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Probiotic Articles

Feb 13
Yeast infection aka Candida

Best Probiotic for Yeast Infections

By Probiotic Articles

Vaginal yeast (aka bacterial vaginosis) infections are commonly called candidiasis and can strike women at any age, but is more prevalent past puberty. The infections are a fungus called candida and can exhibit various symptoms such as itching, general discomfort, swelling and irritation. Roughly 75% off all women will experience a yeast infection and of those that do, most will have reoccurring infections periodically.Yeast infections can be caused by antibiotics, diet, stress, irritation and a multitude of other factors including sexual contact. The candida bacteria found in all women is generally kept in check by the presence of a probiotic known as lactobacillus. Lactobacillus acts as the sentry to keep the candida from growing out of control. Alongside traditional methods to prevent or control yeast infections, many women are turning to probiotics as a way to support their immune system in gaining control.

 

Candida under microscopeWhen there is a condition present that allows the candida to propagate beyond normal levels, the yeast infection goes into full swing and symptoms appear shortly thereafter. The symptoms usually start out mild and can later progress to become more severe if left untreated.Generally, most yeast infections are self-treated using over the counter products readily available at pharmacies and large retail chains. More severe cases lead to physician interaction where in some situations prescription medications are used to control the yeast growth. Area of yeast infection

 

As with many conditions that plague society, natural remedies run the full gamut ranging from simple exercises to holistic treatments and homemade brews that might include vinegar, tea tree oil, breathable underwear, yogurt, boric acid, cranberry juice, rosemary tea and other non-prescription based methods.

 

Preventing yeast infections can be difficult since each women has a multitude of variations that will determine what methods will best achieve prevention. Of course staying health, eating right and avoiding alcohol and smoking are great ways to properly set one’s self up for prevention support.

 

Other tips to consider include:

 

1) Avoid wearing tight pants, pantyhose and sung fitting clothing which can irritate or trap excessive heat and moisture.

 

2) Stay away from feminine products which contain deodorants

 

3) Keep dry. Excessive moisture can help grow yeast infections. Avoid spa’s and swimming if you are prone to yeast infections and have experienced them a short period after such events.

 

4) The best probiotic to consider for yeast infections should contain lactobacillus as it can help support your immune system which will attack the infection and regain control of the yeast growth.

 

5) Keep your blood sugar in check as yeast infections are more prevalent in diabetics.

 

6) Strive to stay healthy. No matter what your condition, it is usually possible to include some type of light exercise into your routine. Starting out very light and working your way up is how our bodies work. Always check with your physician before starting any exercise routine.

 

7) Be careful when using spermicides or birth control pills as these too can throw your balance out of whack.

 

Remember, what causes yeast infection in you, might not cause an infection in me. The next time you get a yeast infection, try to figure out what might have instigated it. Take a mental snapshot of your current wellbeing and try to remember what foods and activities you included in your lifestyle within a week of the infection. Were you on an antibiotic? Did you wear your favorite tight jeans out on the town? Did you go dancing, swimming or jogging? Self-monitoring can go a long way in helping to prevent the next bout.

Feb 01
Women lose more weight with Lactobacillus rhamnosus

Lactobacillus Rhamnosus Can Help Women Lose Wight

By Probiotic Articles

A recent study of the probiotic strain L. rhamnosus revealed that women taking the supplement lost twice as much weight as those who consumed a placebo. This exciting news was published in the British Journal of Nutrition by a team of researchers headed by Université Laval Professor Angelo Tremblay.

 

Some studies have previously shown that the bacteria in the GI tract of obese people is generally different than the strain makeup of thin folks. One of the main reasons may be that people who are obese tend to consume foods that are high in fat and low in fiber. Those type of foods promote the growth of certain types of bacteria at the expense of others.

