Gut Health Revolution: Unraveling Probiotics

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro and Guest Introduction
• 1:08 Importance of Probiotics Discussed
• 1:24 Key Probiotic Strains Explained
• 1:38 Understanding Dysbiosis and Leaky Gut
• 2:03 Practical Tips on Choosing Probiotics
• 2:33 Probiotics and Overall Health Connection

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:25

Hi, how are you? This is Damaris Maria Grossman, doctor of nurse practice, and we're talking about gut probiotics, um, first off. Um, if you're reading the video, I'm going to show you different ones. I'm not sponsored by any of this. I just want to tell you ones that have used before and what is like the by the research and how much I recommend.

Speaker 1: 0:49

So when I want you to look for probiotics for your body one, it depends upon what is going on, and two I want you to do, look for 10 probiotics, minimum strains in your body and at least five to 10 billion CFUs. Now the ones that I take actually are higher amounts. I've taken one for critical care, around 8 billion CFUs, and the other one is an immune platinum and that's been 90. It's really what's in there. And then for then for children, anywhere between five to 10, and that one can range about six to 10 strains. And then there are some very specific um probiotics out there, like um acromantia to help curbing weight loss, and that's more um stowed in the um stowed in the colon, and I'll talk more about that at another time. But also, you know, probiotics are beneficial micro micro-organisms and you'll hear a lot about why they're used because most of the time, individuals over time, or just even from birth till you know, individuals over time, or just even from birth till you know, people eat and grow and such that their little gut health has decreased and has caused a dysbiosis. And dysbiosis means a dysregulation of the good and bad flora within the body. So, and it's in those, either in the wrong place or it is not being utilized correctly. I just took actually one right now and, um, your digestive health is a factor and you'll hear a lot about how your gut is your second immune system and when we do not have the proper amounts of microorganisms balanced, your body is in a good place. So I'm going to go over some of the major microorganisms in the gut, and there are hundreds of them. So I mean I and it's kind of an infancy in a sense, when it comes to the research on how the benefits, even though if you read back um, hippocrates would say you know what you put into your body and you know you are what you eat is really your medicine, and that is really fact. The problem is is, over time, you know changes in our, in our food systems, changes in our stressors, changes in lifestyle, things um, have factored out and how things are processed and made. And then our bodies have, you know, evolved um and has changed our microbiome throughout. And you know there's good and bad to that right Um.

Speaker 1: 4:06

But when you hear someone say they have like a dysbiosis that has to do with an irregularity of balance of microbiomes, good and bad. And then if you hear that word leaky gut or intestinal permeability, is that those junctions within the GI tract have, you know, they separate slightly. But when they really separate then all kind of like the floodgates open and you've got all the gunk kind of going through. So imagine, like a sewer, your pipes are fine and but say there's a small crack. Small crack you might be able to cover, but over time if you have a degradedness of those pipes, eventually they'll open in the floodgates, literally open in all that junk or that sewer could possibly go into your home or could back up into your, into your bathroom, into your house, what have you? So think of it like you don't have the right walls, that's your leaky yacht on, and if you don't have the right um formula or um products to like balance out the system, your body will then kind of feel good and icky and eventually we'll we'll just be blocked up.

Speaker 1: 5:26

So let's talk about, when I say 10, um, probiotics in your system, um, let's first talk about different ones. Okay, so first ones that most people know about. It's called lactobacillus. There's a big thing where you know there's different companies that are like oh, this is the best brand and I'm doing this for you and you know, not all of them are made equal, but understanding what they are for probiotics is helpful and I'm just giving you an overview and where the research comes in recently. So let's first talk about lactobacillus.

Speaker 1: 6:01

So lactobacillus is a lactic acid bacteria. It's most common species are acidophilus and you'll see a couple of them. They'll be like they only have one or two strains. Like when someone says, oh, I've got a probiotic and it's only got one or two strains, got to tell you that's not going to be enough, but hey, it's something. So what is acidophilus and why are most people usually taking that one? It aids in lactose digestion and the gut flora and it supports the immune system. First, I'll tell you majority of probiotics are supporting the immune system. Even if they sound like a bad probiotic, they're supporting the immune system, depending upon the location of where they are and when those bad bacteria supposedly go into the wrong part of your GI system, then that's when it's a problem. So, acidophilus why this one's so common and why it's used so much is because a lot of people have a lactose intolerance and it's good for digestion.

