prebiotic Archives

How Multi-Strain Probiotics May Help Preemie Babies

Children’s Health, Probiotics, Women’s Health / By @drHoberman

There’s plenty of steps that moms can take to protect the health of their newborn babies. Most experts agree breastfeeding and natural childbirth — both providing great gut health benefits too — sit at the top of that to-do list.

But, even the best-laid plans of moms and pediatricians can fall by the wayside when a newborn arrives prematurely (before the 37th week of gestation).

After a period of decline, preemie births have rebounded upward to nearly 10 percent of all births in the U.S. This creates opportunities for many more health problems among infants, according to the CDC.

Fortunately, moms and pediatricians may have a new weapon to help preemies, according to Cell Reports Medicine: Multi-strain probiotics.

The probiotics-breastfeeding combo

Few hospitals treat preemie babies with probiotics out of caution. Some health experts believe probiotics aren’t used because there’s been little evidence to demonstrate their benefits.

However, a sizeable number of preemies are delivered via C-section, creating many more health obstacles for infants and their developing immune systems in the gut.

That’s where multi-strain probiotics come in. A group of British researchers studied the benefits of probiotics via fecal samples collected from a group of 234 infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) over their first 100 days of life.

All infants in this trial were fed human breast milk. In addition, 101 babies received a probiotic containing Bifidobacterium bifidum and Lactobacillus acidophilus. (Both are among the four featured strains in EndoMune Junior Advanced Probiotic Powder recommended for children up to age 3.)

The probiotic difference

The combination of breast milk and multi-strain probiotics was a difference-maker for that group of infants due to the addition of Bifidobacterium bifidum to their tiny bodies, according to researchers.

This strain of Bifidobacterium allowed infants to better digest breast milk, giving their developing immune systems a gentle boost in two important ways:

Bifidobacterium bifidum contains genes that enable babies to better digest specific sugars in breast milk for use as prebiotics. (Prebiotics function as food for the good bugs in their guts.)
pH levels dropped in stool samples, a good sign that health-harming bacteria won’t thrive.

“We hope that our findings will help direct future clinical trials and practice and help clinicians and healthcare professionals make a rational choice when it comes to diet-microbe combinations and ultimately help these at-risk preterm babies,” says Dr. Lindsay Hall, study co-author and a researcher at the Quadram Institute.

Despite the best of plans, however, many moms don’t have a choice whether to deliver their babies prematurely or via C-section. However, EndoMune Junior Advanced Probiotic Powder makes it easy to support the healthy immune development of young infants.

Sprinkling a tiny scoop of EndoMune Junior in your baby’s food or formula once a day can make a big difference!

(Please consult with your pediatrician before starting your baby on EndoMune Junior or any probiotic.)

References

University of East Anglia

Cell Reports Medicine

Penn Medicine News

Nature

CDC

How Multi-Strain Probiotics May Help Preemie Babies Read More »

older woman smiling and sitting in yoga pose

The Probiotic Treatment For Anxiety

Mental Health / By @drHoberman

Experiencing anxiety is more common than you think.

Think about the last time…

You went to the hospital for a medical test.
You gave a talk in front of a group of people, including some you didn’t know.
You had to make a decision about a problem with no clear-cut solutions.

Any one of those situations are potentially nerve-wracking, but they tend to pass pretty quickly.

But, if you’re frequently avoiding situations that could create excessive worries, you may be dealing with an anxiety disorder, and that may be a real problem.

Many people — including health providers — turn to antidepressants like fluoxetine (Prozac) or escitalopram (Lexapro) or benzodiazepines like diazepam (Valium) or alprazolam (Xanax) to alleviate anxiety.

However, taking drugs (especially benzodiazepines) may create even more health challenges down the road.

Did you know taking better care of your gut health may be just as beneficial in treating anxiety?

The gut health solution

As you know, there’s plenty of evidence supporting the gut-brain axis, the connection linking your intestines, brain and emotions.

A new report by Chinese researchers, recently published in the journal General Psychiatry, reviewed a batch of studies, finding 21 studies that examined boosting gut health as a means to treat anxiety.

The success rate was excellent. Eleven of the 21 studies discovered improvements in anxiety symptoms by treating a patient’s gut health.

Interestingly, the results were split nearly down the middle with five studies finding success with probiotics and six studies treating patients through non-probiotic means such dietary interventions.

