Have You Taken Your Probiotic Yet Today? If Not, Here’s 10 Reasons Why You Should
Why all this fuss about probiotics? Well, there are 400 – 500 species of bacteria living in your gastrointestinal (GI) tract and gut. If you opened up your abdomen, you’d find that your gut would weigh between 3-5 lbs, stretching the length of a tennis court if laid out flat.
This probiotic bacteria is the root of your physical and mental health, and if compromised, can affect more than just your digestive function. Your whole immune system is dependent on the healthy maintenance of 85% of good probiotic intestinal flora; sparking into action T-cells if or when the other 15% of pathogenic issues harboured in your belly begin to get out of line.
Probiotics have been credited with saving modern man from a variety of scourges. If you think about it, our ancestors had to survive without refrigeration so they learned how to use natural preservatives, like salt water brine, to preserve their foods. These ferments would bubble with carbon dioxide and create a fermentation process, inducing positive bacteria to maintain the health of the comestible. When we in turn ate that provision, the positive bacteria helped to maintain and restore health. It speaks much to the longevity of many remote dwellers.
Source: http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/83_folder/83_articles/83_longevity.html
Yogurt and kefir have been known to promote health in many European and Tibetan cultures with their fermentation of goat and cow milk. Kimchi, of Asian cuisine, is a ferment made from hot chillis, garlic, asian cabbage, daikon radish, ginger, green onion, fish sauce, kelp powder, and red pepper. Recipe here: http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-easy-kimchi-at-home-189390
A few years back, I took a course to learn the art of fermentation. A young gal who termed herself, “Farmpunk” (http://www.farmpunk.ca/), from Nova Scotia, Canada, taught me how to use a 2% salt brine to ferment sauerkraut, miso, tempeh, dill pickles, ketchup, and red onions, without vinegar, to maximize the probiotic production. My healthy digestion and well-being depends on them.
You can order starter grains online from the Weston Price Association for raw goat or cow milk kefir. Another on-line, more international source for Kombucha Scobys or Kefir Grains is: http://www.torontoadvisors.com/kefir/suppliers. I’ve also had a patient provide me with a scoby when I started to ferment kombucha, a fizzy tea drink that can be traced back to the first travellers of the Silk Road in China. They would subsist during their travels on ‘booch’! Here’s a great link to learn more about it:http://wellnessmama.com/2673/kombucha-tea/ .When I’ve moved to a new city, I’ve found folks on Kijiji selling water kefir and milk kefir grains to supply my needs.
When I can’t get my ferments in on a given day, due to travelling or other challenges, I will use a probiotic capsule instead. I am quite picky about my probiotics for myself and my patients, especially if they’ve suffered due to having had radiation, been on antibiotics for a time, or been big sugar or carbohydrate abusers. The idea is to wholly compensate for the destruction of any of the 85% healthy gut bacteria in order to restore their health and equilibrium.
I’d NEVER use probiotics or supplements found in a drugstore, ever. Most of them are made by Big Pharma companies and have been found to contain chemicals and undesirable ingredients like caramel color and propyl gallate, controversial additives linked to cancer in animal testing. I will only use a refrigerated probiotic bought at my local health food store. A comprehensive list of third party listed probiotics can be found here: https://labdoor.com/rankings/probiotics
Ten Really Good Reasons to Make Probiotics Part of Your Daily Regimen:
1. Maintain or enhance your immunity – a double-blind clinical test involving patients in intensive care proved that viable (alive) probiotics prevented multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS), the number one cause of mortality among intensive care patients. If probiotics can do this, what can they do to prevent chronic flus, colds, and allergies?
2. If you’re pregnant or thinking of conceiving, increase your probiotics for gut flora health and also to increase your milk supply. We’ve found with patients that raw goat or cow milk, along with increased probiotics, will cause a mom’s dwindling supply to be greatly enhanced. See my book, The Raw Milk Cleanse, for more information, here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Raw-Milk-Cleanse-Discovery/dp/0986796247 .
Please avoid formula and refer to the Weston Price Formula here: http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/formula-homemade-baby-formula/ , if absolutely necessary.
3. Probiotics can help with the healing of Crohn’s disease, inflammatory bowel issues, ulcerative colitis, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), while en route to the cause using Heilkunst principles. See article here for more information: https://arcanum.ca/2015/04/02/how-heilkunst-can-solve-ibs-colitis-and-crohns/
4. Gluten intolerances and celiac symptoms can be helped substantially with the introduction of probiotics and digestive enzymes. For the difference between probiotics and digestive enzymes see here: https://arcanum.ca/2015/03/15/bloating-and-gas-whats-the-difference-between-probiotics-and-enzymes/
5. Refined sugar, grains, and processed foods can seriously increase the pathogenic bacteria beyond the more healthy 15%, upsetting the homeostatic balance in your gut.
6. When candida, yeast, ringworm, and thrush proliferate, much can be down with probiotics while we also address the underlying cause with Heilkunst principles.
7. Cancer needs an acidic, anaerobic environment in which to proliferate. An alkaline diet along with probiotics can diminish the predisposition for this disease to flourish, along with the curative treatment of the Genetic Miasm coming down your family line. See here: https://arcanum.ca/2012/05/03/an-introduction-to-the-cancer-miasm/ and https://arcanum.ca/2015/07/13/cancer-and-how-we-solve-it-dynamically-with-heilkunst-homeopathy-orgastic-potency-oxygen-iodine-vitamin-d-and-gerson-therapy/
8. Probiotics are very helpful for maintaining intestinal health prior to surgery, childbirth, or when taking a direct hit in compromised flora health from radiation, due to CT scans or x-rays.
9. I serve lots of farmers in North America, and because they’re exposed to GMOs, Round-up, Glyphosate, and other chemicals, I always recommend the use of probiotics to counteract the deleterious effects of these chemicals. Also, if you eat processed foods, non-organic dairy, or meat products, a daily probiotic, along with fermented foods, would serve you well.
10. Many autistic babes, including my own (you can find out more about my son’s autism recovery here: http://www.thepathtocure.com/), have benefitted from probiotics. In fact, the whole GAPS movement founded by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, is based on the gut and psychology syndrome connection between mental health and gut dysbiosis.
If you’rer looking for more ways to improve your general health and immune function, including the use of probiotics, you can check out our best-selling book, The Natural Home Pharmacy, here: http://www.amazon.com/Natural-Home-Pharmacy-Inside-Healthy-ebook/dp/B00GMPI6PI/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
Sources for this article include:
(1) http://www.drdavidwilliams.com/why-take-probiotics/
(6) http://gaps.me/?page_id=20
(7) http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/83_folder/83_articles/83_longevity.html
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