Speaker 1: 6:58

So then the next one it's called is lactobacillus rhamnosus. This helps with preventing diarrhea and the gut lining a little bit of weight loss. And then there's another one called acromansia, but that one's in the colon and we'll talk further about that when I talk about weight loss. Um, that's another probiotic used for that. The next one is called lactobacillus. So these ones that I'm going over right now are lactobacillus and then they have a secondary name, so lactobacillus rutaria. So this one has to do with inflammation. It promotes oral health and improves skin integrity. So this is kind of if you notice in your body your gums are a little bleeding or just kind of gunky or you're starting to get more plaque, your microbiome is off in that sector.

Speaker 1: 7:56

So you would use a little bit more of that ruteri kind of blend. You would look for probiotic blends for oral care. So when you're looking for probiotics you're looking for where there is a discomfort, dysbiosis, an irregularity in your system that probably needs to be changed. Most of the time a good majority, not every company, but there are some good quality companies out there that are at least giving you a decent range of probiotics that you can at least kind of trust. So then there's one called lactosilice planetarum and this one's for, like, irritable bowel syndrome and more again on the gut barrier and lactobacillus casei, which improves digestion, infection, inflammation. I will also say my caveat with probiotics, you know you could benefit always by good fiber hydration. You know the basic stuff with lifestyle medicine is hydration, sleep, reducing your stress, you know, keeping a good amount of fiber in your diet. And these will all come in conjunction to helping with the microbiome, in conjunction to helping with the microbiome.

Speaker 1: 9:16

And then when I look at like a bottle so this one bottle that I have in my hand, it's critical care it says 80 billion CFUs. And if I start looking down at the different lactobacilluses, this one does have plantarium, this one does have plantarium. This one does have um the Ramanus. This one does have the um acidophilus. It also has um infantis um, but that's for bacillus. It also has um the casea, and casea is for the digestion Um, and then it has a number of other lactobacillus ones, so I'm not going over every single one because there's so many, but I'm just giving you a really good quick overview of that one. So then in this cultured one that I have here, it also has biobacterium.

Speaker 1: 10:04

Now, sorry, my sayings or my pronunciations are not great, I'm just going over that. So biobacteria are beneficial for the gut, founding in like when you're from infant birth. So when children are given probiotics, like I gave my son probiotics because he had a severe eczema and also sensitivity and also sensitivity. So we were giving him probiotics for children and an omega-3 to help with his gut lining and over time it really helped and we modified what we were feeding him and eventually the inflammation went down. So this, the bifidobacterium, can usually be given to children. So I have a bottle of a kid's version and in here they do lactobacillus, but they do have an array of bifidobacterium.

Speaker 1: 11:08

So the number ones that are usually pretty common are bifidium, which is for immunity, health and digestion. Are bifidium, which is for immunity, health and digestion. It's biphytobacterium longum, which reduces the gut inflammation. There is Breve, which is aids in digestion and reduces bloating and respiratory health. There is one called Lactis which is for immune support and IBS and diarrhea, and then there's one called infant test. That's usually what is given to kids and infants for colic so um, by fitter bacteria, infant tests. That is usually given for their gut health. You see, when they're trying to, when they're um.

Speaker 1: 11:46

Now that the the main thing is is how much is given and and there's still some research on where that's the right amount. And especially it comes down to about the little. A little baby is going to have a smaller microbiome and obviously an adult, so the amounts and the dosages are, you know, has to be adjusted with your healthcare provider or um neonatal um specialists. So that is dependent. But I will say for an, a child, like an infant, you could probably it's usually range between 1 million to um 2.5 infant wise, and then usually it's around 5 million, uh, 5 billion CFUs for children under the age of 10. And then after the age of 10, they can go to an adult CFU, around 15 to 30 CFUs, 30 billion CFUs. This means like the collective CFU of the gut biome.

