Bacillus coagulans (B. coagulans) is a type of beneficial bacteria that are normally found in the soil.  B. coagulans is similar to other lactobacillus probiotics that offer a range of health benefits. Bacillus coagulans is used to treat

– Diarrhea
– Irritable bowel syndrome
– Crohn’s disease
– Clostridium difficile colitis
– Inflammatory bowel disease
– Ulcers
– Respiratory problems

B. coagulans is also being studied as an additive to vaccines to help improve their effectiveness. Bacillus coagulans has a variety of other health benefits, which makes this bacteria a super probiotic. Here are just a few of the other benefits of B. coagulans.

Supports Gut and Immune Health

An intricate balance of enzymes and bacteria exist within your gut. Some of the bacteria and microbiomes are harmful to your gut, and others are beneficial. B. coagulans is one of these helpful bacteria that exists in your gut. It helps your stomach by producing lactic acid. Lactic acid helps regulate healthy pH levels in your gut. This provides a balanced environment and stops to the growth of harmful bacteria. Research studies support this idea. One study examined the use of B. coagulans in the elderly. The study found that the supplement increased beneficial bacteria in the gut and also reduced inflammation.

Helps Alleviate The Pain Of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Several research studies have examined the benefit of B. coagulans therapy on rheumatoid arthritis. In one study, forty-five adults with symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis were randomly assigned to receive Bacillus coagulans or a  placebo once a day for 60 days.

Subjects who received Bacillus coagulans experienced a significant reduction in pain. They also had an improved ability to walk 2 miles and participate in daily activities compared to the control subjects. Additionally, there were no adverse events of B. coagulans supplementation reported in this study.

Reduces ‘Bad’ Cholesterol

Bacillus coagulans has been found to improve blood lipid profiles in several studies. In one study, 17 participants took B. coagulans supplements (360 million spores a day) for three months. Participants total, LDL and HDL cholesterol levels were measured at the beginning of the study and again in three months. It was found that the participants who took the B. coagulans supplements had significantly reduced total blood cholesterol ratios. The participants also had lower bad or LDL cholesterol levels and higher HDL or ‘good’ cholesterol levels.

Helps With Muscle Recovery

Protein helps your muscles repair and rebuild themselves. Post-exercise, protein is needed to help the body repair damaged muscle fibers. Bacillus coagulans has been found to enhance protein absorption. This helps improves recovery from strenuous training activities. One study found that the supplement helped reduce exercise-related muscle damage and increased recovery following a damaging exercise bout. The participants had a significant decrease in soreness and pain after strenuous exercise.

B. coagulans offers a variety of other health benefits. To learn more, click here.

Sources:

If you have patients with infections that seem to get better with treatment, but then relapse, biofilms might be at the root of the problem.

When most people think about bacteria, they imagine single cells floating around.

However, most bacteria exist in colonies called biofilms. These slimy colony of bacteria causes thousands of deaths in the United States each year.

They are one of the leading causes of hospital-acquired infections. They are tough to stop, which is why the infection keeps coming back even after several rounds of antibiotics. Biofilms cause deadly infections and cost the healthcare tons of money each year.

Biofilms are made up of bacteria that attach to surfaces and then begin to collect into large masses. Biofilms are protected by a coating of polysaccharides, DNA, and proteins. This slime-like mass of bacteria manages to undergo changes that allow it to evade the immune system. Biofilms are largely resistant to antibiotics. In fact, their tolerance is as much as 1,000 times stronger than normal bacteria.

The Current Model Of Treatment Is Ineffective

Currently, it is assumed that acute infections are caused by single bacteria, and the infection is treated accordingly. This leads to ineffective treatments as most infections are caused by biofilms rather than single bacteria floating around. In fact, more than 80 percent of bacterial infections are linked with biofilms, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Where Do Biofilms Hide?

Biofilms are especially prone to the gastrointestinal tract. Because it has a large surface area and is lined with mucus, the GI tract is the perfect environment for biofilms. Furthermore, the GI tract is prone to problems with inflammation, which creates an opportunity for the bacteria to attach to the surface of the GI tract.

Why Can’t Biofilms Be Detected?