Of course, there were limitations, as most of the patients participating in these students were having problems with an array of health issues. Among the six studies that did examine gut health interventions to treat anxiety, four showed positive results.

Listed among the non-probiotic interventions was the use of short-chain fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS), a natural prebiotic made from plant sugars and non-digestible starches. Additionally, FOS is one of the key ingredients in EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

It’s important to remember prebiotics feed the good guys in your gut, but really do a lot more good when they’re part of an effective probiotic like EndoMune.

Drug-free treatments for anxiety

There are many things you can do treat anxiety that don’t require taking a drug:

All of these things have one important thing in common: Not only do they improve your overall health, they do wonders for your gut.

In addition to working on these healthier habits, be sure to take an effective probiotic like EndoMune, with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria, plus a prebiotic.

The Probiotic Treatment For Anxiety Read More »

Woman by her fridge eating a late night snack of crackers

Your Circadian Clock and Gut Health Are Linked

Digestive Health / By @drHoberman

Your circadian clock — the biological triggers related to night and day that govern how your body operates physically and mentally on a 24/7 schedule — is so very critical to all parts of your health.

Apart from the obvious things like sleep/wake cycles, those rhythms from your circadian clock regulate an array of functions behind the scenes, including the release of hormones, your body temperature and the ways you digest food.

Think about what happens to your body when you throw your circadian clock off a little bit. Maybe, it’s the jet lag you experienced when traveling across one or more time zones on a plane ride or the biannual changes from standard to daylight savings time.

Then, imagine those shifts in your circadian clock persisting for an extended time in longer work schedules, changes in meal times or shift work.

Over time, your body may become more vulnerable to serious health problems like metabolic syndrome, the cluster of symptoms leading to type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

Your shifting circadian clock

The health of the human gut is also affected by these shifts in the body’s circadian clock, particularly when we eat and sleep, according to a review of studies appearing in the journal, Microorganisms.

The human gut has basic rhythms of its own that release specific bacteria based on eating/fasting cycles throughout the 24-hour day.

Researchers from New Zealand and the Netherlands were focused on how those specific eating/fasting cycles modulate our gut health.

For example, fasting at night helps your gut process soluble fiber, producing short-chain fatty acids, specifically butyrate, that protect your body from Salmonella, E. coli and other harmful bacteria.

Also, eating protein-rich foods like eggs, turkey or chicken that are loaded with tryptophan are converted by the gut into serotonin. This popular chemical not only regulates motility in the gut but has more recently been connected to the creation of the sleep hormone, melatonin.

The big concern from researchers here is how these disruptions in sleep/wake cycles affect our eating patterns and the kinds of foods we consume, leading to harmful bacterial imbalances in our gut.

For example, working late at the office could lead to a steady Western diet of high-fat fast food, and a drop in the good bugs in your gut that protect your body from a greater risk of colon cancer or intestinal inflammation.

However, there are three things you can do to protect your gut health and keep your circadian rhythms on schedule.

Eating foods rich in dietary fiber is simple, especially if you like beans, apples, strawberries and whole grains.
Are you following good sleep hygiene? These tips from the Mayo Clinic encompass a variety of ways you can get more restorative rest.
Take a daily probiotic like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic that contains multiple strains of beneficial bacteria and a sleep-friendly prebiotic that feeds the good bugs in your gut.

Your Circadian Clock and Gut Health Are Linked Read More »

Lose Weight the Healthy Way: Follow Your Gut

Diet, Digestive Health / By @drHoberman

We’re well into the new year, and many of us set new goals and resolutions to focus our attention on making lifestyle changes that we (hope) will improve our lives.

At the top of the list for many Americans is weight loss. In an attempt to shed those extra pounds, people do a lot of smart things, like moving more, joining a gym, getting more rest, eating more whole foods (full of fiber, less fat and natural sugars), and spending less time at the fast-food drive-thru grabbing processed foods on the run.

Sadly, however, many people prefer to take the fast lane to better health. We turn to detox diets or the bewildering number of weight-loss products on the market, many of which come with dangerous side effects.

If you’ve tried and failed to lose weight too many times and you’re willing to risk your health on products that could harm you in the process, maybe it’s time to take the word “loss” completely out of the equation.

Gaining instead of losing

Rather than looking at this challenge as a “losing” one, rethink your strategy and replace it with a gain, but not on the scale or your waistline.

