Probiotics Blog

New UA Bacterial Culture Reduces Poultry Pathogens; Researcher Aims Higher

2006-04-14T11:12:00.000-07:00

This article was published by the Food Safety Consortium and is reprinted with permission.

Some commercial poultry processors have begun using a bacterial culture developed at the University of Arkansas that can sharply reduce the levels of pathogenic Salmonella and Campylobacter in live poultry.

This probiotic holds potential economic benefits for the industry as it improves its food safety efforts. And for poultry science researcher Billy Hargis, it’s still not enough.

"We have not bothered to patent this specific culture because we don’t think this is the best we can do," said Hargis, who is working on the Food Safety Consortium project in the UA Division of Agriculture. "We think we can find better cultures. This is just the best we have found so far. We think we can make it more effective."

The culture is unique because unlike previous cultures that have been tested, this is a "defined culture" – entirely derived from a single defined group of bacteria. "They’re known organisms, specific isolates that are well characterized," Hargis said.

The probiotic cultures are applied to the concept of competitive exclusion, in which different species compete to coexist. The plan in poultry production is to introduce the beneficial good bacteria into a live bird to drive out the harmful pathogenic bacteria. The federal Food and Drug Administration does not allow undefined cultures to be used in competitive exclusion, so the defined cultures produced by Hargis’ research group fill a need for industry.

"Our cultures are different because they can be truly defined and they can be reproduced from specific isolates that are stored back in the freezer," he said. "Then they can be propagated virtually forever."

At the poultry production farm level, the probiotic culture has been administered to chicks through their drinking water and by spray application. In addition to cutting down on pathogens in the live poultry, the culture has also been found in experiments to be effective in increasing the birds' weight, lowering production costs and reducing environmental contamination in poultry houses.

Emphasis on food safety is mostly concentrated at the processing plants where companies employ numerous techniques to eliminate bacterial contamination in the stages before a poultry product is packaged for sale. Processors can find their work made easier if they receive a supply of live birds at the plant that have already been exposed to pathogen-reducing exercises.

So producers of live poultry would have significant incentives to use a probiotic culture if it not only reduces pathogens but also provides financial benefits against the usual costs of doing business.

"Our premise has been that if we can do something that provides an economic advantage in addition to reducing foodborne pathogens, then we might see more rapid adoption of the technology," Hargis said. "We've had quite a bit of commercial adoption in the past year. We have several companies that are using the product at least intermittently."

In addition to seeking ways to perfect the probiotic culture, Hargis also wants to pursue more study of its ability to reduce carcass contamination. Some experiments have shown such reductions, but more data are needed.

"Salmonella does not occur by spontaneous generation in a processing plant. It comes in with the live animals. I think it’s a pretty good bet that reducing Salmonella in live animals will end up reducing Salmonella in food because that's where it comes from," Hargis explained. "Our focus now is to make the culture better and find other isolates that are more effective."

Article was published by the Food Safety Consortium and is reprinted with permission. The original article can be found at www.fsconsortium.net. The Food Safety Consortium consists of researchers from the University of Arkansas, Iowa State University and Kansas State University. The Consortium's charge is to conduct extensive investigation into all areas of poultry, beef and pork meat production, from the farm to the consumer's table.

Nobel Prize Given To Researchers Who Proved Bacteria Cause Ulcers

2005-10-11T14:09:00.000-07:00

Two Australian researchers were awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine recently for their work on ulcers. Dr. J. Robin Warren and Dr. Barry J. Marshall discovered that stomach ulcers are caused by bacteria, rather than by emotional stress or spicy foods. They found that a spiral-shaped bacterium named Helicobacter pylori is the cause of this painful disease condition.

Lord Robert May of Oxford, president of the Royal Society, said the researchers "produced one of the most radical and important changes in the last 50 years in the perception of a medical condition. Their results led to the recognition that gastric disorders are infectious diseases, and overturned the previous view that they were physiological illnesses."

Actually, Dr. Warren and Dr. Marshall were heavily ridiculed by other researchers and by members of the pharmaceutical industry for their research. It is always amazing to see how much we humans are closed to new ideas. And, of course, the pharmaceutical industry wanted to keep making money from selling antacids for controlling the ulcer symptoms. Now doctors are permanently curing ulcers with antibiotics and bismuth compounds that kill the bacteria. (Of course, I have my own opinions about personally relying on good bacteria to keep the harmful bacteria out.)