 

The head of the recent study, Professor Tremblay, along with his team attempted to determine if consuming specific strains of probiotics could help reestablish the balance of bacteria in individuals so as to promote a condition where a healthy weight is induced. To test their hypothesis, researchers recruited 125 overweight men and women. The subjects underwent a 12-week weight-loss diet, followed by a 12-week period aimed at maintaining body weight. Throughout the entire study, half the participants swallowed 2 pills daily containing probiotics from the Lactobacillus rhamnosus family, while the other half received a placebo. After the 12-week diet period, researchers observed an average weight loss of 4.4 kg in women in the probiotic group and 2.6 kg in the placebo group. However, no differences in weight loss were observed among males in the two groups. “We don’t know why the probiotics didn’t have any effect on men. It may be a question of dosage, or the study period may have been too short,” says Professor Tremblay, who is also the Canada Research Chair in Environment and Energy Balance.

 

After the 12-week maintenance period, the weight of the women in the placebo group had remained stable but the probiotic group had continued to lose weight, for a total of 5.2 kg per person. In short, women consuming probiotics lost twice as much weight over the 24-week period of the study. Researchers also noted a drop in the appetite-regulating hormone leptin in this group, as well as a lower overall concentration of the intestinal bacteria related to obesity. According to Angelo Tremblay, probiotics may act by altering the permeability of the intestinal wall. By keeping certain proinflammatory molecules from entering the bloodstream, they might help preventing the chain reaction that leads to glucose intolerance, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.

 

This recent study mainly focused on only one strain of Lactobacillus rhamnosus, but Professor Tremblay believes that other probiotics found in dairy products could have a similar effect. He stresses, however, that the benefits of these bacteria are more likely to be observed in a favorable nutritional context that promotes low fat and adequate fiber intake. As prominent researches continue to discover more possible beneficial effects of probiotic supplementation, we can surely expect probiotic supplement awareness to increase.

Jan 09
iron-chef

Rich Probiotic Foods Iron Chef Style?

By Probiotic Articles

You don’t have to be an Iron Chef to slap up some tasty probiotic rich meals, but it wouldn’t hurt to try! Think FRESH for started and take it from there. Cultured and fermented foods are overflowing with minerals, vitamins, enzymes, and probiotics. They may be complicated to look at or talk about but they are very easy to prepare. Many people use vegetable fermenters to make their probiotic foods. Through these fermenters, the entire fermentation process has no contamination and is more reliable. These gadgets can be bought online. Once you get a hang of fermented food products, you could find your own ways of preparing them according to your own preference. Remember that you have to maintain the live organisms in these probiotic foods to achieve the maximum health results that you need. The following are some of the fermented or cultured food products rich in probiotics that you could try:

  • Fermented hot chili sauce

This sauce has fresh garlic and fermented hot chili. It is indeed fiery, bright, and tasty. You should use it in moderation by just adding small amounts to add a bit of heat and flavor into your main meals. The flavors of this sauce are more complex than vinegar-based sauces that you can easily purchase from grocery stores.

  • Fermented garlic scapes

In making this recipe, you should make sure that you only use the youngest flowers. High quality pickled garlic stapes have that woody stem that has natural probiotics. They can also be used fresh. Pickled garlic scapes are very robust and strongly seasoned with garlic. However, you also have the option of adding more spices such as dill and bay leaves.

  • Raw milk yogurt

You should definitely try out this very satisfying and nutritious item. It combines the nutrients in milk such as fat-soluble vitamins and linoleic acid. It also has food enzymes and good bacteria. You can classify it as a healthy luxury.

  • Home-cure corned beef

This particular corned beef is not made up of nitrate salts or nitrates. It simply requires wholesome requirements and very little preparation.

  • Beetroot relish and probiotic apple

This recipe calls for beetroot relish, probiotic apple, star anise, and cloves. It should have fresh beetroot and apples to ferment.

  • Milk kefir

This is food that’s dense with nutrients such as folate and good bacteria.

  • Sour pickles

This very rich, fermented batch of sour pickles is packed with dill, garlic, and spices.

