Gut Bacteria - Microbiome

Irritable bowel syndrome laboratory tests

PROBIOTIC AND GUT BACTERIA

Your gut has trillions of bacteria. Some of your gut bacteria help you and others can hurt you. Probiotics are normal bacteria that support you digestive health. Alterations in normal gut bacteria have been shown to be associated with IBS, colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, obesity, ulcerative colitis, SIBO, fibromyalgia, diabetes and many more conditions. These good gut bacteria make vitamins, short chain fatty acids and other important metabolites vital for good intestinal health. The good gut bacteria also crowd out bad gut bacteria. When there are less good bacteria, bad bacteria can multiply causing inflammation and pain from the toxins they produce. Bad gut bacteria eat vitamins and expel toxins.

Probiotics are bacteria that are normal to your digestive system. There are many strains of normal gut bacteria considered normal. Some of these can be grown and put in pill or powder form. Lactobacillus, Bifidobacter, Klebsiella are types of bacteria seen in a typical probiotic. There are different types of the probiotics. For example, L Rhamnosus, is a type of lactobacillus. How should I choose a probiotic? The best way is to have a stool test to determine your personal gut bacteria balance. This allows us to personalize your probiotic for the strains you need and avoid the ones you don’t need.

Your gut bacteria are living bugs! They eat and digest just like you do! So what do gut bacteria eat? They eat what you feed them. If you feed them sugar, the bacteria that thrive on sugar will flourish. If you eat greens, the bacteria that thrive on greens will flourish. To have a healthy gut you need to feed your “zoo” of gut bacteria the right food. That includes greens, vegetables and high quality protein. Eliminating foods that you are allergic to is also very important. This also has to be determined through testing.

This is not a complete list. There are also other factors affecting these conditions.

Crohn’s Disease – Collinsella

Celiac Disease – Bifidobacterium

Ulcerative colitis – Actinobacter

Psoriasis – Actinobacter

Autoimmunity – E coli, Proteus

Rheumatoid Arthritis – Klebsiella, Prevotella

IBD – E-coli, Klebsiella

Thyroid Disease – Yersinia

Ankylosing Spondylitis – Klebsiella

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