Eat the Right Bacteria to Give Your Body Superpowers

Jul 31, 2013, 02.10 AM IST

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How Eating the Right BacteriaCould Give Your BodySuperpowersAndrew Tarantola

No man is an island. If anything, every man is a sentient, mobilefarm for the countless quadrillions of bacteria that colonize us.And by introducing the right bacteria into that equation, you cangive your body one heck of a boost.

Every person on this planet could reasonably be considered asuperorganism given that the number of microbes attached to usoutnumber our own cell count 10 to 1, and routinely mix theirgenomes with our own. Each of us is a unique ecosystem with aunique blend of microbes coating their skin, mucus membranes,and gastrointestinal tracts.

Your gut alone hosts more than 100 trillion individuals from morethan 500 species (half the body's total). Most of those activelywork for your mutual benefit by keeping pathogens in check,helping break down food, and augmenting nutrient absorption,host cell development, and immune system function. You know,stuff that keeps you alive.

And how have we shown our thanks to these innumerablesymbiotic helpers? From the advent of penicillin until the late1990s, the medical community has waged a scorched earthcampaign against microbes, applying antibiotics like napalm topatients' intestinal tracts. Which is great for killing off the

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disease-causing intruders, but those chemicals destroy beneficialmicrobes as well (often resulting in a wicked case of antibiotic-associated diarrhea). But a new spate of research suggests thatinstead of wholesale microbial genocide, we might be able tocontrol the spread of harmful bacteria, eat more efficiently, andgenerally be healthier by actively ingesting copious amounts ofthe good kind, known as probiotics. Here's what we know so far.

The State of Your GutYour gastrointestinal (GI) tract is not your own. It contains amenagerie of microorganisms working in conjunction with yourbody's own cells to process food and assist the immune system.Studies have suggested that we inherit many of these coloniesfrom our mothers during our transit through the birth canal andvia the ingestion of breast milk.

But while we know some of those bacteria are good and some arebad, we still don't have a solid definition of what constitutes a""healthy gut."" While international organizations like theInternational Human Microbiome Consortium are studying therole that microbes play in our daily lives and how our bodiesinteract with them, we're still not entirely sure what they do, howthey do it, or what the ""optimal"" mix of bacterial species wouldbe (if there even is one). Heck, scientists can barely agree on evenhow the good bacteria beat out the bad-it could be by altering the


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microecology of the intestines (lowering the pH for example),producing natural antibiotics that poison the bad strains, orsimply outcompeting them for food resources. We just don'tknow.

With so much left to discover about probiotics, the FDA has yet toweigh in on their safety which is why they're currently marketedas dietary supplements with the standard ""has not beenevaluated"" warning. As such, any claims to their effectivenessshould be taken with a grain of salt.

What Are Probiotics?Probiotics are defined by the Food and Agriculture Organizationof the United Nations (FAO) as ""Live microorganisms which whenadministered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on thehost"" and are most commonly found in fermented dairyproducts. That Activa yogurt Jamie Lee Curtis keeps going onabout is loaded with Lactobacillus acidophilus, perhaps the mostwell known probiotic. Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillusbulgaricus, Streptococcus thermophilus, Bifidobacterium, as wellas certain strains of yeast, are all commonly used for humanconsumption.


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People have been using probiotics since the advent of yogurt,though it wasn't until the start of the 20th century that Russianscientist and Nobel laureate Elie Metchnikoff first isolated abeneficial bacterial strain and suggested using probiotics to battlethe effects of aging, which he attributed the growth of naturallyoccurring proteolytic bacteria such as clostridia and theirproduction of toxic substances like ammonia while digestingproteins. He believed that these byproducts changed the basicfunction of the GI tract and resulted in the symptoms of old age.

Metchnikoff based this hypothesis on his observations ofpopulations in Bulgaria and Russia that subsisted largely onfermented milk products (yogurt and cheese) and routinelyoutlived populations that did not. Metchnikoff suggested that thelactic acid loving bacteria in the milk products would take hold inthe imbiber's gut, lowering the pH through their normalmetabolic activities and prevent the growth of ""harmful""proteolytic bacteria. And with that, he founded a new school ofmicrobiology as well as a new business of selling a diet of sourmilk fermented a bacterial strain dubbed ""Bulgarian Bacillus.""


