Probiotics Anyone?

Hi everyone,

Just a thought and open to all suggestions or thoughts. The general thought on afib here seems to be lack of minerals or imbalance. For those of us that still have a lot of afib after taking the big three for a long time maybe it is also mineral malabsorption problems.

Anyways I'm always tring to help or improve my afib without much luck so far. I just tried DGL and digestive enzymes without any change. So after some research I just today bought a box of GNC Ultra Probiotic Complex 25 billion per serving. Has anyone else tried this or had any improvement taking the probiotics?

Inflammation is supposed to go hand in hand with afib and the probiotics is supposed to help that aslo. I also read a lot about how the vagal nerve controls your stomach and digestion, so it seems like any improvement in this area could help some of our afib.

As usual, I will report back in a month or two.

Thanks again,
James

I think probiotics are the single best thing in the world for much of what ails us. So many problems begin in the gut. I think everyone should take them. Have they helped my afib? I suppose in a way because they keep my belly happy. But it will be interesting to see what your experiment will do for you.

Double post...don't know how I did that....



Post Edited (09-01-10 20:27)

I saw this from Future pundit ( [www.futurepundit.com] )a month or so ago. It related to probiotics and bacteria that are part of the discussion here.

------------- Would you believe the immune system's reaction to intestinal bacteria might play a role in causing MS?

PASADENA, Calif.—Biologists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have demonstrated a connection between multiple sclerosis (MS)—an autoimmune disorder that affects the brain and spinal cord-and gut bacteria.

The work—led by Sarkis K. Mazmanian, an assistant professor of biology at Caltech, and postdoctoral scholar Yun Kyung Lee—appears online the week of July 19-23 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Our modern sterile environments might have shifted the make-up of our intestinal flora in a direction that causes immune system changes that increase the odds of MS.

Segmented filamentous bacteria induce an inflammatory cascade that leads to MS in lab animals created to study MS.

To find out, Mazmanian and his colleagues tried to induce MS in animals that were completely devoid of the microbes that normally inhabit the digestive system. "Lo and behold, these sterile animals did not get sick," he says.

Then the researchers decided to see what would happen if bacteria were reintroduced to the germ-free mice. But not just any bacteria. They inoculated mice with one specific organism, an unculturable bug from a group known as segmented filamentous bacteria. In prior studies, these bacteria had been shown to lead to intestinal inflammation and, more intriguingly, to induce in the gut the appearance of a particular immune-system cell known as Th17. Th17 cells are a type of T helper cell—cells that help activate and direct other immune system cells. Furthermore, Th17 cells induce the inflammatory cascade that leads to multiple sclerosis in animals.

"The question was, if this organism is inducing Th17 cells in the gut, will it be able to do so in the brain and central nervous system?" Mazmanian says. "Furthermore, with that one organism, can we restore to sterile animals the entire inflammatory response normally seen in animals with hundreds of species of gut bacteria?"

The answer? Yes on all counts. Giving the formerly germ-free mice a dose of one species of segmented filamentous bacteria induced Th17 not only in the gut but in the central nervous system and brain—and caused the formerly healthy mice to become ill with MS-like symptoms.-------------------------


Here is the original study: [media.caltech.edu]



Post Edited (09-01-10 20:34)

Darcy, i will second that sentiment. I am still taking S. boulardii and eating normal food again. Payday is tomorrow and food is running a little thin here. Late last night Paige must have stopped by the store after getting off work real late, because there was a package of english muffins on the kitchen table when i went down to the kichen to get the paper just now,
and one of them made a real fine breakfast with some bacon i cooked yesterday. Amazing how good plain foodstuffs can taste when you have not had them for a while. It was only a few years i was not able to eat anything made from wheat or with lactose in it, but i am so glad all that is over.
PeggyM

James - I think probiotics are a must for just about everyone…afibber or not; even infants and children benefit and especially the elderly. There is just so much benefit to keeping the levels of healthy bowel flora elevated. I’ve used them for many years and while I’m not sure that it helped my afib, I know it didn’t hurt to take them. The comments in CR #63 in the probiotic section are useful for this discussion.

Shortly, I’ll be posting on mineral absorption so watch for that. That post may help shed some light on your seeming lack of benefit from minerals. It’s an astute observation on your part that absorption is really what it’s all about. I hope to finalize it over the weekend.

As for the vagus nerve … There is a good article by Steve Rochlitz that I frequently use as a reading reference.
Check it out here: [findarticles.com]

Jackie

Thanks everyone,
I just read CR-63 that was interisting, it seems everyone here is always way ahead of me! lol. And I'm looking forward to reading your post Jackie.
James