Losing weight and keeping it off requires a different lifestyle approach, but not one of deprivation either. Your best and healthiest strategy starts with taking charge of your health.

Maybe you’ve started that process on the right foot by doing those smart things I mentioned earlier, but you’re still unable to lose those stubborn inches, especially if you’re older.

As the human body ages, the amount of beneficial bacteria in our guts decline. So, what does your gut have to do with your weight?

The human microbiome ─ the trillions of microorganisms that live in our intestines ─ plays a significant role in our overall health in so many ways, specifically protecting the integrity of the lining of the gut from intestinal toxins.

The microbiome, when kept in proper balance, can also help regulate metabolism and support weight loss.

Here’s how.

When our body’s healthy balance of gut bacteria becomes compromised by eating a diet full of too many nutrient-poor, highly processed foods, not handling stress as it comes and relying too often on antibiotics, we become more susceptible to metabolic syndrome.

If you’re not familiar with metabolic syndrome, it’s the cluster of symptoms — high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol or triglyceride levels and extra body fat around your waist — that elevate your risks of diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

Your gut and weight gain

An imbalance of gut flora can actually contribute to weight gain by causing inflammation, stimulating fat production and decreasing brain signaling via the gut-brain axis that controls hunger.

So, it’s very possible you could be doing all of the right things — exercising, destressing and eating your vegetables — and still be struggling with weight loss and metabolic inefficiency.

What now?

In addition to making lifestyle changes, achieving a healthy weight often comes down to listening to our gut. Research continues to unfold about the benefits of probiotics that help us maintain an optimal gut bacteria balance and regulate metabolic function.

Several specific strains of beneficial bacteria are more effective at helping with weight loss. Bifidobacterium lactis, for example, aids in fermenting resistant starches, which results in improving the health of the intestinal lining and lessening the risk of leaky gut.

Leaky gut is a disorder in which a breakdown in the intestinal wall allows unintended substances (toxic bacteria and waste products) to seep through the intestinal barrier and into your bloodstream.

The prebiotic difference

Supplements that combine a prebiotic ─ non-digestible starches that feed the good bacteria already living in your gut ─ with probiotic strains in relevant proportions have shown to be even more effective.

How? Those well-fed bacteria in your gut stimulate the release of hormones that decrease satiety, thus reducing hunger. In addition, this release of hormones slows the emptying of the stomach, which can result eating smaller meals.

More recently, the natural prebiotic Xlylooligosaccharides (XOS) has demonstrated great benefits on the microbiome in small doses, and even helped in avoiding the development of pre-diabetes.

If you follow gut health issues like I do, you’ve probably heard about GLP-1, better known as glucacon-like peptide-1, a hormone produced by the gut that can decrease blood sugar levels by enhancing the secretion of insulin.

Most probiotics don’t contain a prebiotic, which is critical in maintaining intestinal health. Prebiotics create short-term fatty acids, thus releasing butyrate, a critical component in providing nourishment to the colon.

If you want to lessen your risks of metabolic syndrome, improve your cholesterol and hypertension levels and give your weight-loss journey a fresh start, you may want to consider trying EndoMune Metabolic Rescue, which contains 1 billion CFUs of beneficial Bifidobacterium lactis along with 600 mg of XOS.

Combining a nutritious diet, exercise and all-natural probiotic/prebiotic supplementation can help you gain the benefits of losing weight and staying healthy.

Board-certified gastroenterologist Lawrence Hoberman, M.D., is the creator of EndoMune Metabolic Rescue, EndoMune Advanced Probiotic and founder of Medical Care Innovations.

During his 40-plus years practicing internal medicine and gastroenterology, Dr. Hoberman has worked with microbiologists to identify beneficial bacteria, resulting in the development of his own supplements for adults and children.

To learn more about how your gut affects your health in so many ways and how probiotics can help, visit www.endomune.com.

Lose Weight the Healthy Way: Follow Your Gut Read More »

Give Your Baby a Gut-Healthy Start

Children’s Health, Women’s Health / By @drHoberman

As you know, infants receive many health benefits when their Moms are able to make some simple gut-smart health choices via breastfeeding and vaginal delivery.

But how does natural childbirth and breastfeeding really benefit an infant and why?

