The Real Thing PRO-PROBIOTIC

Stress, prescription drugs, alcohol, a high-fat diet, too much red meat and too little dietary fibre can allow bad gut bacteria to overgrow and take over the gut. This can lead to digestive problems like infections, lactose intolerance, diarrhoea, irritable bowel syndrome, Candida and reduced absorption of nutrients. Unless you put more good guys in.

Here’s what good-guy bacteria can do…

1. ENHANCE NUTRITION. Good bacteria in the gut promote the absorption of nutrients from food – especially minerals like iron, calcium and magnesium.DID YOU KNOW?
   
   Our forefathers received their daily food from at least 500 plants and, as the food they ate was often stored in the soil, a rich supply of numerous micro-organisms was also ingested. Modern food often goes through extensive processing, growth enhancement, separation, condensing, drying, freezing, irradiation, burning, microwaving, heating, cooking and combined with various non-nutritious and (potentially harmful) ingredients. All these processes change the nature of our food which has a negative impact on human health, including deranging the immune system. Put this together with the use of numerous pharmaceutical drugs e.g. antibiotics that further suppress immune function, and we have a recipe for on-going sub-optimal and poor standards of health. Too many of us have lost the ability to maintain proper colonisation of the bowel flora. 
2. IMPROVE IMMUNITY. Good bacteria work with the immune system (symbiosis) on multiple levels. They’re practically honorary members of the team. Here’s why…
   • Physical protection. Probiotic bacteria line the mouth, nose, oesophagus, lung cavity and digestive and urinary systems. They form a physical barrier between bad bacteria and the bloodstream. Like a living layer of Clingfilm.
   • More immune cells. They increase and stimulate immune messenger proteins called cytokines that help coordinate the immune response.
   • More immune activity. Research has shown that probiotics help increase the activity of T and B lymphocytes produced to fight the body’s battles. They stimulate cells to produce bactericidal proteins (bacteriocins) that act against foreign invaders. They recolonise the gut where bad bacteria are normally found, preventing the opportunistic bad bacteria from flourishing there.
   • More killer cell activity. Probiotics don’t just stimulate T-cells and B-cells to do their thing. They also push other immune cells, like macrophages and natural killer cells, to do theirs – namely to attack, engulf and swallow harmful microorganisms and toxins. It’s called phagocytosis, which means “cell eating”. And probiotics get cells eating more.
3. INHIBIT BAD BACTERIA. They compete with unhealthy bacteria for binding sites and nutrients – some probiotics even lower the pH to inhibit the proliferation of bad microflora. They also produce bacteriocins, a natural antibiotic substance that fights against harmful bugs.
4. RESTORE HEALTHY FLORA. Antibiotics kill bacteria, but don’t know how to tell the good from the bad. This means they destroy good gut flora as well and this can upset the system and your stomach. Replacing the beneficial bacteria by taking a probiotic can help restore a healthy flora balance.
5. STRENGTHENS THE GUT BARRIER. The gut flora ensures proper mucous secretion which provides an obstacle to help prevent the absorption of pathogenic substances. Some bacteria actually strengthen the intestinal structure and are involved in tissue and cell development. An increase in Bifidobacteria introduced by nutritional supplements is correlated with an improved gut barrier. A dysfunctional gut barrier function is associated with digestive difficulties such as leaky gut syndrome and lactose intolerance.IN A NUTSHELL
   PRO-Probiotic helps provide us with more nutrients from the food we eat, helps protect against invading organisms and helps strengthen our gut barrier so that these organisms don’t get into our blood stream.