Hello my dear friend
Today is a perfect autumn day, cool and sunny. Trees wear beautiful, colorful leaves that are almost ready to fly off.
Our bodies are as usual, doing their best to adjust to these weather changes. Probiotics can give us a hand in adapting to seasonal changes, while we are traveling and trying new foods. I would say they help us in any kind of stress, because seventy percent of our immunity is formed in our digestive system. It is already known that five minutes of stress shoots down our immunity for 6 hours… and our life is full of stress. This means that we need probiotics in ours system constantly.
You let me know that you don’t feel well after taking your probiotic pills. Understandably, you followed-up by asking whether you should continue taking them. Answer: You can stop taking it for a little while.
There is more, remember that probiotics:
- aid you in digestion, specially for hard-to digest foods
- enhance the synthesis of B vitamins and improve calcium absorption.
- help you keep a healthy balance of intestinal flora
- in women, promote vaginal health
- support immune function and more.
All of this means that you should be feeling better not worse.
So, let’s check the formula of the probiotics you are taking.
We will check these key factors:
1. Contains effective bacterial strains. As Dr Mercola insists, any effective formula must contain Lactobacillus acidophilus DDS-1. This is most effective, stable and helpful in digesting dairy for the lactose intolerant.
2. Contains at least 10 beneficial probiotic strains
3. Fortified with prebiotics (bacterial food)-FOS
4. Stable at room temperature for at least 2 years, so you can travel with them
5. Non-dairy, free from soy, corn, wheat, and gluten, and is non-GMO.
The best time to take these is in the morning on an empty stomach, 15 minutes before food.
A follow-up question from clients tends to be, “if I eat yogurt, should I still take Probiotics?”
This is a reasonable question. Traditional yogurts and kefirs are great sources of beneficial bacteria due to their raw and unpasterized state. Most of today’s yogurts and kefirs are pasteurized unless they are purchased raw and unpasterized from a local farmer. Unfortunately, pasteurization radically reduces most of the benefits, even if they are organic. It means, don’t be mislead by advertising that says “live cultures” and avoid commercial kefirs and yogurts.
Additionally, you can increase your beneficial bacteria by eating other delicious and widely available and easy to make fermented foods, like sauerkraut, pickled cabbage, turnips, eggplant, cucumbers, onions, squash and carrots, raw yogurt and buttermilk.
I am open to more questions and I am happy to be supporting you on your way to great health and happiness.
Thank you again for your question and please, ask me more.
With Love and Care,
Regina