Speaker 1: 12:47

So when I say CFU I'm talking about the colony forming units within, so the bacteria cause. It's, you know, it's micro, micro, um, that's what I mean, cfu, and what's the right dosage is really depending upon the person, the you know what is going on but on. But initially I would say for children it's like 2.5 to 5 billion. For the average person it's around 10 to 20 billion, depending upon the need, and then obviously, if there's ailments or a major health issue, the higher can go up to about 50 to 80 billion. So when I'm in critical, like I'm in a post-surgery time, I went up to about 50 to 80 billion. So when I'm in critical, like I'm in a post surgery time, I went up to 80 billion to work on my immune system immensely. That is not for the average. Most of the time you can be at a 10 to 50 billion range. I like it to be at least 10, preferably 20 billion CFUs and that's again colony forming units of the probiotic.

Speaker 1: 13:54

Okay, when you're initially starting probiotics, they will make you poop or try to help you, try to get to unconstipated and basically it's trying to balance out what junk was in there before and clean out all the kind of the gunk there. So you're going to go from constipated to a little runny to then eventually balance. Think of it like it's cleaning out the junk. So to clean it out it's got to clean out the pipes and if your pipes are dirty they got to be clean. In conjunction with that always is going to be hydration, reducing your stress, movement fiber. You know things of the basics, but we're just going over why probiotics are beneficial.

Speaker 1: 14:33

Now, high doses of probiotics is over 50 billion and very rarely do I tell people to take those unless there's like an illness or there's other health issues going on. You can, um, you can go under 40 and be fine Um. So let's go over the next probiotic, which is um sacro. I'm saying it wrong, don't mind me, but it's basically for Candida. Um, this one is called sacro, my CCS, so it is a yeast based probiotic. This one is to help with candida, traveler's diarrhea and a variety of kind of um mold in candida type ish issues and it's usually kind of like and it's also very good for someone with like a UTI you might take. They might have um, those needs um women's blend. There's a women's blend with this in it, in addition to the um bifidobacterium and the lacto. The lacto the second one from that would be the main one that everybody usually knows is Saccharomyces boulardia, so it's a pretty big name that's used for candida and also to treat severe diarrhea or trapped diarrhea.

Speaker 1: 16:00

Now, these next ones I'm going to go over. You're going to think, oh my God, these are bad for you. But they're not necessarily bad. They just have to be in the right part of the GI system. So the GI goes from your mouth all the way down to your anus, okay, and so you need good microbe from that tube all the way out. So if we don't have good microbiome through it all, that's a problem, right? So if you don't have the right amount in your mouth all the way down, eventually there's going to be a degraded immune system. So streptococcus, so it's beneficial in digestion also, but it has to be in the right area and it has to be balanced, and when it's not, you're going to get lactose problems, you're going to get skin issues, you're going to have large amounts of inflammatory issues and infections. But if it's in the right area, it's okay.

Speaker 1: 16:53

Aderococcus, which is a prebiotic and it helps balance your um, your gut flora. You know this is one where there has been research where they say if your kids played in the dirt or you lived on a farm, you would have the right amount of microbiome instead of just being hand washed with hand sanitizers all the time. Your body actually has a quality amount of dirt to kind of build up that immune system. So this is actually the one that you get from being outside in the dirt and around animals, livestock and pets and stuff and in a way, if you have a small percentage of this, a micro dose and such, in your body, your immune system will build up. It's when you have excess of it is when it's a problem.

Speaker 1: 17:41

The next one that you know you'll hear and people will be like oh my God, e coli, so esoteric coli. You know you'll immediately say this is not the right thing for your body. No, it's not that it's not the right thing, it just has to be in the right location. It should be in your colon. It should be nowhere else but in your colon, in mostly the distal end of your colon. When it starts creeping up into your small intestines or into your gut or you or you ingest it in your mouth, the upper part of your GI, then that's when you start getting really sick. Okay, um, when you know your babies and they, you know, they've, you've put it in your eye, your pink eye you put. You know, in places outside of the colon E coli should not live. You know it's not there but it's.

