Study - Probiotics reduce obesity and diabetes

Friday, July 12, 2013 by: PF Louis
Tags: probiotics, obesity, diabetes prevention

(NaturalNews) Probiotics have been covered in the alternative health media, especially Natural News, extensively over the past few years. Yet the mainstream media hardly touches it. And when's the last time your doctor recommended taking probiotics, even after prescribing antibiotics?

One might conclude from doctors' ignorance of probiotic importance and their reluctance to recommend them that there's not enough medical literature available for them to peruse.

But PubMed has recorded almost 10,000 published international probiotic related studies suggesting various treatment modalities since 1954. Nearly 900 have been published in the first half of this year alone, demonstrating the increased interest and awareness of probiotics' health benefits.

Recent study obliquely addresses mainstream medical ignorance

A study published by the peer reviewed Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC) on July 8, 2013 states the study's background and premise for their research into probiotics for obesity and diabetes: "Prescription of probiotics as obesity and diabetes therapy is limited due to insufficient efficacy data and lack of understanding of their mechanism of action."

The irony of that statement is allopathic medical doctors rarely if ever even advise the use of probiotics for anything, even after mass murdering gut friendly bacteria with antibiotics, despite decades of thousands of published studies.

Nevertheless, this research team took it upon themselves to tackle the ever increasing epidemics of obesity and diabetes with a novel approach - probiotics.

But they didn't use off-the-shelf yogurt. They used a pricey product offered by Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals called VSL#3, which offers a variety of bacteria count strengths that can be purchased online or in pharmacies or, at its highest bacteria count, has to be prescribed.

Note: Sigma-Tau is a pharmaceutical company and their online ordering website displays numerous pharmacies that sell their products, yet there's no mention of health food stores.

The clinical trial was done with mice. Their weight gain and insulin resistance was suppressed by VSL3's influence of gut flora, which resulted in the release of hormones that specifically reduce food cravings and promote glucose tolerance, both helpful for preventing obesity and diabetes type 2.

Those hormone releases were linked to the increased levels of a short chain fatty acid (SCFA) butyrate created by certain intestinal wall cells from the probiotic supplement's influence.

It's generally understood that certain conditions, such as chronic candida overgrowth, may require a dramatic intervention with more heavily loaded probiotic supplements than what's generally available in fermented foods or even most probiotic supplements. So here's a list of this product's bacteria strains:

• Bifidobacterium breve
• Bifidobacterium longum
• Bifidobacterium infantis
• Lactobacillus acidophilus
• Lactobacillus plantarum
• Lactobacillus paracasei
• Lactobacillus bulgaricus
• Streptococcus thermophilus

As mentioned earlier, the amounts of these strains vary, with the most expensive and highest amount available by prescription only. But who knows enough about probiotics with prescription power?

You could shop your favorite health food store and you will find those eight strains in some probiotic supplements. The amounts of bacteria are a different matter. You can visit the VSL3 site (linked below) and use their stats to compare with what you find with other sources.

In addition to antibiotics, vaccines and the transfer viruses used for GMOs adversely affect beneficial gut flora (bacteria). So do stress and SAD (standard American Diet). Make sure any probiotic supplement you purchase is organic.

Here's why, according to Mike Adams the Health Ranger's research (http://www.naturalnews.com).

According to Dr. Natasha Campbell-Mcbride, author of Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS), more of the population is probiotic deficient from infancy than before. Her book offers a diet to offset these deficiencies, while others online contribute more recipes to the GAPS diet. (GAPS, sources below)

With all the latest data on the gut as our "second brain" and probiotics providing up to 80% of our immune system's capacity, it's wise to check out other methods, including homemade fermentation, for restoring and balancing beneficial gut flora here (http://www.naturalnews.com).

Sources for this article include:

http://www.jbc.org

http://www.vsl3.com

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

http://www.gaps.me