  • Moroccan preserved lemons

Preserved lemons are tangy, salty, and savory. They are full of probiotics and vitamin C.

  • Genuine sauerkraut

This is a combination of salt and cabbage, which is the way it’s traditionally done. It prevents cancer with the isothyocyanate in it. It’s also rich in probiotics.

  • Pickled jalapenos

These very hot and savory pickled jalapenos go through efficient lactic acid fermentation.

  • Labneh

This is also called yogurt cheese from strained yogurt. It is stored in perfectly seasoned olive oil.

  • Water kefir

Water kefir is a probiotic that’s dairy-free. It’s also very rich in probiotics.

probiotic-food-sourcesProbiotics are very ideal helpers that you need to incorporate into your daily diet and lifestyle. You can add these probiotic rich foods to any diet and incorporate them along with a good probiotic supplement. Most of the time, probiotics in homemade probiotic foods stay alive longer than those found in commercially produced ones. If you don’t have the time to make your own probiotic foods, you should consider supplementing your daily routine with a potent probiotic that does not require refrigeration to avoid losing potency due to extreme heat. This assures you that the probiotics are still alive until you consume them.

Jan 09
fruit

Great Probiotic Recipes

By Probiotic Articles

Beneficial bacteria are indispensable when it comes to health. Experts in medicine and health have been performing various studies to show the world that bacteria can indeed be very good for you. However, when the word “probiotics” is mentioned, people quickly think about yogurts or fermented food. Because of this, many people cringe at the thought that they would be stuck tasting sour flavors all the time and never enjoy the probiotics that they ingest. These days, many innovative ways can be considered in actually eating or drinking probiotics. It’s just a matter of creativity. Aside from taking a once daily probiotic supplement, try out some of these delicious probiotic recipes to help boost your probiotic intake. These probiotic recipes are designed to make preparation fast and easy without much planning and without high costs!

Today’s diets could cause chaos to your body and you should find out ways on how you could possibly neutralize the harmful conditions that affect your health. Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that help improve your immunity and digestion. They are naturally found in your body but because of stress and unhealthy lifestyles, they gradually die off and pave the way for pathogenic bacteria to take over. This results to diarrhea and even constipation. If the digestive system doesn’t perform well, it won’t be able to absorb all the necessary nutrients that the body systems need to function well. The immune system is one of these systems. The immune system doesn’t have what it takes to protect the body from various medical conditions. To bring back the needed number of probiotics in the body, taking in probiotic-rich food seems to be a great way to help do just that.probiotic-recipe

Keeping probiotics interesting needs the following ways to bring forth a new twist to ingesting these helpful bacteria:

  • Smoothies

Kefir is a probiotic-rich natural food item that can be used to make smoothies. It is fermented milk made of kefir grains. The grains are live cultures that contain bacteria or yeast. Once the kefir grains touch the milk, the milk becomes fermented. This is tha actual incorporation of good bacteria into the smoothie, bringing forth a newly cultured food product. The grains produce the textural effect of small clumps, resembling coral or cauliflower pieces. Kefir could also be cultured by using water..

  • Mixed drinks

Some people add sugar or cranberry juice to their kefir.

  • Fermented side dishes

Other people use fermented food such as kimchi or sauerkraut. Doing this heightens the flavor experience of every meal.

  • Tea

Unbelievably, probiotics could come in the form of vinegary tea called Kombucha. This tea can be made with sugar or molasses. It is a type of tea that has an acquired taste. Not all people could get used to it. This tea could also lower the intensity of your appetite and a provide high level of energy that coffee can never give you.

