What do “probiotics” and “acne” have in common?
How about this, let me list another set of words that are related to see if they start to sound slightly familiar:
YOGURT, KEFIR, SAUERKRAUT, COLOSTRUM, AND YOGLOO…
You probably guessed it by now. But if you haven’t figured it out, that’s okay too because you’re about to learn something that is EXTREMELY important to, not only clear skin, but healthy hair, eyes, organs, metabolism, energy, basically EVERYTHING.
I can’t stress how important this concept is. It’s just as important as step 1 because without it, nothing would work.
WHAT ARE PROBIOTICS?
They are the same as live cultures, friendly flora, and good bacteria. Probiotics ARE live cultures, friendly flora, and good bacteria.
They are the kind of bacteria that’s on OUR side.
“Wait… what? I thought all bacteria was bad? After all, it is called, ‘bacteria right?'”
Not necessarily. There are good kinds of bacteria and bad kinds of bacteria. And growing up, I’m pretty sure we’ve all familiarized ourselves with the bad kind of bacteria. You know, the kind that infects your knee if you’d had a scrap, or gives you a harsh cold and cough so that you’re stuck in bed for days at a time. I’m pretty sure, at one point or another, we’ve all had our “lovely” experience with the TERRORIZING BAD BACTERIA.
So when most people hear the word “bacteria”, they probably freak out a little.
Or a lot.
“Eww… why would I want to PURPOSELY eat bacteria?”
Because… IT’S GOOD FOR YOU!
“But how can eating ANY bacteria be good for you?”
(Okay. That’s enough with the internal dialogue for today… =)
It’s good for you because this isn’t like the other kinds of bacteria that we’ve learned to dread and avoid while growing up. This kind of bacteria helps you and your body stay healthy. Hence, the “good” part when we talk about “good” bacteria or probiotics or friendly flora or live cultures.
Does that mean that you should start walking around and putting all sorts of bacteria that you deem “good” or “friendly” into your mouth? No, no, no, let’s not take it that far. But you must know that there are probiotics out there that FIGHT FOR YOU and not AGAINST you.
WHAT DO GOOD BACTERIA DO?
The reason why they are SO CRUCIAL to your health is because without them, nutrient absorption would drop to less than 10%. Allow me to repeat that for emphasis:
IF YOU DID NOT HAVE PROBIOTICS, YOU WOULD ABSORB LESS THAN 10% OF ALL NUTRIENTS THAT YOU ATE.
This is a scary thought because most people aren’t even consuming 100% of the nutrition that theyshould be having throughout the day. So to take whatever they’re eating and take LESS THAN (sometimes it’s not even) 10% would make it ludicrously low.
A body void of vitamins and minerals is like a car without gas, engine oil, windshield fluid, break fluid, electricity, etc… It doesn’t matter if it’s a Ferrari, the thing is not going to move without vitamins and nutrients. Luckily, cars don’t die without gas because you can always refuel them… but our bodies need a little bit more nourishment and attention.
Imagine if your body was not absorbing any of the vitamins and minerals you were eating. You could be pumping away at nutrition and supplements and all of it would just pass right through you. Not just the fact that your acne would continue but really bad things could happen:
1.) Gas, Bloating and Indigestion
2.) Diarrhea and/or Constipation
3.) Bad Breath and Body Odor
4.) Candida Yeast Infections
5.) Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia
6.) Parasites
7.) IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) Colitis
8.) Crohn’s Disease
9.) Skin problems such as Acne, Eczema and Psoriasis
10.) Delayed development in children
11.) High Cholesterol Levels
12.) Frequent Colds and Flu
And not just those listed above, but if your body isn’t receiving nutrients, then it doesn’t have the necessary resources to fight off disease, infections, tumors, cancers, virus, basically the whole gamut of those BAD BAD BAD bacterias. Then organs can be permanently damaged which lead to other parts of the body not functioning right, which lead to chronic disease, you get the point.
