PROBIOTICS

BENEFITS,
FOODS AND
SUPPLEMENTS

DrAxe.com
 PROBIOTICS BENEFITS, FOODS AND
SUPPLEMENTS

Probiotics hold the key not just for better health and a stronger immune
system, but also for treating digestive issues, mental health illness and
neurological disorders. Research continues to prove that probiotics
benefits and side effects go far beyond what we previously thought.

In this complete probiotic guide, you will learn everything you ever need
to know about probiotics, including the top 10 probiotics, best probiotic
foods, best probiotic supplements and how to use them.

Probiotics Benefits Begin in the Gut

The first and most overlooked reason that our digestive tracts are
critical to our health is because 80 percent of your entire immune
system is located in your digestive tract! That is an astounding
percentage.

In addition to the impact on our immune systems, our digestive

systems are the second largest part of our neurological system. Its
called the enteric nervous system and is located in the gut. This is why
its called our second brain!

Many people with health issues, such as thyroid imbalances, chronic

fatigue, joint pain, psoriasis, autism and many other conditions dont
realize that these illnesses originate in the gut.

The many toxins were subjected to today decrease digestive function,

affecting our ability to utilize nutrients and rid ourselves of cholesterol,
triggering chronic inflammation in the body, which is the cause of
many chronic conditions and diseases.

The secret to restoring your digestive health is all about balancing out
the good and bad bacteria in your gut. If youre going to be healthy,
you MUST consider consuming probiotic-rich foods and supplements
daily.
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What Are Probiotics?

Probiotics are bacteria that line your digestive tract and support your
bodys ability to absorb nutrients and fight infection. There are actually
10 times more probiotics in your gut than cells in your body!

Your skin and digestive system by themselves host about 2,000

different types of bacteria. Probiotics benefits have been proven
effective in supporting immune function and healthy digestion, as well
as beautiful skin.

Historically, we had plenty of probiotics in our diets from eating fresh

foods from good soil and by fermenting our foods to keep them from
spoiling.

However, because of refrigeration and dangerous agricultural

practices like soaking our foods with chlorine, our food contains little to
no probiotics today, and most foods actually contain dangerous
antibiotics that kill off the good bacteria in our bodies.

Top 7 Probiotic Killers

Here are the top seven probiotic killers that can prevent your body from
getting all the tremendous probiotics benefits it needs:

Prescription antibiotics Grains

Sugar Emotional stress
Tap water Chemicals and medications
GMO foods

In order to improve your gut flora balance, make sure to avoid the
probiotic killers. Were exposed to many of these foods, toxins and
stressors on a daily basis, and if youre going to restore your digestive
health, they must be addressed. If theyre not addressed, your gut

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micro-organisms become imbalanced, and your system can become
a breeding ground for bad bacteria, yeast, viruses, fungi and parasites.

The only way to fix this issue and heal your gut is to eliminate the foods
that feed bad bacteria and start consuming probiotic-rich foods and
supplements so probiotics benefits can work their magic.

20 Probiotics Benefits Proven by Research

The strongest evidence to date finds that probiotics benefits include:

boosting immune system

preventing and treating urinary tract infections
improving digestive function
healing inflammatory bowel conditions like IBS
managing and preventing eczema in children
fighting food-borne illnesses

New studies underway may soon prove that probiotics can:

reduce flu and colds

reduce overuse of antibiotics
treat kidney stones
treat colic
prevent cavities and gum disease
treat colitis and Crohns disease
combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria
treat liver disease
battle cancer
manage autism
lower cholesterol
fight bacteria that causes ulcers
improve acne
lose weight

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How Probiotics Work

Your gut contains both beneficial and harmful bacteria. Digestive

experts agree that the balance of gut flora should be approximately 85
percent good bacteria and 15 percent bad bacteria.

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4 Steps to Get More Probiotics in Your System

and Reap Probiotics Benefits

1. Eat More Sour Foods

2. Consume More Probiotic-Rich Foods

3. Feed the Probiotics in Your System

4. Take a Quality Probiotic Supplement

Top 10 Probiotic Food List

If you want to start consuming probiotic-rich foods, here is a list of the

most beneficial probiotic foods:

kefir yogurt
sauerkraut kvass
kimchi miso
coconut kefir kombucha
natto raw cheese

How to Pick the Best Probiotic Supplements

Its important to note that there are different types of strains of

probiotics. The probiotics benefits experienced with one probiotic strain
may be completely different from the health benefits seen from
another probiotic.

Certain strains of probiotics support immunity, others digestion, and

some even help burn fat and balance hormones.

If you want to use probiotics to help with a specific health concern, its
vital to select the right probiotic for the right condition. Or you can
consume a wide range of probiotics in your food to be covered.

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There are five specific things you want to consider when buying a
probiotic supplement:

Brand quality
Look for brands that are reputable like Garden of Life, MegaFood and
Axe Naturals.

