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A Doctor Explains Going Beyond Probiotics
By Zach Bush, MD Do probiotics create a healthy microbiome? Unfortunately, probiotics are very limited in their capacity to affect the microbiome and human health. Brief attention to what a probiotic is reveals its limited capacity: a probiotic is typically composed of three to seven species of bacteria, but at very high numbers—the probiotic bottle likely touts 35 billion or 50 billion CFU (colony forming units). This is an amazing simplification of microbiome data. A healthy gut should have 20,000 to 40,000 species of bacteria, plus fungi and beyond. And yet, one of the only tools that have been handed to us for gut health is capsules of three to seven species. If we take probiotics daily, we are overwhelmingly creating a very narrow spectrum of microbiome throughout the gut. Furthermore, the vast majority of the bacteria in probiotics are not grown from human gut microbiome, but from the microbiome of cows. Cows have much different, nonacidic digestive tracts with much different species of bacteria, etc. If you are going to use them, then a short duration would be recommended. If long-term maintenance is needed, then changing your brand/bacterial species content frequently is recommended. But, there is more we can do to go beyond the probiotic. Foods that undergo wild (air) fermentation are among the most ancient gut health tools. Wild and live fermented foods, such as sauerkraut, kavas, and kefirs gain much greater biodiversity than probiotics through the hundreds of species that are introduced to the fermenting crock from the ambient air environment. The live culture products that can deliver living microbiome to your plate are found in the refrigerated section (not canned) of natural foods stores. Far cheaper and perhaps even more beneficial, is the home preparation of fermented foods. Create a salt water brine, dump in shredded cabbage and other veggies per your preference, cover the crock with a cheese cloth or towel, skim the surface of the water daily to remove any visible buildup, and then you can refrigerate until consumed. The longer you ferment the more interesting things get as far as taste and nutrient delivery. Try the kraut in one week versus five weeks. How can we get back to the biodiversity that we need? I encourage my patients to get far out into nature to seek the most ancient biomes they can interact with. Start with gardening in the backyard, barefoot, with your hands in the dirt, then venture into the mountains, woods, beaches, jungles, deserts, and swamps of the world around us. Be adventurous! Like the wild fermented foods, you will collect microbiome from the air around you—adding to the diversity of the life within you. As all you RESTORE fans know, the best way to go Beyond Probiotics is by including RESTORE in your daily health regimen. In addition to directly supporting the intestinal and renal barrier systems, RESTORE supports the healthy recovery of the microbiome— the bacterial ecosystem of the intestinal environment. As it recovers, the microbiome produces the same molecules that are found in the active ingredient of RESTORE, Terrahydrite®. RESTORE can increase the healthy activity of the microbiome, which radically increases the support to your gut barrier system and the recovery of your hydration potential. RESTORE is a new generation, soil-derived supplement that promotes an optimal gut environment. It is not a probiotic and it is not a prebiotic. Rather, it is a carbon-rich, alkaline liquid comprised of Terrahydrite™, which is a proprietary formulation of Aqueous Humic Substances and trace mineral amino acid complexes. RESTORE has been shown in lab testing to increase and strengthen the tight-junction proteins in the gut lining. These proteins are our frontline of defense against environmental factors in our food, water, and even air, thereby impacting the immune system as much of the body's immune system is in the gut lining. Additionally, a stronger gut lining keeps undigested food and environmental elements, such as herbicides and antibiotics used in farming, from leaking out into the bloodstream from the intestines. Then, the immune system does not have to defend against these foreign "invaders", which could also be as simple as undigested kale or broccoli. *These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. |
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