It’s very possible those beneficial bacteria introduced first into the gut have a head start and make a lasting and healthy impression, according to new research from a group of American and Canadian scientists featured in the journal eLife.

Scientists came to this conclusion by transplanting four different species of gut bacteria from older mice into the gastrointestinal tracts of young, genetically identical mice raised in a germ-free environment.

The primary takeaway: The gut bacterial diversity of younger mice over several months eventually resembled or was often dominated by the species that was transplanted in them first in repeated experiments.

That’s an intriguing outcome, considering genetics, environment, diet, physiology and lifestyle — all important factors to human health on their own — only account for less than 30 percent of any variations of the gut microbiome, says Dr. Jens Walter of the University of Alberta.

“Each of us harbors a microbiome that is vastly distinct, even for identical twins. Microbiomes are important for our health, but they appear to be shaped by many unknown factors, so it’s hugely important to understand why we are all different.”

Not only does this research show how the introduction and timing of bacteria in newborns could grow and dominate, it may also provide a bridge to better understand how the microbiome may be disrupted and harmed due to the use of antibiotics or C-section deliveries.

Dr. Walter believes science will figure out ways that infants can be colonized with specific bacteria that will steer their health in beneficial ways, but even he speculates that’s a 30-40-year journey.

Until that time comes (if ever), there are steps new Moms can take to protect the gut health of their babies right now, even if natural childbirth isn’t possible.

Breastfeeding is a great first step, as it provides the right mix of fats, protein and vitamins for newborns along with antibodies that boost their growing immune systems.

Unfortunately, some new Moms may not be able to breastfeed for as long as they planned or can’t due to health problems. Plus, their babies may be missing out human milk oligosaccharides (HMO), the largest solid component of breast milk apart from fat and carbohydrates and a natural prebiotic component of breast milk.

In these cases, new Moms may want to consider giving their babies a multi-species probiotic like EndoMune Jr. Powder (recommended for young children up to age 3) that contains four strains of beneficial bacteria along with a natural prebiotic (FOS) that feeds their growing gut microbiomes.

Before you consider giving your newborn a probiotic, always talk to your pediatrician or doctor first.

A gut health boost is just one benefit among 18 that breastfeeding provides for you and your baby as you’ll learn in this extensive article.

Give Your Baby a Gut-Healthy Start Read More »

Do Fermented Foods Really Help Your Gut?

Diet, Digestive Health / By @drHoberman

You’ve probably read the same stories I have online and in other places promoting the value of fermented foods, from the familiar (yogurt, kombucha tea, pickles, cottage cheese, sourdough bread, soy sauce and sauerkraut) to the more exotic (tempeh and miso) to give your gut health an extra boost.

Does this mean eating fermented foods delivers the same dependable gut health benefits you’d receive by taking a probiotic?

The short answer: Probably not. In most cases, there’s no harm in eating fermented foods, but the benefits are debatable and your overall health may get worse if you’re not careful, for several reasons.

Some of the more familiar fermented foods you see at many grocery stores like yogurt may be produced in high heat environments and are probably pasteurized, so there’s little chance of any active bacteria surviving those processes.
Don’t assume any foods are fermented, unless they say so on food labels. For example, it’s easy to assume that any jar of pickles you buy at the grocery store is fermented. But, if those pickles were processed with vinegar, they won’t contain beneficial bacteria.
Monitoring the amount of salt you eat? Popular fermented foods — kimchi, sauerkraut, miso and pickles — contain lots of sodium.
Are you watching your sugar intake too? The sugar content of many yogurts and kombucha tea you’ll find at local grocery stores may be high, and the amounts contained in natural brands of yogurt can be excessive.
There’s lots of online resources that provide guidance in making fermented foods at home cheaply. But, the process is labor-intensive, and you have to keep everything sanitary so no extra bugs spoil your fermented foods.
Adding fermented foods to your diet may trigger problems with gas and bloating in the beginning if you overdo it. And, to make a real difference, experts say you’ll need to eat them every day too.

The $64,000 question even the experts can’t answer is how much or what kinds of beneficial bacteria you’ll actually consume when eating fermented foods.

That’s why taking a product like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic ensures you’re receiving multiple strains of beneficial bacteria your body needs. Plus, our line of EndoMune products features a natural prebiotic that feeds the good bugs in your gut, another feature fermented foods don’t have.

Do Fermented Foods Really Help Your Gut? Read More »