July 24, 2014 • 34 mins
You can find probiotics - bacteria thought to have healthful benefits for humans - in everything from pills to yogurt. But does any of it work? Listen as Josh and Chuck get to the bottom of the science (and need for it) of probiotics and health.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to you stuff you should know from house Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant from Jerry, This
is Snow. No guest producer, No Ben Bolan, just us.
(00:24):
That really got into your crowd? And what the three
D printing? Frank, What I don't know that prank? Ben
Bolan sitting in for you? Oh that yeah, how many
pranks have you pulled? No, no, I didn't know. I
didn't know it was three D printing. I thought he
printed something for me. No, no, no, I thought that
was great. I thought it was pretty fun. Yeah, you
know what, I'm looking forward to. What are Christmas episode?
(00:47):
In our Halloween episode? Because those two no one can
complain about. There are no sides to be taken. Oh,
you guys seem to favor Christmas in the Christmas episode.
You're a very new true about it. Yeah, those are
definitely we love those episodes. We do or like anything
on like Plato or Spammer or we didn't do Plato yet,
(01:08):
did we. No, it's in the queue. Yeah, it's coming. Yeah,
it's supposedly very neat stuff. That's right. I was deprived
as a child that was not allowed to play with toys.
But I just sit in a room quietly for the
first twelve years of my life. A little Albert I wish. Yeah, yeah,
at least he got to be exposed to rabbits and
(01:29):
stuff like that. Speaking of you know, I did a
video on little Albert. Oh yeah, don't be dumb. No
on psychology is nuts? Okay. Oh and speaking of video,
what a perfect segue. We have a new video series
out called Studio Show Notes. And if you've ever wanted
to get inside the studio with this, this is the
best way to do it. Yeah. That or win a contest. Yeah,
(01:53):
we like bring the cameras in here, and we talk
about like some newsy things. It's usually a news item
that relates to a past show or if there's an
update or a correction. And it's short and sweet and uh,
that's short. It's cool. No, it's sweet. It's tangy. Yeah,
short and tangy. Yeah, it's good. Yes. So the Studio
Show Notes. Yeah, And you can go to our YouTube
(02:14):
channel search Josh and Chuck and YouTube. Check those out
and don't be done. We've got some good videos going
lately and psychology is nuts, right, thanks man? Yeah, so
now onto probiotics, Chuck, Yes, you remember when we went
to Guatemala. Yeah, you and Jerry both took probiotics. I
think I had a timed into it. I did, and
(02:36):
it did nothing to help you. There was a Jerry
which one if you got sick? Oh, I did, yes,
because of the ice and the rum drinks. Think. I
closed my mouth in the shower, did everything right all week,
and that last night I went crazy at a dance
club and drank ice y with alcohol. Man, that's crazy. Yeah,
(02:58):
I wouldn't trade it though. That was like one of
the best nights. How long are you sick for? I
don't remember, but I had what do they call it?
The gut? Chuck late, that's so gross? Is so gross?
That's so gross. It tore me up. Luckily it was
after I'd gotten back home because I could not imagine.
I remember thinking at the time, Man, if I was
in Guatemala suffering through this right now, I would be miserable. Yeah,
(03:21):
because I'd be missing out on the trip from our
friends at at the Cooperative for Education co ed dot org.
The question remains, thought, Well, no, I know you took probiotics,
but the question remains, like, did it help you? Did
it shorten the duration of your travelers diarrhea? Have no
idea what someone called? No, you don't. No one knows
(03:43):
because probiotics, although very intuitive, isn't backed up with science.
Not not yet. Yeah, a little bit. Uh, and we'll
we'll get to findings. But um, yeah, I don't want
to spoil it yet. We'll get to that later. No,
but again, it's extremely intuitive. It makes a lot of sense.
(04:03):
Probiotics means for life or good life in favor of life. Yeah. Um,
it's the idea and the practice of taking bacteria that's
been proven or suggested to be beneficial to the health
of our guts um and ingesting it like either in
(04:26):
a pill form or in certain types of food. Yeah.
Northern Europe and Japan have been big on this for
a while. Yeah. As a matter of fact, the whole
concept of eating bacteria to improve health rather than contracting
disease comes from Europe, comes from Central Europe or Eastern Europe.
There's a Nobel Prize winner and his name was Eli.
(04:49):
Uh what is it nice um? And mansh Nikov said Russian. Yeah,
but he was studying Bulgarians. He was studying the longevity
of Bulgarian peasants, and Bulgarian peasants were known to eat
a fermented milk product called caelo mil yaco, which is
sheep's milk yogurt, known colloquially here in the US is
(05:13):
Bulgarian sour milk, and it's a fermented milk product. Sounds
it does, but all that, it's pretty tasty. It's probably
like keffer. I've never had that either. It's not bad.
It's like it's like a much more liquid e Greek yogurt. Okay.
I definitely though if if I had a hot day
working in the yard and then it's about some Bulgarian
(05:34):
sour milk it's room temperature, yeah no, you would not
want to do that. But after a m you just
eat it. Okay, your Bulgarian, your balky bartacamus now and
you are living forever because you've been eating Bulgarian sour
milk for your whole life. So minch Nikof was studying
(05:55):
this at the beginning of the twentieth century, and in
around nine I think around ninety seven he published this
whole idea like wait a minute, I figured it out.
