What You Need to Know About Probiotics, Your Gut and Your Health
- Monica Salafia, RDN
- Jun 6, 2017
- 4 min read
Probiotics have become a hot topic in the nutritional, medical and scientific communities, and new studies about the importance of a healthy “gut microbiome” are popping up almost every day. Even the mainstream media has picked up on the trend.
Why is everyone focusing on gut health? It turns out the trillions of microbes living in your digestive system play a big role in overall well-being, and a disturbance in the balance can throw off everything from digestion to immune responses. Since probiotics are designed to deliver large numbers of beneficial microbes to the gut, scientists and doctors are now investigating how these organisms may be able to influence health.
It’s All in Your Gut
Few people connect the gut with immunity. Even doctors may fail to recognize a correlation between digestive health and other symptoms their patients are experiencing and not refer their patients to Registered Dietitians. However, the state of your gut can have a powerful effect on how the rest of your body works.
Around 70 percent of all immune activity happens in the gut. If this seems strange, think about how many outside substances pass through your digestive tract every day. It’s up to the complex community of bacteria, viruses, fungi and yeast living in your intestines to train your immune system so that it recognizes which of these substances are benign and which may pose a threat.
Immune cells receive much of their “training” and “learn” a great deal from the gut. Cells in the immune system take samples of potential antigens from the contents of the gut and “show” them to other cells for inspection. If something goes wrong in the gut, the immune system can misfire and begin attacking food proteins or even your own cells.
Imbalances known as dysbiosis can occur after a course of antibiotics wipes out the good bacteria along with the bad or if stress puts an unwanted strain on the body. Poor dietary and lifestyle habits may also allow unfriendly microbes to proliferate.
When the imbalance between good and bad gut microbes is serious, the gut can become “leaky” in susceptible individuals, allowing large food particles and pathogenic bacteria to escape into the bloodstream. The immune system treats these as invaders and triggers inflammation, leading to many unpleasant symptoms.
Probiotics to the Rescue?
Probiotics can be used to help restore balance to the gut, but how do you know which product to choose? Manufacturers have jumped on the probiotic bandwagon and begun adding bacterial strains to just about everything. Seriously I have even seen some brands of peanut butter add probiotics. Whether they are actually living or not is questionable.
When I took Microbiology in college, we did a study on 6-10 different yogurt brands. Almost everyone of them had dead bacteria. Only my professor's homemade yogurt had live and active culture (which is what you want!). However, the efficacy of the “functional foods” has yet to be determined, especially since many of the bacteria don’t seem to make it to the lower part of the digestive tract.
Potent Probiotics supplements with the potential to provide relief from conditions exacerbated by dysbiosis should contain more than one strain of bacteria and may also include beneficial fungi or yeast. These varied organisms work together to restore gut health by “crowding out” unwanted microbes and re-establishing a strong symbiotic relationship between the gut and the rest of the body. Particular strains show promise for:
• Immune problems
• IBS
• IBD
• Antibiotic recovery
Refrigerated probiotics with a guaranteed potency for the time of expiration, not manufacture, are the most reliable. Refrigeration helps ensure the strains in the pills are alive and able to work in the gut. Avoid products with artificial ingredients or fillers, and be wary of those making specific health claims. The FDA has yet to give its stamp of approval for any probiotic product, but research is ongoing to determine stronger connections between beneficial microbes and health.
How Probiotics Can Calm Your Gut
If the environment in your gut is out of whack, probiotics may be able to help bring it back in line and restore proper digestive and immune function. Supplements containing anywhere from one billion to several hundred billion colony forming units (CFUs) are available, and the potency you need depends on the severity of your dysbiosis.
Probiotics work better if you feed the bacterial strains with fiber and resistant starches from healthy foods. These food offer pre-biotics. Whole grains, fruits and starchy vegetables, especially sweet potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes, provide abundant fiber for the probiotic bacteria to ferment.
As they do so, they produce byproducts called short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). SCFAs strengthen the lining of your intestines to help keep your gut healthy and minimize the chances of your immune system triggering unwanted inflammation.
While probiotics shouldn’t be considered magic pills with the ability to cure all ailments, there is some evidence to suggest ingesting beneficial strains can improve symptoms in certain cases. If you have a specific condition for which probiotics show promise or have just been through a course of antibiotics, you may benefit from supplementing your gut flora.
A knowledgeable Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) or doctor can help you determine which strains are the best for your condition and how many organisms are necessary to bring balance back to your gut. Research into the properties and mechanisms of probiotic strains is ongoing, and the results of future studies may reveal even more benefits from these microscopic residents of the human digestive tract.
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