It is difficult for many health practitioners to diagnose biofilms. The biofilm tends to be tucked away in the GI tract or somewhere similar. Therefore, cultures and other tests do not often detect them. Stool samples are also not helpful when it comes to identifying biofilms. So, there is no good method of assessment.

Treating Biofilms

If you have a patient presenting with chronic infections, then a biofilm could very well be to blame. Treatment of biofilms involves breaking down the biofilm, attacking the bacteria within and replenishing the gut with healthy bacteria.

The first step in treating biofilms is to disrupt their course of action. Enzymes, such as protease,  lumbrokinase, and serrapeptase very helpful when it comes to disrupting biofilms. The help disrupts the formation of biofilms breaking them down. Other enzymes that break down biofilms include amylase and glucoamylase. These break down the walls of the biofilm and absorbs nutrients preventing them from continuing to grow. The nutrients then help create energy for the body.

Once the biofilms are broken down using enzymes, you must use enzymes to remove harmful bacteria and yeast. Bacillus coagulans is excellent at eliminating pathogenic bacteria and yeast from the body. This enzyme also helps improve digestion and gut functioning.

I recommend the Restore 3 program to combat biofilms. This product has been extensively tested and found to be very useful at dissolving biofilm. It contains many of the recommended enzymes that are needed to break down biofilms.

On the following page we will detail, step-by-step, why and how this works and what this could mean for over a dozen conditions that biofilm plays a huge role in solving.

References:
https://kresserinstitute.com/biofilm-what-it-is-and-how-to-treat-it/

A Low FODMAP Diet has been promoted as a way to help people with stubborn digestive issues. You may be wondering if you should recommend this diet to your patients. Read on to learn more about the low FODMAP diet.

Digestive disorders are a common complaint among primary care patients. Gastrointestinal disorders include a wide range of problems. They range from gastroesophageal reflux disease or GERD to irritable bowel syndrome, also known as IBS.

In many cases, a diet that supports gut health can completely resolve digestive issues. The Low FODMAP Diet has recently been recognized as being very helpful for some patients with gut problems.

FODMAP stands for the following fermentable carbohydrates: oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols. These carbohydrates usually don’t cause problems in people with normal gut functioning. However, in patients that have digestive issues, they can cause bloating, gas, pain and diarrhea.

Low-FODMAP diets have been extensively researched for digestive issues. Evidence strongly supports the Low-FODMAP Diet in the treatment of IBS. Another study found that low FODMAP diet reduced the severity of symptoms in more than 75 percent of patients with IBS compared to a standard diet.

The reason that Low-FODMAP diets work is that consuming foods that are high in FODMAPs exacerbates symptoms. These carbohydrates feed harmful bacteria in the gut, which leads to intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Eliminating them from the diet can help reduce harmful bacteria in the stomach.

The Low-FODMAP Diet

So, now that you know that a Low FODMAP Diet is an appropriate treatment for Digestive issues, you might be wondering what foods would be considered to be Low FODMAP. Here (Link Solving Fibromyalgia handout) contains a list of the main high FODMAP foods that your patients should avoid when following a Low FODMAP Diet. These include apples, oranges, prunes, pears, garlic, artichoke and more.

The foods on the above list should be avoided for approximately 30 days. Although it seems like there are a lot of foods on the list, these can be individualized. Some patients have more problems with certain foods than others.

After the 30-day trial period, I would recommend slowly introducing the high FODMAP foods back into the diet. You could encourage your patients to add the foods one at a time to determine which ones are better tolerated.

What If The Low FODMAP Diet Doesn’t Help?

If your patient adheres to the Low-FODMAP Diet consistently and still has issues, you might consider testing for SIBO or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. If SIBO is an issue, then that will need to be treated as well.

Final Thoughts:

Digestive disorders include a variety of conditions. These condition are responsible for growing number of hospitalizations and doctor visits. However, dietary changes may help completely resolve these issues.

Do you treat patients with digestive issues? Have you recommended a Low FODMAP Diet? If so, how has this helped your patients? Leave your comments and thoughts in the comments below.

References:

Achieving your goals is can be challenging. It’s easy to feel like you don’t deserve the good things in life, or that it would be unfair if you were too happy. But this type of thinking will hold you back from achieving success and happiness.

