My time in the Health Food industry was a really fascinating time for me. Although it is now interesting for me to watch people currently catch on to things we were saying 20 years ago.
For instance: We promoted Probiotics way before it became main stream to do so, we called it Acidophilus back then. Probiotics are your good gut bacteria, they are very important to your overall health. There are many strains or different kinds of good or healthy bacteria.
The fact that we used to call Probiotics as Acidophilus, reminds me of a fun story.
I had hired a lady to work for us at the health food store who was such an amazing people person but she needed a bit of training on the products. I was in the back room and she came to the door with a deer caught in the headlights kind of look across her face. She said that she had a customer out front who was asking if we had any “Snuffelupogus”. I did a double take and tried to figure out what she was asking and then I started laughing – to anyone not knowing about Acidophilus, the closest and most popular word at the time was Sesame Streets ‘Snuffelupogus’. I still laugh about that one.
I had it explained to me that taking Probiotics was like saying I drive a car, a generic term.
Taking Acidophilus and Bifidus was like saying I was driving a ford car.
Taking Rhamnosis or Streptococcus thermophiles was like saying I was driving a Ford Explorer.
There are many different strains of Probiotics just like there are kinds of cars. Each strain works on different areas of your digestive tract. Getting a good probiotic with many different strains is best.
You can lose your good bacteria by taking antibiotics. Antibiotics do not recognize good and bad bacteria, they wipe it all out. Unfortunately good bacteria does not grow as fast as bad bacteria so to give your gut a boost it is recommended to take some good bacteria or Probiotics along with and after you finish a course of antibiotics. You should not take the antibiotics and the Probiotics are the same time, but wait 3-4 hours in between. I usually recommended people to take a full bottle of Probiotics after a course of antibiotics to ensure they got their healthy bacteria back up.
What often happens: you finish a round of antibiotics and 2-3 weeks later the same infection rears up again. This is because the bad bacteria grew faster than the good and now you are re-fighting the same germs again. You need to boost the good bacteria with Probiotics. Quite honestly the amount of Probiotics in “yogurt” is not enough to help you after a course of antibiotics, you will need to get the pill form which is much more concentrated. (don't buy enteric coated)
Since cold and flu season is just around the corner I thought I would give you my favorite cold and flu chasers:
Occicilium – Homeopathic, safe for everyone, including children. This is Europes #1 flu fighter. Europe has 3 stages of medical intervention: #1) homeopathy 2) herbal 3) antibiotics. Homeopathy is a whole other blog article but it works, is safe for everyone. You can find it in most drug stores and health food stores now.
To take Occicilium – the best way is right at the beginning of a cold or flu, if you feel something might be trying to attack you, take it! The package contains little plastic vials filled with tiny pellets. You open up a one vial and dissolve all of the pellets under your tongue – they taste like nothing. If I am getting a cold/flu I will take these right away, usually 3 times on the first day and then 2-3 on the 2nd day and most of the time I do not get sick. They can stop colds/flu right away. For little ones you can dissolve the pellets into water and drop it into their mouths.
2. Olive Leaf – capsules. Olive leaf is a natural antibiotic, antiviral, antifungal. I used to give it to all of my family one a day when cold and flu season started. If they started to get sick, I upped it to 2 or 3. I have only found Olive leaf in health food stores up to this point.
3. Oil of Oregano is certainly an option. It just tastes awful. You can get capsules or liquid and if you cannot swallow either, you can rub the oil into your skin and it is absorbed in that way but be warned you will smell like Italian food or pizza for the rest of the day. Available in drug stores and health food stores.
There are many other options that are standby’s for people but these are mine.