A balanced intestinal ecosystem brings … relief from stomach and intestinal disturbances

The interest in Lactobacillus bacteria as a probiotic to improve health really goes back thousands of years. Cultured “soured-milk” products have long been used as an effective way to settle gastric distress.

And for any population with genetic lactose intolerance, it was one of the only ways to take milk. (Cheese production, the other way, took too long for nomadic cultures, so their only practical solution was fermented milk.)

But stomach problems remain a source of significant discomfort. The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) reports that digestive problems adversely affect the lives of more than 65 million Americans, with 30% of Americans experiencing at least one significant gastroenterological event each year.

The most common complaints include diarrhea, constipation, and general upset stomach.

These are all complaints that most frequently result from disruption of a balanced intestinal ecosystem and have been successfully treated with Lactobacillus species.¹⁶

Other studies on the effectiveness of probiotic treatment of gastrointestinal problems have proved inconclusive because the problem some Lactobacillus species have getting through the stomach, into the intestine.

This was not found to be a problem when the species studied was Lactobacillus sporogenes.¹⁷

The primary sources of cultured milk were a variety of beneficial bacteria, but principally L. acidophilus and L. bulgaricus.

These two beneficial bacteria are still used in the form of yogurt as a way of settling stomachs but with limited success. In short, the problem with these bacteria is they do not survive the high acid conditions of the stomach.

There is, however, a simple, natural solution if you are looking for almost immediate relief from chronic stomach problems. It’s a form of beneficial bacteria—a lot like L. acidophilus—that wraps itself in a natural, strong, protective coat.

We will see how this works momentarily after we tell you about some of the other amazing properties probiotics bring to your physiological ecosystem.

Why yogurt is not enough

When lactic acid bacteria are present in the gut in sufficient quantities, they provide significant balancing of your gut ecology … and the health benefits for your whole system that comes with it.

As such, bacteria like L. acidophilus should be ideal candidates for supplementation or similar programs. A supplement-based ecological balancing program would work like this: Increase the presence of lactic acid bacteria in the intestines and they provide balancing effects against harmful, putrefactive bacteria that produce toxins and carcinogens.

It seems simple, direct, and easy. However, there are two major barriers preventing most species of lactic acid bacteria from being effective supplements.

The first barrier isn’t even in the body. Rather, it is the conditions these beneficial bacteria must face before entering your body.

The most common mode of delivery for Lactobacillus species to humans has traditionally been yogurt or other fermented milk products. But yogurt is bulky, requires refrigeration, and has limited shelf life, so it doesn’t make a good Lactobacillus supplementation delivery system.

A better way to deliver Lactobacillus bacteria as a supplement would be in powdered form. And the most effective way to accomplish that would be in freeze-dried (lyophilized) form.

Unfortunately, L. acidophilus does not survive freeze-drying well. This procedure results in a low count of viable L. acidophilus bacteria. And the lyophilized form—like the forms in yogurt—also has a limited shelf life.¹⁸

This is why many existing supplements of L. acidophilus that claim billions of live bacteria, when assayed have closer to 1,000 cells per assayed unit.¹⁹

Stymied by hydrochloric acid before they can do their work

But if it were possible to overcome the manufacturing and shelf life problems, L. acidophilus faces yet another physiological barrier.²⁰

The effectiveness of probiotic therapy is not dependent on how many individual bacteria are ingested. The only important number is how many bacteria survive the hostile stomach environment to get into the small and large intestines where they perform their ecological balancing functions. (See Fig. 3).

fig 3.

If enough bacteria make it through, a colony large enough to interfere with and replace existing colonies of harmful bacteria forms.

But, if enough beneficial bacteria cannot get through, they are not able to establish large enough colonies. The harmful bacteria maintain their stronghold and increase stress to your immune system, throwing your physiological ecosystem further out of whack.

This is the overwhelming problem with L. acidophilus. For all their health-providing strength, L. acidophilus and similar species are“wimps.” They do not survive in the highly acidic environment of the stomach (with a pH around 3 to 5—the lower the number, the more acid the environment).

So even if you ingested a live culture with huge numbers of bacteria, few, if any, of the live bacteria make it through the stomach. There are simply not enough available to implant themselves in your intestines and establish large enough colonies to do you any good.