Actually, it was difficult for the researchers to get Helicobacter pylori to grow in cultures in the laboratory. Dr. Marshall inadvertently left a culture dish out in his laboratory over the 1982 Easter holiday, and that allowed enough time for the slow-growing bacteria to thrive enough to be seen.

The Nobel committee said that scientists now know that Helicobacter pylori causes more than 90% of duodenal stomach ulcers and 80% of upper intestinal ulcers. The rest are pretty much caused by overuse of aspirin and similar drugs which eat away the lining of the stomach. Also, the discovery that ulcers were caused by a bacterium has led to further research on other diseases that might be also caused by bacteria. Some of the conditions where bacteria are suspected of being the culprit are Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis and atherosclerosis.

Pregnancy and Vulvovaginal Candidiasis

2005-09-28T21:33:00.000-07:00

Dr. Ann Tan, a obstetrician and gynecologist from Singapore’s Women and Fetal Centre at the Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre, said that you are more likely to contract vulvovaginal candidiasis if you are pregnant. She believes that pregnant women are more susceptible because there are more vulvovaginal secretions with pregnancy. Candida, like any fungus, loves moist conditions. Actually, I personally believe that the increase in the risk for vulvovaginal candidiasis comes also because you are producing more estrogen during pregnancy.

Vulvovaginal candidiasis is not life-threatening. "However," Dr. Tan said, "In patients who are immuno compromised by illnesses or treatments, vulvovaginal candidiasis can be the start of a whole systemic illness that can be very debilitating."

Even though pregnant women are more prone to developing vulvovaginal candidiasis, Dr Tan estimated that 20 per cent of women who are not pregnant have the yeast Candida albicans in the vagina all the time. Most do not develop symptoms. Dr. Tan recommended taking more probiotics to colonize the vagina with friendly bacteria and keep the candida in check. You might want to check out my article on Vaginal Yeast Infections from Candida albicans Healed.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the bacterial health of Lake Pontchartrain is not threatened

2005-09-11T15:05:00.000-07:00

Everyone is worried about bacteria from the dead bodies in New Orleans contaminating the floodwater. Two million gallons of fetid waters from the flood are being pumped into Lake Pontchartrain every minute right now by the Army Corps of Engineers. There is no way to add chlorine or other disinfectants to the water. "You can't chlorinate the water going into the lake," said Edward Bouwer, a professor of environmental engineering at Johns Hopkins University, "because that would create other problems." We certainly do not want to kill other forms of life in the lake!

An EPA analysis of the floodwater did show that it is a very potent mix of microorganisms and toxins such as lead. However, bacteria such as E. coli that infect humans will not live long. These bacteria cannot live in dead bodies and they will not last long when dispersed into the lake. Bouwer said, "Once they are outside of us, these pathogens do not survive too long."

Of course, the toxins such as lead are another matter!

Probiotic Bacteria in Birth Canal Protect Infants from Cavity-Causing Bacteria

2005-09-11T14:32:00.000-07:00

Research is now showing that babies born by Caesarean section appear to be more prone to infection from cavity-causing bacteria than those who are born naturally. Babies who are delivered through the birth canal pick up probiotic bacteria from their mothers which give them some protection. In a study published in the September issue of The Journal of Dental Research by Dr. Yihong Li et al, if was found that one species of bacteria responsible for tooth decay, Streptococcus mutans, appears a year earlier in the mouths of babies born by Caesarean than it does in those who were born naturally.

I believe it is very important to give children probiotic bacteria, especially if they were born Caesarean. Unfortunately, probiotic bacteria do not have the same "stickiness" in the intestinal tract as those we get from our mothers. That means they need to be replaced daily with a supplement.

Click here for some of the latest research on good bacteria.

Decline in Food and Agricultural Microbiology Research

2005-08-05T09:11:00.000-07:00

I am very sorry to report that commitment to research in food and agricultural microbiology is steadily decreasing according to a report by the American Academy of Microbiology entitled "Research Opportunities in Food and Agriculture Microbiology." This, of course, includes microorganisms that are harmful to plants and animals as well as beneficial probiotic bacteria.