Speaker 1: 18:29

It can cause and be harmful when it's not in the right place, but when it's in the right place it's good for the gut health if that makes sense. So some of these things it's just location and also the amount. If there's not the right balance, a dysbiotic amount, that's a problem. So good and bad, it's just a matter of location, amounts and how your body is reacting to it and able to kind of process Um. This is one called bacillus um which is spore forming Um. This is used in like harsh environments there Um it helps with digestion, bacillus coligulans, bacillus subtus and bacillus callus. One is for immune support, one's for gut health and one helps with gut infection associated with antibiotic diarrhea. Now this is excellent for taking after an infection um to help bring back the immune support Um. This will help.

Speaker 1: 19:29

Usually post, or usually when you do take probiotics, you're going to take them about two hours post, like say, if you're going to have an antibiotic and then you're going to have that, you would take it about an hour to two hours after um you take an antibiotic because you want the antibiotic to clear out, but then you want the you bring in a good probiotic to help bring in the good stuff for the immune support. But you don't want them to fight with each other because the antibiotic in turn is trying to get rid of the junk, so it will get rid of some of the good flora. So in turn, you're bringing back a probiotic to bring in the good flora again. So that's where the um antibiotics become a little hairy, where people get like oh, I don't want to take antibiotics. If it's needed, it's needed, but you have to. You know it's just the right balance and you know um, so just don't take them together and give it at least an hour to two hour span.

Speaker 1: 20:24

Another one that I'm going to be talking about is called Clostridium Clostridium. Okay, that is a beneficial strain in reference to butyrate gut lining and inflammation. So these are just kind of small amounts of main names of probiotics that are used. Research that's been out recently in 2025, um, one that kind of came out. That's kind of awesome is it highlights the role of probiotics intestinal health. This came out by Renze at all and he talks about it's a very new study um the benefits of the gut health in probiotics and how it has um improved immune support, which you know, we know that the problem is is that there's. You know, the research is still being kind of in its infancy of research. It's been around starting since the seventies and eighties, but the newer, real more of what specific probiotics can be used. How can we use it? That's kind of the newer stuff.

Speaker 1: 21:35

So I'm trying to figure out what nutrients are needed. Is it fermented foods? So in this one it was talking about, like the fermented foods, it's saying functional properties of fermented foods and juices. So I think that probiotics are necessary you don't have to necessarily take a pill, but fermented foods and are beneficial to build up in your intestinal health or in your immunity. Now, how do you get them? You can get them from food, of course, and you know building that up each and every day is available. Now some individuals need to take these pills. Some individuals, the food is your friend, you know. Think about the rainbow. They call it phytonutrient eating. The more colors that you have in your diets, the better off you are. So I'm talking about the different types of probiotics. Some are in pill form but others, if you can get it in your foods, that would be always more beneficial.

Speaker 1: 22:41

So think soups, think antioxidants groups, think um antioxidants, um phytonutrient and phytochemicals in the body or help reduce the inflammation within the body. How do we use that? Why is it so beneficial? It's the nutrition that will bring the gut biome back to its diversity. It will make it more diverse. So you bring in more phytonutrients, you bring in more fiber, you bring in more quality probiotics. Now people take a supplement when we need to build up immune system a little bit more. Okay, um, things that phytonutrients are. I are such like um I'll go into another thing more on this and phytonutrients alone. I'll talk about that in another episode. But think like carrots, beta carotene, flavonoids, gluconolates, phoenic acids, terpenes, like ginger, curamin is the phytonacetes and all of that helps with the gut biome. So that's why that's so important and if you have any questions, reach out to me. I'd be glad to help.

Speaker 1: 23:53

And today's episode was on probiotics. I know which. I don't know which one is your favorite. Um, I'm not supporting anyone in particular. You know I I use a couple, but definitely um men's or women's health couple, but definitely men's or women's health One. I recommend, you know, take one for yourself depending upon your age and, like I said, at least 10 billion CFUs and make sure it has at least 10 strains so that you have variety of probiotics If you are taking them, not just one. If it's just acidophilus, it's probably not really that adequate. When you're taking yogurt that has probiotics in them, that's excellent, that's totally fine. It only may have one or two, and that's okay. Your body will naturally get and use it to what it needs. But this is when we're actually maybe supplementing, and fermented foods are also helpful. I'll talk more about the natural ways between the phytonutrients and other things. Hope you have a good rest of your day and make sure you make a mindful way each and every day.