Today, more people than ever have immune system disorders. Chances are that you know someone who has fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, Celiac disease, gluten intolerance, or serious allergies. These are all immune system disorders. Why the up-surge of these conditions? In a word, diet.
The foods we eat, or don’t eat, cause an imbalance in the gut flora. This condition is called dysbiosis. The flora – or good bacteria – provides a barrier to keep harmful bacteria from getting into our bloodstream from our digestive tract. Since about 80% of the immune system is the walls of our intestines, that protection is vital!
Dysbiosis is extremely widespread in the U.S. because of the typical western diet. The food we eat is so full of processed and genetically modified ingredients, preservatives and antibiotics that there are very little, if any, beneficial bacteria.
To make matters worse, many physicians are quick to prescribe antibiotics for virtually any ailment. This kills any good bacteria that we may have had in our system. Antibiotics destroy bacteria indiscriminately – bad and good. This causes an even worse situation for your gut flora and immune system.
Because of the overuse of antibiotics in humans and animals, and a virtually sterile diet, the useful bacteria in our system is greatly outnumbered by bad bacteria. Our gut lymph tissues are under attack and these harmful bacteria are getting into the bloodstream and attacking the body from within. What a scary situation! This leads to the myriad of immune dysfunctions mentioned at the beginning.
Thankfully, probiotics can help. What are probiotics? These are beneficial bacteria that can be ingested with the goal of repopulating our gut flora and help regain some balance. If you have ever eaten active culture yogurt, kefir or sauerkraut, you have had probiotics.
Unfortunately, the majority of these beneficial bacteria from foods don’t ever get to the intestines because they are destroyed by the acid in the stomach that digests the food. In addition, there are many different bacteria that help improve the health of different body systems. You would have to eat large quantities of these different “probiotic” foods in order to do much to change the gut flora.
About the only way to get these good bacteria through the digestion process and into the intestines is through supplementation. There are many companies selling probiotics, but quality and freshness is very important to the viability of these bacteria. Probiotics should be in dark containers and kept cool. I always refrigerate or freeze mine after opening the bottle. Something else to look for is a number of different strains of bacteria in the product. These include the following:
Lactobacillus Acidophilus, Rhamnosis, Balgaricus, Plantarum, Casei, Bifidobacterium Longum, and Breve. These help support many different body systems and common conditions.
As always, Nature’s Sunshine has a wonderful product called Probiotic Eleven to help you improve your gut flora. It provides eleven different strains of good bacteria in high doses in order to help effectively restore balance to the environment of the intestines. If you are interested in this, or any other natural health product that Nature’s Sunshine offers, you can go to http://CantonFitnessNSP.mynsp.com or click the “SHOP NOW” button the Canton
Fitness Center Facebook page.
This is just one more way that Canton Fitness Center is dedicated to improving your health.