It can truly be a culture shock to start incorporating probiotics into your diet especially when you’re used to buying instant everything from the local grocery store. Eventually, you will discover the lasting benefits of probiotics and they will truly give your body more than you have ever expected. They are good and good for you as well. Below is a recipe that you can try in making your own kimchi:

For a gallon of kimchi—

  • Salt
  • Radishes (3)
  • Chinese cabbage (4 lbs)
  • Carrots (4)
  • Turnips (1-2)
  • Rutabaga (1)
  • Onions (6)
  • Garlic cloves (10)
  • Ginger root, grated (10 tablespoons)
  • Habaneros or chilis (12 or more)
  • You should first make a gallon of brine.
  • The cabbage should be chopped. The carrots and radishes should be sliced up. Add these into the brine.
  • Add sugar snap peas or artichokes if you want.
  • Slice the onions, mince the garlic, grate the ginger, crush chilis, and slice the habaneros.
  • Drain the brine but make sure that the vegetables are salty. Rinse them if they’re too salty for your taste. Toss in some more salt if they’re not that seasoned.
  • Mix the vegetables and spices together.
  • Pack the finished products into jars.

Incorporate probiotics into your life and you will definitely achieve a higher level of health on a daily basis.

Jan 09
probiotic-bacteria

How Probiotics Can Help Support Your Body

By Probiotic Articles

Probiotics are your good bacteria and pathogens are the disease-causing ones. When your body’s probiotics are depleted; usually through unhealthy habits, antibiotics, stress, lack of exercise or proper diet, pathogens take over, disrupting your digestive system which in turn affects your entire wellbeing. Since it is a necessity to promote and maintain efficient levels of good bacteria in your ‘gut’, knowing how probiotics can help protect you and what role they play in ones body will help you keep your healthy colonies optimized.

 

Probiotics are yeast or bacteria that help support your immune system which in turn supports your goals to elevate the quality of your health. Many different types of probiotic bacteria are found in various foods and supplements. Taking live good yeast or bacteria may seem unorthodox or strange in the beginning. However, you should know that your body is actually filled with these microorganisms. Your digestive system is packed with at least 500 to tens of thousands of types of bacteria. They all help assist in digesting your food and help intestines remain healthy. When the bacteria in the digestive system are balanced, the nutrients are absorbed efficiently and the entire body functions optimally. Every system in the body, including the immune system, does its job. A body containing a strong balance of healthy bacteria is generally much more effective at warding off disease compared to one with depleted ‘good’ bacteria stores.

 

 

intestinal-bacteria

Researchers are currently working hard to better understand the role of probiotics and what role they play in immune function. Many researchers concur that some digestive disorders occur due to disturbances in the intestines which happen during and after taking antibiotics or after an infection. The problems in the intestines also appear when the intestinal lining is damaged. Incorporating probiotics into your diet is how probiotics can help protect your body and restore your GI bacteria balance. They can improve the functions of your intestines and even maintain its lining’s integrity. They may also eliminate diarrhea. There is new evidence that probiotics indeed help maintain a strong immune system. With constant use of antibacterial products, naturally obtained probiotics seem to be impossible to acquire. That is why you have to ingest probiotics to help replenish your stores and help protect you when you need to defend against a bacterial invasion. You have the choice of taking probiotics through natural food sources or supplementations. Whichever you choose, you should always involve your doctor so that you can be sure of the right strain and the right dosage especially before you shop for your probiotics.

 

 

Everyone multitasks even during meals and the leisure of taking time during meals rarely happens anymore in our busy society. Even supposedly quiet and relaxing dinners at home are now transformed into cell phone or internet- based eating. Juggling chores is the best technique used these days to make sure that everything is done on time. Because of this, it isn’t surprising to discover that many suffer from poor health. That is why many people are starting to invest in health programs or health supplements to help their body’s adapt better.

 

 

Eating makes up most of the day’s activities. This habit may be turned into something healthier by choosing to eat functional foods such as probiotics. Probiotics may sound boring or repetitive especially if all you remember about it is yogurt or kimchi. It may even make things more monotonous for you if you take probiotic supplements in the form of capsules or pills. To end up with the right probiotic supplement, you have to do your own research or ask your doctor to help you make the right decision. A probiotic diet means that you have to accept the fact that your gut needs probiotics. If you constantly replenish them, then you will have a healthier body. Remember that taking probiotics could eliminate lactose intolerance and even yeast infections in women.

