In 2015, the Global Probiotics market size was almost A$28 billion (USD 36.6 billion) and is anticipated to rise to approximately A$49 billion (USD 64 billion) by 2023 according to figures published by Global Market Insights Inc on the website PRN Newswire¹. This phenomenal growth is attributed to research that has demonstrated the benefits of probiotics for those suffering from a number of health conditions.
South Perth Chiropractor, Dr Adam Rocchi reports that inflammatory conditions including inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis may experience benefit from consuming probiotics. He also provides advice at Spine Scan Chiropractic on the links between diet and nutrition and overall health and wellbeing.
If you are suffering from an inflammatory health condition, please call Spine Scan today on (08) 61508783 for an appointment during which, your treatment options and alternatives will be discussed.
What Are Probiotics And How Do They Work?
Probiotics are microorganisms, live bacteria and yeasts that are good and helpful for our health. The two most common genera of probiotics are Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, both with several different strains.
When consumed, probiotics can have many health benefits by helping us to maintain the correct balance between the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ bacteria living in our bodies. They can help to reduce levels of the ‘bad’ bacteria that cause illness and infection and increase levels of ‘good’ bacteria depleted by illness or by treating an infection with antibiotics.
Scientific research is discovering more and more about the microbes in our gut, the ‘gut microbiota’, and their crucial role in overall health. They perform functions including helping the immune system differentiate between friend and foe and ensuring that our digestive systems are able to extract the vital nutrients from the food we eat.
How Can Probiotics Help In Systemic Inflammatory Diseases?
People with systemic inflammatory conditions also have inflammation within the intestinal tract, leading to intestinal permeability or ‘leaky gut’ – a condition in which, bacteria are able to escape the intestine and get into the bloodstream where they trigger inflammatory responses. Probiotics can help to decrease this inflammation.
The debilitating symptoms referred to as ‘sickness behaviours’, are experienced by many patients suffering from long-term health conditions such as Rheumatoid Arthritis, and arise from changes in brain function.
Taking probiotics whether in foods such as kefir, tempeh, miso soup, and yogurt or as dietary supplements, usually in capsule, powder, or tablet form, can mediate cerebral (brain) changes and beneficially influence these sickness behaviours by changing the way that the immune system sends signals to the brain. It seems, (although the mechanisms by which it operates, remains unclear), that these brain function changes arise in the microbiota-gut-brain axis.
These beneficial effects on sickness behaviours such as social withdrawal and immobility, for example, are accompanied by measurable decreases in inflammatory cytokines (CRP, TNF-a, IL6). This offers the possibility of probiotics being use to target the gut microbiome in patients with inflammatory diseases in order to treat the sickness behaviours that are associated with chronic inflammation within the body.
Which Probiotics Will Benefit Me?
Because Probiotics have many different strains within the two main genus types, Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, it can be difficult for patients to know which to choose for greatest benefit. Some strains may be more beneficial for some conditions than for others – Lactobacillus. casei, (for example), has been shown to be beneficial for Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Bifidobacterium. infantis, for IBS.
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