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Blending probiotics and prebiotics to lose:

February 21, 2017
Blending probiotics

Blending probiotics and prebiotics to lose weight effectively

Blending probiotics and prebiotics to lose: Having a leaner weight during summer

Probiotics are live bacteria in yogurt, other dairy products, and pills. Even though probiotics have shown effectiveness in managing certain gastrointestinal conditions, they do not have the same power that prebiotics do. They’re delicate, heat and stomach acid can easily kill them rendering them ineffective even before they are digested. Again, those who don’t eat dairy foods for taste or dietary reasons may find ingesting adequate amounts of probiotics difficult, if not impossible. Prebiotic is a specialized plant fiber that beneficially nourishes the good bacteria already in the large bowel or colon. The body itself does not digest these plant fibers; instead, the fibers act as a fertilizer to promote the growth of many of the good bacteria in the gut. These, in turn, provide many digestive and general health benefits. Therefore, blending probiotics and prebiotics is essential in losing weight says doctor Dalal Akoury MD President and founder of AWAREmed health and wellness resource center.

Blending probiotics and prebiotics to lose: Probiotics and Children

Probiotics are generally safe for children; however, you should speak with your pediatrician before giving them to your kids. They may be beneficial for digestive complaints and diarrhea, but research hasn’t clearly indicated any benefits beyond that. They are live microorganisms found in particular foods that help promote good gut health. Consuming probiotics is thought to increase the “good” bacteria within your gut and assist in maintaining an optimal balance between the good and the bad bacteria that are present.”

According to one published in Bravo 2011, it was established that mice that were fed on a particular strain of probiotics showed significantly fewer stress levels, anxiety and depression-related behaviors than those who were not given any probiotics. Besides, they also had lower levels of the stress-induced hormone corticosterone. That means, if you want to lower stress and boost your gut health, with probiotics, then you will need to try foods rich in probiotics like yogurt with live active cultures, kefir buttermilk, some blue and aged cheeses, as well as non-dairy products such as fermented foods and soy sauce.

The process of manufacturing the food can kill the probiotics strains, which help in improving your gut health, thus, it is important to look out for words like “live” “active” “raw” “unheated” or “unpasteurized”, if you are planning to buy commercial brands from the market. If you don’t like market products, you can make your own gut boosting products at home yourself, by utilizing simple processes.

On the other hand, Prebiotics are non-digestible, or selectively digestible, carbohydrates that fuel the growth of healthy bacteria in your gut. For this reason, consuming both, foods rich in probiotics, as well as those rich in prebiotics, can be beneficial to your gut health. Many prebiotics is soluble fibers that are fermented by the bacteria in your gut to produce short chain, fatty acids, which have a range of beneficial effects on your body. These short chain fatty acids are known to reduce inflammation and play a role in digestive health and reduce the incidence of bowel cancer. This is what we champion for as experts from AWAREmed health center and for all your weight loss concerns, you can schedule an appointment with us today and will help you professionally.

Blending probiotics and prebiotics to lose: Having a leaner weight during summer

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gut-microbiota

Brain Signalling and Coordination

March 23, 2016

Bidirectional signalling between the gastrointestinal tract and the brain is regulated at neural, hormonal, and immunological levels

Brain CoordinationAn exciting new concept is emerging in health and disease is the capability of microbiota in the gut to establish communication with the human brain and alter its behaviour. This can introduce a new arena, that when people make decisions, whether they are influenced by the microbiota of their gut or not. The bidirectional communication between the brain and the gastrointestinal tract is essential for keeping homeostasis. This signalling is regulated at hormonal, neural (both enteric and central nervous systems) and immunological levels. Disturbing these systems leads to modifications in stress levels and general behaviour. There is an elevated co-morbidity noted between anxiety and other psychiatrically-related symptoms and various gastrointestinal disorders, like irritable bowel disorder (IBS). This is why it is essential to learn the exact mechanism of this communication.

