The first time I heard the term “probiotics,” I was at dinner with a friend. She had just returned from visiting her sister in Italy who raved about these things called probiotics—probi-what? Her sister claimed her children didn’t get sick all year and credited the probiotics. My friend immediately started taking them and spreading the word. Her brother, who suffers from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), also started supplementing probiotics and attested to their effects on his IBS symptoms. So, of course, I ran out to my local natural market and picked up a bottle. My personal testimony, along with many others, is proof of probiotics’ credible health benefits. Word of mouth has an enormous impact and as a retailer, this can be a powerful selling point. You want to inform your customer, increase sales and help customers’ overall well-being? Then practice what you preach—start taking probiotics and tell your own story on how they boosted your immune system or lessened the symptoms of a digestive ailment. Even if you don’t suffer from digestive problems, probiotics offer a plethora of health benefits.
More Than a Gut Feeling
It isn’t necessary to rely on personal testimony; probiotics have a strong foundation of research and are proving to be a cornerstone in the dietary supplement industry, advantageous to immune health,(1) allergies,(2) infant diarrhea,(3,4) inflammatory bowel conditions,(5,6) antibiotic-induced diarrhea,(7) cholesterol management,(8) gut transit time/bowel function,(9,10) lactose maldigestion,(11) colic in infants,(12) bacterial vaginosis,(13) IBS(14) and respiratory infections(15).
“A wealth of research suggests the importance that probiotics have in terms of our overall well-being and immune health, not just gut health,” said Tim Gamble, vice president of sales and marketing, Nutraceutix Inc. “Nutraceutix’s Immunobiotix® product was the focus of a now-published academic research study that demonstrated ‘daily ingestion of a nutritional probiotic supplement enhances innate immune function in healthy adults.’ Also, unlike many dietary supplements, including others placed in the digestive health category, natural non-GMO (genetically modified organism) probiotics have long been considered safe and are rarely, if ever, counter indicated in research.”
In Taiwan, the authors of a study published in Vaccine found long-term consumption of Lactobacillus casei rhamnosus T cell-1 decreased the incidence of bacterial infection.(16) The double blind, randomized, controlled trial evaluated the treatment and prevention of pediatric infectious diseases of three commercial probiotic products. In total, 1,062 test subjects, under the age of 5, were distributed randomly into four groups. The investigation showed L. casei rhamnosus can control bacterial, viral and respiratory infections; a multi-species probiotic reduced gastrointestinal (GI) disease significantly.