Hm.
Your gut acts as a huge immune
organ, your first line of defense against infection, so you need an ample
supply of probiotics - beneficial bacteria that live in the
intestinal tract and
help guard it.
As they naturally do, until it all gets upset.
Aristotle said worms are the intestines of the earth, but I think
the living soil itself is an intestine, the worms are just a part of
it. The soil's just the same as an intestine, only sort of inside-out
(or maybe intestines are outside-in). It has the same beneficial
microorganisms as a healthy gut, and the same solution when the
healthy balance is upset and the pathogens take over: feeding sick
soil well-made thermophilic compost is much the same as feeding
probiotics to an ailing gut - but then you have to stop feeding it
junk-food too (for the soil read chemicals). Healthy food is grown in
healthy soil, and if that's what you eat you shouldn't need
probiotics, and you shouldn't need vitamin and mineral supplements
either. But we live in a toxic soup these days, we probably need all
the help we can get, and probiotics, vitamins and mineral supplements
definitely have their uses.
Anyway, I think your gut isn't only the first line of defence, it's
also the first line of attack. It's not really part of the immune
system, essentially it's outside the body - it's a big hole that goes
right through you, without the immune system's protection that your
organs and internal systems get. The whole lining of the alimentary
canal is a sort of inner skin. Medically the whole thing is a huge
vulnerability. The gut contains something like 2 oz of bacteria,
busily digesting your food for you, and indeed providing your body
with the building blocks a healthy immune system needs, but the
bacteria aren't an integral part of the body's immune system. Nor is
your outer skin ever faced with such a massive bacterial overload to
contend with, along with a daily supply of decomposing food. All goes
well nonetheless, just as long as you're living right and eating real
food, which will greatly strengthen your resistance to the
environmental toxic overload as well as to pathogens and disease.
The body's defenses are centered in the digestive tract where immune cells
and probiotic bacteria team up to resist infection. Whenever we are
exposed to
harmful bacteria, yeast or parasites, our immune cells in the digestive
tract can shield us. Probiotics aid this process by boosting the
effectiveness
and activity of these immune warriors.
There are immune cells in the digestive tract? What sort of immune cells?
We're constantly exposed to harmful bacteria, yeast and parasites,
pathogens are a normal component of a healthy gut microflora, and
many of them are ubiquitous in the environment anyway.
The kill the pathogens attitude just isn't the right approach, IMHO
(and trying to kill pathogenic yeast might not be such a good idea,
Herxheimer's resulting revenge is something to be feared). That's
what antibiotics do, probiotics aren't just safe antibiotics (ie
pesticides), they don't just kill stuff, they help to restore a
healthy balance, which includes the pathogens.
Best
Keith
Probiotics Immunity: A Beautiful Partnership
by Dr. Brenda Watson, ND*
March 3, 2009
_http://www.prohealth.com/ME-CFS/library/showArticle.cfm?libid=14361B1=EM0311
09C_
(http://www.prohealth.com/ME-CFS/library/showArticle.cfm?libid=14361B1=EM031109C)
**When you keep the gut well supplied with probiotics, you make an
invaluable contribution to your present and future health.**
If you want to stay well, you need a strong immune system to protect you
against disease and keep you from getting sick. Your gut acts as a
huge immune
organ, your first line of defense against infection, so you need an ample
supply of probiotics - beneficial bacteria that live in the
intestinal tract and
help guard it.
Your immune cells depend on their partnership with probiotics to help them
shield the body from harm.
Billions of Immune Helpers
While your body consists of about ten trillion cells, the bacteria that live
within us add up to close to a hundred trillion cells. The vast majority of
these bacteria live in the digestive tract. Accompanying them are most of
your immune receptors, which patrol the digestive tract, destroying invaders
that could make you ill.
Along with probiotics and immune cells, the mucous membrane lining in the
digestive tract protects the body from invaders. When bacteria or other
microbes contact this wall, immune cells determine whether it is a desirable
probiotic - or an undesirable intruder.
-- If accredited as friendly, the immune cells leave them alone. In fact,
friendly bacteria even get fed - your sticky mucous membranes incorporate
sugars that probiotics use for nutrition.
-- But if the bacteria or microbes are seen as potential sources of trouble,
the mucous ensnares them, and passes them through the intestines where they