"The constant spread and evolution of agricultural pathogens provides a continually renewed source of challenges to productivity and food safety. However, research support over the last few decades has been lean and is, in fact, decreasing," says Michael Doyle of the University of Georgia, a co-author of the report. A decline in graduate students is also harming university programs and will eventually effect the field, says Doyle. "Reversing the decline in funding and recognition of the value of agricultural research requires fundamental changes, in addition to an infusion of financial support."

Of course, disease-causing organisms continually cause problems with animals and plants on our farms and we need to know more about them. Also, with our modern farming practices of fertilization, pesticides and herbicides, we are killing off the beneficial bacteria in the soil more and more.

"Beneficial microbes cultivated in food can provide added value far beyond delay or prevention of spoilage," says Doyle. "Deepening understanding of the nature of such probiotic effects and elucidating ways that these can be strengthened will allow scientists to capitalize further on the beneficial effects of these microbes."

The report came out of a colloquium convened by the American Academy of Microbiology. Nineteen scientists came together to examine the future of food and agriculture microbiology.

Check out my two new articles on probiotic supplements

2005-08-01T13:30:00.000-07:00

I am now writing articles on probiotic supplements for Sacred Mountain, my downline. Please check out the first article here:

How do you know which probiotic supplement to take?

First I suggest (a little tongue-in-cheek) that people might ask their doctor, but doctors know very little about probiotic supplements. In fact, I even quote a research project that showed how little they really do know. However, that does not mean that you should not check with your doctor if you have a serious medical condition. You want all the advice you can get on anything that might conflict with your current treatment or your ailment.

Most of the rest of the article is on what you can trust in determining which supplement would be best for you. You do need to be careful that probiotic products like yogurt contain the amount of live bacteria you think they will. One study (Shah NP, Lankaputhra WEV, Britz KL. Survival of L. acidophilus and Bifidobacterium bifidum in commercial yogurt during refrigerated storage. Int Dairy J. 1995;5:515-521) showed that some yogurt products contained no living Bifidobacterium bifidum at all after five weeks of storage.

Research shows a mixture of eight "good bacteria" helped ulcerative colitis

2005-07-27T20:21:00.000-07:00

On July 26, 2005 Jennifer Warner wrote in the WebMD Medical News that a new study showed that a mixture of eight bacteria either reversed or improved the symptoms of ulcerative colitis in most of the subjects. Ulcerative colitis is a disorder where the large intestine becomes inflamed and causes stomach pain, bloody diarrhea, fever and tiredness. Researchers found 53% of those treated with probiotics had a remission of the disorder and twenty-four percent improved significantly without any irritating side effects.

Jennifer said that increased bloating was seen in 29% of the participants. I am sure the researchers thought that the bloating was a negative symptom. However, it is possible that it was a “healing crisis symptom” indicating that the bacteria were actually healing the disorder. Please see http://www.upwardquest.com/healing-crisis.html for a description of the healing crisis.

The description of the research is in the July issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology. Note: The research was not done on the product Nature's Biotics.

Kelli de Santé becomes President of Life Science Products, Inc.

2005-02-16T12:39:00.000-07:00

Kelli de Santé has just taken over as President and Chairman of the Board of Life Science Products, Inc. Kelli has been a top distributor for Life Science Products since the company was founded in 1995. This is the way she got started: David Dodart, the founder of LSP, called her in August. The conversation went something like this, "Dave, we have been friends for a long time, I would hate for us to mess up a friendship, by having you tell me that your product, Nature’s Biotics, is really going to get rid of my lifelong sinus and allergy problems… but, I’ll make you a promise, if this product of yours really is that good, I’ll quit my cozy corporate VP job and sell the stuff."

Kelli saw a significant shift in her medical situation immediately. Within two weeks she knew she had found the answer. She threw away the sinus medications which she had been taking for 20 years, left her corporate position and became one of the first distributors.

Four months later, Kelli was making five-figures and was earning six-figures within a year. By 1997 her success story had been featured in publications and news articles such as, "Cutting Edge Media," "Home Business Connection," and "Network Marketing Opportunities." Her life story read like a rags to riches tale, from a run-down tobacco farm in South Carolina to an expensive home on the Pacific Ocean.

Personally, I have enjoyed working with the former President David Dodart and Vice-President Ted Sellers very much. They have always been helpful and willing to talk openly with me and my potential customers. They have been very truthful and honest about Nature's Biotics and Foods For Life and I appreciate it very much; those are also my deepest values when selling nutritional supplements.