One of the approaches used to research the connection between microbiota of gut and brain is by using experimental animal models. Germ free mice which completely lack contamination from any sort of gut bacteria offer great possibilities for research. Female germ-free mice were used to show the lack of conventional microbiota leads to anxiety level being reduced in one study while the other showed that there was increased responsiveness to stress with male mice that were free of germs. The reasons for the results being different are not familiar at the moment, but it is presumed that gender might play a role when it comes to these effects. One more important aspect to consider regarding the recent data is that male animals suffered some endocrine and neurochemical effects of growing up in an environment free of germs, but there were no noted immune effects. Of course, this doesn’t mean that this could exactly be the real situation with humans, but the researchers did generate some insightful data on whether microbiota can change one’s behaviour or not.

Probiotics

Probiotics are important and can help in the treatment of various gastrointestinal disorders such as Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). There are clinical studies that show that using probiotics causes the IBS patients to be in a better mood and reduces their anxiety. The mechanism of action remains unclear, but it is determined that certain probiotics have the possibility to lower inflammatory cytokines; enhance the nutritional status and lower oxidative stress. It is clear that there are probiotic agents that can alter certain aspects of the microbiota-gut-brain axis and, therefore, influence the brain and behaviour.

Antibiotics

Intervention with antibiotics has been known to cause the reduction of biodiversity of the fecal microbiota, postponing the colonization by some probiotic agents. Use of antibiotics was the most convenient artificial way to create dysbiosis of the intestines with animals used in experiments. After allowing antibiotics to disturb the microbiota for a period of 7 days, mice have shown either anxiety reduction as well as an enhancement in locomotor behaviour. There are also studies that showed that rats induced with stress during early life expose signs of modified behaviour and modifications of fecal microbiota in their adult life.

Infection

There are studies that observed animal behavior after having an infection but failed to show a clear way the gut is communicating with the brain, offering a solution that there are multiple routes. Mice that were infected with Citrobacter rodentium showed some increase in behavior similar to anxiety after 7 or 8 hours from getting infected, but there was no influence on their behavior after two weeks or a whole month. The infection and the psychological stress can jointly affect the CNS, but since no overt inflammation was noticed and an increase in neuronal activation didn’t happen in vagal ganglia, it is thought that the signaling between the gut and the brain is done through the vagus nerve.

Another study that showed the involvement of the vagus nerve to communicate from the gastrointestinal tract to CNS was when a Salmonella Typhimurium was used for an infection. The results once again showed that vagus plays a role of huge matter in signaling immune information from gut to brain, as well as in homeostasis related with the immune system. However, there were other studies, such as the one where Campylobacter jejuni was used in mice, which showed some implications of the vagal nerve in the effect of communicating this pathogen and its effects to the brain.

Many studies were conducted in the recent years and that shows that the need for understanding cellular, molecular and physiological foundation of communication between enteric microbiome gut and brain is essential. This is something that remains to be discovered and future studies. This issue will also be a topic at the Awaremed’s Network Integrative Addiction Conference, which can be a great opportunity to meet fellow professionals and share your opinions and experiences. If you want to sign up for the conference, you can do it here.

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A good blend of Probiotics and Prebiotic could help you lose and be sexy this summer

February 19, 2014

A good blend of Probiotics and Prebiotic could help you lose and be sexy this summer- Did You Know?

Probiotics

probiotics

Probiotics are generally safe for children; however you should speak with your pediatrician before giving them to your kids

They are live bacteria in yogurt, other dairy products and pills. Even though probiotics have shown effectiveness in managing certain gastrointestinal conditions, they do not have the same power that prebiotics do. They’re delicate, heat and stomach acid can easily kill them rendering them ineffective even before they are digested. Again, those who don’t eat dairy foods for taste or dietary reasons may find ingesting adequate amounts of probiotics difficult, if not impossible.

What is a prebiotic?

Prebiotic is a specialized plant fiber that beneficially nourishes the good bacteria already in the large bowel or colon. The body itself does not digest these plant fibers; instead, the fibers act as a fertilizer to promote the growth of many of the good bacteria in the gut. These, in turn, provide many digestive and general health benefits.

Probiotics and Children

Probiotics are generally safe for children; however you should speak with your pediatrician before giving them to your kids. They may be beneficial for digestive complaints and diarrhea, but research hasn’t clearly indicated any benefits beyond that.

