Probiotics has been considered to be a powerful tool in helping strengthen immune systems and reduce the effects of allergies, asthma, and other chronic immune-related diseases.
Although I find this article to be a bit too negative on the use of antibiotics, it does explain well how probiotics can put our body microflora into balance, particularly after a long treatment regimen with antibiotics.
“It’s important to remember that the other half of the therapy is to replant the forest with the good bacteria,” Huffnagle says. And while scientists are still trying to determine exactly how the microflora in the digestive tract …read more

Although I live in Europe, I have never tasted kefir, which is supposed to have originated from these parts. Kefir is a fermented milk product, like yoghurt, and results from the labor of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts. The most commonly used strains are Lactobacillus acidophilus and Saccharomyces kefir, although the exact combination of bacteria and yeasts may vary between.
And like yoghurt, kefir seems to have probiotic effects, enhancing the populations of beneficial bacteria in the gut, and inhibit the growth of potentially harmful bacteria. According to a new study on mice, milk kefir and soymilk kefir significantly increased the …read more

You see it on the labels of your yoghurt, cheese, or other processed food products: “Live Active Culture”. I even saw some salami at the supermarket bearing the word: Probiotic. But what does probiotic really mean?
Our digestive tracts (or other parts of our body, for that matter) are full of microorganisms. Not all of them are bad and cause disease. In fact, some of them are beneficial. In contrast to antibiotics which we take to kill the disease-causing bugs, probiotics are composed of microorganisms that help promote the growth of beneficial bacteria. By competing for space and nutrients, these “good” …read more