There is a fermented or fermenting bacteria called lacto bacillus
that basically produces lactic acid during the fermentation process, and
(06:17):
it's in this food stuff, and if you eat this
food stuff, you will gain health benefits from it. And
everybody was like, shut up, you crazy Russian. You're probably
friends with rescipute or something, and we're not going to
listen to you. But it turns out he was totally right. Well, yeah,
I think he was like, these are Bulgarian peasants. They
should not be this healthy, you know, because they don't
(06:41):
have all the benefits of living in a different place
and having a lot of wealth. Now, and you saw
perfect strangers like BALKI was not risk averse, accident prone.
There are a lot of reasons you shouldn't have been alive,
see Bulgarian. I think. So I didn't watch it? What
I didn't watch it? I know the show, but I
didn't watch it. You should go back and watch it. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
(07:05):
cut show. I like the dude and the other guy too. Yeah.
I don't know why I didn't watch it becausin what
year was that? Yeah, mid late eighties, like eighties, seven
eighty eight. I was watching Moonlighting. You could have watched
them both. I don't think they were on in different
time slots. You remember the time slot, dude, the one
where they have to move a piano upstairs. Classic it is.
(07:29):
It's great TV. But I guess did they get it
all the way to the top and it rolled back
on somebody? I think that happened in the middle oh man. Yeah.
So anyway, Um, Mitchtikov publishes his findings, they go largely
ignored and um. Around the same time, actually, a few
years before, there was a Frenchman named ri ti A
(07:50):
and in he started studying the poop of healthy breastfed
infants and he noticed that the healthiest ones all had
something called what he called bifido bacterium. So why shape
Graham negative bacteria? And uh he said, you know what,
(08:11):
I think this is linked to health. And again no
one listened to him because at the time it was like,
we're all happy with germ theory. Yeah that sounds that
was probably like magic. This flies in the face of
germ theories, like, yeah, we agree, there's little tiny things around,
but they're trying to kill us. They're not making us healthier. Well,
these two guys said, yes they are, and they provided
(08:31):
the basis for probiotics, which still today. The two types
of probiotics, the two genera of probiotics that are UM
that are viewed as beneficial are lack of basilus and bacteria. Yeah,
it's crazy that they were onto this way back then
and now it's becoming a very trendy thing. And uh,
(08:52):
if you go to buy a supplement, they say to
look for like at least so many billion of those
two strains. One billion is the minimum amount, but they
recommend much more than that, Like Emily takes ones. It's
like fifteen billion. Because and we'll get into this too,
you can't necessarily count on all those fifteen billion being
(09:16):
alive by the time they hit your intestines, I know,
but we'll get to that. Although it's sort of just
so let's let's talk about UM probiotics in general. Like
the World Health Organization, like you said, Europe and Japan
have been hip to the probiotics for a while UM
and the World Health Organization created a definition that's just
(09:39):
out of this world. Live microorganisms, which, when administered in
adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host. That
sounds on the host to say the person, right and
live organisms like you could that could be possums. Yeah,
but the need of possums that doesn't confer health in
a bit, Well, there's only one way to find out
if it does or not. Yeah, yeah, haven't tried it.
(10:01):
And like we said these days, um, it's in a
lot of food products. Um, A lot of people are
on the supplement plan though, just to take him in
a capsule form, right, But when you add something like
a probiotic to food, you create what's called in the
industry a functional food. And there's a bit of problem
with functional foods in that they have made a lot
(10:22):
of claims because they're not regulated by the f d A. Uh,
and so they can say certain things they can't say
other things. And like, um, I guess we can go
ahead and say because it's public news. Dan and who
made Activia. Um, we all saw the commercials with Jamie
Lee Curtis. Just one serving will make your regular. Um.
(10:43):
I even worked on a photo shoot for I just
remembered that now with her for Activita for Activia way
back in the day. And uh, she got mad because
the PA was taking pictures of her like mad, mad
she wasn't very nice about it. What did she say? Um, well,
I was just doing that p A thing where you know,
there's a scene he's try and get close and listen.
Were you the one who was taking pictures? No, no, no, no,
(11:05):
not my friend was um. And it was on the beach,
and I just remember him taking pictures in her like.
She didn't smash his camera. She didn't show him penna,
but she had it smashed. No, no, no, she had it. Um.
She had the film taken from him though this is
pretty digital. Oh well, yeah, I just remember that. I'm
not knocking Jamie Lee Curtis. No. I mean, you know,
(11:27):
it's like the paparazzi following me all the way. You
can't even get away from it on a film smashed
the camera. Um. But danon Um did get into trouble
because they overstated the effects. And while they're not under
the f d A, the FDC got involved and said
the Federal Trade Commission and called them out and they
had to stop making those claims of regularity. Um. They
(11:49):
had to stop making claims that it prevented cold and flu. Yeah,
and they had to pay out one million dollars to
thirty nine state attorney generals, which I don't I guess
those are fines. I couldn't get exactly how they're settlements.
