As we head into the cold and ‘flu season, most of us will be taking precautions and proactively supplementing to boost our immune system. However, too few of us will be supplementing the ‘smart’ way; that is, by taking probiotics daily.
Probiotics are the microbes, or ‘good bacteria’, that are naturally found living in the human body. These beneficial microbes make up part of the microbiome, specifically the gut microbiome.
And, unfortunately, they don’t get the attention they deserve when it comes to immunity, which is a great – and illogical – pity, as 70% of our immune system resides in our gut.
Once we accept that a healthy gut creates a stronger immune system, it makes sense to build the healthiest gut we can by maintaining a viable, fully-functioning and healthy microbiome.
How do probiotics assist your body and immune system in fighting off harmful pathogens?
The Karger Medical Journal explains: “Although the most widely discussed mechanism of probiotic action is the inhibition of the growth of pathogenic bacteria, other mechanisms explain the antagonistic effects of probiotics, among them adhesion and co-aggregation ability, competition for binding sites and nutritional sources, secretion of antimicrobial substances, enhancement of intestinal barrier function by regulation of tight junctions and mucins expression, along with immunomodulation by interaction to receptors of microorganism-associated molecular patterns.”
In simpler terms: Bacteria and viral infections mostly enter through our mouth and settle into our bodies within our gut. A healthy, varied and high volume of probiotic bacteria will compete with these viral and bacterial threats, all of which are fighting for resources to grow. This is called competitive exclusion.
In addition to ‘starving’ the viral and bacterial threats through competition for nutrients, your good bacteria fill the space that these bad bacteria try to cling to and, if there is no space in the gut wall to settle in, they simply pass through your system, able to do less harm.
The bacteria in our gut also play a role in the healthy development and maturation of our immune cells; as mentioned above, 70% of which are found in our gut. A healthy gut, filled with a variety of good bacteria, therefore leads to the healthy development of your immune system.
To summarise, the more of the good bacteria you have in your gut, the stronger the army is to fight off threats.
Diet and its impact on gut health and the immune system
Given that changing diets – that is, what we eat and how much of it we eat – has been associated with lower immune system responsiveness (in combination with increased inflammation and uncontrolled infectious processes) while increased consumption of ultra-processed foods has been linked to imbalances in the human intestinal microbiota, it is vital to acknowledge the impact of our diet on our ability to fight pathogenic bacteria.
Being trigger factors for low-grade systemic inflammation and oxidative stress, ultra-processed foods modify the gut environment. Recent work proposed the term ‘microbiota insufficiency syndrome’ and suggest this could be linked to many non-communicable chronic diseases.
Further, an unbalanced state of the microbiome, called dysbiosis, is characterised by overgrowth of pathogens, and lower diversity of good bactreia. Once established, these can disturb the local mucosal and systemic immune cells. Dysbiosis, too, is closely associated with changes in the dynamics of the immune system.
Do probiotics affect everyone in exact the same way?
The health benefit of taking probiotics may differ from person to person depending on the dominant probiotic strain is the product. This is due to different gene expression mechanisms within every probiotic cell and the cells in every human’s body. This means that some people might react differently to others when using the same probiotics.
The answer
The answer to protecting yourself from colds, influenza and other threatening pathogens, is to boost the quality, quantity and diversity of probiotic bacteria within your gut, through diet and supplements. And, there is no faster or more effective way than using Probitec which delivers 10x to 2000x more live probiotic bacteria to your lower intestine than other brands.
