People have asked me the question many times, "don't you have to change probiotics after a while because they stop working?" Probiotics don't stop working, but there is something to be said for using different strains. New research into our body's microbiome and probiotics has found that the greater diversity of different strains, or types of probiotics, the better to positively impact our health.
Research into probiotics and our body's own microbiome, which uncovered the unique and flourishing ecosystem of bacteria inside our body, has significantly advanced over the past 30 years. It used to be that acidophilus was the only probiotic that was really known about, and people still refer to probiotics as " "acidophilus" which is just one type in a huge list of beneficial bacteria.
The word bacteria can scare us, because we usually think of infectious bad bacteria, but inside our body, bacteria-"good" bacteria or probiotics- are actually a crucial part of our health. As crazy as it sounds, it's estimated that we actually have more bacterial cells in our body than human cells.
When you realize just how many bacteria in our body we have, it makes probiotic supplements with numbers in the billions make sense. Also, having greater amounts of different researched probiotic strains can really make a difference. Research has shown that probiotics work together as a team, each with their own strengths, and that we really need to focus on more than a handful of well-known strains to seriously impact our digestive health and health through our whole body. Think of it like a football team, the person who's the quarterback is important, but if you had only a bunch of quarterbacks, you probably aren't going to win the game.
Research in our body's microbiome has significantly advanced over the years, and the probiotics we take or should be taking continues to evolve as that research continues. It's not bad for you to take the same probiotic supplement that you took 20 years ago, but there have been still many advances and advances in our understanding of our body’s microbiome not just for a digestive health but also for impacting brain and mood and so much more, that it's worth exploring new options for probiotics. In the same way, could probably still use the Nokia phone you had 15 years ago, but it's definitely not going to be your best option.
We always try to be on the cusp of supplement research and knowledgeable about new supplements that come out that are actually better than the ones that came before. That is especially true with our new probiotic line by Vital Planet. All of us at Pass Health Foods just went to a seminar by Brenda Watson, a well known educator into digestive health and probiotics who has done quite a few TV specials on WTTW Channel 11 over the years. She is a brilliant woman who shared her expertise and research with us about new developments in probiotics and how they can make such a difference.
One thing about probiotics is that they are not meant to be taken as an aspirin like how you would for a headache and expect to see a difference. Probiotics are meant to be used daily, as a regular part of our daily supplement regimen. I might even say it's the most important part of a daily supplement regimen, more important than a multivitamin.
One of the reasons that probiotics are so important is that they help the body to better absorb the nutrients from the foods we eat. The foods we eat fuel our bodies and help us to stay alive; but it's the bacteria in our digestive tract that help the body to absorb those nutrients effectively and properly.
Also, having a diverse microbiome helps to encourage stomach lining health. When we're missing those beneficial microbes in our digestive tract, there can be damage to the intestinal lining, which over time can make it so undigested food particles can actually leak into our bloodstream, a condition known as leaky gut, which causes a host of problems, the most common of which is constant, low-level inflammation throughout the body.
I want to recommend a new line of probiotics by the company Vital Planet who is founded and developed by Brenda Watson, formerly of Renew Life (Renew Life was bought by Clorox, which is the main reason why we have reduced our shelf space for their products). She then founded Vital Planet, making probiotics and digestive products that are truly on the forefront of research in microbiome health and digestion. Science and how we understand our body evolves over time, and it certainly has with the importance of our bodies microbiome, probiotics, and proper digestion.
The new probiotics by Vital Planet have a more diverse makeup than anything else available today. They have at least 60 different researched strains per product, along with a high very high potency per pill. There is truly nothing like them available on the market today and we couldn't recommend them more. They honestly blow every other probiotic out of the water.
Now, to be that amazing and have such high potencies, they are on the pricey side. Still, even if a person took them every other day, to make them more affordable and to basically cut the price in half, since a bottle would last two months instead of one, even with doing that I’d say it would be better than taking almost any other probiotic.
Focusing on the health of our digestive tract truly impacts every aspect of our health. We like to think of our body systems as separate (and often don’t even think about them unless we have a problem), but they are all interconnected and affect each other. One way where this is becoming much more of a well-known is the connection between our digestive tract and brain function, especially for mood. It's been discovered that there are actually neurotransmitters made in our digestive tract and that our digestive tract is able to send signals to our brain, that's something known as the gut brain axis, which sounds totally crazy but has actually been confirmed by science, and that research is still ongoing.
Our bodies are truly a miracle, how they work. Stop by Pass Health Foods for more information and for more individualized attention and help. Also, the Vital Planet probiotics are on sale this month at store if you'd like to try them.
Tl;dr (too long; didn't read- quick summary): We have new probiotics by Vital Planet that are significantly better than anything else on the market. The health of our microbiome impacts so much more than just digestion, and there are impressive new advances in probiotic research.
