If you have been reading my blog for the last couple of weeks you know that after Thanksgiving holiday I suffered from severe stomachaches for 12 days straight.   I fianlly got relief from the pain by taking probiotics.    I have spend the last few days reading about digestive system, probiotics and prebiotics, so I though a post is in order to share some of what I have learned.

Lets start with the diagram of digestive system;

Picture obtained from wikipedia.com

Most people consider the digestive system the stomach, small and large intestine, but that’s not the case, the digestive track includes, mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestines, large intestines (Colon), liver, pancreas and gallbladder.   All of the organs in the digestive system are HOLLOW.   Our digestive system is around 9 meters (~29.5 ft) and in a healthy adult it take 24 – 72 hours for the digestion process to be completed.

Here is a quick overview of what happens to food in different stages of digestive system.

Digestion starts in our mouth, as we chew food saliva is mixed with the food by the tongue.   Saliva is produced in large amounts 1-1.5 l/day by three pairs of exocrine salivary glands.   The job of  saliva is to clean oral cavity and moisten the food.  It contains digestive enzymes to help in the chemical breakdown of carbohydrates. 

The esophagus is a narrow muscular tube approximately 25 cm (~9.8 in).  It starts at the back of the mouth and ends at the cardiac orifice of the stomach.  It take about 7 seconds for the food to pass through the esophagus and no digestion takes place here.

The stomach is where food is stored and further breaks down.    Here food is thoroughly mixed with gastric acid, pepsin and other digestive enzymes to break down proteins.  The enzymes in the stomach work at a specific pH and temperature better than any others.  Food in the stomach is in semi-liquid (called Chyme) form, with a pH of 2.

The raise in pH causes the gall bladder to contract and release alkaline fluid, which rises the pH before it reaches the first part of small intestine. 

The small intestine is approximately 7 m (23ft) long and 2.5 – 3 cm (0.98 – 1.2 in) in diameter.  The intestine is divided into three sections; First section;  Duodenum, middle section; Jejunum and End section; Ileum.    Duodenum produces a hormone to stimulate pancreas which will produce large amount of Sodium Bicarbonate to help raise the pH of Chyme to 7 before it reaches the end of small intestine.   Most nutrients are absrobed in the middle section (Jejunum) of small intestine with the exception of; Iron, which is absorbed in Duodenum and B-12, which is absorbed in Ileum.

Food enters large intstine (colon) onces it has been passed through the small intestine.  The colon is the second to last part of the digestive system and is about 1.5 m (4.9 ft).  Even though it is shorter than the small intestine, it gets its name because of its larger diameter.   The job of large intestine is not to break down food but to absorb vitamins that are created by the bacteria living in the colon.    There are over 700 species of bacteria that live in the colon and perform different functions.   Some of these bacteria produce large amounts of vitamins, especially vitamin K and Biotin for absorption into the blood.   Note that while taking antibiotics there is a chance that you become vitamin deficient because the antibiotics inhibit all bacteria, good and the disease causing bacteria.   Undigested food in the colon will result in bacterial fermentation which produces gas, a mixture of nitrogen and carbon dioxide and small amounts of hydrogen, methane, and hydrogen sulphide.    These bacteria are also involved in the production of cross-reactive antibodies. They are effective against pathogens, and therefore preventing infection or invasion by bad bacteria. 

So what are Probiotics and why did they help me with my stomachache?

Probiotics are live microorganisms thought to be beneficial to the host organism.  The term PROBIOTICS refers to foods or supplements that contain good bacteria, which are similar to the ones in our intestine.   They affect the host by imporving intestinal microbial balance and therefore inhibiting pathogens and toxin producing bacteria.    “Some of the specific health effects are being investigated and documented including alleviation of chronic intestinal inflammatory disease, prevention and treatment of pathogen-induced diarrhea, urogeital infections and atopic diseases”

There are two main groups of probiotics: Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium.  Each group has different species, and each species has different strains. 

In 2007 when I was dealing with my Chronic IBS the gasterologist that I was seeing at the time prescribed VSL#3, which based on their website is a medical strength probiotics.   At no point did the Dr explain to me benefits of probiotics or explain as what probiotics are, all he said was “you need to take good enzymes cause your colon has killed of your good enzymes.   The website also talks about VSL#3 containing 8 strands of bacteria in different concentration… well almost all probiotic supplements contain 8 strands of bacteria.. and if you are over age of 50 then they contain 9 strands.   While taking VSL#3 I didn’t notice a change, it could have honestly been due to the fact that I was taking 2 different types of medications at the same time.   I no longer take VSL#3 mainly due to its cost.   Currently I am buying UDO’s CHOICE brand and I am very happy with the brand.

Food sources of probiotics include;

• Yogurt – Dannon’s Activia contains Bifidobacterium animalis, a probiotic that speeds digestion.  Personal note:  I have tried Activia and it makes me misreable. 
• Kefir – a creamy dairy drink similar to yogurt. It contains probiotics not usually found in yogurt, such as Lactobacillus caucasus.  Personal note: I have no problem with Kefir
• Certain fermented foods. This includes the fermented cabbage found in foods such as sauerkraut and kimchi.

Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium

I tried to look up the difference between these two strands of probiotics but I couldn’t find much other than; “Lactobacillus operates by lowering the pH of the fermenting substance by creating the lactic acid, neutralising it to the desired extent.” from wikipedia  

There are also PREBIOTICS which are non-digestible food ingredients that stimulate the growth and/or activity of bacteria in the digestive system which are beneficial to the health of the body.  Prebiotics does not emphasis a bacterial group like the probiotics do, but it is assumed that prebiotic should increase the number and/or activity of bifidobacteria and lactic acid baceteria.

Food sources of prebiotics include:

• Asparagus
• Bananas
• Chicory
• Garlic
• Honey
• Artichokes
• Leeks
• Onions, onion powder
• Shallots
• Soybeans
• Whole grains

 In addition, human breast milk naturally contains prebiotics. This may be associated with the development of high levels of beneficial bacteria in breastfed infants. 

Sources for this post;

1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digestive_system
2) http://yourtotalhealth.ivillage.com/probiotics-prebiotics.html?pageNum=4
3)http://www.mayoclinic.com/

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 at 10:17 am and is filed under Did you know?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.