Probiotics for Disease Prevention [New Research]

I wanted to briefly write about probiotics since in the past few months, numerous new studies have come out showing previously unknown benefits of probiotics for disease prevention. I’ll link a few of the articles below:

New research underscores the link between multiple sclerosis and the gut microbiome

Gut bacteria trigger immune defense mechanism to protect against viral infections

Gut microbiome link to deadly chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Study offers "indisputable" link between Alzheimer's and gut microbiome

Microbiome study could change the way doctors diagnose depression

We don’t often think of our digestive system unless it’s giving us trouble, and then usually we’re just looking for a fix for those symptoms, but our digestive system and specifically our body’s unique microbiome (or the trillions of bacteria and microorganisms that live in our digestive tract) affect our health far beyond our stomach.

A healthy balance and variety of good bacteria in the body is incredibly important for overall health, but it’s easy to be ignored since many people can take probiotics and not feel very different. Part of the benefit of probiotics are more overreaching, affecting our health long term for the better. It’s similar to giving a car an oil change- generally, the car doesn’t drive very differently after having one done, but it’s important to keep the vehicle running properly in the long run.

We have lots of great supplements at the store, which have benefits for an assortment of issues, but realistically a person can’t take 100 pills a day. So as you choose the supplements that are most important to your personal health, we’d really recommend adding (or continuing to take) a quality probiotic with a variety of well-researched strains. Stop by the store because we’d love to help you choose the product that’s best for you. A favorite of mine are Solaray’s line of refrigerated Mycrobiome probiotics. They have specific formulas for a variety of needs including a women’s probiotic, a 50+ formula, and one specifically for colon health. I like them because in addition to being high potency products with a variety of effective probiotic strains, they also contain prebiotics, which help the good bacteria in your digestive tract and in the supplements you take to flourish.