but further research is needed.
Your Mood and Emotions Can Be Affected
Science has been connecting diet and health to depression for years, but this is one component that most people might be surprised to hear. Studies have revealed that there is some correlation between unbalanced gut flora and emotional issues. The 8 to 10 week studies involving the strains Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus saw some increases in cognitive efficiency, and were shown to have helped to control anxiety and depression.
People who ingested the bacteria also saw some increase in memory function, but a lot more testing and funding for testing is needed before any long lasting conclusions can be reached from a scientific point of view.
Weight Control
Now you’re probably aware that bacteria help the human body to do all sort of tasks. One of the most important tasks that the body needs hep to perform is the breakdown of the food you eat into its most simple pieces. Bacteria that produce acids work quickly to break down many of the foods that you ingest so that your body can absorb the released nutrients from an easily convertible source.
As these tiny bits of chemicals pass through your intestines they are absorbed and sent to storage where they can be brought out at a later date to make repairs to your body, or as simple fuel to keep you alive and kicking.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Even though the mechanisms that control the reaction that your body has to stimuli isn’t fully understood, positive results have been discovered in connection with probiotics and IBS. The introductions of helpful bacteria to the gut during testing have shown that it’s possible to slow down or arrest a lot of the inflammatory response that takes place in the gut for most IBS sufferers.
In 2012 a study claimed that nearly half of its test subjects showed a decrease in discomfort and bloating. That is encouraging news for people who live with this disease and are constantly looking for a way to deal with the inconsistency of living a life at the mercy of a disease.
Cholesterol
Though there are some relatively benign but useful things on the list, the points that remain can have a huge impact on not your quality of life, but also your longevity in general. Scientists have begun looking into other biological reasons for weight gain. Apparently, some trials based on using Lactobacillales have yielded favorable results. Doctors believe that introducing the Lactobacillales into the body helps the body to break down the concentrated lumps of cholesterol in the bloodstream.
This is possibly because the bacteria prevents the broken down cholesterol from solidifying back into a mass that can deposit itself into a bottleneck in your bloodstream. Cholesterol that remains in the bile form will be removed more efficiently and with much less effort, and you’ll be more likely to feel energized and ready for your day.
Necrotizing enterocolitis
There is nothing more frightening than having the life of your child be threatened. When children are very young, they are dangerously exposed in a world that has many ways of ending their fragile young lives. One such condition called Necrotizing enterocolitis. This is a condition that is caused by the contamination of their child’s intestines. Bacteria take up residence in the child’s intestines, and the bacteria begin to erode the wall of the intestines, causing a sort of rot.
This type of condition can be particularly life threatening for a baby, so a lot of care must be taken. This disease primarily affects premature children because they haven’t been exposed to all of the necessary bacteria that give them a chance to fight off the invading populations. Over the last 10 years, tests have shown positive results on the children who live with the disorder.
Probiotics Found in Food
Yogurt
Perhaps the most widely known source of probiotic flora in the world, yogurt stands above most of the rest as the most recognizable of the bunch. Yogurt tends to contain Lactobacillus delbrueckii. The acidic nature of the bacteria gives the yogurt it’s distinctive taste ad coagulates the casein in the yogurt to give it a more solid texture.
Kombucha
This popular drink is known for its unusual flavor and its probiotic content. Kombucha contains the bacterium Saccharomyces, which is known for its ability to directly help with gastrointestinal issues.
Sourdough
This type of bread is not only great tasting, but also very healthy for you, and will help you to avoid some of the processing associated with modern bread production today.
Sourdough is another food on this list that makes a great use of Lactobacillus. That makes it a good bread to eat when you have an upset or sensitive stomach.
Sauerkraut
This cabbage mixture is a primarily European food that contains a helping of Lactobacillus. This bacteria is famous for its ability to help people who are lactose intolerant to be able to deal with dairy more effectively. It’s also great for a number of the other health improvements that have been mentioned in this article.
Fresh Peas
Peas are amazing little vegetables. You might not have ever known that peas contain a very powerful bacteria called Leuconostoc mesenteroides. This bacteria has the ability to stimulate your immune system. This can help you to defend yourself from a wide variety of illnesses that you might be vulnerable to if you has skipped the peas.
Kefir
This drink is a fermented milk drink that is very similar to the fermented milk of day. It contains important bacteria that can help you to process dairy, and also to help you to break down more complex nutrients into their more simple parts for use in the body. These bacteria are called Propionibacterium.
