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The best probiotics for your gut health

Posted on 29 November, 2016 by Will Nicolson | Leave a comment

The popularity of probiotics in the past 10 years has skyrocketed. A decade ago, most people would probably have given you a bit of a weird look if you asked them whether they were supplementing with probiotics. But now, with the scientific community increasingly proving that your gut health is critical to your overall health, probiotics are a hot topic.

Now, there’s all sorts of words like “good bacteria”, “bad bacteria”, “microbiome”, and “gut flora” bandied about. They sound important, but what the heck do they actually mean? And for that matter, why do you even need to know what they mean? Can’t you just grab any old probiotic product from your supermarket or health store shelves, knock a capsule back once a day, and move on with your life?

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. There are plenty of probiotic products out there which will provide absolutely no benefit for your gut health, and others that may even do you harm. In order to get the most from your probiotic supplement, you first need to get inside your gut. Metaphorically, not literally – that would be pretty darn gross.

Why do I need to take a probiotic supplement?

Your gastrointestinal tract, henceforth referred to as your gut, is home to over 500 different species of microorganisms. This number of species is likely much higher, as scientists are still funding hundreds of new gut microflora strains every year. These microorganisms number in their billions. Billions, people!

Far from your gut being an incestuous infestation of disgusting microscopic bugs, we rely on these billions of microorganisms for our very existence. A 2012 study published in the Journal of Nutrition in Clinical Practice found that the bacteria in your gut form an intricate, living fabric of natural controls that affect body weight, energy, and nutrition. Another 2012 study, this time published in the Journal of Nature Reviews Neuroscience, noted that the gut microbiotia plays a pivotal role “in the regulation of anxiety, mood, cognition and pain.”

The take away from all these emerging studies is that the microorganisms that live in your gut are far more important than you think. They have the potential to influence almost every aspect of your health, so if things are unbalanced down there (and they probably are!), there’s no way you can ever be fully healthy.

Your gut is probably lacking in good bacteria

The reason I say that your gut microbiome (the “living community” of bacteria and yeast which resides in your gastrointestinal tract) is probably a bit sad is because modern society has it in for these useful little guys. For starters, evidence shows that a natural birth is critical for exposing newborn babies to certain beneficial bacterial strains which then go on to colonize their gut. As this article from Science Daily puts it:

Each individual’s community of gut microbes is unique and profoundly sensitive to environmental conditions, beginning at birth. Indeed, the mode of delivery during the birthing process has been shown to affect an infant’s microbial profile.

Communities of vaginal microbes change during pregnancy in preparation for birth, delivering beneficial microbes to the newborn. At the time of delivery, the vagina is dominated by a pair of bacterial species, Lactobacillus and Prevotella. In contrast, infants delivered by caesarean section typically show microbial communities associated with the skin, including Staphylococcus, Corynebacterium, and Propionibacterium. While the full implications of these distinctions are still murky, evidence suggests they may affect an infant’s subsequent development and health, particularly in terms of susceptibility to pathogens.

Essentially, if you had a cesarean birth, your gut is off to a very bad start. The next great blow to your gut health comes with antibiotics. Every time your doctor prescribed a round of antibiotics to kill of some pathogen in your body, it also killed off the good bacteria in your gut. Antibiotics are not selective, meaning they kill everything in your gut – good and bad.

Finally, there’s all sorts of other environmental toxins, prescription meds, and oral contraceptives which have been shown to take their toll on your gut health. Suffice to say that your population of beneficial bacteria is not what it should be.

Are the probiotics in fermented foods enough?

This one is a little more difficult to answer. For some people, the probiotics they receive from fermented foods may be sufficient to keep their gut happy and healthy, but only if they work hard at it. These people would need to have an already healthy gut biome, and they’d need to be eating a variety fermented foods per day. Examples of fermented foods include:

sauerkraut
kimchi
kombucha
kefir
kvass

All of which need to be raw and unpasteurized. These foods can be very expensive to buy, and are time consuming (but highly rewarding!) to make. Most people don’t want that kind of commitment. If you do, check out our easy DIY sauerkraut recipe.

If you’re not prepared to eat a range of different fermented foods every day, or if you have been exposed to a cesarean birth, antibiotics, or have serious digestive issues, you NEED to get your hands on a quality probiotic supplement. Here’s how.

