Fat Loss 4 Idiots Secret

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

What Makes A Good Probiotic Supplement

By Maxine Yottoni

Probiotics are microflora that exist in our digestive tract and help maintain a healthy balance in our digestive system. Our body is home to billions of microorganisms, both harmful and beneficial. The intestinal tract is especially bacteria dense. A healthy digestive tract has an optimum balance between the beneficial and harmful bacteria. Once this balance is upset, the body becomes prone to various digestive disorders such as excessive gas and diarrhea.

The etymology of the word probiotic refers to for life. This name is indicative of the fact that they are very much required for keeping out body healthy. More than 400 such entities have been reported to be visible in the gut of human beings. Studies related to the use of each and every micro organism is in progress and the results are yet to be established. The gut flora has been reported to facilitate great improvements in the resistance of the human body. They also play a pivotal role in synthesizing essential vitamins within the body. They keep control of the abusive bacterial content in the intestine too. The latest study reports have established a correlation between reduced cholesterol contents and the gut flora within the human body.

Probiotics and pre-biotics are not one and the same. Pre-biotics refer to the natural carbohydrates which are not digestible. They have testified to help in the colonization of the beneficial bacteria in the digestive track of humans. Probiotics refer to the friendly gut flora in human beings. They colonize the intestines right after birth. Amidst the hundreds and thousands of micro organisms that are present in the gut of human beings, the friendly bacteria constitute 15% of the overall bacterial population. They have proven to help in curing digestive disorders with ease. The human gut consists of both good and bad bacteria. Though one cannot get rid of the abusive bacteria completely, the utmost thing that can be done is to bring in a balance of good bacteria that can help defending against the harmful ones.

Probiotic supplements play a critical role in inducing this balance within the human system. The vital bacterium that makes up the gut flora is the lactobacilli species of bacterium. Commonly found in yoghurt, this bacterium secretes lactic acid and ensures the presence of acidic ambience in the intestinal track of human beings. This in turn would discourage the survival of other harmful bacteria in the gut of the humans.

The strenuous lifestyle and the hectic schedule that we are currently into is pressurizing and has all chances of spoiling the bacterial balance in our guts. The recent inclination towards taking fast food and the popularity that the junk food has gained in the recent past can speak volumes of the imbalance that can occur in the digestive track of humans in the long run. The inability of antibiotics to distinguish between the beneficial and the deleterious bacteria adds fuel to this fire. Even worse is if you are habituated to drugs like steroids and birth control tablets. They affect the gut flora adversely. If you are addicted to drinking coffee or other carbonated beverages often, it is for sure that there would be an imbalance in your gut flora. Too much of strain, water that has chlorine added to it, unnatural coloring, addition of preservative chemicals are some factors that can wipe out the friendly bacteria and can induce the imbalance in human beings.

Also, to replenish our gut with the right proportion of probiotics, the supplement should have a very high concentration of live bacteria, typically running into millions per gram. This would be mentioned as so many cfu or colony forming units per gram. The higher this is, the more effective the supplement would be at restoring the probiotic balance in your intestinal tract. - 17274

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