The short answer is no. The long answer is it depends. There is so much more to probiotics than I have ever imagined. They are not one size fits all and the strain that you take is everything. Let me explain.
Probiotics in general are defined as live microorganisms that when given in sufficient amounts should produce a health benefit to the host organism (i.e. us). The caveat here is that there is no one sized fits all probiotic for everyone and every situation and that probiotic you can get at your big box store or even at a more health centered store may be a big old waste of your money.
I’ve given out pretty general information on this topic before and what I have recently learned about them has changed and it is information you should have in your took kit.
There are two major probiotics that you often hear about are lactobacillus and bifidobacteria. These are the two that we are exposed to at birth through the birth canal and our mothers fecal bacteria and the environment around us. If you are breast fed the bifidobacteria is able to grow quite strong. Breast milk has around 1 billion bacteria per liter which include lactobacilli and bifidobacteria and is a good reason to encourage breast feeding. It is natures way of protecting infants.
I grew up in a time when it was not encouraged to breast feed and I was also born to a mother who had been on penicillin for 10 years so I got the short end of the stick when it came to being inoculated with bacteria. If you were formula fed your flora as a baby will have looked more like that of an adult with less bifidobacteria and more of other kinds of bacteria. When we were fed solid food the flora will have changed again.
The important part here is that we feed our gut the proper things to allow for the beneficial microorganisms to grow in numbers and not allow the less beneficial ones to take over. This is where you will see a decline in health and feel symptoms. Whatever those symptoms may be for you. It is all bioindividual.
One thing that is extremely important for you to understand is these are micro organisms we are talking about. They have a genus (for example lactobacillus is a genus), a species (acidophilus, plantarum, rhamnosus etc) and a strain is even more specific (lactobacillus rhamnosus GG or L. rhamnosus HN001). Each strain does something different in the body and those strains - the rhamnosus strains are not interchangeable for healing or supporting the body. It is a very specific thing.
Some very important properties for probiotics are that they can make it through the upper GI unharmed. So they can pass through stomach acid without being destroyed, they make it past the bile salts without being destroyed and they can get to their destination and set up shop. An important property of probiotics is that they stick around in the mucus membrane and cells of the large intestine. This allows them to take up space where the pathogenic bugs would want to go- so the bad guys don’t stick around- they just move on through and you maintain your health.
Lactobacillus bacteria are a very diverse group of microorganisms that produce lactic acid as an end product of carbohydrate fermentation. We can find these bacteria in fermented veggies, fermented dairy, in our GI tract and for women in the vagina. These bacteria help stimulate a proper immune response by helping prevent pathogens from getting in to our circulatory system. They increase the white blood cells that destroy cells infected with viruses and help our immune system remember which viruses and pathogens we have seen before so they can be attacked again. They also enhance the ability of cells to destroy pathogenic bacteria and viruses. The lactobacillus bacteria also eat the same nutrients as the pathogenic bacteria so if there are enough lactobacilli eating all the food there isn’t enough for the pathogens and they die off keeping you healthier.
Bifidobacteria are part of our GI tract naturally, the end product of their fermentation is acetic acid. They help prevent the growth of the harmful bacteria and keep our small intestinal environment in top shape. It is more potent than other acids at stopping the growth of E. Coli. It is also an important acid in the health of the colon.
You can get lactobacillus bacteria from some foods like yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi or other fermented vegetables. This would be where I would go first unless you need to supplement for a specific health issue like intestinal permeability. Not all yogurts are going to be worthy of buying and eating. I checked out a few brands and if you can tolerate dairy (questionable if anyone with Hashimoto’s should consume dairy at all) you can look at brands like Maple Hill Creamery and Wallaby Organic are two brands that have live active cultures added to them. This is what you want to look for- the live and active cultures on the label and of course keep the sugar content to a minimum. When consumed with dairy, the amount of bacteria can be much lower than when taken as a supplement. For some reason dairy is the perfect way to get the bugs in.
Sauerkraut or kimchi is another good way to get a good dose of probiotics and is really really cheap to make if you are in to that. Personally I love making sauerkraut so that is something I eat frequently. The bacterial strains in the end product are usually Lactobacillus plantarum at around 100 million per ¼ teaspoon (I think I did the math right on that) and is enough to give you a therapeutic effect. So very inexpensive and easy to do. There is not a lot of research on the efficacy of the bacterial strains in fermented veggies so the health effects are not for sure but we do know that it keeps the bad bacteria in check.
Other things that probiotics are good for is to make B vitamins and Vitamin K. They keep things moving along through the digestive tract which you know is important so we don’t reabsorb toxic compounds through the colon. They help make your digestion work better, help you absorb nutrients better, improve gas and bloating and more. One of the things that is important is the creation of short chain fatty acids. This product of fermentation and provides energy for the cells that line the colon. Eating resistant starches like cold potatoes or cold rice is a good food for the bacteria that produce short chain fatty acids.
When taking a probiotic supplement- quality matters. You have to make sure you know which specific strain you are taking- if your supplement label doesn’t list a strain, be leery of taking it. Many probiotics do not survive the manufacturing process of freeze drying, spray drying or frozen storage. Some companies will put a coating on them to help get them past the upper GI or stomach which helps survival and allows them to go to work where needed. I recommend you get probiotics from a practitioner and only take them if you need them. There are very specific strains for specific health conditions. Some strains have been well researched and will be helpful in giving you a specific outcome. There are strains used to help with airborne allergies, eczema, stomach flu, diarrhea, colitis, chronic fatigue syndrome, constipation, Crohn’s disease, candida overgrowth and more.
The more fiber you eat from a variety of plants, the more food you provide for your gut bacteria to thrive. These are called prebiotics. The non digestible fiber from plants makes it past the stomach or small intestine and is used as a food source by some of the beneficial organisms in the large intestine.
You can buy supplements that contain fructooligosaccharides, galactooligosaccharides or lactulose- all of these will provide food for your colon, increase short chain fatty acids, and provide overall health benefit. Microbiome Labs has a good product called Megaprebiotic and Biotics Research has a product called IAG. These are good general prebiotic fibers you can take daily but they are expensive. The cheapest way is to consume a wide variety of vegetables and fruits each week so your gut gets a variety of different fibers. If you want to try either of these products mentioned contact me via my website contact form and I will set you up with an account at my dispensary. Everyone gets 10% off MSRP.
I hope you found that helpful and maybe a little interesting too. I am such a nerd for this stuff I find it fascinating.
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Thanks for listening. I am so grateful for all of you. Please leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts so more people with Hashimoto’s can be helped by this information.
Until next week. Stay sane.