It is perhaps understandable that companies want to sell their products and if they can include the latest trend in their advertising it is generally to their advantage.
But have you been taking various probiotic products on a daily basis and wondered if they have made any difference? You are not alone. There is much confusion so let's take a little time to do some clarification.
First, let's just quickly look at the meaning of the words. The word 'biotic' means, 'of or having to do with life or living organisms', so for simplicity sake, let's just say 'life'.
'Pro' means, 'in favour of, supporting something' and 'anti' means, 'not in favour of, against or in place of'.
So, very quickly we can see that 'probiotic' means, for life or supporting life and that antibiotic means the exact opposite, against life.
In our intestines, which are some 20 feet long, there live about 100 trillion bacteria. Applying our definition of words to these bacteria, a probiotic supports the life of these much needed bacteria and an anti-biotic kills them off.
Some things kill them off on an ongoing basis like coffee, fluoride, chlorine, carbonated drinks, processed foods and much more. But one of the biggest killers is antibiotics.
The difficulty with antibiotics is that they do kill off the bad bacteria which have been the cause of your infection or problem but they also kill off the good bacteria at the same time. This makes you very vulnerable towards further infections once your antibiotic course has finished.
I remember reading how a well known athlete was surprised that she succumbed immediately to a bad cold and chest infection after finishing three consecutive courses of antibiotics for a much more serious problem. She was obviously totally unaware of the devastating effect that the antibiotics were having on her 'friendly' bacteria!
It is easier to refer to the good bacteria as our 'friendly' bacteria because their actual names are much more difficult to remember. How about Lactobacillus Acidophilus or Bifidobacterium Bifidum, to name just two?
There are foods that contain these 'friendly' bacteria. Just as with vitamins and minerals, some foods have a higher probiotic bacteria content than others but generally due to the desire for longer shelf life, these bacteria have had a pasteurisation treatment thus rendering them more or less useless.
You will have realised by now why probiotic supplements are much needed and so we can now finally, come to the good news! The best probiotic supplements will contain a variety of the different strains of bacteria including both lactobacillus and bifidobacterium bacteria.
A capsule holding 10 billion bacteria overall is generally recommended on a daily basis. Yes, that figure is correct, 10 billion!
Properly formulated these capsules will dissolve in the intestines where they will go to work dealing with breaking down foods still further, extracting remaining vitamins and minerals for absorption and most importantly, duplicating themselves.
If you have access to magazines or articles that independently test natural products you will be able to find those few products that genuinely have the 10 billion live bacteria.
A recent test of 55 probiotic products found that just 11 contained all the ingredients listed on the label! 9 had no bacteria at all! Sadly this is not unusual, so don't believe everything you read on the label!
Therefore, be committed to taking a probiotic supplement on a daily basis and enjoy improved health daily.
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Stonyfield Farm Organic Smoothies contain more than five billion probiotic cultures, including the probiotics L. acidophilus, Bifidus, L. casei, and L. rhamnosus.
Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Probiotics are products that contain microorganisms -- usually bacteria such as Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium, and Saccharomyces -- that are supposed to have a beneficial effect for people who eat or drink them. They are thought to work by modifying the number of bacteria living in our gastrointestinal tract, thereby increasing the number of beneficial gut bacteria and preventing the growth and overgrowth of harmful bacteria.
Babies are born without any bacteria in their intestines, but they quickly become colonized with many beneficial bacteria. Babies born via vaginal delivery tend to have more beneficial bacteria, as do babies that are breastfed. Probiotics are found in breast milk, which is likely why they were recently added to an infant formula -- although it hasn't been proven if they will have the same effect.
Probiotics
Products that are available that contain probiotics, including some that are specifically marketed for infants and children, include:
Nestle Good Start Natural Cultures Infant Formula with DHA & ARA - a baby formula with probiotics
Baby's Only Essentials Probiotic - a powdered probiotic available in packets that can be added to milk or yogurt
Yo Baby yogurt - includes extra probiotic bacteria
Yoplait Yo Plus yogurt
Activa yogurt
DanActive yogurt drink, for kids over age three
Align Daily Probiotic Supplement
Nutrition Now Pro-Biotics Acidophilus
Culturelle for Kids with Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG
Florastor and FlorastorKids with Saccharomyces boulardii lyo
While other brands of yogurt have some active cultures and probiotics, they are usually not in high enough dosages to be considered a useful supplement.
Are Probiotics Useful?
Unfortunately, many studies have shown that the use of probiotics doesn't necessarily live up to all of the hype.
Specifically, studies so far (although more studies are being done) have shown that:
the probiotic L. acidophilus does help children with acute diarrhea get better faster
they do not have a protective effect against antibiotic-induced diarrhea, although some studies show that they do
early supplementation with the probiotic L. acidophilus did not reduce a high risk infant's risk of developing atopic dermatitis or eczema, although an earlier study did find a protective effect from eczema for probiotics
they did not improve pain in children with irritable bowel syndrome
probiotics were more helpful than simethicone, a popular ingredient in gas and colic drops, in babies with colic
Probiotics are also being studied for use in children with chronic constipation, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis and Helicobacter pylori infections.
On a positive note, no studies have found any significant side effects for healthy children without immune system problems taking probiotics.
You Should Give Your Child Probiotics Then, Right?
If they are safe and might be helpful, it is easy to think, sure, why not? But the problem is that there are many different types and strains of probiotics, and they come in many dosages, so it is hard to know exactly how they should be taken. Should you give your child a supplement or some yogurt with a probiotic? It's hard to say.
Keep in mind that except for use in kids with acute diarrhea, like from a stomach virus, they have no real proven benefit so far, so you might wait until more research is done before offering probiotics to your kids on a regular basis.