The job of this friendly flora to is to inhabit your gastrointestinal tract or your GI tract and help you break down foods, better absorb foods, and fight off other harmful bacteria that don’t belong there. They usually reside in your small intestine and make sure it’s too crowded for any dark lurking serial killer bacteria units to infect you.
And as an anatomy review, GI tract is everything from the moment you put food into your mouth until the moment it leaves your body. So everything from your mouth, esophagus, phraynx etc… down until your stomach, small intestine, large intestine, colon, rectum, etc…
Good bacteria: “Hey, there’s no room here, get out.”
Bad bacteria: “Okay.”
Though that’s probably not how the interaction between good and bad intestinal bacteria probably happen, that’s how I’m going to assume it does =)
WHERE CAN I GET INTESTINAL BACTERIA?
Well… you can’t make it. I mean, your body doesn’t produce it like it makes red blood cells or antibodies.
You need to physically IMPLANT PROBIOTICS INTO YOUR BODY.
Right…
It’s okay, everybody take a moment to think about that for a second.
It’s alright, conjure up that imagination and let’s get creative for a moment on how YOU think that might happen.
Surgery?
A long tube that is inserted down your throat… or maybe through the other end???
Swallowing LIVING good guy bugs?
No, I’m just kidding. It’s nothing that intense. It’s as simple as eating yogurt or kefir. That’s why yogurt is so popular. It’s because it contains “live cultures” that help your body better absorb nutrients, digest food, and fight harmful viruses, bacteria, and other negative protein malformations.
Not only that, foods like yogurt and kefir also create a moist and well adjust environment for the intestinal friendly flora to live in. Without right environment in your GI tract, the probiotics that you ate would simply die from all the stomach acids and other bad bacteria before they got a chance to latch on and live on the walls of your small intestine.
That’s why there are some probiotic supplements that contain “buffers.” This is because the buffers serve as protection shields to aid the probiotics in traveling through all the stomach acids. Otherwise, they’d probably be disintegrated within the hard acidic solutions that your body creates.
Other foods like yogurt drink, in the Asian culture some may know it as “Yogloo”, or Sauerkraut, which is a German fermented cabbage and vegatables dish, also contain good bacteria.
By eating these foods, you give the good bacteria a chance to implant themselves inside your stomach thereby creating a mutual symbiotic relationship (which is a good thing, a VERY good thing).
LAST THOUGHTS
This is actually a very natural process of life. Believe it or not, at birth, none of us had probiotics in our systems. But during the first week or so of breast feeding by your mother gives you these probiotics because her milk isn’t regular breast milk, it’s called colostrum. Colostrum is known to contain antibodies called immunoglobulins such as IgA, IgG and IgM in mammals and is basically GOOD BACTERIA to you and me.
But over the years, we may abuse our bodies and create very harsh environments making it difficult for the probiotics in our GI tract to live. In many cases, for example if you have acne or other digestive issues, good bacteria are almost no where to be found. And we wonder why we have so many health problems and that none of the supplements or nutrients we’re eating is helping.
TAKE ACTION NOW!
This is why I stress kefir or some form of yogurt, if you can’t find kefir in your part of town, so much. It not only contains friendly flora, it also helps to create a environment that is suitable for friendly flora. For without it, everything that you is completely useless.
So all of you, make sure you’re getting plenty of good bacteria, otherwise ALL THIS would be POINTLESS! =)
I hope all of you who have read my article enjoyed it! If you feel like this article has helped you, don’t hesitate to let me know! If so, please support this website and encourage future detailed articles to help with your acne and your health. Whether it’s a comment, new recipe, a donation, or just an email to say thank you, I want your participation!
-Ray
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Probiotic supplements are something I take 3 times a day. Part of my daily life. It may surprise some people to know “Nature” has alot of answers we need . Westerm Medicine is not always the the way to go.
Great blog, nice work.