All too often I have clients come to me with digestion that just isn’t healing and sadly, all too often, it can be because of their probiotics. Many of these ingredients will worse conditions such as constipation and leaky gut. Below are some of the ingredients you should approach with great caution.
- I find that probiotics which contain FOS ( Fructooligosaccharides) , is reactive to approximately 80% of the population I work with. FOS is used as an sweetener and it has a sugar level of somewhere between 30 and 50 percent of sugar syrups. Conventional research is quite mixed on FOS as it can increase the growth of unwanted bacteria in the GI tract. It could also serve as food for less desirable strains of bacteria. In addition, FOS feeds E. coli and many Clostridium species, which will disrupt your population of gut-friendly bacteria. There is also a concern that some kinds of yeast are able to use inulin/FOS for fuel, thereby leading to overactive yeast production in the body.
- Xylitol can cause nausea, gas, bloating and diarrhea and or constipation. Remember whenever you impair digestion you not only cause weight gain, but create an inflammatory response which can affect your immune system and serotonin production.
- Dairy, Soy and Gluten- If you have sensitivities/allergies, please make sure that your probiotics do not contain these ingredients.
Also what is confusing to some people is that it’s not the number of cells in your probiotic that are important, but the strains and how many they are. You can research which strains work best for what ails you. I find that it’s best to rotate your probiotics so you can restore gut function with as many beneficial strains as possible.
The two probiotics I find to work best for most people are:
Renew Life- 30 billion cells
or
Innate Probiotics (you can order at www.lyngenet.com)
I also find that you can use anti-yeast suppositories to greatly speed up getting yeast back in control when used in conjunction with oral probiotics. Yeast Gard is a brand that works great for my clients and you can find it in stores like Walgreens or order online.