With her enthusiasm and energy, Kelli has much to offer Life Science Products. She is already making positive changes, and I especially appreciate the increase in written communications since she has taken over. I believe she will take the company to another level. She has mentioned that new products are coming and I am ready!

Lack of probiotic bacteria and allergies

2005-01-17T14:21:00.000-07:00

After years and years of suffering from allergies, it is incredible to see the research that is coming out that says that lack of probiotic bacteria is a factor in allergies. For me, I knew that my candida and allergies were enormously helped by taking Nature's Biotics and other people have told me the same was true for them. And now it is amazing to see it being proven by research.

Researchers published a recent study in the current issue of Infection & Immunity (73, pp30-38) that shows that giving mice antibiotics to cause a decrease in the probiotic bacteria in their gut also caused a strong allergic response when the mice were exposed to an allergen.

Gary Huffnagle, an associate professor of internal medicine and of microbiology and immunology at the University of Michigan, said, "Our research indicates that microflora lining the walls of the gastrointestinal tract are a major underlying factor responsible for the immune system's ability to ignore inhaled allergens…Change the microflora in the gut and you upset the immune system's balance between tolerance and sensitization."

The researchers tested their hypothesis by giving laboratory mice antibiotics for five days to kill their probiotic gut bacteria, and then they gave a dose of the yeast Candida albicans. (A common side-effect of antibiotics is an increase in the number of C. albicans in the intestinal tract.) Then they had the mice enhale ovalbumin, a commonly used experimental allergen that comes from egg whites.

The mice that had been treated by antiobiotics to lower their probiotic bacteria showed increased hypersensitivity to ovalbumin compared to mice that had not taken antibiotics. This result confirms a previous similar experiment done by the same researchers on probiotic bacteria.

Gary Huffnagle said, "It confirms our earlier findings that gut microflora are the key to maintaining a balanced immune response, that changing the composition of microflora in the gut predisposes animals to allergic airway disease, and that allergic sensitization can occur outside the lungs."

"One short course of antibiotics is not going to give everyone allergies," Huffnagle said. "But if you are taking antibiotics while your diet consists of white bread and fried food, you are not going to maintain the healthy microflora balance you need to maintain tolerance. If you inhale mold spores or pollen during this period, our studies indicate you are much more likely to become sensitized to them."

To me, this study confirms the need to take probiotic supplements. Please see my article on probiotic bacteria to see all the many other reasons why we need them - and also the reasons why they are difficult to get from our modern processed foods.

Tsunami Victims - Dead Bodies Cannot Spread Disease

2005-01-01T08:46:00.000-07:00

Everyone is worried about the threat of disease as an aftermath to the tsunami. Many rescue workers are working to bury people as quickly as possible. But the Pan American Health Organization has said that dead bodies will not cause illness. Dr. Dana Van Alphen, an adviser to the organization, said bacteria and viruses cannot live in dead bodies, so there is no way the corpses will contaminate the water or ground. She said, "In too many cases, authorities rush to bury the tsunami victims without identifying them, under the false belief that bodies pose a serious threat of epidemics. It is just not true." Van Alphen said it is more important psychologically for survivors to identify loved ones and she is asking to everyone to stop burying unidentified corpses in mass graves.

This is news to me – I had no idea that dead bodies cannot spread disease. And what good news it is. There is already a serious threat of epidemics for the tsunami victims due to the crowded refugee centers, contaminated water and lack of sanitation in addition to the increased risk for infection due to the extreme psychological stress. I am so glad to hear that the dead bodies are not able to spread disease.

Your Desk May Be the Reason You Can’t Get Rid of Your Cold or Flu

2004-12-18T22:34:00.000-07:00

Yes, surprising as it is, the problem may be at your workplace. Your desk, computer and phone may harbor the germs that keep re-infecting you. Dr. Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona, counted bacteria on different surfaces in the workplace and found surprising differences.

---The office bathroom's toilet seat: a mere 49 germs per square inch.
---The average desktop: 21,000 germs per square inch.
---The phone: 25,000 germs per square inch.

One would not expect the desk and phone to be worse than the public toilet. But think about it. The toilet is cleaned and disinfected regularly while the desk and phone are at best dusted, certainly not disinfected. Look down at your keyboard right now, it may have so much built-up crud on the keys they are discolored.

