Alternative Medicine: Probiotics for immunity
updated the 14 July 2015 à 18:34Probiotics, also known as live bacteria or yeasts are great for boosting your immunity and fighting infections – Here’s all you need to know about their effect.
how IT WORKS
Thousands of studies have demonstrated the efficiency of these good bacteria to strengthen our intestinal microbiota, help our body to better resist better infections and stimulate the production of our natural defence agents. The most beneficial for our immunity are: some lactobacillus rhamnosus (casei, gasseri) and bifidobacteria (longum, bifidum). We find them in dietary supplements or in some dairy products enriched with probiotics.
THE LIMITS
It’s difficult to assert right now, that such capsules of probiotics will prevent us from catching the bronchitis from our colleague. “It is unmistakably a plus to resist better, but each of us has a unique intestinal flora and we struggle to find which strain will better work on whom”, explains Daniel Kieffer, a naturopath. “Besides, we still do not know which is the most-effective dose,” adds Dr Laurent Chevallier, nutritionist and phytotherapist. The only certainty is: the more our diet is varied, the more our intestinal flora is balanced and the better we will resist germs. On the contrary, a diet rich in sugar and fat causes chronic inflammation that weakens our defences considerably.
Read more from our ‘Alternative Medicine‘ report:
Yoga and Tai-Chi help relieve joint pain
Hypnosis relieves digestive disorders
Cranberries relieve cystitis and urinary infections
Acupuncture reduces tinnitus
Maureen Diament