Kara a researcher says probiotics are live microorganisms found within particular foods that help promote good gut health. Consuming probiotics is thought to increase the “good” bacteria within your gut and assist in maintaining an optimal balance between the good and the bad bacteria that are present.”

Several studies have been carried out and according one published in Bravo 2011, it states that mice that were fed on a particular strain of probiotics showed significantly fewer stress levels, anxiety and depression-related behaviors than those who were not given any probiotics. Besides, they also had lower levels of the stress induced hormone corticosterone.

If you want to lower stress and boost your gut health, with probiotics, then you need to try foods rich in probiotics like yoghurt with live active cultures, kefir (which is often found commercially as a yoghurt style drink), buttermilk, some blue and aged cheeses, as well as non-dairy products such as fermented foods i.e., sauerkraut (fermented cabbage), kimchi (Korean spicy cabbage), tempeh (a fermented soybean product), miso and soy sauce.

The process of manufacturing the food can kill the probiotics strains, which help in improving your gut health, thus, it is important to look out for words like “live” “active” “raw” “unheated” or “unpasteurized”, if you are planning to buy commercial brands from the market.

If you don’t like market products, you can make your own gut boosting products at home yourself, by utilizing simple processes.

On the other hand, Prebiotics are non-digestible, or selectively digestible, carbohydrates that fuel the growth of healthy bacteria in your gut. For this reason, consuming both, foods rich in probiotics, as well as those rich in prebiotics, can be beneficial to your gut health.

Many prebiotics are soluble fibers that are fermented by the bacteria in your gut to produce short chain, fatty acids, which have a range of beneficial effects on your body. These short chain fatty acids are known to reduce inflammation and play a role in digestive health and reduce the incidence of bowel cancer.

Prebiotics have been shown to improve insulin sensitivity, slow glucose absorption, and thereby aid with blood glucose control. They can also improve blood lipid (fat) profiles by increasing HDL, your healthy (heart protective) cholesterol, and reduce LDL, your bad cholesterol, and triglycerides (Cani & Delzenne, 2009).

Who needs extra prebiotics and probiotics?
Antibiotics work well at killing off the bad bacteria that make us ill, but they also kill off good bacteria needed for digestion: acidophilus and bifidus, which are both types of probiotics. If you have taken antibiotics in the past, or will need to take them in the future, be sure to supplement with probiotic supplements that contain acidophilus. Other medications, such as the birth control pill and cortisone (used to treat inflammation), may affect gut bacterial balance. In women, recurrent yeast infections may be an indication that the healthy bacterial balance in the large intestine has become compromised.

Supplementing the diet with beneficial bacteria like probiotics and prebiotics stimulates immunity through increased activity of cells (macrophages) that consume invading organisms, as well as through increased production of other white blood cells and cytokines — this could lead to stronger resistance to bacterial and viral infections. In fact, studies have also shown that children attending daycare catch fewer colds and the flu if they are given probiotic supplements containing acidophilus, bifidus or both. Adults have been found to experience the same beneficial effect on immune system function. With benefits ranging from reduced cholesterol and inflammation to improved digestion and weight loss, the right type of bacteria should be a staple in your supplement cupboard (or in this case, fridge).

Getting the healthy bacteria your body needs

Yogurt naturally contains probiotics, but supplements may be more effective if you are looking for a concentrated source. Some prebiotics are naturally found in foods like chicory root, Jerusalem artichoke, onions, asparagus, garlic, bananas, barley, wheat, rye, and tomatoes.

Probiotic supplements should be refrigerated to maintain the viability of the microorganisms, in the same way yogurt, milk and other refrigerated cultures need to be stored. Without proper storage, probiotic supplements may spoil and or lose potency.

 Suggestion for those who have trouble digesting some probiotics and prebiotics: 

  • Purchase a coconut milk kefir product to get your probiotics in without the lactose.
  • Consume a small amount of Greek yoghurt (which typically has most of the lactose pre-digested anyway) but don’t consume it along with other foods.

A good blend of Probiotics and Prebiotic could help you lose and be sexy this summer- Did You Know?

 

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