'Believe it or Not: 80% of Your Immune System is Actually ...



"Believe it or Not: 80% of Your Immune System is Actually in Your GI Tract"

When looking to effectively promote your immune system health, you need to look no further

than your intestinal tract. Learn about a great way to start promoting

your digestive health and overall health as well.

By Dr. Mercola:

To get on the track toward building a solid foundation for your best health, I believe the best place to start is where good health begins – in your digestive tract.

And the best way I’ve found is by introducing billions of tiny microflora (good bacteria) into your digestive system through the use of high quality probiotics.

What happens is that the good bacteria go to work keeping your entire digestive system working at its peak while boosting the health of your immune system in the process.

How do I know? Because scientific research shows that 80% of your immune system actually lives right in your digestive tract.

Amazing, isn’t it? But that’s not all…A healthy and happy digestive system may also help regulate your weight, keeping your waistline slim and trim.

That’s where high quality probiotics come in. Recent scientific studies† also show that supplementing with probiotics may help reduce fat.

In fact, if you’re pregnant or just had a baby, taking a probiotic supplement during your pregnancy – or starting soon after giving birth – may help you drop that extra weight you might have gained.†

And while any honest healthcare professional will admit that no one probiotic is the solution for everyone, New and Improved Complete Probiotics has truly impressed me.

It consistently provides support for digestive and immune system health – while helping you maintain an ideal weight too.

Your Probiotics Need Good Nutrition Too

So here’s what you’ve learned so far…You’re already aware that trillions of microorganisms (good ones as well as not so good) live in your digestive system. And that they play an exceptionally important role in maintaining your overall health and wellbeing.

And since you want to keep the ‘not-so-beneficial’ flora from taking over the environment in your gut, daily probiotic use can be an effective measure to help you keep the balance of intestinal flora tipped in favor of beneficial flora.

What you might not know is that the good bacteria in your intestinal system need good nutrition too.

That’s where a good source of fiber in your diet can make a huge difference

Beneficial bacteria just love to feed on fiber such as that found in Organic Psyllium. Where the less-than- desirable bacteria like to eat refined sugars and fats.

What does that mean to you and your health?

It means adding extra fiber to your diet will enhance the overall benefits of probiotics, thus enabling them to do their best work – helping your digestive system and immune system stay happy, healthy, and strong.

While also helping to regulate your weight so your waistline stays slim and trim.

How to Manage Your Weight and Boost Your Digestive System Health All at the Same Time

If your body does not break down and absorb nutrients optimally, the effects can go far beyond the occasional abdominal discomfort you're feeling.

Maybe you've already tried some other strategies to deal with less-than-optimal digestion.  You eat plenty of fiber, drink enough water, and consume lots of fresh vegetables. Yet something still isn't working as well as it can.

These are healthy dietary habits, so don't stop them. But you may need a little extra help.  Perhaps the issue is your supply of digestive enzymes.

You need a robust supply of digestive enzymes to process food as it passes through your intestines. To absorb nutrients into your bloodstream, you've got to break these large molecules down into smaller bits.

Fortunately, your system has evolved sophisticated chemical engineering to accomplish just that. While you're polishing off your latest meal, digestive enzymes are pouring into your small intestine (from your liver, pancreas, and gall bladder) to break down the large macromolecules into easily absorbable smaller pieces.  

Probiotics are important. They're one of the few supplements I believe can benefit nearly anyone. Unfortunately, they are also one of the trickiest of all supplements to recommend.

In the last fifteen years, I've evaluated nearly 20 different brands of probiotics, and new research constantly updates my thinking in this area.

This is due mainly to the numerous potential bacterial strains that can be included in the formula. Manufacturing and the delivery of the organisms to the digestive system are also important.

How Probiotics Can Make

Your Digestive System Happy Again

Let me explain a bit about these amazing little powerhouses called probiotics.

The term probiotics comes from the Greek "for life" (which gives you an inkling of what the word "antibiotics" really means). When ingested, these living microorganisms replenish the microflora in your intestinal tract. This results in the promotion of a number of health-enhancing functions, including enhanced digestive function.