To break out of this cycle of negativity, we’re going to be using this brief article to break down how to take these three steps:

1. Identify what makes you unhappy

2. Think about why these things make you unhappy (is it because they remind you of something negative?)

3. Come up with a plan for how to change whatever makes you unhappy so that it doesn’t affect your well-being anymore.

To help with all of this, here are five tips you can use to build confidence and work towards your goals.

Top 5 Tips You Can Use to Build Confidence Today

1. Do a Daily Activity that Makes You Happy: There are so many things in life to be unhappy about, and it is easy to focus on all the negative things that have happened or may happen in the future. But it’s important to do something every day that makes you happy. To help build confidence, make a list of all the things that make you happy and do at least one of them every day.
   
   
2. Tackle One Thing at a Time: It’s important to remember that there are many aspects of your life that affect how you feel, and it is always best to focus on just one thing before moving onto another. Start with making a list of the things that affect your confidence and pick out one or two things to work on at a time. The point is to tackle the thing that makes you feel the worst, but making progress gradually will ensure that you can stay positive throughout the process.
   
   
3. Make Small Changes: Small changes are much easier to implement than large ones, so the Institute for Wellness suggests focusing on small life changes. You could start by changing your diet, or getting a new outfit for yourself. It’s easier to feel better about yourself when you are dressing better and eating healthier. This will make it easier to work on other areas of your life as well because you will already be feeling so much better!
   
   
4. Get your finances in line: After the pandemic, your finances can be a major source of stress. Save money by eating less processed food, cooking at home, and doing simple things like taking a stroll instead of driving. Try to invest some money in yourself by paying off credit card debt or other loans.
   
   
5. Consider bigger financial changes too: Refinancing allows you to decrease the equity in your home so you can free up cash or reduce your monthly mortgage payment. Consider refinancing to a shorter term, lower interest rate mortgage or adding more equity into your home by making extra payments. As Redfin notes, it can be a good choice if you intend to stay in the house for several years.
   
   

Having confidence is not an accident. It’s something you can practice and work on daily. By identifying the things that make you unhappy and making plans to change them, you can start building confidence today. You deserve to be happy, so make sure you are out there living it!

Conclusion

Building confidence can be a daunting task for many. Luckily, there are plenty of things you can do right now to build up your self-confidence and work towards achieving your goals.

To start building this important trait in yourself, try tackling one thing at a time or making small life changes that will make you feel better about yourself. Try focusing on what makes you happy today. You can do this!

A healthy colon is a key indicator of overall health and wellness. There is a good reason the amount of searches relating to probiotics and fibromyalgia are on the steady rise.

Roughly 90% of people experience digestive inconvenience from time to time; while the occasional upset stomach or bout of diarrhea is not uncommon, frequent or more severe cases may be an indication of a more serious health condition.

Fortunately, research is demonstrating effective treatment with probiotics for gut and colon health.

Why Gut and Colon Health Matters

With roughly 70% of women indicating that gut or colon issues disrupt their life on a daily basis, understanding how probiotics support digestive health is key to preventing further disruption.

Gut and colon health is important because digestion and absorption of key nutrients, vitamins and minerals is key to supporting proper function of nearly every system in the body, including energy production and support of immune system function.

As food enters the gut, it is immediately mixed with acid, starting several chemical reactions that lead to the breakdown and initial absorption of protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals.

As food moves from the gut into the large and small intestines, where it is met by billions of the hundreds of trillion of bacteria waiting to further breakdown and absorb nutrients; this is where probiotics are key to this process.

Supporting Digestive Health with Probiotics

Probiotics are the good bacteria, found naturally in the digestive system, but also from food sources like yogurt, kefir and probiotic supplements.

However, the digestive system is also full of harmful bacteria, also occurring naturally and from food sources. In fact, scientist estimate that healthy intestines have between 3 and 5 pounds of bacteria inside.

While most of the bacteria that make us sick, like E. Coli, are destroyed in the acid of the stomach, occasionally harmful bacteria enter the intestines, causing diarrhea, intestinal infections and other conditions like irritable bowel syndrome.

