What are Pro biotics?
Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride is the founder of Cambridge Nutrition clinic & leading researcher in the effects of the gut on the human body. Her much acclaimed book, GAPS: Gut and Psychology Syndrome, has helped many parents with autistic children, as well as health advocates.
Dr Natasha explains the vital roles pro biotics play in our immunity & overall general health.
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Your Gut - Did You Know?
* 90% of our cells and genetic material is gut flora, the other 10% is the rest of us
* Our gut wall makes up 87% of our immune system
* 80% of the toxins in our blood come from our gut wall
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What is Gut Flora?
Friendly & unfriendly bacteria in our gut.
What does healthy gut flora do?
* Ensures the digestion & absorption of nutrients
* Produce substances to transport nutrition through gut wall into blood stream
* Protects the gut wall & maintains healthy cell production
* Enables healthy gut wall cells to create B vitamins, vitamin K, digestive enzymes
Friendly bacteria - Pro biotics
Friendly bacteria is crucial to the health of our entire body. Healthy gut flora not only kill unfriendly bacteria, but play a huge part in the immune system. Our gut wall produces digestive enzymes to help absorb nutrients into our blood stream. Friendly bacteria help cells of the gut wall reproduce & stay healthy.
These bacteria grow in fermented foods such as; live yogurt, kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut, kim chi & fermented soy sauce – shoyu.
Good quality supplements are great to top up your friendly flora.
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Unfriendly bacteria - Pathogens
There are 400-500 different strains of bad bacteria in the gut, some bacterial and some fungal.
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Fungus – anti biotic resistant pathogen
This photo shows candida burrowing
into living flesh.
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B vitamins enable our cells to reproduce healthily, protect or nervous system & convert food into energy. The more I learn about the body the more I am in awe of its perfectly designed infrastructure! Dr Natasha explains healthy gut flora is able to synthesize its own vitamins, enzymes & proteins on demand – so we never run out of these vital nutrients. Water soluble vitamins only stay in the body for a few hours but are essential to every one of our cells’ health - vitamins K, thiamine B1, Riboflavin B2, B3, B6, B12, A, D, folic acid, pantothenic acid etc. Our body is able to maintain its own equilibrium as long as we do not put things into it that kills off healthy gut flora & feeds bad bacteria.
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Anemia
Anemia is often blamed on iron deficiency; however, a lack in B vitamins & minerals synthesized by the gut wall is the most common issue. Healthy blood needs B vitamins, A, D, minerals such as iron, calcium, magnesium, zinc, etc. Reduced red blood cell production resulting in pale, insipid skin is a sign that healthy gut flora is weak. Taking iron supplements or eating iron rich foods will not be successfully absorbed unless there is a healthy level of friendly bacteria. Dr Natasha jokes that the bad bacteria will simply eat the iron supplements & thrive without friendly bacteria. Restoring healthy gut flora allows the body to synthesize its own vitamins & supplements required to deliver nutrients
into the blood stream & kill off bad bacteria.
Baby gut flora
Babies are born with a sterile gut, our gut flora is populated by our mother’s milk. If mum has healthy gut flora this level of bacteria immunity will be ‘inherited’ by baby. A mum with low gut flora & high levels of unfriendly bacteria will pass on low immunity through her milk. Allergies such as hay fever, asthma & eczema are symptoms of our gut’s inability to kill off bacteria microbes which produce toxins. It is the toxins our bodies react negatively to.
Dr Natasha stresses that bottle fed babies really benefit from pro biotic supplements as this is their only source of friendly bacteria. Without supplemented pro biotics these children can suffer from toxin related illnesses stemming from their gut wall. Dr Natasha recommends opening a capsule & dusting your nipples before each feed – or mixing it into their water bottle.
Probiotic supplements
Supermarkets, health stores and on line shops sell a growing variety of pro biotics as more people come to understand about friendly and unfriendly bacteria.
When wondering which pro biotic product is right for you – a key thing to understand is that pro biotic capsules, yogurts, drinks etc all come in different potencies. Dr Natasha is quick to say that any probiotic is better than none! Start there. Introducing supplements is easy. Dr Natasha recommends to gradually increase the amounts
Good quality pro biotics with will cost more than lower potency capsules, Dr Natasha recommends Neways Advanced Pro biotic, which she created.
Lamberts, Biocare, Optibac Probiotics are also recommended brands.
What is the pro biotic RDA?
How do we know when our gut flora has rebalanced itself? Sometimes it is hard to know when therapies are working. Dr Natasha replies, “ It should take 6 months of supplemented pro biotics & diet change to re balance your gut flora. Symptoms can increase in ‘die-off’ effects, as bad bacteria toxins are released from the gut. I advise my patients to start off taking small amounts and increasing pro biotic intake over a course of weeks. 1 capsule twice a day for 1 week, 2 capsules twice a day for 1 week, 3 capsules twice a day to complete a 6 month period. After that you can reduce down to 1 twice a day to keep your healthy gut flora topped up.”
Lower potency/ quality tablets will be fine to top up someone with healthy gut flora, but the removal of major bacteria overgrowth requires a larger dosage & commitment with regards to diet & perhaps lifestyle.
If you want to take pro biotics in your natural diet by way of sauerkraut & yogurts the same rule applies for the gradual build up. A teaspoon of sauerkraut to a diet a day, then increase as die-off effects pass.
Natural sources : Sauerkraut, kim chi, kombucha - fermented foods.
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Unfriendly bacteria die-off - detox
As your body starts to kill off unfriendly bacteria you will experience ‘die- off’ symptoms. The toxins are released from your gut and some symptoms may even get worse before they get better as they are purged from your digestive tract. This passes & causes you no harm.
Dairy
There is much information out there about the difficulty for humans to digest cow milk. Cow milk contains a protein called casein. Casein is a glue like substance that when not properly digested can coat the lining of our gut wall & create sticky patches where undigested food is caught & putrefies. Toxins are produced as a build up of unfriendly bacteria feast & breed in these conditions. ILR asks Dr Natasha her thoughts on dairy as a source of pro biotics.
There are many types of cows in the world, all producing different types of milk.
Dairy products are pasteurized - heated to kill bacteria. This kills both the good & the bad bacteria.
Cow feed is predominantly genetically modified soya. Unless fermented for up to 6 months, high levels of goitrogens & hormone deregulaters found in soya are reacted to as a poison & have negative affects upon the whole body - including thyroid function. Pasteurized milk from a soya fed cow is not recommended.
Pasteurized vs Raw milk
Raw unpasteurized milk is different. Dr Natasha explains, in experiments if you introduce Salmonella or e-coli into raw unpasteurized cow milk – the pro biotics kill the bacteria. If you introduce Salmonella or e-coli into pasteurized milk, the bacteria thrive. Raw organic Jersey or Guernsey cow milk is the best. Although raw milk is, by law, not allowed to be on display for sale - you can get it quite easily. Just ask your local dairy for it & they will be able to provide it. It is consumed by a small slice of society in the
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Autism and learning disorders
From Dr Natasha’s own research & results she has linked low gut flora in children to abnormal gut flora in the parents. Children born with impaired gut flora are prone to low immunity illness & even autism and learning problems. Dr Natasha treats people with ADHD, anxiety, learning disabilities & obsessive behavior at her clinic in
>>Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr Natasha Campbell McBride
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Related links
>> ILR food> dairy
>> GAPS - what is it? - Dr Natasha Campbell McBride
>> Is 100% raw vegan our optimal diet? - Fresh Network
>> One of the key secrets to great health - Dr Mercola
>> Biocare
>> Optibac Probiotics
