Gut Bugs

I used to always tell my patients "you are more like a bagel than a roll of bread." This was not commentary on their doughiness, but rather a not-very-elegant analogy of the human body.

Most people think of the outside of their body as what they can see - their skin. But really, the passage from your mouth at one end to your anus at the other is a long, continuous tube, that is really part of your outside. For anything to truly get inside of you - your food, drinks, medication, some infections, etc - it has to be allowed through this barrier.

When we think about nutrition, we mostly tend to think about what we put in - vitamins, minerals, protein, water - but we often don't stop to think about the complexity of how these things actually get from our digestive system into us. Part of the equation is the complex ecosystem of "gut bugs" - our intestinal microflora that resides in the digestive system.

The whole field of probiotics (microflora that you can supplement), and the study of intestinal microflora in general, has exploded in recent years. The more we learn about these organisms, the more we seem to learn that our relationship with them is very important to health - for nutrition, immunity, and much more. It also seems at the moment that the more we know, the less we know - the number of strains of flora is now dizzying, and understanding which are good, which are bad, which are right for what purposes is becoming increasingly complex.

That said, the research that is pouring in these days is fascinating. Here are two recent studies that I think are very worthy of noting:

The first shows that a daily supplement of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains (the two most commonly supplemented probiotics) may reduce the incidence of cold and flu-like symptoms in children by 50 per cent. This is a very nice practical study. It has long been known that some probiotics can benefit immunity, but to actually have some data showing that it can reduce the incidence of common infections by half is great news for lots of parents with kids going back to school right now. Click here to read a good news story on the study: Probiotics may reduce cold and flu symptoms for children.

The second is also a study indicating increased immune protection from a probiotic. In this study indicates that probiotics may protect against toxoplasmosis. This is a parasite that can be carried by house cats. This is early research, but very interesting. This parasite infects more than a billion people worldwide - so if future research shows this to be effective prevention, that is good news for a lot of people! To read more about this story, click here: Could probiotics protect us from gut parasites?


I am sure that I will have many future posts about probiotics. For now, I think it is one of the things that most people should consider taking on a daily basis. Our natural flora can be disrupted by so many things: our diet, medications like antibiotics or steroids, infections - and these "friendly" bugs support our health in critical ways, many of which we are only beginning to understand. The greatest risk from supplements is really taking something that is "dead" - meaning that the probiotics in the supplement are no longer viable to be able to take hold and populate the digestive system. So pay a little more for quality - it's worth it.

In Health,

Dr. Jacques


References
A >G.J. Leyer, S .Li, M.E. Mubasher, C. Reifer, A.C. Ouwehand. Probiotic Effects on Cold and Influenza-Like Symptom Incidence and Duration in Children. Pediatrics 2009, Volume 124: e172-e179.

A. Benson, R. Pifer, C.L. Behrendt, L.V. Hooper, F. Yarovinsky. Gut Commensal Bacteria Direct a Protective Immune Response against Toxoplasma gondii. Cell Host & Microbe. 20 August 2009, Volume 6, Issue 2, Pages 187-196.