They were sued, well, I don't think they were sued. Yeah,
it turned by the way attorneys general. Yeah, sorry, it
(12:14):
was William Stapphire's ghosts going through me. But um, they
they sue like they get together and say hey, like,
I guess I just thought they were fine. Well, either way,
they had to pay out money, and they had to
stop overstating these things and go to more generalized claims,
which they paid out twenty one million. You say, yeah,
(12:34):
I mean that it may have ended up being more
than that. Even that's not too bad because the first
year that activity was out, according to this article, it
made a hundred million dollars in sales. Twenty one million
here chairs, But the point is if activity it could
make a hundred million dollars in sales. It's a yogurt.
Everybody a hundred million dollars in sales in the US,
(12:58):
and it's a yogurt. It show It's like, wow, people
really want this, they want probiotics. They believe in it.
But we find after looking into it, like, well, there
everybody like, yes, it makes sense, we know it makes sense,
and yes, yogurt can be delicious, but we also know
yogurt is good for you. Yeah, and and but we've
(13:18):
got to get to the science of all this, and
we will get to the science of this right after this.
Everybody so chuck. Everybody's really hot and heavy to buy activity,
to take probiotics supplements, like everyone wants us to work
because the idea of friendly little bacteria getting into our
tommi's and you know, tickling everything just right to make
(13:40):
everything go well, you know, especially like if you can't
poop or something like that, or if you're pooping a lot,
right then then this idea very much appeals to you.
Eat some yogurt, feel better. That sounds great. That's like
what food ideally is supposed to do is to make
you feel better, not give you diabetes and a few
from standing up from the couch. You know, it's supposed
(14:04):
to like make you jump on the beach and have
someone's camera broken when they take pictures. It's supposed to
make you poop. Like that's what food is supposed to do.
And I think that's why Activita sold as much as
it did and that's why people want this stuff to work.
But like I said, we have to get into the
science of it, and the science is there in some cases,
(14:25):
but not nearly as far as it's being stretched at
this point. Yeah. I went to the Harvard uh et
U site to look at the skinny on what they
found in right now in they can pretty much say
with great confidence through study scientific study that, uh, it
(14:50):
can help your bowel situation. It can reduce diarrhea. Hey man,
your bow sitch. It can help you maybe if you
have IBS or if you have taken antibiotics that give
you diarrhea because they give me diarrhea like crazy. Um,
they've they've pretty much sussed that out with studies. Yes,
(15:10):
all those are backed up with study. Yeah, um, so
it'll it can help you. If you have intestinal issues,
it can help you. Um. There are other intestinal issues
that it's being touted to be able to help, like
Crohn's disease. Jury is still out on that, even though
a lot of people are like, yeah, probiotics can help
and that would make sense intuitively because the beneficial probiotics
(15:33):
like um Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus um supposedly cut down on
inflammation and an inflammation response, and that's what Crohn's disease is.
UM and they they supposedly also can help with everything
from vaginal infections UM to allergies, childhood allergies. All of
(15:54):
these claims are being made about probiotics and again, intuitively
they may help, they could consumably help, but the science
is not. They're backing it up. And that's not to
say that the science is saying no this, We've we've
shown that this doesn't have an effect. It's at the
point where these studies are just now beginning to be
carried out, so a body of study on them is
(16:19):
starting to now be a massed in the United States
at least. Yeah. Um, it's a difficult thing to study
because you have to study feces uh and um. I
think Molly wrote this. She pointed out a good point.
Even if you do study feces, and even if you
do find that a certain amount of bacteria has made
it all the way through into your feces, um, you
(16:41):
don't necessarily know what exactly it did, right, I mean,
it has reported findings like I felt better or I
didn't have diarrhea as long this time. I took any
bodys and there's a lot of dispute also over what
constitutes an effective dose. And when you're talking about probiotics,
what you're taking are called all any forming units cf US,
(17:02):
and these are viable bacteria that can reproduce and spread
and colonize your colon. Right. So this panel of UM
I guess, probiotic experts academics got together and I think
Florida in October of two thousand thirteen and said, we've
studied all the literature, We've done some meta analysis, and
(17:22):
this is what we've concluded, and they recommend that you
take no less than one billion colony forming units c
f US, so it's tend to the ninth power. And
like you said, Emily takes them that are like fifteen
billion colony forming units UM. And that they also said
that we need to study more particular species and strains,
(17:45):
because if you say Biffeto Bacterium or Lacto bacillus, you're
talking about an entire genera of bacteria, not even like
a strain or species, a genera, right, And you you
can't say, oh, Biffeto Bacterium is good for uh crones.
That's like saying red pills make you healthy? Like what
(18:08):
what what type of red pills and what do the
red pills specifically do. So, thanks to the Human Microbiome Project,
which we've talked about before in the episode, we're starting
to get a clearer picture of what constitutes a healthy
gut in an average person depending on your genetic makeup, right,
and what constitutes an unhealthy gut. And once we start
(18:30):
to understand what a healthy gut looks more like, we
can kind of enrich that environment and maybe add more
bacteria to the beneficial bacteria probiotic list. Yeah, there's a
researcher um at the University of Colorado School of Medicine
that says that there's just a misconception out there that
(18:50):
you're just reseting your good bacteria that's missing. She her
basic point is is there's a lot of over generalization
going on, like you were talking about with the red pill. Um.