Introducing an acid-proof “submarine” for probiotic therapy

If it were possible to coat beneficial Lactobacillus bacteria in an acid-proof coating—a coating that also protects individual cells during freeze-drying—then an effective supplementation program looks more possible.

And the good news is, there is a form of lactic acid bacteria that already exists and forms a natural protective coating of sorts. This lactic acid bacterium is Lactobacillus sporogenes.† These bacteria form hard, impermeable spores allowing them to survive both freeze-drying and the high acid stomach environment.

L. sporogenes survive challenging conditions far better than L. acidophilus. The spore allows it to ride out unfavorable conditions and then germinate when conditions improve.

It grows optimally between 30?C and 37?C (86? - 98.6?F; body temperature) but remains stable and viable in the unsporulated form until close to 60?C (140?F). And they are able to survive in the spore stage at even higher temperatures.

These bacteria not only survive an acid environment, that environment is necessary for their activation. Here is how this works:

• On oral administration, spores survive the acid stomach environment and are activated by the low pH, mechanical churning in the stomach, and the water in the gastric environment.
• The spore coats absorb water and swell. The increased water in the spores raises the metabolic rate of the bacteria. Outgrowths from the cells protrude from the spore coats.
• About this time, the spores pass into the upper small intestine (duodenum) where the outgrown cells germinate and grow. Cells proliferate in the small intestine, multiplying rapidly, establishing active colonies of beneficial bacteria.
• Germination takes around 4 hours after ingestion. The activated cells settle in the intestinal tract where they continue metabolic activities, produce lactic acid and bacteriocins. Once established, L. sporogenes colonies are able to interfere with harmful, putrefactive bacteria.²¹

A safe … and effective way to balance your intestinal ecology

L. sporogenes has been proven safe in numerous clinical and non-clinical toxicological studies.

Acute toxicity studies with L. sporogenes were performed in male mice fed 1, 3 or 5 g/kg/day of powdered L. sporogenes containing not less than a billion spores of L. sporogenes per gram. (This is the equivalent of a 200-pound man ingesting as much as one pound per day.)

The mice were observed for 7 days. No deaths occurred nor were there any long or short term abnormalities such as diarrhea.²²

Additional studies of rats, dogs, rabbits, and guinea pigs—some lasting as long as 15 months—showed no abnormalities observed during the period of treatment as well as after withdrawal of the treatment.

Balance your intestinal ecology with a comprehensive nutritional program using L. sporogenes

“Nurture wellness from the inside out.”
Dr. Ann Haiden, DO

Many lactic acid bacteria species synthesize and release vitamins B2, B5, and B12 into their hosts.²³ But experiments have revealed that lactic acid bacteria also need an outside source of B vitamins to sustain their own metabolic activities (kind of a complex “pump priming”).²⁴

By providing necessary B-complex vitamins in a well-structured supplementation program, you are encouraging the growth and proliferation of beneficial L. sporogenes bacteria. L. sporogenes returns the favor by keeping your intestinal ecology in balance.

Thus by adding a full spectrum of vitamins and minerals while supplementing with L. sporogenes, you are boosting your supplementation program synergistically.

L. sporogenes is the most practical and effective probiotic for supplementing your full spectrum nutritional program.

Safely enclosed within a spore coat that protects it from the environment, L. sporogenes is resistant to heat, oxygen, and digestive acids. It travels safely through your stomach’s inhospitable environment to your intestine … where it can establish colonies, keeping disease-causing putrefactive bacteria in check … getting your entire system back into dynamic balance, and along with it, the “glow of health” you desire.

There is some controversy over the name Lactobacillus sporogenes. When this bacterium was first isolated and described by Horowitz and Nowotelnow, they called it L. sporogenes. That name was accepted in the fifth edition of Bergey’s Manual of Determinative Bacteriology.

In a later edition of the manual, the bacterium was reclassified as Bacillus coagulans to reflect simplified classification system. As these two names both refer to the same microorganism that balances your intestinal flora and your overall physiological ecology, we use the historical name of Lactobacillus sporogenes in this monograph.

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