High CFU count

Purchase a probiotic brand that has a higher number of probiotics,
from 15 billion to 100 billion.

Strain diversity
Search for a probiotic supplement that has 1030 different strains.

Survivability
Look for strains like bacillus coagulans, saccharomyces boulardii,
bacillus subtilis, lactobacillus rhamnosus, and other cultures or
formulas that ensure probiotics make it to the gut and are able to
colonize.

Research
Do your homework and look for brands that have strains that support
your specific needs.

Here are a few more things to look for:

Stay away from general health claims and consider how much
information is really on a label.

Stability
Probiotics need to be kept cold in order to preserve their potency. This
applies to their production, transport, storage and sales.

Date
The fresher the better when youre talking about living organisms.

Sugar
Sugar is not a good food source for probiotics. Prebiotics are the food
source meant to keep probiotics alive. A synbiotic is a supplement that
contains both prebiotics and probiotics. The best synbiotics contain
healthy plant starches and fiber.

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Living vs. dead
Live and active cultures is a better bet than made with active
cultures. After fermentation, the product may be heat-treated, which
kills off both good and bad bacteria (extending shelf life).

Bacteria type
Live and active cultures does not necessarily mean that the kinds of
bacteria the product holds have been proven as beneficial. The
bacteria strain should consist of two names and two letters: the genus,
species and strain. If the label lists two names, it could be any one of
hundreds of bacteria without research or proven health benefits
behind it.

Potency
This is where it gets tricky. Most probiotic products dont list the amount
of bacteria their products contain, and the amount thats effective
depends upon many qualifiers. Health benefits can occur with 50
million CFUs for certain conditions and may take as many as 1 trillion
CFU for others. The higher the number the better. The Food Standards
Code claims that at least one million live bacteria per gram are
necessary in yogurt and other fermented drinks to provide the 10 billion
CFU needed for health effect.

Beneficial Probiotic Strains

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How Immunity is Improved with Probiotics

Our mucosal immune system plays a significant role in maintaining

intestinal homeostasis and causing systematic protective responses.
Large amounts of antigens pass through the gut daily, and 100 trillion
bacteria are associated with the gastrointestinal tract. This rich gut
microbial community is referred to as the microbiome, which plays a
vital role in the immune system.

Current research indicates that microbial imbalance is associated with

broad diseases that are not restricted to the gastrointestinal tract.
Researchers have proved that probiotics are a powerful therapeutic
strategy for manipulating our microbial composition and immune
responses. Certain species of bacteria can have large effects on the
gut immune system, and the balance of good and bad bacteria is
necessary for the maintenance of homeostasis.

This is why manipulating the microbiome is an alternative approach for

maintaining health and preventing or treating diseases. According to
research published in Current Opinion in Gastroenterology, several
beneficial effects of probiotics on our intestinal mucosal defense
system have been identified. Probiotics work to:

Act as a barrier, lining the intestinal tract. They block bacterial effects
by producing substances that kill bacteria and compete with
pathogens and toxins to support the intestinal epithelium (the thin
tissue forming the outer layer of the intestines).

PROBIOTICS BENEFITS, FOODS AND SUPPLEMENTS 9

 Enhance mucus production so we have a thicker mucus layer, which
protects us against invasive bacteria.
Promote the survival of intestinal epithelial cells that help remove
foreign substances.
Enhance barrier function and stimulate protective responses from
intestinal epithelial cells.
Enhance innate immunity and control pathogen-induced inflammation
by secreting protective immunoglobulins and stimulating dendritic
cells to make them slightly less responsive and less reactive to
bacteria.

How to Boost Your Immune System with

Priobiotics

There are two main steps to increase probiotics and boost your
immune system. You need to be careful of things that kill off probiotics.
Stay away from the toxicity of tap water that contains fluoride and
chlorine, and be careful of taking prescription antibiotic medications,
which is the leading cause of probiotics getting wiped out today. You
also want to make sure that you dont consume too much sugar
because it can cause bad bacteria to feed, which actually imbalances
the good and bad bacteria in your body.

Consuming more probiotic foods also helps boost your immune

system. Probiotic foods and a high-quality supplement help you digest
nutrients that promote the detoxification of your colon and balance out
the bacteria in your gut.

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This content is strictly the opinion of Dr. Josh Axe, and is for
informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to
provide medical advice or to take the place of medical advice or
treatment from a personal physician. Readers of this content are
advised to consult their doctors or qualified health professionals
regarding specific health questions. Neither the author nor publisher of
this content takes responsibility for possible health consequences of
any person or persons reading or following the information in this
educational content. All readers of this content, especially those taking
prescription or over-the-counter medications, should consult their
physicians before beginning any nutrition or supplement or lifestyle
program.

Note: References for this content can be found at draxe.com.

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