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Probiotics – Are They Worthwhile?

The intestines contain over 400 species of microorganisms that help with the digestive process and prevent the growth of harmful pathogens in the bowel. Therefore, keeping our internal ecology in order is essential to good health. However, there are many factors that can upset the balance of organisms in the gut – including eating the wrong foods, age, illness and certain medications.

Probiotics (good or friendly bacteria) are live microorganisms that are similar to those found in the digestive tract. Examples include bacteria from the genus Lactobacillus (such as L. acidophilus and L. casei) and Bifidobacterium (e.g. B. infantalis and B. animalis). Ingesting probiotics in live yogurt (yogurt containing good bacteria) or as a dietary supplement can have a beneficial effect on the intestines by promoting a healthy balance of gut bacteria.

Probiotic supplements from a number of different manufacturers can be found in most health food stores at varying prices. This raises the question, do some probiotics work better than others? Should we just grab the cheapest brand at the store and not give the brand any consideration? Are they really effective?

probiotic supplements, chiropractic and nutrition

Probiotic supplements.

Or, is it better to consume probiotics in another form, such as live yogurt or probiotic fruit juice? Probiotics also occur naturally in other foods such as miso, kefir and fermented soy products.

Some believe that live yogurt is actually a very ineffective source of probiotics, as the presence of micro-organisms is at a relatively low dose. Also, these microorganisms have no protection against stomach acids to ensure that they actually make it to the bowel. The effect of other natural probiotic foods is thought to be of minimal impact as well.

Given that the gut contains over 100 trillion microorganisms, it needs a pretty large number of probiotic microbes to have any significant effect on the internal ecology of the bowel. For this reason, low-strength probiotic supplements which contain less than 10 million CFU (colony forming units) of bacteria are thought to be just as unhelpful as yogurt or other natural foods, unless the supplement has an enteric coating or contains acid-resistant bacteria, both of which help survival in the stomach.

The CFU number of a probiotic supplement is a good guide as to how effective it might be but other factors are important as well. To be effective, a probiotic should contain multiple strains of good bacteria as opposed to one which contains only a single-strain (containing just 1 probiotic species).

With that said, it is not necessarily the case that a supplement containing more strains will be better than one containing fewer, since each additional strain is present in proportionally lower numbers. Recent studies suggest that between three and seven strains are optimal for effectiveness, and any species present in numbers fewer than 2 million CFU are pretty much a waste. Furthermore, some species of good bacteria are themselves ineffective. Strains from the genus Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium are thought to be the most reliable. Some strains of Saccharomyces , such as S. boulardi, may also be effective.

To maximize the benefit from probiotics be sure to always buy a professional-grade quality supplement. Next, to improve the effectiveness of your probiotic, always keep your probiotics in the refrigerator and consume foods known as prebiotics. They can help to improve the growth of good bacteria in the gut. Prebiotics include the amino acids lysine and methionine, which are found in proteins such as whey and fish, and galactose, which is a constituent of dairy products and sugar beets.

In addition to helping with digestion and absorption of nutrients, an AMA study on probiotics concluded that they can also help to ward off infection, boost the immune system and even help fight obesity.

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