Probiotics and Gut and Colon Health

Doctors have found that optimal gut and colon health occurs when a there is at least 85:15 ratio of good bacteria to bad bacteria. When this ratio becomes skewed, digestive problems start to occur.

Your body has ways of letting you know when your bacterial ratios are out of whack, including bloating, diarrhea, constipation, excess gas and stomach cramping.

When this occurs, it is generally a sign that you need to increase the amount of probiotics being consumed; there are several ways to do this.

Nutritionists recommend consuming between 10 and 25 billion colony forming units of good bacteria each day. Consuming this amount of probiotics provides the good bacteria required to minimize the harmful effects of bad bacteria.

Probiotics improve gut and colon health by eating food and inhabiting the space of harmful bacteria, they basically kick the bad bacteria out of the digestive system.

Realize the proper amount of probiotics each day by consuming the equivalent of one serving of yogurt or kefir, either through whole food or supplement sources.

Ensuring healthy gut and colon function through probiotic supplementation ensures a healthy digestive system and a stronger, more responsive immune system; resulting in an overall improved quality of health and well-being.

If you are suffering from fibromyalgia and sleep disorder symptoms, use this page to find out more about what you can do to make improvements in your overall health and symptoms.

A lack of sleep will affect your ability to focus and concentrate. There is not much that will ruin your day more than not getting a good night’s sleep the night before. Sleep is not a luxury – it is a necessity.

Why is Sleep Important for Sufferers with Fibromyalgia and Sleep Disorder Symptoms?

The duration of your sleep is critical, but also, the kind of sleep you get also determines how well rested you will be upon waking up. You need restful sleep, especially if you are suffering from fibromyalgia symptoms, it will ensure that you function optimally, both physically and mentally, and during waking hours.

A good rest will help you to: make sound judgments, work more productively, interact with others effectively and avoid harm. Sleep can also help us in less obvious ways.

During the sleep cycle, your body secretes a hormone which works to repair and regenerate your tissue throughout your body.

Sleep is also instrumental in helping us retain our memories and is also essential in processing complex emotions.

Without sleep, the body and mind are less efficient and more irritable. Sleep is essential, particularly since pain and fatigue are aggravated by disturbed sleep.

There is limited improvement among sufferers with fibromyalgia symptoms who are unable to get a consistently good sleep.

Deep sleep gives the body a chance to rest and make any necessary repairs, not just from illness and injury, but from the stress and strains of everyday life. Sleep helps balance the chemicals in the brain.

What Are Your Personal Sleep Needs?
Every person requires different amounts of quality sleep. The vast majority typically need between 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night. Some even need more than 9 hours, and that is completely normal for them, while others sleep for less time, and wake up totally refreshed.

How to Know if You Are Getting Enough Sleep if You Have Fibromyalgia and Sleep Troubles?

When you arise in the morning, you should feel totally rested and ready to go. More importantly, you shouldn’t feel sleepiness during the day, even when you are involved in boring or mundane activities.

If you are feeling drowsy during the day, you may not have gotten enough quality sleep.

What Are The Various Kinds Of Sleep You Need?

For healthy sleep, there are basically two stages:

1. The non-rapid eye movement (NREM) stage accounting for the longer periods of our sleep. This is when our brain activity and bodily functions begin to slow down.
2. The rapid-eye movement or (REM) stage can happen in brief spurts whenever there happens to be increased activity in the body and brain. REM is generally considered to be the dreaming stage of sleep.

What’s known as “sleep architecture” is healthy sleep that is characterized by a sequence of stages. The cycle first starts out with a brief duration of roughly 80 minutes of NREM sleep which is then followed by 10 minutes of REM sleep.

This cycle of 90-minute intervals is repeated 4 to 6 times per night. If this sequence gets interrupted by an external noise or disturbance, the quality of sleep suffers.

Effective Natural Treatment for Fibromyalgia and Sleep Issues

You are not alone if you’re suffering with fibromyalgia and sleep issues – nor are you alone in finding solutions. Many patients have found relief through following a protocol designed to uproot the underlying cause of fibromyalgia which is often found in the gut. Click here to learn more about this fibromyalgia biofilm protocol.