Probiotics for Common Colds and Immune Health

Here we’re going to discuss how some probiotics can help ward off common colds as well as give the immune system and overall boost.

First it’s worth mentioning that the immune system is extremely complex. It literally takes years of intense study to really appreciate how it works. However, it is still worthwhile to simplify things to give a general understanding to how the immune system works, so that you can take steps to improve your health.

A large percentage of our immune system lies within our gut. We have a lot of our lymph nodes in there. We need to have a healthy gut, so that when we’re faced with foreign invaders like unwanted bacteria and viruses, our immune system can destroy these invaders quickly and keep us healthy.

A lot of us have a very unhealthy gut. This basically means that we have a lot more unhealthy or “bad bacteria” living there, and not enough healthy or “good bacteria” living there. This results in chronic inflammation and makes our immune response weak and slow. This general state of chronic inflammation in the gut gives rise to a whole host of issues, such as some allergies, IBS, mood disorders, and increased susceptibility to common colds and the flu.

A beneficial type of probiotics can produce the “right” kind of lactic acid (L+) which helps to control the PH level in the gut. If the PH in the gut becomes out of whack, harmful viruses and bacteria can proliferate and make us sick. Also, these probiotics produce bacteriocins, a substance which kills unwanted bacteria and can help to deactivate viruses. The probiotics also help “good” bacteria proliferate in the gut. The good bacteria can help line the gut and make it less permeable to intruding bacteria and viruses, thus making it harder for unwanted bacteria and viruses to enter the bloodstream.

There are a lot of probiotics on the market and they differ widely. A lot of probiotics may work in a lab type situation, but are ineffective when taken as a supplement. The reason is that they die before even getting into the GI tract. There is a promising exception called bacillus coagulans MTCC 5856 which is stable at room temperate. It easily makes its way into the gut and not only survives in that environment, but also thrives. It is a great general probiotic to take for many reasons because it works so well.

You can buy the Bacillus Coagulans Probiotic on our estore.

There have been more and more promising studies done on probiotics to show how they not only make healthy people get fewer common colds, but also help to reduce the duration and intensity of the colds for those who get them.

It is important to understand that these studies will look at a specific type of probiotic and compare that to a placebo. They don’t compare them to other types of probiotics in general.

One double blind study was done in New Zealand on professional rugby players. 30 players took either a probiotic supplement or a placebo for 4 weeks. 80% of the people in the placebo group got a cold in that time period, and only 53% did in the probiotic group. 53% sounds high, but it’s significantly lower than 80%. So it seemed to really help in that way. Also, the placebo group had longer lasting colds (5.8 days) on average, as opposed to 3.4 days for the probiotic group. This is all very promising for probiotics and immune health. There are many more studies underway.

We are excited to offer a premium form of bacillus coagulans MTCC 5856 in veggie caps with no unhealthy fillers like magnesium stearate. It has a lot of science behind it and many customers from all over the world are experience great results from it.