Today we're going to talk about our Good Flora Probiotic and, in particular, the CFU count. This is not one of the products you find on the market today with 15 billion counts per capsule. Ours is designed around 2 billion counts of bacteria, which is pretty typical for use within the human body.
Your body has an established set of bacteria. That set began establishing in your digestive system when you were in the womb from your mother. [See our post that delves into the gut microbiome here.]
We have two strains of bifidobacterium as well as lactobacillus acidophilus in our probiotic. The idea behind these three particular bacteria is that they all have a positive health benefit: they all have a long history of study associated with human health and these bacteria are always present in some form in your intestinal tract. These are also the 'normal' microorganisms that are found in dairy products, such as yogurts or other fermented foods. In any case, if you start getting above about the 2 billion mark in a probiotic supplement, it's a washout. The bacterial component is not realized by the body; it becomes more displacive. In other words, it displaces other materials that are in the digestive tract.
The three bacteria listed above support a particular region in your intestinal tract: everywhere from the jejunum through the large colon, which is the lower half of the small intestine through the large colon.
Also present in the Good Flora Probiotic are fructooligosaccharides (FOS), which are prebiotics (food for the probiotics).
Finally, we have a Champignon Mushroom extract. This acts as an 'internal deodorizer.' The studies for this ingredient came out of Japan. Culturally in Japan, 'offending behaviors,' such as strong colon odors (for lack of a better term) is considered offensive to others. So they worked very hard to develop a material that was deodorizing; an ingredient that would decrease the overload of your digestive system. The Champignon Mushroom extract was the result of those studies.
We should note that - as with most, if not all probiotics - there is some milk present to stabilize the material and elongate the shelf life. This product is shelf-stable for up to one year without refrigeration. If you'd like to keep it longer, it would need to be refrigerated to preserve the microbial content.
Do you have any particular questions about probiotics? If so, please comment below and we will get back to you ASAP. You can also watch our webinar on Digestive Health, which covers probiotics and enzymes in more detail.
