Probiotics are popular, and there’s a good reason why. You’ve probably seen the “probiotic” label slapped on your favourite yogurt or smoothie, largely because a growing body of research has shed light on something most people have never known about the human gut— until now.
The health of your gut directly affects the health of your entire body. In fact, many physicians and scientists consider it the “home base,” or the hub from which all other healthy functions in the body stem. If your gut is sick or lacking, the odds are that this illness will show up in another part of your body too.

ALL DISEASES BEGIN IN THE GUT

It may be common knowledge today that the gut is the driving force behind all good health, but this idea was controversial when Hippocrates first introduced it thousands of years ago, during his lifetime from 460 to 370 B.C. “All diseases begin in the gut,” he said, and now research has confirmed that Hippocrates’ wisdom is unequivocally true.

In 2016 alone, research on gut health has exploded. The European Academy of Neurology solidified a critical connection between the gut and the brain by exploring what scientists now call the “gut-brain axis” and how it relates to neurology. Researchers believe that a number of neurological diseases may be triggered in the gut, with its collective microbiome (bacterial community) of good and bad bacteria that can impact the nervous and immune systems. 1

Providing the perfect example of this within the same year, University of Iowa Health Care researchers found a direct link between a lack of good gut bacteria and multiple sclerosis. 2 A related European Journal of Neurology study confirmed that children with MS may have more bad gut bacteria that have been linked to inflammation and fewer anti-inflammatory gut bacteria found in children who do not have the disease.3

The powerful influence of bacterial communities in the gut, for better or worse, can affect the health of the brain and beyond. Regarding immunity, University of Tennessee at Knoxville researchers discovered that good gut bacteria could help to reduce the severity of malaria, which can be fatal if left untreated.’ Gut health, including gut inflammation, has also recently been tied to colon and other types of cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, autoimmunity, blood clot-related illnesses like heart attack and stroke, and even an often deadly intestinal disease in premature babies.

4 UNBELIEVABLE PROBIOTIC TRUTHS

It’s clear that our understanding of probiotics and gut health is still growing, which makes it difficult, if not impossible, to separate the good from the bad.

Nowadays, almost any manufacturer can label a yogurt or another dairy product as “probiotic”. And while many commercial yogurts may indeed contain several strains of good bacteria, there’s no guarantee they can deliver the amount of friendly bacteria needed to restore and maintain a healthy gut.

To change your health — and even change your life — we believe four eyeopening truths can help you choose the strongest probiotic for your gut:

1. Probiotics in the body outweigh the brain.

This may be the kind of fun fact you hear on a kids’ science show, but it is amazing all the same. Many of us know that the human brain weighs about 3 pounds, while a healthy human body can house over 3.5 pounds of probiotic bacteria or beneficial microorganisms.
Dr Casey Adams, author of Probiotics: Protection Against Infection, considers the probiotic gut microbiome to be one of the largest organs in the body. 5

2. Probiotic sales are booming.

When we said probiotics were the latest health craze, we weren’t exaggerating. While probiotics in the gut have been critically important to human health since the dawn of time, it is only within the past few decades that physicians and product manufacturers have caught up with this ancient health “trend”. A 2014 study by Grand View Research, Inc., estimated that global probiotic sales would reach over $52 billion by 2020.6

3. Yogurt may not be the best source.

As Grand View Research, Inc., reported, food and beverages made up over 80 percent of the total probiotic market, including products like baked goods, fermented meat, fermented drinks, soy products, and, of course, dairy. While most of us have been told by our doctors (and commercials on TV) to get our daily probiotics from yogurt, many commercial probiotic yogurts that are pasteurised are not as powerful as they are advertised to be.

Pasteurisation at high temperatures can destroy bacteria found in milk, wiping out the good with the bad — though some manufacturers may add probiotic strains after heat treatment. Commercial probiotic yogurts are also high in sugar, which can further compromise gut health by feeding pathogenic bacteria in the digestive tract.

4. Soil-based is superior.

Compared to a yogurt probiotic, the capsule delivery of live bacteria into the gut is far more reliable for daily use. Soil-based probiotic capsules, containing a third-generation combination of over 29 probiotic microflora, offer an even deeper penetration into the gut, with the help of a humic/fulvic acid prebiotic in each cap.

As the name suggests, soil-based probiotics are the friendly bacteria found in fertile soil, the healthy foundation of the entire plant world. Soil-based-organisms (SBOs) are Class-I micro-ecological units that are also similar to the bacteria naturally found in the healthy human G.l. tract. Hardy soil-based probiotics are ideal to consume in capsule form since they require no refrigeration, and they’re also pH-resistant to survive the acidic environment of the stomach. SBOs have proven backing to relieve various gastrointestinal conditions, including IBS,
from a methodologically oriented, two-week, randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind clinical study conducted on human participants.7

It’s been said many times before, but it bears repeating. Sometimes, the most complicated health problems have the simplest solutions. Sometimes, achieving optimal health means going back to basics. Soil-based probiotics don’t come from commercial dairy — they come straight from the earth. These protective and beneficial little bugs can bring your gut health back into balance, by returning to the source.