Not only are probiotics important, but so are prebiotics, short chain fatty acids, butyrate, fiber, etc.  They all support our good bacteria.  And they are all obtainable through our food as well as through supplements.

I used to think and teach people certain things about probiotics, and then I had to unlearn just about everything I thought I knew about them before I really learned what it takes to make a good probiotic.

Much of what I’d learned was “common knowledge” type things that pretty much everyone knew and said, but then I found out these things just weren’t true.  And other things were taught to me by supplement companies, which seemed to be supported by research, but then I learned that the research wasn’t on their exact product, but rather the strains in their product individually.  But the research really needs to be with all of the strains together and the actual effect when taken by people.

So what did I have to unlearn?

1.  You can take probiotics and they will have babies and keep repopulating your gut.  Same for eating fermented foods or drinking kombucha–that the probiotics in them will have babies and keep repopulating your gut.  I really did think that.  But it’s not true.  Bummer.
2. The probiotics sold in the refrigerator section are better.
3. The higher the number of colony forming units (cfu) in a probiotic, the better.
4. The more strains in a probiotic, the better.

And what did I learn instead?

1.  That each person has a very unique microbiome–no two are alike even if you’re a twin and grew up in exactly the same environment–and we got that microbiome from our mom (and to a lesser extent, our dad) when we were born.
2. That we can get spore formers, or organisms from our environment, from eating organic food grown in soil that has been nourished by adding composted materials or layering materials that will eventually compost to it so that it becomes rich, fertile soil with lots of microorganisms living in it.  We can also get them from walking barefoot in such soil, working with our hands in that soil, and (to a lesser extent) even from walking in the woods!
3. That most of our food supply has been treated with pesticides, herbicides, and sanitized so much that there’s just not any good spore forming bacteria left on the vast majority of our food anymore.
4. That probiotics are the only category of supplements in which the manufacturers only have to prove what they put into the supplement, not what comes out.  Which leaves a lot of questions.  Are the probiotics still viable?  Do they work together well, or did one strain eat up another?  Do they survive the acidity of the stomach?  Or bile salts?
5. That our body has mechanisms in place (stomach acidity) to keep bacteria that we ingest from making it into our large intestine.  And if the bacteria we take in a probiotic does survive our stomach’s acidity (such as Lactobacillus Acidophilus which survives an acid environment quite well), then the bile salts will get it.   A few companies have a handle on this with special capsules that withstand the stomach acidity in order to deliver their contents to the large intestines, and that’s great, but then there’s the problem that only certain strains are getting in there.
6. That these same mechanisms (such as stomach acidity) don’t let the bacteria in our fermented foods reach the gut either.  (This was a shocker to me because I’m a BIG believer in fermented foods!)  However, fermented foods are still really good for you and they do benefit us, but it’s not by providing probiotics.  It’s the “ferment”–the waste products formed when the food was fermented–that benefits us the most by supplying various nutrients and increasing the acidity of our gut.
7. That even though the probiotics from supplements and ferments may be dead (didn’t survive the acidity of our stomach) when they reach our gut, they still can have some cell-signaling benefits.  (When certain keystone strains of spore based probiotics see these dead bacteria, they know what they were supposed to do, and they can signal those cells to do it.)  I know–sounds like science fiction, doesn’t it?  But this science is for real!
8. That some types of bacteria have formed a spore around them to protect them from a hostile environment, which means that they can survive our stomach acidity and bile salts just fine.  And  that it’s really hard to get these strains in a stable form (so don’t buy just any spore based probiotic.)
9. That when they reach our gut, these spore based organisms or probiotics don’t actually reseed the gut with more probiotics.  Instead, they basically police the bacteria in our gut.  They know which strains are supposed to be there and which are not.  They fight off the bad guys and even have the ability, if necessary, to produce antibiotics to kill them.  And the cool thing–when they produce those antibodies, they make waste products that actually feed the good guys!
10. That there’s really no way to test and see all of the thousands of strains of bacteria a person has in their gut.  We can see some in a really good stool test, maybe up to a hundred or so, but not all of them!  Therefore, there’s no way to say exactly what strains a person needs.  Instead of putting in certain strains, it’s better to put in a spore based probiotic to get rid of the bad guys and help the good guys.
11. There have been some very cool studies with an actual product, MegasporeBiotic, and college students in Texas.  In the first study they measured the increase in  lipopolysaccharides (LPS, or gram negative bacteria that are very damaging to our bodies and we don’t want them getting through our gut barrier into our bloodstream where they are free to wreak havoc) in the bloodstream after consuming one McDonald’s breakfast.  It increased 5-6 times!  This can cause inflammation for 2 weeks!  Then they tried cheese pizza from a gas station–same thing!  (Their conclusion was that it appears to be the combination of fat and refined carbs that increases LPS.)
12. Then they had those college students just eat their usual diet and go about their usual lifestyle for 31 days.  Half of them took MegasporeBiotic and the other half took a placebo.  They found that the spore based probiotic completely blunted the amount of LPS that spilled into the bloodstream.  They also found that they:  1) had a decrease in the amount of inflammatory cytokines, 2) had positive changes in ghrelin (the hunger hormone), 3) had positive changes between insulin and glucagon, and 4) had a 30% reduction in triglycerides!

Wow!  Okay, mind blown with all of this unlearning and learning I’ve been doing!

So what do we need to do to have a healthy microbiome?

• Get outside!  Especially in the woods, if you can, where you can actually breathe in beneficial microorganisms!  The Japanese call this “forest bathing”.
• Have an organic garden, to whatever extent you are able!  Working in composted soil with your bare hands and eating the fruits of your labor, is another great way to get those beneficial spore formers.
• Eat lots of fruits, veggies, and (for some) grains.  These foods supply fiber and prebiotics that help your probiotics out.  Prebiotics pass through your digestive system without being broken down by digestive enzymes and gastric acids, becoming an important fuel and nutrient source for the probiotics in your gut. Prebiotics and probiotics work together to maintain the balance in your microbiome.  While all edible plants have the potential to provide prebiotics, the ones highest in prebiotics include jerusalem artichokes, shiitake mushrooms, dandelion greens, apples, raw garlic, plantains, leeks, onions, asparagus, bananas on the green side, cooked and cooled potatoes, oats, and chicory root (such as in Teecino).
• Eat the colors of the rainbow in your fruits and veggies!   (See the first article in this series.)   Each different color supplies different flavonoids which (among other things) are very beneficial to the health of your microbiome.  The deeper and darker the color, the more vitamins and flavonoids.
• As much as possible, eat grass fed or pastured animal products (meat, milk, cheese, etc.).  There are a lot of antibiotics in conventional animal products,and these antibiotics are destructive to your good gut bacteria.
• Along the same lines, drink filtered water.  There are a lot of antibiotics in our water supply, along with other things (such as fluoride) that is destructive to our gut bacteria.
• Take a good quality spore based probiotic.  The best one I can find, and the one backed by research on the actual product on actual people, is MegasporeBiotic.  If you are a client of mine, I’ll be happy to send you a code to order it.  (This is only available through a healthcare practitioner.)
• As much as possible, don’t eat, drink, think, or do things that can destroy your microbiome (junk food, alcohol, antibiotics, have negative thoughts the majority of the time, or have stressors like continual lack of sleep, over exercising, etc.