 

 

Make sure that you eat fruits and vegetables whenever you take probiotics. They increase the amount of probiotics that feed the probiotics in your system. They may be microscopic bacteria but they do give your body huge health benefits.

Mar 23
probiotics-lost-and-found

Replenishing Your Lost Probiotics

By Probiotic Articles No Comments

Great health is considered a valuable component in achieving a higher quality of life. With perfect health, you can do anything and everything you want or need without worrying that your body is going to give in to the pressures that life throws at you. Unfortunately, not everybody has great health. Certain hard-to-break bad habits result to the imbalance of bacteria in your body. Staying up late, consuming too much alcohol, eating junk food, smoking, and stress all contribute to the depletion of resident probiotics and the takeover of the pathogenic bacteria. Once the pathogenic bacteria proliferate too much in the digestive tract, diarrhea is a common consequence and a multitude of other random symptoms appear. When diarrhea is present, the nutrients needed by every organ system of your body are not provided. In effect, the body does not function optimally and the immune system is not able to protect the body from foreign elements so you get sick. To regain your good health, you have to focus on replenishing your lost probiotics in your digestive system. This replenishment is aided by the ingestion of probiotic-rich foods or probiotic supplements.

 

People who want to incorporate probiotics in their diet and health routines have to know the science behind probiotics. The following are some facts about these beneficial bacteria:

 

 

  • Bifidbacteria and lactobacilli are considered the most common strains of microbes used in probiotic products.
  • Substances that increase probiotics are called probiotics. They provide the energy needed by probiotics so that they could perform what they d best inside the colon.
  • The combination of a probiotic and a probiotic is called synbiotics.
  • Probiotics are clinically efficient but their efficiency is not measured by their higher number.
  • Ingested probiotics in the form of supplements or food are considered safe.
  • Dairy products are ideal vehicles for probiotics since they provide a good environment for these good microorganisms to live in.

 

Probiotics are called probiotics because they have health benefits that are clinically proven. The combination of more than one strain in a probiotics product doesn’t exactly mean that that probiotic item will become very effective. More studies are needed so that the effectiveness of the probiotic strains can be proven. These beneficial bacteria have classifications—group, genus, species, and strain. This certain classification can be associated to the basic components of a person’s name:

 

 

  • Genus = family name
  • Species = given name
  • Strain = fingerprints

If people don’t know the strain of bacteria, then the function or the role of hat bacteria can’t be determined. To better relay to the consumers, the strains have to be modified by their manufacturers. One good example of this would be the Lactobacillus casei DN-114001 found in DanActive yogurt. In the packaging, L.casei Defensisis written. This common practice intends to help the consumers comprehend the benefits of the probiotic or even remember the strain a lot more quickly. Any legitimate company would have to specifically pinpoint and label the correct scientific name of the strain. With this, the consumers should be encouraged to read the labels all the time.

 

Probiotic rich foods help you replenish your good bacteria

As smart consumers, you have to know the difference among all the different types of probiotics. Each strain needs a particular role to play. Strains vary in properties but this doesn’t mean that they would yield different effects on the host. It isn’t impossible at all that an active substance in a probiotic product may be enough to give a potent result. However, it is always possible that the strains or active organisms in these probiotics products would need further verification.

 

 

The probiotic manufacturers can always use the strain’s characteristics to guard the specific traits of their products. Advertising for the strains should not be utilized in brochures, evaluations, or dossiers. Take note that if the probiotic products have higher numbers of strains, this doesn’t mean that it is more potent.

 

 

Probiotic intake is a habit that has to be done with the guidance of your healthcare provider so that you can achieve the maximum benefits that good bacteria have to offer. It would be better to consult your doctor first before you shop around for your probiotics.

 

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