Even a cursory walk down the aisle of your favorite grocery store will broadcast the message: there’s a war on, and it’s against germs. Any cleaning product made for people, pets or floors that stands a chance had better kill them in record numbers, and when it comes to percentages anything less than 99.9% won’t be tolerated. In our current culture of antibacterial cleansers and the extensive (sometimes excessive) use of antibiotics in medicine, it’s definitely important to remember that not all bacteria are bad.
Recently there has been a huge public relations push to show that certain kinds of bacteria can help solve some of our most basic ailments. Probiotics–the collective name given to these various types of beneficial bacteria–have been used medicinally in Asia for centuries, and a lot of them can actually be counted among our best assets for overall health.
Probiotics can help many of the common digestive health issues like lactose intolerance, bloating, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and various stomach bugs, but the list of benefits goes well beyond that. More serious afflictions like Crohn’s Disease and colitis, along with certain inflammatory and allergic reactions such as eczema, hay fever and even arthritis are found to be increasingly offset and reduced with these new developments in applied therapeutic microflora.
The larger list of potential benefits offered by simply having enough of the right kinds of bacteria in your system covers many of the major health concerns of our time: lowered cholesterol and blood pressure, lowered risk of colon and breast cancer, rheumatic diseases and liver and gall bladder complications. For purposes of preventative health, the smallest of things–bacteria–are surprisingly difficult to beat.
In addition to these more adult concerns, recent research is increasingly supporting the idea that probiotics are a good idea for children too. Along with helping to establish a solid digestive foundation (where much of our overall health actually begins) probiotics also promote a healthy immune system–a very smart move for back-to-school season.
Perhaps most importantly, though, they are very useful for restoring the natural balance of intestinal flora, which are seriously disrupted by the antibiotic treatments so commonly prescribed for children. The main drawback to antibiotics is that they kill all bacteria, good and bad. After a child’s body has been wiped clean with these drugs in order to eliminate an infection, the best measure to ensure that their system is properly rebuilt appears to be probiotic supplementation in the weeks following treatment.
All in all, while it may not be a bad idea to make use of anti-bacterial products, it’s in your best interest not to adopt a completely anti-bacterial mindset. Plenty of them, as it turns out, are on your side, and in the case of probiotics, they just might provide your winning edge for better health!