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    User's Guide to Probiotics
    User's Guide to Probiotics
    User's Guide to Probiotics
    Ebook95 pages1 hour

    User's Guide to Probiotics

    By Earl L. Mindell, R.Ph., Ph.D. and Jack Challem

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    About this ebook

    To the surprise of many people, several pounds of good bacteria populate our digestive tract, help us maintain normal digestion, and protect us against stomach flus, candida overgrowth, and many other types of infection. In this concise book, internationally recognised nutrition expert Dr. Earl Mindell explains the many health benefits of probiotics and how to use them to enhance health.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTurner Publishing Company
    Release dateMay 1, 2004
    ISBN9781591206729
    User's Guide to Probiotics
    Author

    Earl L. Mindell, R.Ph., Ph.D.

    Earl Mindell, R.Ph., Ph.D. is an internationally recognized expert on natural health and nutrition and the author of more than 30 books, including the international bestseller The Vitamin Bible, as well as The Herb Bible, The Supplement Bible, and The Allergy Bible. He is a popular lecturer and well-known authority on nutrients and natural health. Virginia Hopkins, M.A. has written and co-authored more than 30 books on alternative health and nutrition, including the bestselling What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Premenopause and What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause (with John Lee, M.D.). She is the editor of the Virginia Hopkins Health Watch, a widely read e-mail newsletter.

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      Book preview

      User's Guide to Probiotics - Earl L. Mindell, R.Ph., Ph.D.

      INTRODUCTION

      Antibiotics were first developed in the 1950s. These drugs rapidly attained miracle drug status, and for good reason. They cured diseases that had, until then, caused widespread suffering and death, especially in children and the elderly. Right around that time, another miraculous substance became available to the public. This substance has been a part of the workings of the human body since it first walked the earth, and has long been a common ingredient in foods known to be healthful. Until the middle of the twentieth century, however, its exact actions in the body were not understood. This substance is probiotics —living bacteria that, when supplemented in pill or powder form, take up residence in the body. Once established, these probiotic bacteria perform a variety of functions, all of which promote the physiological balance required for optimal health.

      A Brief History of Probiotics

      Friendly bacteria have been used to culture milk and other foods since ancient times. Ancient Middle Easterners are known to have regularly consumed yogurt. History texts reveal that, in the early 1200s, the great armies of warlord Genghis Khan made cultured horse milk a staple of their diets. Kefir, another version of fermented milk, originated centuries ago in the Caucasus Mountains of Russia. The bacterial cultures used to make this food, which was widely celebrated as an elixir of health, were highly valued and passed from generation to generation.

      In all likelihood, probiotics were discovered by accident when milk was left to sit and was naturally fermented by bacteria. When people discovered that it had a pleasant taste, they probably began to save cultures from particularly good-tasting batches to make more. In this way, the making of yogurt was refined over the centuries.

      Around the end of the nineteenth century, a Nobel laureate scientist named Élie Metchnikoff began to wonder why so many members of certain groups of Russian peasants lived for 100 years or more in good health. As he studied their dietary habits, he found that all of these groups regularly consumed milk fermented with friendly bacteria.

      After further study, Metchnikoff theorized that the bacteria used to ferment milk had much to do with the longevity of these people. He postulated that most forms of poor health originate in the colon, the part of the body where these good bacteria colonize in the greatest concentrations. Metchnikoff believed that the process of autointoxication, in which improperly processed wastes seep back through the colon wall into the circulatory system, caused chronic disease. He wrote a book about his discoveries, aptly titled The Prolongation of Life.

      As early as the 1950s, scientific research began to pile up support for Metchnikoff’s ideas, showing that supplementation with probiotics had many beneficial effects. The simultaneous introduction of antibiotics, however, doomed these friendly bacteria to virtual obscurity for several more decades. No matter how well they were able to boost the body’s ability to cope with various health problems, they were far overshadowed by quick-acting, potent antibiotics. Probiotics were unable to compete and soon disappeared from the pharmaceutical market.

      Today, the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has forced medicine to reconsider its overuse of these drugs. The more humans are exposed to antibiotics, the better the dangerous bacteria get at outwitting them. Scaling back the use of these drugs is the only way to preserve their ability to knock out infections—to take the pathogenic bacteria by surprise. Probiotics, the good natural enemy of bad bacteria, are beginning to enter the picture again as an alternative to antibiotics therapy.

      The use of these bacteria, which naturally take up residence in the human body, is an excellent example of alternative medicine’s approach to treating illness. Rather than attempting to target and eradicate organisms that cause disease, steps are taken to remedy the imbalance that hampers the body’s defenses and allows disease to take hold.

      Probiotics aren’t exactly nutrients, and they aren’t exactly food. They’re living bacteria that exist in a symbiotic relationship with the human body. Read on to discover what these microscopic creatures can do to move you toward better health.

      CHAPTER 1

      FRIENDLY BACTERIA 101

      Bacteria are usually viewed as dangerous, unpleasant, unwanted invaders. They lurk on surfaces, spread through airborne droplets emitted during sneezes or coughs, or hide in improperly cooked or spoiled foods. When swallowed or otherwise brought into the body, these bacteria—we are taught to believe—multiply and cause disease. If we can stay away from bacteria, we reason, we can stay free of the illnesses they cause. As soon as a physician suspects a bacterial infection, he or she prescribes antibiotics to get rid of it. Antibacterial soaps, lotions, and cleaning supplies help us in our quest to banish bacteria from our homes and our bodies.

      Antibiotic

      Literally, against life. Refers to drugs administered for the purpose of killing off bacteria that cause symptoms of illness.

      Not all bacteria are bad, however. In fact, there are more than 400 strains of bacteria that are good for your health. These bacteria actually help to resist the growth of pathogens, disease-causing agents. These beneficial bacteria are most commonly known as probiotics. We provide shelter and food to these friendly bugs; they don’t live rent-free, however. Our bodies need their services as much as they need ours.

      Probiotic

      Anything that supports life, including food, oxygen, and water. Most commonly refers to more than 400 strains of friendly microorganisms, many of which naturally reside in the body.

      Probiotic bacteria, also known as intestinal flora, microflora, and gut flora, have been added to milk, soy, and cabbage for centuries. Fermentation with probiotics enhances both shelf life and digestibility of these foods, yielding such delicacies as yogurt, kefir, sour cream, cottage cheese, miso, tempeh, sauerkraut, and kimchee. Modern studies have documented the value of some of these traditional foods for the prevention and treatment of various health problems.

      Fermentation

      The breakdown of complex molecules in organic compounds, caused by the influence of a substance known as a ferment; in

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