In the Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) course I’ve been working through, Dr Michael Ruscio, a lead researcher in digestive disorders, spoke about 3 types of probiotics;
- The typical lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria which are most common
- Saccharomyces Boulardii, which is a type of yeast that is especially good at treating yeast
- And Spore -based probiotics.
Spore based probiotics are recently found to be most effective at treating infectious conditions of the gut, reconditioning, and recreating balance in our micro biome. There are 5 different spore-based Bacillis strains and they have a selective anti-microbial effect, meaning they can tell beneficial bacteria from non-beneficial bacteria.
One form of “bad” bacteria are gram-negative bacteria. These strains can cause serious infections throughout the body and can be difficult to treat with common antibiotics. Bacillis strains can crowd out and remove some undesired gram-negative bacteria AND promote growth of our desirable “Keystone Bacteria”.
The last few months I’ve had some nice success with a Gut Restoration protocol developed by Kiran Krishnan, founder and research director of Microbiome Labs.
Step 1
He starts with Megasporebiotic which increases the diversity of the microbiome and increases important keystone bacteria like Akkermansia and Bifidobacteria
Step 2
The 2nd step is Mega prebiotic which feeds only the Keystone bacteria with ooligosaccarides, fructooligosaccarides, and galactooligosaccarides. This is an important step in growing a healthy microbiome.
Both of these first two steps are so powerful that they have been known to create “die-off” symptoms in individuals who have some pathogens to clear. These can present differently in people but can include diarrhea, constipation, gas, or nausea, so we have to add them very slowly. I, thinking I didn’t have any big digestive problems, was one who didn’t follow the slow introduction protocol and wasn’t happy with my results. Then when I wised-up and started back up slowly. I started at 1/2 capsule every other day, and gradually worked up to 2 caps daily. I felt much better! I’ve actually seen these symptoms as evidence that the protocol was working!
Sometimes I will stop the prebiotic and start the 3rd step instead, if die-off is a problem.
Step 3
The third step is Megamucosa which is full of immunoglobulins to bind and remove pathogens and amino acids to rebuild the mucosal barrier which are both critical in the immune system of the gut and body.
I always want to individualize the care of each of my clients so the three steps may be adjusted as needed. We’ve begun to incorporate Orthosporebiotic in some protocols instead of the Megaspore which may lower the die-off for some people because it contains some additional immunoglobulins. Orthomolecular also says they have removed 2 of the 5 spores from the blend since they can be problematic for some people, however Dr Tom Bayne, president of Microbiome labs says all 5 work synergistically with each other to get the full effect in removing LPS (toxins created by bacteria and processed foods) from the gut. The jury is out for me on which one works better so I will be alternating the two to see which one my body prefers. As with everything, results will vary between individuals and even for an individual over time.
Both Microbiome labs and Orthomolecular have several other digestive remedies so if you have any opinions, questions or need for gut restoration please let me know.