Finding the best quality probiotic supplement

If you find the right probiotic supplement for your needs, your gut will flourish. Quality probiotic supplements provide billions of beneficial bacteria which actually re-colonize your gut and make it a happy place once more. If you’ve been suffering from digestive issues (diarrhea, constipation, stomach pain, gas, nausea, etc), you’ll likely notice the difference within a few days, if not immediately!

Cheap or poor-quality probiotics, on the other hand, use the wrong bacterial species or don’t allow those bacteria to actually take up residence in your gut. A classic example of this is acidophilus yoghurt – it might help your digestion when you eat it, but it’s effects are only temporary, simply because those bacteria aren’t designed to actually live in your gut.

Prescript-Assist Probiotic $49 on Amazon

This probiotic easily gets the thumbs-up from us, for a number of reasons. Firstly, it’s endorsed by Chris Kresser, a key figure in the health industry who I have a lot of respect for due to his obsession for reviewing the scientific literature and really knowing his stuff. If Chris says its good, its probably good.

Next, Prescript-Assist sources it’s beneficial bacteria from soil-based organisms – bacteria and other microorganisms which we would commonly have been exposed to before humanity developed a repulsion for getting dirt on its hands. These bacteria have been scientifically proven to live in the human gastrointestinal tract, meaning this supplement helps you to rebuild you gut population, rather than just temporarily bolstering it (as with many other probiotics).

Finally, Prescript-Assist also contains a humic/fulvic acid prebiotic which helps those good bacteria to thrive and flourish within their new home (your gut!). Essentially, it plants your seedlings, and gives them a healthy dose of organic fertilizer at the same time.

Primal Probiotics $29 through Primal Blueprint

These potent little babies pack a serious punch, and are endorsed by another of our health heroes, Mark Sisson. I like these probiotics as they’ve gone for high-potency, high-quality bacterial strains rather than just a vast number of low-return bacterial species. That’s what a lot of companies rely on to sell their probiotic product – “contains 150 billion trillion CFU’s!”, when really it’s about quality, not quantity. What’s the point in sending hundreds of billions of bacterial strains through your gut, if they don’t actually want to live there?

Primal Probiotics come with excellent reviews and plenty of information regarding their effectiveness and why they’ve selected certain strains. They’re also designed to survive the harsh environment of your stomach and make it through to your gut intact, which can’t be said for many other probiotic supplements.

Different strokes for different folks

While the above two probiotic supplements are a great start, everyone is different. With this in mind, if your body doesn’t respond well to them after the initial “adjustment” period (usually around a week), shop around and find a probiotic which is also well-respected and which suits your needs better.

Do you have a go-to probiotic supplement which you love? Tell us the difference that it’s made in your life!

Supplement review: what’s the deal with glutathione?

Posted on 29 September, 2016 by Will Nicolson | Leave a comment

If you scour the alternative health cyberspace from time to time, you’ve probably seen the occasional furtive mention of a mysterious thing called glutathione. It seems to be slowly but surely gathering steam, with many people now convinced that it is the one and only “master antioxidant”, king to all the rest. Kind of the like the “one ring to rule them all” of the supplement world.

What’s the deal? Should you be immediately jumping on the glutathione band wagon? Let’s find out.

What the heck is glutathione?

If we’re getting just a little bit geeky, glutathione is more accurately known as L-glutamylcysteinylglycine among academic circles. Glutathione is a tripeptide consisting of 3 bonded amino acids – glutamate, cysteine, and glycine.

Glutathione is generated by cells in our bodies for the rather important purposes of protection and survival. Glutamate makes up part of our brain cells, glycine promotes metabolic processes, and cysteine acts as a moderator in the manufacture of intracellular glutathione.

The roles of the individual amino acids in glutathione are wide-ranging. Critical functions associated with this tremendous trio include detoxification, cell protection from free radicals, elevated energy production, immune support, and healthy brain function.

In addition to being an all-round, cure-all-ailments sort of compound, glutathione is unique in that, unlike other antioxidants which operate from within the blood on the outside of cell membranes, glutathione works from the inside out. This means that it operates from within the cells to protect the mitochondria, expel toxins and boost immune system function. Kind of a big deal, as it happens.

A growing body of clinical trials, along with substantial anecdotal evidence, indicates that supplementing with glutathione can dramatically boost energy levels, noticeably slow the signs and effects of aging, and increase brain activity and focus. In other words, it appears as if it can make you have more energy, live longer, and think smarter. Perhaps there is some substance to the claims of it being the “master antioxidant”.

