Dr. Mark Kaye is interviewed by Dr. Ben Weitz about the microbiome, which is the healthy bacteria in our gastrointestinal tracts and other parts of our body that is crucial for our health. But this microbiome is under assault from the prevalent use of antibiotics, NSAIDs, pesticides sprayed on the foods, disinfectants used to clean our homes and even disinfectants like chlorine in our drinking water, and from other chemicals in our environment. Taking the right strains of probiotics, which includes both bacteria and yeast (saccharomyces boulardi) can be very helpful for promoting our health and for a number of conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel disorders (IBD), like Crohn’s and Ulcerative colitis. Dr. Kaye mentioned that to attempt to heal the intestinal wall in conditions like IBD not only are specific probiotics helpful, such as Lactobacillus plantarum 299V, but so are prebiotics, like glutamine, vitamin A, and other nutrients. We discussed the fact that prebiotics that feed the healthy bacteria may also feed undesirable bacteria, so you need to start with a low dosage and then gradually increase it. If you simply avoid fermentable fiber, which can help short term to control symptoms, long term will reduce the health of the microbiome, which can have long term health consequences for us.
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