International Yakult Symposium 2013

Do probiotics convey health enhancing benefits?

 

On the 22nd April, 2013 I was lucky enough to attend the International Yakult Symposium in London on:

 The Intestinal Microbiota and Probiotics: Exploiting Their Influence on Health

I had been invited to attend by Dr Linda Thomas Science Director at Yakult UK, and I was representing The Association of Registered Colonic Hydrotherapists.  This may not be of interest to many people, but I’m passionate about gut health, and how probiotics can enhance the health of our gut, and general health, so I jumped at the chance to attend.

There were more ologists than you could shake a stick at: virologists, bacteriologists, ecologists, microbiologists, gastroenterologists, and little old me.

The very high calibre speakers were from all corners of the World: Japan, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Ireland, Scotland, the UK, with attendees from 13 different Countries.

I have been to London on many occasions, both for pleasure and business, but I had never been to a Conference in such an iconic location. The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre was literally within spitting distance of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. If the Conference wasn’t so fascinating, I could have gazed out of the windows all day…….

Big Ben

Back to the Conference.

I won’t go into too much detail about the Programme as it was long and varied, suffice to say it covered subjects such as:

Influence of the maternal intestinal Microbiota on the development of the neo-natal Microbiota

In other words the health status of the female, before getting pregnant, is of the utmost importance prior to conception, during pregnancy and, if breast-feeding, during the feeding months, to ensure the baby’s gut flora is well established. This includes choosing vaginal birth over cesarian section, and breast-feeding over bottle-fed, if possible.

Furthermore, if the female has Inflammatory Bowel Disease like Colitis or Crohn’s Disease, it would be advisable to have the baby delivered by cesarian section and not vaginally. This is to reduce the possibility of the baby picking up some of the mother’s endo-toxic bacteria, as it’s passing down the birth canal, which may further increase the baby’s risk of getting inflammatory bowel disease.

Other presentations were:

Microbiota Health in Older Persons

Gut Microbiota and Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Gut Microbiota and Hepatic Diseases

Metabolic Diseases and Obesity, and many more.

There’s one thing that was re-inforced to me, after attending this Symposium, and that was the importance of the gut microbiota when it comes to the health of not just the gut, but the whole body.

The gut microbiota, this ‘forgotten organ’ contains approx 100 trillion organisms – 10 x more than human cells in the body. This is an organ that lives on us, within us and ‘talks’ to other organs in the body. We still don’t fully understand all of its functions.

The gut microbiota conveys many health benefits, and if it’s not functioning at optimal levels, digestive disturbances, allergies, skin problems, hormonal imbalances, obesity and even depression can manifest, and that’s to name just a few of the negative health impacts of a poorly functioning, dysbiotic gut!

nasty cartoon type bacteria

In this busy, hectic and stressful World in which we live, where we are battling against air, water and food pollution, environmental toxins, stress, infections, viruses etc, we need to ensure our gut microbiota is fully supporting us. In my opinion, we need probiotic supplementation at certain times in our lives, particularly if we’ve had antibiotics, antacids, steroid medication, opiod pain killers, we have a poor diet, or high stress levels. Furthermore, if we have conditions whereby we are taking such medications on a regular basis, then we need to supplement with probiotics on a regular, daily basis to benefit from the health enhancing effects of probiotics, as well as protection against bowel infections.  Daily probiotic supplementation should be de rigeur if there is a close family member who has Colitis or Crohn’s Disease, or a close family member that has had colon cancer.

Probiotics have health enhancing properties, from new-born babies to the elderly, so from cradle to grave.

Linda Booth

Nottingham Health & Wellbeing Clinic

 

 

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