Probiotics

Filed in archive General Health on March 9, 2007

Pills, pills, pills. It seems there's a pill for every occasion. Pain killers, vitamins, pills for this, pills for that. Have you heard of probiotics? It was my chiropractor who introduced me to probiotics because he was concerned about the number of antibiotics I'd been taking for urinary tract infections.

What are probitoics? Wikpedia explains it this way:

Probiotics are dietary supplements containing potentially beneficial bacteria or yeast, with lactic acid bacteria (LAB) as the most common microbes used.

Probiotic bacterial cultures are intended to assist the body's naturally occurring gut Flora to reestablish themselves. They are sometimes recommended by doctors, and, more frequently, by nutritionists, after a course of antibiotics, or as part of the treatment for gut related candidiasis. Claims are made that probiotics strengthen the immune system.

An article in the Boston Herald talks about the lack of knowledge about probiotics:

The products are so popular that they rank among "the top five foods people say they want to add to their diets," said Harry Balzer, vice president of the NPD Group, a Chicago-based company that tracks consumer trends.

Yet despite this growing popularity and the willingness to pay extra for food and drink that contain the friendly microbes, Balzer notes that "most people don't know what they are."

A good place to find out more about probiotics is the Probiotics Blog. They say, about their blog:

This blog is about probiotics, those helpful bacteria that live in our intestinal tract in a symbiotic relationship with us, the good bacteria help our system to function the way it was designed.