Probiotics function in a host of ways to keep unhealthy bacteria in check, dispelling bad bacteria by challenging them for the same nutrients. They also destroy them, thanks to their detergent-like, acidic properties. They can absorb excess minerals that pathogens use for growth and also form a defensive fortress around the walls of the intestines

There are more than a trillion and over 500 different species of bacteria in our gut. You'd call it a veritable bacterial world, or universe, where friendly and unfriendly bacteria co-exist. The gut is aptly called a temple of surprises, also biodiversity. The reason is simple - while nature provides our gut a healthy balance of bacteria, the 'bad guys' among them, seem to intimidate the 'good guys'. The fallout is imbalance, a prompt that 'triggers' infection and illness.

We did not, for long, know that beneficial gut bacteria exist to perk up our health and wellness in several ways.

The good, potent healing bacteria, called 'probiotics', are loaded with nature's healing weaponry. They not only have the talent to reverse illness-causing effects of their toxic adversaries, they also have the innate, natural ability to prevent and heal urinary tract, vaginal yeast and several other systemic infections.

In an age where more and more people are showing cogent resistance to antibiotics due to frequent use, it is becoming increasingly imperative for clinicians to make sure that probiotics prosper within our gut.

Add to this our growing obsession with fast-, junkand unhealthy-food, not to speak of damaging low fibre diets that provide the right 'soil' for bad bacteria to proliferate, and we are more than 'sitting ducks' to the illness 'pillbox' waiting to 'explode'.

We aren't talking of environmental pollutants and emotional stress yet. Picture this - our forebears did not require healthy bacteria supplements, or probiotics, as we do because of our skewed eating and flawed lifestyle habits.

The silver lining fortunately is we can fill our bodies with good, healthy bacteria - through appropriate foods and supplements - the petite, but powerful security system that keeps our body healthy and strong.

The word, probiotics, relates 'for life'. The whole idea emerged from yogurt, at the turn of the last century, when the Russian scientist and Nobel laureate Élie Metchnikoff, known as the 'father of probiotics', proposed that yogurt was the 'elixir of life'.

He reckoned that yogurt contained a type of bacteria known as Lactobacillus, which ostensibly 'mopped' the large intestine of harmful toxins and toxicity.

The term, probiotics, was first introduced in the mid- 1960s by biologists Daniel Lilly and Rosalie Stillwell.

They defined them as "microbially-derived factors that stimulate the growth of other organisms" - in contrast to antibiotics.

Research suggests that two exacting species of probiotics, Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus, are the primary cultures in yogurt.

The duo not only adds the healing punch with their 'quantum' of good bacteria, but they also enhance lactose (a sugar found in milk) tolerance in individuals who cannot 'stomach' the substance.

The two don the role of defence towers, too - scouring and defending the gut from damaging bacteria and other microorganisms.

Probiotics function in a host of ways to keep unhealthy bacteria in check, dispelling bad bacteria by challenging them for the same nutrients.

They also destroy them, thanks to their detergent-like, acidic properties.

They can absorb excess minerals that pathogens use for growth and also form a defensive fortress around the walls of the intestines.

The best part is probiotics are safe and more useful than antibiotics. Antibiotics not only exterminate bad bacteria, but also the 'good guys'. What's more, our penchant for conventional antibiotic (ab)use has led to a catastrophe. It is a vicious cycle - it calls for a higher dose the next time the antibiotic is used, because it cannot work against the rejuvenated, wily pathogen. Natural probiotics, unlike antibiotics, have smaller, more selective targets.

Hence, they do not run out of steam, or get troubled in the likelihood of bacterial resistance.

Probiotics produce enzymes to help us digest our food; they are also useful in manufacturing, metabolising or processing essential vitamins and nutrients.

The potential of probiotics to promote human health in different ways has fuelled growing interest and activity worldwide.

Clinical studies indicate that probiotics may reduce the side-effects associated with the conventional treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection - the cause of most tummy ulcers.

While probiotics have disclosed a certain latent potential to battle HIV, they have also been evidenced to be therapeutically beneficial in COVID-19.

This brings us to prebiotics, synbiotics, postbiotics and paraprobiotics- words that resonate with the same delightful twang.

Prebiotics are dietary substances.

Synbiotics are 'apt' combinations of prebiotics and probiotics. As medical scientists are keyed to developing specific probiotics to preventing dental cavities, lozenges for sore throat, nasal sprays for allergies and deodorant sticks to 'treat' bacteria that cause body odour (BO),work is under way to launching probiotic vaccines to combat inflammatory disorders and, better still, environmental-friendly probiotic cleaning products for home and office use.

It is clinically acknowledged that probiotics are not only useful in gut-related allergies, infections and diarrhoea (Delhi belly), but also gastrointestinal and other disorders, viz., irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), ulcerative colitis and arthritis no less.

Probiotics are evidenced to relieve discomforting 'social' symptoms like bad breath, too. New research suggests that probiotics could help us to treat diabetes mellitus, obesity and fibromyalgia, as also ease anxiety, stress, depression and elevate mood.

If this is not testimony enough for probiotics' 'good act' - purging illness and disease far beyond the gut - what is?

Nidamboor is a wellness physician, independent researcher, and author

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A version of this article appears in the print on April 9, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.