What do probiotics actually do? Are they necessary?
Believe it or not but our bodies have an internal ecosystem that is non human. We are a host to trillions of bacteria! These bacteria are our life force and play an important role in our ability to function as a living being. Without bacteria we simply would not exist, nor would any animal or plant.
Bacteria are the basis of our digestive and immune system and work to protect us from any harmful and bad bacteria we may come into contact with. We need good bacteria in order to fight off the bad bacteria because without this our body cannot perform such things as breaking down our food and absorbing nutrients. If nutrients don’t get to our bodies cells the cells will starve and eventually die and in time so will we.
The more we understand the value of our good bacteria the better we will understand how to improve our health.
To take a probiotic, prebiotic or not?
Finding a good probiotic can be hard with so many widely available. Many probiotic products offer as little as one or two strains or a maximum, at best, of 15 strains. When you consider that our digestive tract accommodates over a 1,000 different strains, supplementing with only a few will, in most cases, not have a great impact. However, when it comes to health individual needs* must be considered and there are always exceptions.
Probiotics come from different sources such as food based, dairy, laboratory bred, soil based and even faecal matter. At True Medicine we use nutrigenomics or food-based products as this is where we originally got our good bacteria from.
Gut health
An essential component to having a healthy microbiome is gut health. If the gut (digestive tract, small and large intestines) is not healthy, intact and functioning, no amount of pro- or pre-biotics will change this situation. Consider your gut as the home for your microbiome. Would you want to live in a home that is sub-standard? Neither do the good bacteria.
By repairing your gut and feeding the good bacteria with a diet high in fresh vegetables and fruit you are well on the way to having a happy, healthy microbiome.
Contact us to arrange an individualised* assessment of your needs by calling the clinic on
0468 774 633.