She thinks there's a lot of potential in the future
and that it could end up doing a lot of this,
But the notion of you know, you're receding your bacteria
(19:10):
and it's good for you and that's all you need
to know, it's just a big oversimplification of what's going
on because everyone's different and like you said, the different
strains and h what's good for one person might not
be as good for another. It's like super specific. But
the two the two genera biffido Bacterium and UM Lactobacillus
(19:30):
have been shown to the reason they're considered probiotics is
because they are not necessarily going in and recolonizing your
your gut, like those things are present, but again, you're
the the healthy microbiome we're starting to understand is just
this huge grab bag that can change from person to person,
(19:52):
from UM race to race basically UM. But those two specifically,
those two genera specific have effects on things like your
immune system, like they spur the production of immunoglobin A
or UM beta defense in which are both they they're
they're both immune proteins that go after pathogens, so they
(20:16):
help with your immune system. These two things do specifically, Yeah,
that's what you you want to look for those two,
and those are the two main players anyway, Like if
you're going to get a probiotic, you're probably gonna find those.
But not coincidentally, those are also the ones that were
discovered a hundreds something years ago and have been studied
in one form of fashion ever since. So as we
(20:37):
start to come across more potentially good bacteria from the
Human Microbiome Project, they will be studied in um more
detail and we'll get a better idea of this particular strain,
of this species of this genera is probably good for this, right. Yeah.
And then there's the whole thing of prebiotics, which we
(20:58):
should talk about right for this. Okay, So you're in
the store and you want to get something good for
your gut because you've been pooping, you have a diarrhea,
and you just got general trouble with your stomach. Place forever,
(21:21):
place forever. Uh. You go in and you see probiotics
and you think, hey, I've heard of those on the news.
There Jamie Nae Curtis is dancing on the beach um
coating herself with yogurt and she's doing great. And but
this pre biotic, what in the world is that that
is not the same prebiotics spurs this growth. It's these bacteria.
(21:42):
It's like food for probiotics. Yeah. Instead of a probiotic,
which is the actual bacteria you're ingesting, probiotics will help
them grow Yeah, you're giving it a nourishing environment to
grow in, and you can take them both at the
same time. Yeah, there's something called symbiotics, which is prebiotic
and the probiotics. So it's the food and the thing
that eats the food all mixed together. And things like yogurt, kefir, kimchi, miso,
(22:06):
sour kraut, fermented foods like that, they have it naturally.
Those are symbiotics. They have both and and probe prebiotics.
It's kind of just fiber in a lot of cases,
dietary fiber that they like to eat and ferment. Al Right, Well,
we talked earlier about Um, you don't know exactly how
much you're getting in some of these foods. Um, that's
(22:29):
a problem because you don't know if you don't know
what dosage you need, you don't know how much is
six Because these things are you know, that's why there's
fifteen billion of them in a tiny little pill. They
die very easily and through packaging and chipping. Uh, you
don't know how much you're gonna be getting in the end. Yeah,
if you're if not in the end, you know what
(22:49):
I mean? Well, you know, like if you look if
you go into a health of food store or something, right,
and they have probiotics. They might have some of that
are refrigerated, but then they have some on the shelf.
Like what's the difference. Well, the ones on the shelf
have undergone a process of freeze drying. They're basically in
cryonic suspendure suspended animation right then, and it protects them
(23:10):
being in that state like basically, and it protects them
from exposure to um when they're if they're exposed to
heat or cold or um moisture, all they're not moisture.
Once they're exposed the moisture, they come back and they're
they're in trouble unless they're in your tomic. But so
those those have been free stright, the ones that are
(23:31):
in the refrigerator are likely not freeze right, and they're
much more fragile. Yeah, that's what Emily's are refrigerated and expensive. Well, yeah,
because it costs a lot more to take care of
them to keep them in a state of um life
so that they can have an effect. The problem is
when you buy those at the store, you have no
(23:53):
idea of what you're buying is the real deal or not,
because like you said, the f d A isn't regulating this,
Uh true, But there you can do a little research
and find out, like, you know, I don't think there's
a ton of snake oil out there, is there? Well,
so I read this article from consumer lab dot com.
(24:14):
Was it called snake oil as proa No, it was.
It was basically it was saying like in two thousand nine,
they did a random sample of probiotics on the market,
didn't have the advertised amount of bacteria and because they
had died off some for whatever reason. Yeah, because that's
the thing, like, let's say I sell you a bunch
(24:35):
of bacteria and you're gonna put them into pills, but
you don't. You know, man, I got some poto back
to how much? What do you what do you want?
How much? We'll talk later. I'll give you a good deal,
all right, So but you you don't invest and let
it not be like that last batch. This one's this
one's even cool. I had him died neon green for you.
(24:55):
All right, you can do something with that um but
they have like vacuum machines that you you deal with
this this bacteria and put into pillform or whatever. Let's
say you don't invest in that. You just run it
through a regular pill machine, all the bacteria dies. Even
if you know that stead, you can still slap that
in and be like, there's fifty billion cf us in
(25:15):
each pill. Pill get it, come get it. Knowing they're dead,
nothing's going to happen to you. You're not running a
foul of the FDA so long as you're not saying,
and this stuff can cure your crowns disease, because all
the FDA is concerned with is your claims to what
your product can do, not whether that's stuff's in there. Yeah,
(25:37):
I will say this. I often find myself buying them
for her because I'm errand boy. At the health food store,
they have very boring labels. They look more like medicine
and they say, you know, fifteen thousand or fifteen billion. Sorry,
wo uh, it's all listened on the label. I went
(26:01):
to get her recently, I was at a big chain
grocery store and she said, Hey, I'm out, just see
what they have there. And I knew what they wouldn't
have the stuff that the health food store had, but
I perused and what you find in the grocery store
are major brands selling what to me, looks like a
bunch of bs for sure. I mean, why not if
(26:24):
every if a hundred million, if people want to buy
a hundred million dollars with of Activita, and you're you're
a supplement manufacturer, why wouldn't you get in on that.