One thing patients in my clinic often ask is how people were able to promote digestive health in times long past. Did they live with occasional unpleasant and uncomfortable digestive issues? Did these types of issues even exist?

The answer is likely a bit of both.

History does tell us about the ways different cultures promoted their intestinal health before modern times. In the past, people used fermented foods like yogurt and sauerkraut -- as food preservatives and as support for intestinal and overall health.

Fermented foods are part of nearly every traditional culture. As far back as Roman times, people ate sauerkraut because of its taste and benefits to overall health. In ancient Indian society, it became commonplace (and still is) to enjoy a before-dinner yogurt drink called a lassi. At the end of the meal, they'd have a small serving of curd.

These Indian traditions were based on the principle of using sour milk as a probiotic delivery system to the body.

Other examples are all around us. Bulgarians are known both for their longevity and their high consumption of fermented milk and kefir. In Asian cultures, pickled fermentations of cabbage, turnips, eggplant, cucumbers, onions, squash and carrots still exist today.

Why can't we practice these methods?

It's not so much that we can't, as that we don't. Poor diet and the stress- and pollution-filled environment provide significant challenges to healthy digestion, strong immunity and overall good health.

Progress, it seems, isn't always to our benefit.

You see, the processed foods that are so convenient also tend to upset the balance of bacteria needed to support overall intestinal health. What's more, many food products today are pasteurized or sterilized during the production process, and this destroys the helpful bacteria needed to promote intestinal health.

Good Intestinal Health Becomes Crucial

in Promoting Your Overall Health

Over the past 30 years, science has come to a better understanding of bacteria, the effects on the gastro-intestinal (GI) tract, and immune systems. As a result, the use of probiotics has become more widely accepted and practiced than ever before.

Today the science of probiotics has evolved into a rapidly growing field, generating a great deal of interest both from physicians and consumers.

Part of this could be due to the fact that some of the incredible statistics about your intestine read like a "Ripley's Believe It or Not". Did you know that:

|[pic] |About 80% of your immune system lives in your gastrointestinal tract. |

|[pic] |500 different species of bacteria live inside you. |

|[pic] |About one hundred trillion bacteria live inside you -- more than TEN TIMES the number of cells you have in your whole body. |

|[pic] |The weight of these bacteria is about two to three pounds. |

|[pic] |Some of these bacteria are referred to as "good", but others do not provide any benefit. The ideal balance between them is 85% good, 15% |

| |"other". |

This ratio between the "good" bacteria and the other bacteria becomes one of the critical factors determining your optimal health.

I've often heard people say that, "Death begins in the colon." I disagree. On the contrary, it's my firm belief that life is promoted and enhanced in the colon -- if you know what you're doing.

Maintaining great intestinal health is akin to maintaining great overall health.

And once you've got a good handle on your overall health, I believe you'll naturally feel better -- and be able to do more of the things you want to do... at home, at work, on vacation, anywhere and everywhere you go.

Your Digestive and Immune Systems

are Counting on You

Before you were born, your GI tract was sterile. The moment after your birth, colonization of bacteria began in your gut. The first bacteria to settle in were the immune-building ones from breast milk, increasing your level of health and favoring your survival.

In a sense, we spend the rest of our lives "trashing" our digestion with bad stuff -- like poor diet and other lifestyle choices that cause the wrong kind of flora to flourish in your intestine.

Yet gut flora, the microorganisms living in your intestines, continually and dynamically affect your immune system.

Helpful bacteria prevent the growth of less desirable ones by competing for both nutrition and attachment sites in the tissues of the colon. These organisms also aid digestion and nutrient absorption -- another boost to overall health.

That's why keeping the right balance of bacteria becomes critical in support of your immune system. And that's where New and Improved Complete Probiotics comes in... to support you in doing just that.

Where Have All the Bacteria Gone?

It seems that in our collective zeal to rid ourselves of disease (and every trace of bacteria in our food supply and everywhere else), we may have outdone ourselves.