Why you need more glutathione in your life

Our body naturally produces glutathione in the liver, however studies indicate that glutathione levels in the body decrease as we age. This process of glutathione decline begins at around age 20, and increases exponentially from then on.

Interestingly, studies which tested apparently “healthy” people over a wide range of ages found that the decline occurs with time even if the health of the individual does not itself decline. This is what leads experts to believe that glutathione production is directly linked to aging – suggesting that the less glutathione you have, the more your body ages. But more on that later.

While glutathione naturally declines with age, it’s decline in our bodies can be significantly increased by a number of factors, namely stress, diet and nutrients. In the western world, stress levels tend to increase after a person reaches adulthood, with the introduction of stress-inducing activities such as work, commuting, relationships and debt placing chronic pressure on our minds and bodies. Unsurprisingly, free radical damage greatly increases as a result of this exponential rise in stress, and with that natural decline in glutathione production, we no longer have enough of this free radical-fighting antioxidant to keep up with the oxidative damage to our cells.

The average diet of the modern man is one rich in hydrogenated fast foods, gluten, chemicals from pesticide-laden produce, growth hormones and antibiotics from factory-raised animals. All of these inflammatory, nutrient-poor dietary inputs can place additional pressure on the liver (the organ which naturally produces glutathione) and starve the body of the fuels it needs to produce glutathione in the first place. The elasticity of childhood dampens the effect a poor diet can have on our glutathione production (hence why we don’t see the decline until after age 20), but as we age our ability to roll with the poor-diet punches diminishes.

Finally, our body’s ability to absorb vital nutrients declines as we age, while our exposure to environmental toxins continues to build – things such as heavy metals can remain in our deep tissue and accumulate over time, rather than passing through our system. This increasing state of nutrient depletion and toxic accumulation offsets glutathione production and impedes the processes which promote healthy concentrations of glutathione inside our cells.

How to get the most from your glutathione supplement

Based on the growing body of research surrounding this mystical compound, the more glutathione you have, the better off you are. I’m convinced that it’s the closest thing to anti-aging that modern research has unearthed so far, as it is so small that it can work from within your cells, protecting them from the oxidative damage of free radicals, which are the primary agents of aging.

Yes, glutathione levels appear to naturally decline with age, but luckily there’s certain things you can do to halt this decline and preserve your health. The first thing you can do is to increase your intake of certain whole foods and high quality food products which can provide some of the glutathione precursors, such as sulfur and amino acids. These foods include onions, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and grass-fed, minimally-processed, organic whey protein.

The second step is to supplement. Usually, the mantra of Thrive Primal is one firmly grounded in the belief that if you live the right lifestyle and eat the right whole foods, your body should have everything it needs to achieve optimum health. In 99.9 percent of cases this is true, but in this instance it appears that even lowering stress levels and amping up your consumption of sulfur- and amino acid-rich foods will only make a small difference. To really make a difference, you need to get out the big guns – pure glutathione supplements.

While a plethora of glutathione supplements are available in drug stores, health food stores and even supermarkets, most of them make little difference in your body. This is due to the fact that their proteins are easily broken down by acids in the stomach, meaning they’re completely denatured and effectively useless by the time they reach the liver.

For this reason, you need to look out for glutathione products which guarantee that the proteins don’t get denatured by your stomach acids. This can include products which use compounds to bind the glutathione to acid-resistant peptides, or straight bonded cysteine, which can make it through your stomach intact and team up with glutamate and glycine afterwards to build glutathione. Make sure you really do your research here, otherwise you’ll be throwing your money away.

With this in mind, I’ve tracked down two very rare supplements which appear to do just that. This clinical glutathione ($47 on amazon.com) appears to be very well reviewed and promises to have a much higher success rate of reaching the liver intact than other conventional glutathione supplements.

The second choice is made by Bulletproof Executive, and in my opinion is the clear winner in terms of reliability and quality. They’ve used a protective coating of essential oils and other compounds around the inner capsule, which contains the actual glutathione, to ensure that it makes it through to your liver unscathed. I haven’t tried it yet, but I certainly intend to very soon. You can get it through the Bulletproof Exec site, but shipping is often quite crippling there, so I’d recommend getting it on Amazon for $50. Here’s the link.