You already know the ins and outs of the federal
regulations here sucker by this, Yeah, that's the problem. Like
and even with the good stuff that you trust that
the health food store, it's not necessarily snake oil. It
(26:46):
is probably made in earnest um. But the key is
it may have undergone like the refrigerator truck maybe broke
down on the way and the whole batch was ruined.
They're still gonna sell it, and they'll still there's no
no repercussion, and you will have no idea whether it's
effective or not. That's why we need probiotics probably do work,
(27:09):
but we have to figure out how to how much
is the right amount, and how to deliver that amount
in a way that is going to basically stay effective
throughout the production and transportation and distribution segments, some kind
of regulations, and then when it hits your stomach, it's
gonna survive your stomach and then dissolving your gut, which
(27:31):
is what's supposed to happen. So we're just not quite
there yet. But that doesn't mean that they're those probiotics
that you trust don't actually work. They very well may work. Yeah,
And the consensus that everyone agrees on is you're not
gonna you're not gonna hurt yourself by taking probiotics. Right there.
There have been studies that have shown like, if you're
a healthy person, it may not do anything for you,
(27:54):
but it's probably not going to hurt you. But there
was one big exception with pancreatitis. In this article, Um,
there's a study that's cited to where a group of
people who have pancreatitisents with pancreatitis. Some received probiotics, others
received a placebo. And even with everything else being equal,
(28:14):
all things being equal, the people who are taking probiotics,
twenty four of them died, which is twice the number
of the death in the placebo group, which is just weird.
That is weird. And then also, if you have a
lowered or compromised immune system, you probably should avoid probiotics.
Is the other warning that I came across. I've also
seen that it could possibly maybe help with not getting cancer,
(28:37):
but you shouldn't take them if you're getting cancer treatment.
But I don't know if that's right on either. I
haven't heard that one. Uh. Some Canadians have researched UM
and they think and see, this is still the wild West,
like we said, like there's so many claims that they
think might like in ten years, this would be a
completely different show. But researchers in Canada have linked UH
(28:59):
supplement it's too lower levels of anxiety, UM and stress
and UH. This past December, the British Journal of Nutrition
found that women supplementing their diet UM we're more likely
to lose weight compared to the placebo. Again, like there's
that that just could be correlation to you never know,
but it makes sense because there's that mind gut connection
(29:22):
where like the vast majority of our serotonin is produced
in our gut and travels up to our brains. Yeah,
well that's what they're the Canadians are thinking exactly that.
As far as stress reduction, they're thinking that's a two
way street there. So what do you do in the
meantime by the yogurt and just take a bath in it.
That's that's one thing you can do, UM if you
(29:44):
have some especially if you have some sort of gut
related disease or condition. UM, find peer viewed academic articles
on what probiotics may or may not work for that condition,
and then try that. Go find the best ones you
can find are the ones that you trust the most.
UM And the National Institutes of Health actually has a
(30:07):
pretty open minded UM probiotics page. Several probiotics page, but UM,
at least the one I lacked to Basilus gives recommended
doses for different UM I guess bowel conditions. Yeah, I
bet you there's It's probably not the hardest thing to
get some funding for studying this stuff right now. Yeah,
it's probably a good time to be in that research.
(30:29):
The microbiome is so hot right now. Yeah, they're doing
I mean, they're testing all kinds of things that the
lady from Colorado said that, Um, they've done studies and
rodents that suggests that certain microbes might mitigate a high
fat diet. So maybe it could help treat obesity, who knows?
Who knows? This is when we should definitely follow up
(30:52):
on with studio show notes. Oh we will man in
a year, Okay, if we're still doing that show, we are,
by god, you got it? Yeah, I got nothing else. Um,
they won't hurt you. They could help give it a try.
Although again, if you have pancreatitus, look into it. And
(31:13):
again I suggest to not if you really want to
see if it works, go to the nutrition health food store.
Spend a little money on the real deal. Don't buy
the little box at your grocery store that has like
if it has a lot of pictures of people smiling
and things. I say, no, okay, why is words from chuck? Uh?
(31:36):
If you want to know more about probiotics, you can
type that word in the search part how stuff works
dot com. And since I said search part, it's time
for a listener mail. Uh. This is an archaeologist wrote
in to say we did a good job. Guys. I'm
so relieved my faith is maintained. Always knew. Um, you
weren't experts, but you do do a lot of research,
(31:57):
and so I take things you say with a pinch
of salt. But you were really spot on with my
field of expertise with archaeology. Um, and I'm gonna trust
you more from now on. Since university I've done digs
the Viking Age and York, the Talayokic Bronze Age and Majorca,
and the Hellenic Byzantine period in Georgia. Um, so he's
(32:20):
done a lot of digs. He's touting his dicks. I've
encountered many different archaeological methods and from now and I
think I'll refer to them, refer them to your podcast.