As a whole, we're less exposed to bacteria now than in the past, including "good" bacteria. Antibacterial products, hand sanitizers, and the like have made for a world that's a whole lot cleaner, but perhaps not that much healthier.

Of course, you can find foods labeled as 'health-promoting' that do contain good bacteria. Think cultured products like yogurt, some cheeses, and sauerkraut.

But due to strict food safety regulations, less bacteria (including the good ones) survive the manufacturing process. Many products undergo pasteurization or sterilization, destroying bacteria.

While this may be helpful in disease prevention, it also means we get less health-enhancing bacteria.

And with helpful bacteria less available in our food, it's even more important to consider supplementation with probiotics.

This gives your GI tract and entire immune system an extra "edge" -- allowing your body to maximizing the benefits of a healthy diet.

Not All Probiotics are Created Equal

There is nothing to match the value of good health. It allows you live life to the fullest... to look and feel your very best... to have energy and drive to achieve all the things you always wanted. Things you deserve.

Probiotics can put you on the road to better health, so long as you choose one that delivers what it claims. However, you should know that not all probiotics on the market are created equal.

Probiotic bacteria in many products vary -- with substantial differences in composition, biological activity, and portion. How a product is manufactured can make a huge impact on its effectiveness. Heat, air, and moisture can also affect these organisms.

To help you make sense of the different options, I've put together a chart so you can compare the New and Improved Complete Probiotics to the other products out there.

Looking at this, I'm sure you'll see why the New and Improved Complete Probiotics is #1 on my recommended list.

Compare Probiotics for Yourself

|Benefits You Want |New and Improved |Other Brands |

| |Complete Probiotics | |

|Easy to take along when you're traveling? |The product does NOT need refrigeration, making |Many require refrigeration, making them |

| |it convenient to take anywhere. |impractical to take along when you travel. |

|Contains multiple strains of good bacteria? |This concentrated formula brings you 10 different|Many probiotics contain one or two strains that, |

| |"good" strains, plus the well known Kyo-Dophilus®|on their own, can't do enough. Other products |

| |blend, so your GI tract gets many varieties of |have competing strains that fight for the same |

| |helpful organisms in one dose. |resources, so you don't see the full benefit of |

| | |the probiotics. |

|Delivers a potent formula? |A minimum of 66 billion beneficial bacteria are |Some probiotic formulas may contain only a few |

| |packed in every capsule. |billion beneficial bacteria |

|Manufactured to deliver live, viable organisms? |This formula is manufactured to prevent heat, air|Many "bargain" products are manufactured without |

| |and moisture from having an effect on the |consideration of exposing delicate organisms to |

| |organisms. |heat, air or moisture -- factors that can damage |

| | |or destroy them. |

|Beneficial bacteria reach the small intestine? |When you take this concentrated formula after a |Not all supplements include live organisms, or |

| |meal, you're delivering helpful bacteria into a |clearly explain the way to take them for best |

| |stomach with a more favorable pH. These strains |results. Some acidophilus-based products actually|

| |are known to survive and reach the small |don't survive your stomach's acidity. |

| |intestine. | |

|Good bacteria are supported once they arrive in |Nourished by NutraFlora® short chain FOS, helpful|Most probiotic formulas do nothing to help |

|your GI tract? |bacteria have a good supply of "food" they need |organisms survive, if they even survive the trip |

| |to grow and thrive. |to your GI tract. |

|Meets the criteria for a beneficial probiotic: |Since this product passes all of the criteria |Many probiotics aren't as beneficial in that they|

|Survives stomach acid |with flying colors, it can be considered a |don't deliver on all of the criteria. Whether |

|Has health-promoting features |beneficial probiotic. |it's the strains they contain, the way they are |

|Guaranteed probiotic preservation through | |manufactured, or the fact that some just don't |

|manufacturing and delivery process | |survive the rigors of stomach acid, it's |

| | |important for you to be aware -- so you get the |

| | |"true" value of probiotic supplementation. |

If you would like to find out more about the kind of probiotic that Dr. Mercola is offering, go directly to his site at:

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