When I first read about the germ count I pictured myself taking my handy bottle of bathroom disinfectant to work to clean my desk regularly. But what in the world would I do when I answered the phone at other people’s desks or filled in for the receptionist while she went to lunch. Hmmm. My only answer is to keep on taking my probiotics and building up a strong immune system. I tell you, you just can’t avoid these germs no matter what you do.

Crohn's Disease

2004-12-18T08:32:00.000-07:00

Crohn's disease is a very painful inflammation of the small intestine that makes it hard to digest food. We just do not know what causes Crohn's disease. It is possible there are genetic factors that predispose a person to the disease, and it is also possible that there are external causes such as bacteria or viruses. Twenty years ago, researchers found that a certain bacteria, Mycobacterium avium, subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP), could be found in some patients with Crohn's disease. A lot of research has been done on MAP to see if it is the cause of the disease, if it in the body as a result of it, or is associated with it in some other way. Now researchers from the University of Central Florida Researchers have completed another study that examined how MAP is associated with Crohn's disease.

The researchers had a fairly small group of people to study: 28 with Crohn's disease, 9 with ulcerative colitis (another inflammatory bowel disease), and 15 with no inflammatory bowel problems. They found that 14 people with Crohn's disease had MAP in their blood, 2 people with ulcerative colitis also had MAP and none of the patients who were free from inflammatory bowel diseases had it. Based on these results and previous research, the scientists came to the conclusion that MAP infects patients with Crohn's disease and could be causing the disease. Many people without an inflammatory bowel disease have been exposed to the bacteria in food and water, but it does not grow in their bodies. The researchers also think that the patients with ulcerative colitis who had MAP in their blood might either be misdiagnosed or they have both Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

Crohn's disease is a very painful and disabling disease. If I had Crohn's I would be doing everything I could think of to try to overcome this disease. Based on these latest findings, I would want to do whatever I could to kill the harmful bacteria in my body, particularly in the small intestine, in a natural and healthy way that did not compromise my immune system. (In other words, I would not be looking at taking antibiotics.) Instead I would be supplementing with probiotic bacteria, the bacteria that are already known to be necessary for proper intestinal tract functioning, are known to kill harmful bacteria and are known to boost the immune system. (If you are not already familiar with these helpful bacteria, you might want to read about probiotic bacteria on the Upward Quest website.)

Please do not take my words here to mean that I believe that probiotic bacteria would cure Crohn's disease. I doubt very much that the answer is going to turn out to be that simple. But I certainly think that they would have a positive impact --- killing harmful bacteria and boosting the immune system seem like steps in the right direction to me.

Reference: Naser, S.A. et al. "Culture of Mycobacterium avium Subspecies Paratuberculosis From te Blood of Patients With Crohn's Disease." The Lancet. Sept. 18, 2004, Vol. 364, No. 9439, pp. 1039-1044. An abstract of the article is at The Lancet.

Shopping Carts Contaminate Food

2004-12-03T19:31:00.000-07:00

WKYC News just put out the most fascinating article - "Dirty Shopping Carts: Is your food at risk for contamination?" Now why didn't I think of this, it is so obvious? During the course of a day a grocery cart is likely to have harmful bacteria from raw meats spilled on it and plenty of other bacteria from previous users. Can't you just picture a toddler sitting in the cart and exploring the world with his mouth by chewing on the handlebar?

Barbara Gauthier, the reporter for the story, randomly picked five grocery stores in her town and tested a shopping cart from each of them for bacteria. Four of the five carts were found to have high bacteria counts.

The article says, "The results are no surprise to Bobbie Randall. She is a certified instructor of food safety and sanitation for Buehler's Food Markets. 'We do have a heightened interest in this,' Randall said. 'It is more important than ever because there are almost 80 million cases of foodborne illnesses every year.'"

Randall gave these helpful hints:

1."Wash your hands before and after hitting the grocery store. You will need a good 20 seconds of hot water and soap hitting all your fingers, just like a surgeon."

2. "Also use plastic bags offered in the meat and produce departments to help keep contamination down."

3."If there are juices coming from your meat product, treat them as a toxic substance."

4."Anti-bacterial wipes help, but realize once you’ve touched anything else, they’re contaminated again."