Um though you only use the example of excavating by
meter square holes, which always causes a single tear to
roll down my cheek. An entire site is when an
entire site is done like that. You also mentioned the
(32:42):
B word brush, which must never be spoken of, let
alone used on a dig. It smears what you're excavating.
It makes it hard to see. So apparently they don't brush.
Maybe I bet it's air, canned air or something. Yeah, exactly.
Movies get it wrong then, because everyone uses a brush
in the movies. Everybody knows that maybe this guy is
(33:05):
getting it wrong over movies. Over All, those guys that
give you nine out of ten, you've covered all the
important bits like uni uniformitarianism, the conflict between civil engineers
and archaeologists at a development, the legal antiquities, and the
thorny issue of returning artifacts to their country of origin.
Was that repatriation? Um, you even got the Nazis in there.
(33:26):
I can't tell you about Arians or North Germanic people's
because I'm hardly an expert and don't want to muddy
the waters. But one of my lecturers told us that
the first non combat unit into Stalingrad in the Second
World War were the s s archaeologists. They were digging
a Bronze age burial mound and earshot of the siege guns.
So that is all the best from will Um, the
(33:49):
archaeologist in Sussex, England and not a fan of brush.
I'm sorry, he says, Sussex UK. Yeah, he just starts
to bullet there. That was close. Thanks a lot. Will
we pre ship that We're glad we gained your trust
or it was fortified by archaeology episode which I think
both of us liked. Uh. If you want to let
us know how we regained your trust or gained it
(34:13):
or it was fortified or whatever, who cares, Just let
us know whatever you want to let us know. You
can tweet to us at s Y s K podcast.
You can join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff
you should know and as always send us an email
to Stuff Podcast at how stuff Works dot com, and
as always, join us at our home on the web,
(34:34):
Stuff you Should Know dot com. For more on this
and thousands of other topics, is it how stuff Works
dot com.
Welcome to you stuff you should know from house Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant from Jerry, This
is Snow. No guest producer, No Ben Bolan, just us.
(00:24):
That really got into your crowd? And what the three
D printing? Frank, What I don't know that prank? Ben
Bolan sitting in for you? Oh that yeah, how many
pranks have you pulled? No, no, I didn't know. I
didn't know it was three D printing. I thought he
printed something for me. No, no, no, I thought that
was great. I thought it was pretty fun. Yeah, you
know what, I'm looking forward to. What are Christmas episode?
(00:47):
In our Halloween episode? Because those two no one can
complain about. There are no sides to be taken. Oh,
you guys seem to favor Christmas in the Christmas episode.
You're a very new true about it. Yeah, those are
definitely we love those episodes. We do or like anything
on like Plato or Spammer or we didn't do Plato yet,
(01:08):
did we. No, it's in the queue. Yeah, it's coming. Yeah,
it's supposedly very neat stuff. That's right. I was deprived
as a child that was not allowed to play with toys.
But I just sit in a room quietly for the
first twelve years of my life. A little Albert I wish. Yeah, yeah,
at least he got to be exposed to rabbits and
(01:29):
stuff like that. Speaking of you know, I did a
video on little Albert. Oh yeah, don't be dumb. No
on psychology is nuts? Okay. Oh and speaking of video,
what a perfect segue. We have a new video series
out called Studio Show Notes. And if you've ever wanted
to get inside the studio with this, this is the
best way to do it. Yeah. That or win a contest. Yeah,
(01:53):
we like bring the cameras in here, and we talk
about like some newsy things. It's usually a news item
that relates to a past show or if there's an
update or a correction. And it's short and sweet and uh,
that's short. It's cool. No, it's sweet. It's tangy. Yeah,
short and tangy. Yeah, it's good. Yes. So the Studio
Show Notes. Yeah, And you can go to our YouTube
(02:14):
channel search Josh and Chuck and YouTube. Check those out
and don't be done. We've got some good videos going
lately and psychology is nuts, right, thanks man? Yeah, so
now onto probiotics, Chuck, Yes, you remember when we went
to Guatemala. Yeah, you and Jerry both took probiotics. I
think I had a timed into it. I did, and
(02:36):
it did nothing to help you. There was a Jerry
which one if you got sick? Oh, I did, yes,
because of the ice and the rum drinks. Think. I
closed my mouth in the shower, did everything right all week,
and that last night I went crazy at a dance
club and drank ice y with alcohol. Man, that's crazy. Yeah,
(02:58):
I wouldn't trade it though. That was like one of
the best nights. How long are you sick for? I
don't remember, but I had what do they call it?
The gut? Chuck late, that's so gross? Is so gross?
That's so gross. It tore me up. Luckily it was
after I'd gotten back home because I could not imagine.
I remember thinking at the time, Man, if I was
in Guatemala suffering through this right now, I would be miserable. Yeah,
(03:21):
because I'd be missing out on the trip from our
friends at at the Cooperative for Education co ed dot org.
The question remains, thought, Well, no, I know you took probiotics,
but the question remains, like, did it help you? Did
it shorten the duration of your travelers diarrhea? Have no
idea what someone called? No, you don't. No one knows
(03:43):
because probiotics, although very intuitive, isn't backed up with science.
