About Probiotics
Bacteria magnified x 10,000
What is a probiotic?
The World Health Organisation describes probiotics as "live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host". Microorganisms are simply organisms which are microscopic; individual bacteria for example which are around one thousandth of a millimetre long (less than the width of a human hair) and can only be seen with a microscope. But what does this mean?
Antony Van Leeuwenhoek
Humans & bacteria
As humans we share our environment with a huge number and variety of other organisms, by far the majority of which are not visible to the human eye. Amongst these microorganisms are bacteria; probiotics are special types of bacteria which support health.
A Dutch scientist called Antony Van Leeuwenhoek is widely credited with the discovery of bacteria in the 1670's. Over the following 300 years we have learnt a great deal more about bacteria, but it is only in the last 20 to 30 years that scientists have begun to understand the importance of certain bacteria for health.
What are commensal bacteria?
A healthy gut contains more than 300 different types of bacteria, and over 100 trillion individual microorganisms
Today we can find bacteria almost everywhere, and generally we think about them in the context of ill health or poor hygiene. This is not the whole story however as without certain bacteria humans and most other species of animals would not exist or at least would not be able to live healthy lives. Not all bacteria are 'bad bacteria' it's just that some disease-causing or 'pathogenic' bacteria attract a lot of attention. In reality, many bacteria are now understood to be beneficial and in some cases essential to human health, these are called commensal bacteria.
As you are reading this webpage there are more than 300 different types of bacteria living in your digestive tract, many of which are actually helping your body to digest food and absorb nutrients. It's amazing to think that a tablespoon full of the contents of your large intestine contains more microorganisms than there are people on the planet earth.
Many doctors and scientists now believe that certain digestive illnesses may in part be due to problems with commensal bacteria, this is where probiotics come in. By consuming fresh, healthy probiotic bacteria it may be possible to rebalance the good and bad bacteria in the digestive system, and this is why many people now choose to take probiotic food supplements such as Symprove.
