More than\n100 trillion bacteria live in your colon. Some are healthful, while others can\nbe harmful. Your healthful bacteria eat the same foods that you do and stay in\nyour colon. They convert soluble fiber in all foods made from plants into short\nchain fatty acids (SCFAs) that lower high cholesterol and high blood pressure,\nand reduce inflammation. SCFAs soften your stool to prevent constipation, help\nto prevent obesity, treat diarrhea and irritable bowel syndrome, lower high\nblood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure, reduce the pain and swelling of\narthritis or psoriasis, and possibly even help to prevent and treat diabetes,\narteriosclerosis and certain cancers. These “good” bacteria help to\nprotect you from the “bad” bacteria by causing your intestinal cells\nto produce a layer of mucus that coats the cells lining your intestines, to\nhelp prevent the harmful bacteria from invading your intestinal cells and\npassing into your bloodstream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The harmful\nbacteria are not happy to stay in your colon and eat what you eat, so they\nattack you and try to penetrate your colon cells. Your immune system responds\nto these harmful bacteria by producing white blood cells and chemicals that\nattack invading bacteria and kill them by punching holes in their cell\nmembranes and even eating them and removing them from your body. This is good\nas long as your immune system can stop after it kills the invading germs.\nHowever, if the germs keep on penetrating your colon cells, your immune system\nstays active all the time to cause inflammation and to attack your own tissues.\nFor example, it can punch holes in your arteries to form plaques that break off\nto cause heart attacks, and damage the DNA in normal cells to turn them into\ncancer cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Building a Colony of Healthful Bacteria<\/strong> Probiotic Foods and Supplements<\/strong> Probiotic\nbacteria are also offered in a multitude of over-the-counter supplements, but\nthese products should be treated with skepticism since you have no way to know\nwhat is actually in them or what effect (if any) they will have in your body.\nSee my report on Should\nYou Take Probiotics?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Prebiotic Foods and Supplements<\/strong> Psyllium\nhusks are an example of a prebiotic fiber supplement that is widely sold under\nbrand names such as Metamucil, primarily to help prevent constipation and with\nvarious other health claims. The massive Harvard Women’s Health Initiative\nstudy followed more than 160,000 postmenopausal women, 3.7 percent of which\ntook psyllium supplements. After an average follow-up of 15.4 years, 3,032 of\nthe women in the study had developed colorectal cancer, and the researchers\nshowed that taking the psyllium products offered no protection from colorectal\ncancer (Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention<\/em>, October\n10, 2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Probiotic and Prebiotic Supplements Won’t Correct\nan Unhealthful Lifestyle<\/strong> The number\nof harmful colon bacteria increases with certain harmful lifestyle factors such\nas: My Recommendations<\/strong> Checked 3\/20\/23<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" More than 100 trillion bacteria live in your colon. Some are healthful, while others can be harmful. Your healthful bacteria eat the same foods that you do and stay in your colon. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[141,116,93,138,139,140],"class_list":["post-1928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nutrition","tag-colon","tag-colon-bacteria","tag-gut-bacteria","tag-prebiotics","tag-probiotics","tag-supplements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIf you wish to encourage the growth of healthful bacteria in your colon, you\nhave two choices: probiotics or prebiotics. Probiotics are living\nmicroorganisms, varieties of the good bacteria, that can live and multiply in\nyour colon. Prebiotics are nondigestible food components that cannot be\nabsorbed in the upper intestinal tract and travel to the colon where they serve\nas a medium where good bacteria can grow and multiply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nMany fermented or cultured foods are called probiotics because they contain\nhealthful bacteria that pass to your colon when you eat them. For example,\nlive-culture yogurt is a readily available source of good bacteria. However,\nthe lactobacilli in most live cultures of yogurt will not colonize in your\nintestines, so they disappear if you stop eating yogurt regularly. Other\nprobiotic foods include kefir, buttermilk, kombucha (fermented tea), tempeh,\nmiso and natto (fermented soybean products), kimchi, sauerkraut, some pickles,\nand some fermented cheeses. With any of these foods, check the label to see if\nthey contain live cultures, or culture your own. If the food is pasteurized or\notherwise processed, the bacteria will have been killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nAll plants contain fiber, so when you eat a plant-based diet, you will consume\na wide variety of prebiotic foods. Fiber is not absorbed in your upper\nintestinal tract, so it passes to your colon where it serves as the medium to\nencourage growth of the good bacteria. Soluble\nfiber<\/a> is the most important component of your diet to foster a large colony\nof healthful bacteria. Prebiotic supplements are available, but it is easier\nand cheaper just to eat plenty of the foods that provide this benefit. Good\nsources of soluble fiber include whole grains, beans, seeds, vegetables and\nnuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nA study from Washington University showed how quickly an unhealthful diet can\ncause changes in your gut bacteria (Cell Host and Microbe<\/em>, March 26,\n2019). Since healthful bacteria in your colon eat the same food that you do,\nthe best way to grow healthful bacteria is to eat a diet with lots of the foods\nthat encourage the growth of healthful bacteria. Soluble fiber in plants\nappears to be the most effective way to grow healthful bacteria in your colon,\nprevent disease and prolong your life. See The\nMore Vegetables, The Better<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u2022 eating a lot of pro-inflammatory\nfoods<\/a> (such as meats, foods with added sugars, sugared drinks and other\nrefined carbohydrates)
\n\u2022 not eating lots of vegetables and fruits
\n\u2022 drinking alcohol
\n\u2022 smoking
\n\u2022 not exercising
\n\u2022 being overweight, particularly storing\nfat in your belly<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since we have no way to know what is actually in probiotic or prebiotic supplements, I recommend that you concentrate on the foods that are known to help you grow a colony of healthful colon bacteria – fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts and other seeds – and work to change any of the harmful lifestyle factors listed above that apply to you. You may benefit from eating a probiotic food such as live-culture yogurt any time you need to take a prescription for antibiotics to treat an infection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n