Probiotics - the Good Bacteria and the Bad Bacteria
Those of us with Chronic Lyme Disease know the importance of taking probiotics along with antibiotics. Well, here's what happened to me...
My daughter introduced me to Kombucha. In case you don't know, Kombucha is a fermented, sweet tea that was brought to the United States from Asia (China, I think) in the 80's when President Reagan developed cancer. At least according to legend, that's how it came to the US. And when I say legend, I mean 'the Internet.' When I first tasted it, I wasn't impressed. It has a tart, vinegar-like taste. Actually, it's easy to over-ferment and turn it into vinegar.
While I was on high-dose antibiotics for Chronic Lyme, I suddenly loved the taste of it and somehow couldn't get enough of it. At the same time, I continually forgot to take my high-dose, high-end, expensive, probiotic capsules. Surprisingly, I didn't have symptoms that taking antibiotics can cause - mainly diarrhea. Occasionally, I would remember to take my capsules.
I never felt taking all those antibiotics was the right thing to do, yet I had to do something as I was failing quickly.
A friend of mine developed C. diff. after a course of high-dose antibiotics for Chronic Lyme. If you've never heard of it, c. diff is short for Clostridium difficile, pronounced 'klos trid ee um ~ diff uh seel.' It's a nasty infection that occurs when we do not have enough good bacteria in our guts. This typically happens during or after a course of antibiotics. It can also be deadly!
According to NHS Choices,"C. difficile does not usually affect healthy children and adults. This is because the bacteria normally present in the healthy bowel keep it under control." Sounds simple to me.
C.diff lives in our guts harmoniously until we kill off the good bacteria, which allows the bad bacteria to take over. When my friend told me this happened to her, I felt lucky it hadn't happened to me, especially since I kept forgetting to take my probiotics. My friend also told me that her Naturopath prescribed something called sachromyces boulardii (also known as s. boulardii) to help combat the C. diff.
Later, I learned that s. boulardii is the yeast that combats and keeps C. diff in check. And WHAT a surprise to find that Kombucha is full of s. boulardii! In fact, G.T.'s Kombucha lists that it contains two billion in their 16 oz. bottle! No wonder I was so lucky! I was drinking about 32 ounces of Kombucha per day. I just couldn't get enough of the stuff.
But wait - there's more! I purchased a wonderful, informative, politically incorrect book - Nourishing Traditions. Much of the information contained in it I already knew - like the fact that humans were made to eat REAL food rather than processed, man-made foods i.e. saturated fats, eggs WITH the yolk, raw milk, etc.
What I didn't know, and had never thought about, is the fact that we are supposed to be eating fermented foods. Fermented foods are the foods that contain good bacteria - PROBIOTICS. Capsules are a good backup, but we are supposed to be eating fermented foods. Reading about this in Nourishing Traditions, I felt a light bulb go off (as it has so many times along my food-learning path). When canning came into our picture, good bacteria for our gut went out the window. We are supposed to be eating fermented foods on a daily basis. Foods like sauerkraut, yogurt, milk kefir, water kefir and fermented vegetables in general. There was a time this was our only way, aside from salt, to preserve foods.
We have at least 500 different bacteria in our guts and a probiotic capsule contains, at most, a few different strains. I had to ask myself, if I've taken antibiotics and most of these bacteria are killed, how do I put back those 500 different bacteria? And how do I put them back in a high quantity? Even yogurt only contains about five transient bacteria strains at most - needing to be replaced daily.
It turns out that we have transient bacteria (that stay only for a short time) and we have bacteria that can colonize the gut.
According to Cultures for Health, "The beneficial bacteria found in yogurt help keep the digestive tract clean and provide food for the friendly bacteria found in a healthy gut. They are called transient because they pass through the digestive tract. The bacteria in milk kefir, on the other hand, can actually colonize the intestinal tract."
Dr. Mercola writes that our bodies have 100 trillion bacteria. I don't want to do the math, but it seems if we take a capsule containing a couple different strains and a total of 15 billion, it takes A LOT of capsules to re-colonize the gut.
If we need to keep our gut colonized, we need to be eating/drinking fermented foods on a daily basis. When we take antibiotics we need to re-colonize even more because of what was killed off by the antibiotics. Plain and simple - fermented foods! Once I started drinking milk kefir, it was just like with the Kombucha - I couldn't get enough. I've now leveled off, but will continue to drink and eat fermented foods of all kinds on a daily basis.
Nourishingplot.com reported in an article: "Dr. Mercola sent his sauerkraut off to a lab and reported the finding of probiotics saying, 'We had it analyzed. We found in a 4-6 ounce serving of the fermented vegetables there were literally ten trillion bacteria.' "
PLEASE do NOT eat any foods that don't taste right!!!
PLEASE do NOT eat any foods that don't taste right!!!
One of my favorite books! My affiliate Link:
Sources:
http://nourishingplot.com/2014/06/21/sauerkraut-test-divulges-shocking-probiotic-count/
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Clostridium-difficile/Pages/Causes.aspx
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/09/24/one-of-the-most-important-steps-you-can-take-to-improve-your-health.aspx
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/18/probiotics-the-case-for-healthy-bowels.aspx