Not not yet. Yeah, a little bit. Uh, and we'll
we'll get to findings. But um, yeah, I don't want
to spoil it yet. We'll get to that later. No,
but again, it's extremely intuitive. It makes a lot of sense.
(04:03):
Probiotics means for life or good life in favor of life. Yeah. Um,
it's the idea and the practice of taking bacteria that's
been proven or suggested to be beneficial to the health
of our guts um and ingesting it like either in
(04:26):
a pill form or in certain types of food. Yeah.
Northern Europe and Japan have been big on this for
a while. Yeah. As a matter of fact, the whole
concept of eating bacteria to improve health rather than contracting
disease comes from Europe, comes from Central Europe or Eastern Europe.
There's a Nobel Prize winner and his name was Eli.
(04:49):
Uh what is it nice um? And mansh Nikov said Russian. Yeah,
but he was studying Bulgarians. He was studying the longevity
of Bulgarian peasants, and Bulgarian peasants were known to eat
a fermented milk product called caelo mil yaco, which is
sheep's milk yogurt, known colloquially here in the US is
(05:13):
Bulgarian sour milk, and it's a fermented milk product. Sounds
it does, but all that, it's pretty tasty. It's probably
like keffer. I've never had that either. It's not bad.
It's like it's like a much more liquid e Greek yogurt. Okay.
I definitely though if if I had a hot day
working in the yard and then it's about some Bulgarian
(05:34):
sour milk it's room temperature, yeah no, you would not
want to do that. But after a m you just
eat it. Okay, your Bulgarian, your balky bartacamus now and
you are living forever because you've been eating Bulgarian sour
milk for your whole life. So minch Nikof was studying
(05:55):
this at the beginning of the twentieth century, and in
around nine I think around ninety seven he published this
whole idea like wait a minute, I figured it out.
There is a fermented or fermenting bacteria called lacto bacillus
that basically produces lactic acid during the fermentation process, and
(06:17):
it's in this food stuff, and if you eat this
food stuff, you will gain health benefits from it. And
everybody was like, shut up, you crazy Russian. You're probably
friends with rescipute or something, and we're not going to
listen to you. But it turns out he was totally right. Well, yeah,
I think he was like, these are Bulgarian peasants. They
should not be this healthy, you know, because they don't
(06:41):
have all the benefits of living in a different place
and having a lot of wealth. Now, and you saw
perfect strangers like BALKI was not risk averse, accident prone.
There are a lot of reasons you shouldn't have been alive,
see Bulgarian. I think. So I didn't watch it? What
I didn't watch it? I know the show, but I
didn't watch it. You should go back and watch it. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
(07:05):
cut show. I like the dude and the other guy too. Yeah.
I don't know why I didn't watch it becausin what
year was that? Yeah, mid late eighties, like eighties, seven
eighty eight. I was watching Moonlighting. You could have watched
them both. I don't think they were on in different
time slots. You remember the time slot, dude, the one
where they have to move a piano upstairs. Classic it is.
(07:29):
It's great TV. But I guess did they get it
all the way to the top and it rolled back
on somebody? I think that happened in the middle oh man. Yeah.
So anyway, Um, Mitchtikov publishes his findings, they go largely
ignored and um. Around the same time, actually, a few
years before, there was a Frenchman named ri ti A
(07:50):
and in he started studying the poop of healthy breastfed
infants and he noticed that the healthiest ones all had
something called what he called bifido bacterium. So why shape
Graham negative bacteria? And uh he said, you know what,
(08:11):
I think this is linked to health. And again no
one listened to him because at the time it was like,
we're all happy with germ theory. Yeah that sounds that
was probably like magic. This flies in the face of
germ theories, like, yeah, we agree, there's little tiny things around,
but they're trying to kill us. They're not making us healthier. Well,
these two guys said, yes they are, and they provided
(08:31):
the basis for probiotics, which still today. The two types
of probiotics, the two genera of probiotics that are UM
that are viewed as beneficial are lack of basilus and bacteria. Yeah,
it's crazy that they were onto this way back then
and now it's becoming a very trendy thing. And uh,
(08:52):
if you go to buy a supplement, they say to
look for like at least so many billion of those
two strains. One billion is the minimum amount, but they
recommend much more than that, Like Emily takes ones. It's
like fifteen billion. Because and we'll get into this too,
you can't necessarily count on all those fifteen billion being
(09:16):
alive by the time they hit your intestines, I know,
but we'll get to that. Although it's sort of just
so let's let's talk about UM probiotics in general. Like
the World Health Organization, like you said, Europe and Japan
have been hip to the probiotics for a while UM
and the World Health Organization created a definition that's just
(09:39):
out of this world. Live microorganisms, which, when administered in
adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host. That
sounds on the host to say the person, right and
live organisms like you could that could be possums. Yeah,
but the need of possums that doesn't confer health in
a bit, Well, there's only one way to find out
if it does or not. Yeah, yeah, haven't tried it.
(10:01):
And like we said these days, um, it's in a
lot of food products. Um, A lot of people are
on the supplement plan though, just to take him in
a capsule form, right, But when you add something like
a probiotic to food, you create what's called in the
industry a functional food. And there's a bit of problem
with functional foods in that they have made a lot
(10:22):
of claims because they're not regulated by the f d A. Uh,
and so they can say certain things they can't say
other things. And like, um, I guess we can go
ahead and say because it's public news. Dan and who
made Activia. Um, we all saw the commercials with Jamie
Lee Curtis. Just one serving will make your regular. Um.
