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(Friendly Bacteria)
In your digestive tract, you have 3 to 5 pounds of
microorganisms.
Due to antibiotic use or poor diet, the balance will
shift from friendly organisms to unfriendly organisms. Research is
showing that the most effective way of dealing with these unfriendly
guests is through the use of friendly bacteria (probiotics).
From a cellular perspective, you might think the human body was
mostly human. But you'd be wrong. It is actually mostly bacterial.
The typical adult body harbors about 100 trillion bacterial cells
from at least 500 species - 10 times the number of human cells. And
that's not counting viruses and fungi.
Most of these bacterial organisms are what medicine calls "friendly," or at least harmless. Friendly bacteria, or probiotics,
serve a host of biological functions important to the survival of
the animal they populate. Some aid in digestion, some compete with
harmful bacteria and keep them in check, some stimulate the immune
system. And they may have other roles not yet known.
Friendly
bacteria form the first line of defense against invading viruses
etc. from the outside world. Researchers in the United States and abroad are looking at
probiotics as a promising answer to the growing problem of
antibiotic resistance and abuse.
Studies have indicated that
probiotics can play an important role in many areas of dis-ease,
including but not limited to the prevention or control over food and
skin allergies in children, bacterial vaginosis and premature labor
in pregnant women, inflammatory bowel disease, recurrent ear and
bladder infections, dental caries, chronic diarrhea and traveler's
diarrhea.
They may even help lower cholesterol in the blood and, by
degrading carcinogens, thwart the development of certain cancers.
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