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What Are Probiotics Used to Treat?Since probiotics are regulated as a food rather than a drug in theUS, manufacturers can claim just about any benefit fromprobiotic bacteria that they wish so long as the include the FDAwarning (which seems a pretty major loophole and a disservice tothe American public by the agency charged with protecting itshealth).

However, a number of legitimate, peer-reviewed scientific studieshave examined the bacteria's effects on the human GI tract withmixed results. The measurable benefits imparted by oraladministration of the bacteria appear to be slight and temporaryat best (conversely, fecal transplants have been shown to be amore permanent solution, though that procedure has yet to passFDA certification). Either way, there is a growing body of resultsthat suggest their effectiveness at treating any number numberof GI diseases even if they don't provide causal evidence.

Antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD), for example, is caused whena course of antibiotics scrubs your intestines of all bacteria. This""changes carbohydrate metabolism with decreased short-chainfatty acid absorption"" according to a meta-analysis studypublished in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The result:diarrhea, gas, and cramping. But ingesting probiotics such asLactobacillus rhamnosus could help temporarily replace thosedecimated cultures until your natural contingent of bacteriagrows back while keeping pathogenic bacteria in check.

Studies of vaginal yeast and urinary tract infections have alsosuggested a negative correlation with probiotic levels-the moregood bacteria people have, the fewer infections they seem to get.Other studies have shown that ingesting certain active strainscan increase a person's lactose tolerance, help controlinflammatory bowel disease, and even stimulate production ofIgA-producing plasma cells, T lymphocytes and Natural Killercells.

Unfortunately, for these studies to be considered scientificallyvalid (and gain FDA approval), they must be conducted throughrandomized, double blind, placebo-controlled trials. Somethingnobody's quite figured out how to do yet.

Are Probiotics Safe?Define safe. Yes, probiotics are found naturally occuring in ourdigestive system and have been part of European folk medicinefor centuries. However, in some cases, these bacterial cures havekilled.

In one such case, patients suffering from severe acutepancreatitis in a Dutch Pancreatitis Study Group trial were fed amixture of six supposedly harmless probiotic strains. whichpromptly increased the patient death rate. Another study at the


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University of Western Australia administered probiotics vs aplacebo to a group of 178 kids in their first six months to see ifdoing so could reduce their rate of childhood allergies. Quite theopposite, the kids that received probiotics were more likely todevelop an allergy later compared the control group. Obviously,much more research is needed to determine how these cultureswork for children and the seriously ill, so you probably shouldn'tbe feeding your kids or elderly parents probiotic supplementswithout first consulting a certified physician (sit down, Dr. Oz).

The real question is does it actually work? The answer is aresounding ""sorta."" Probiotic treatments can't permanentlyreplace naturally occurring cultures and numerous studies haveshown that the elevated levels of good bacteria drop back downto their original levels within a few days of stopping thetreatment. Plus there's the whole problem with even gettingviable probiotic cultures into your large intestines in the firstplace. Remember, the stomach is far too acidic for these bacteriasurvive (which is why they don't naturally occur there) soingesting and expecting a majority of them to somehow surviveuntil they reach their intended destination is just foolish.

So yes, probiotics are relatively safe, assuming you're afull-grown, healthy adult with an uncompromised immunesystem and the blessings of your primary care physician. Foreverybody else, you're probably best of waiting for the scientificcommunity to finish weighing in. [FDA - IHMC - Web MD -Wikipedia - On Health - NIH - Harvard University - CDRF - CAST -Dannon - FAO (pdf) - Top art: Jill Chen / Shutterstock, State of theGut: AP Photo/CDC / Janice Haney Carr, Pills: MirceaBEZERGHEANU / shutterstock, ]

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Good article.

Saibabu (Vijayawada) 01 Aug, 2013 05:47 PM

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An objective analysis.Timely as the market is floodedwith probiotic yogurts and capsules. Better to wait forsolid results to come. For example BAEL fruit containssubstances that check harmful bacteria and curesulcers caused by bacteria but may have an effect ofreducing serotonin in the brain

N Kumar (India) 31 Jul, 2013 08:15 PM

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Eat the Right Bacteria to Give Your Body Superpowers

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