Well, I have another suggestion, keep your immune system strong. We are all exposed to germs all of the time; it is unavoidable. The trick is to have a strong body that can fight them off. Probiotic bacteria will help to boost the immune system and keep your body strong and helpful. (If you are not familiar with probiotics, see the article, "Probiotics Basics")

Profit Drives Future Research in Fighting Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

2004-11-28T16:32:00.000-07:00

11-28-04 The December 6 Issue of Newsweek has an interesting article called “Trapping the Superbugs” by Anna Kuchment. The article is about what is coming next in the continual battle against infection by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. I am very disappointed to see that there is no mention of using probiotic bacteria, i.e. good bacteria, to fight the ever increasing antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. I am sure part of the reason why the drug companies are not researching good bacteria is because they do not offer the same profit potential as the drugs do and Ms. Kuchment’s article confirms how much the profit-potential determines where the research goes.

I think we are all familiar with the problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. We all know that they evolve rather quickly to become resistant to our new drugs. But the question is whether medicine is still going down the same path of stronger and stronger antibiotics as the answer? Well, maybe not entirely. According to the article by Ms. Kuchment, many of the major pharmaceutical companies are no longer researching antibiotics but have switched to researching chronic disease conditions since there is more profit to be made from them. However a number of small drug companies are still looking for new antibiotics. Clearly, this research is also being driven by profit. Ms. Kuchment quotes Paratek Pharmaceuticals’ cofounder Dr. Stuart Levy as saying, "Finding a new antibiotic is an area where small companies can really excel. We can focus all our efforts on it, and we don't have to go to our investors or stockholders and say, 'We have a billion-dollar drug.' We'll be happy with a few hundred million.”

I am not against companies making profits, but I am worried about what we are missing because it might be a relatively cheap answer. So what else is the medical community researching besides antibiotics?

Ms. Kuchment says that some companies, such as Inhibitex, are using human antibodies to attack the superbugs. Antibodies are the part of our immune system that identify foreign invaders and then signal the immune system to attack. Other companies, such as Intralytix and GangaGen, are researching the possibility of battling infections with phages (a phage is a naturally occurring virus that attacks a specific germ). Phage therapy was utilized in the U.S. before antibiotics became popular and some doctors in Poland and parts of the former Soviet Union are still using it.

The Newsweek article says, “While most for-profit companies target diseases of the industrialized world, philanthropic groups are tackling the much larger problems of the developing world. Armed with grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, among others, the New York-based TB Alliance is developing one of the first new drugs against tuberculosis in more than 30 years.” The article also says the U.S. Congress will be looking at many ideas and proposals next year as part of the medical initiative BioShield II.

So what is my opinion? I really like the approach of using antibodies to attack disease-causing bacteria because it focuses on how our immune systems work and enhances what we do naturally. I wish we would also research the potential the good bacteria that live in our intestinal tract have for fighting antibiotic-resistant bacteria because they are a tremendous aid in keeping harmful bacteria in check and the immune system strong. I am intrigued by the possibilities good intestinal bacteria might provide if we knew more. On my website I report as much “copyright free” research on good bacteria as I can find (and there is more research that I am not free to publish because I do not have permission). None of this research is an overall approach to fighting antibiotic-resistant germs but instead is focused on tiny details about how bacteria function. Click on this link if you want to check out Research on Good Bacteria on the website. If you can make your way through the minute details, I think it shows there is a potential for more than what we are doing.

Probiotics Blog

2004-11-27T14:34:00.000-07:00

This blog is about probiotics, those helpful bacteria that live in our intestinal tract in a symbiotic relationship with us, the good bacteria help our system to function the way it was designed.

I have a website, www.upwardquest.com, where I sell Nature's Biotics, a soil-based probiotic, at the wholesale price. I first found Nature's Biotics while working with my own severe medical problems (an overgrowth of candida, allergies and constant yeast infections). Because the probiotic helped me so much (those conditions are now gone), I decided to offer it to others.

The purpose of the blog is simply to share my thoughts and opinions about probiotics. Please know that the content of this website is my own opinion. I am a Licensed Professional Counselor, not a medical doctor, and what I am sharing is the result of my own study and research into the way the intestinal tract functions. I can offer my love, support and ideas to anyone who writes, but I cannot give medical advice.