(10:43):
I even worked on a photo shoot for I just
remembered that now with her for Activita for Activia way
back in the day. And uh, she got mad because
the PA was taking pictures of her like mad, mad
she wasn't very nice about it. What did she say? Um, well,
I was just doing that p A thing where you know,
there's a scene he's try and get close and listen.
Were you the one who was taking pictures? No, no, no, no,
(11:05):
not my friend was um. And it was on the beach,
and I just remember him taking pictures in her like.
She didn't smash his camera. She didn't show him penna,
but she had it smashed. No, no, no, she had it. Um.
She had the film taken from him though this is
pretty digital. Oh well, yeah, I just remember that. I'm
not knocking Jamie Lee Curtis. No. I mean, you know,
(11:27):
it's like the paparazzi following me all the way. You
can't even get away from it on a film smashed
the camera. Um. But danon Um did get into trouble
because they overstated the effects. And while they're not under
the f d A, the FDC got involved and said
the Federal Trade Commission and called them out and they
had to stop making those claims of regularity. Um. They
(11:49):
had to stop making claims that it prevented cold and flu. Yeah,
and they had to pay out one million dollars to
thirty nine state attorney generals, which I don't I guess
those are fines. I couldn't get exactly how they're settlements.
They were sued, well, I don't think they were sued. Yeah,
it turned by the way attorneys general. Yeah, sorry, it
(12:14):
was William Stapphire's ghosts going through me. But um, they
they sue like they get together and say hey, like,
I guess I just thought they were fine. Well, either way,
they had to pay out money, and they had to
stop overstating these things and go to more generalized claims,
which they paid out twenty one million. You say, yeah,
(12:34):
I mean that it may have ended up being more
than that. Even that's not too bad because the first
year that activity was out, according to this article, it
made a hundred million dollars in sales. Twenty one million
here chairs, But the point is if activity it could
make a hundred million dollars in sales. It's a yogurt.
Everybody a hundred million dollars in sales in the US,
(12:58):
and it's a yogurt. It show It's like, wow, people
really want this, they want probiotics. They believe in it.
But we find after looking into it, like, well, there
everybody like, yes, it makes sense, we know it makes sense,
and yes, yogurt can be delicious, but we also know
yogurt is good for you. Yeah, and and but we've
(13:18):
got to get to the science of all this, and
we will get to the science of this right after this.
Everybody so chuck. Everybody's really hot and heavy to buy activity,
to take probiotics supplements, like everyone wants us to work
because the idea of friendly little bacteria getting into our
tommi's and you know, tickling everything just right to make
(13:40):
everything go well, you know, especially like if you can't
poop or something like that, or if you're pooping a lot,
right then then this idea very much appeals to you.
Eat some yogurt, feel better. That sounds great. That's like
what food ideally is supposed to do is to make
you feel better, not give you diabetes and a few
from standing up from the couch. You know, it's supposed
(14:04):
to like make you jump on the beach and have
someone's camera broken when they take pictures. It's supposed to
make you poop. Like that's what food is supposed to do.
And I think that's why Activita sold as much as
it did and that's why people want this stuff to work.
But like I said, we have to get into the
science of it, and the science is there in some cases,
(14:25):
but not nearly as far as it's being stretched at
this point. Yeah. I went to the Harvard uh et
U site to look at the skinny on what they
found in right now in they can pretty much say
with great confidence through study scientific study that, uh, it
(14:50):
can help your bowel situation. It can reduce diarrhea. Hey man,
your bow sitch. It can help you maybe if you
have IBS or if you have taken antibiotics that give
you diarrhea because they give me diarrhea like crazy. Um,
they've they've pretty much sussed that out with studies. Yes,
(15:10):
all those are backed up with study. Yeah, um, so
it'll it can help you. If you have intestinal issues,
it can help you. Um. There are other intestinal issues
that it's being touted to be able to help, like
Crohn's disease. Jury is still out on that, even though
a lot of people are like, yeah, probiotics can help
and that would make sense intuitively because the beneficial probiotics
(15:33):
like um Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus um supposedly cut down on
inflammation and an inflammation response, and that's what Crohn's disease is.
UM and they they supposedly also can help with everything
from vaginal infections UM to allergies, childhood allergies. All of
(15:54):
these claims are being made about probiotics and again, intuitively
they may help, they could consumably help, but the science
is not. They're backing it up. And that's not to
say that the science is saying no this, We've we've
shown that this doesn't have an effect. It's at the
point where these studies are just now beginning to be
carried out, so a body of study on them is
(16:19):
starting to now be a massed in the United States
at least. Yeah. Um, it's a difficult thing to study
because you have to study feces uh and um. I
think Molly wrote this. She pointed out a good point.
Even if you do study feces, and even if you
do find that a certain amount of bacteria has made
it all the way through into your feces, um, you
(16:41):
don't necessarily know what exactly it did, right, I mean,
it has reported findings like I felt better or I
didn't have diarrhea as long this time. I took any
bodys and there's a lot of dispute also over what
constitutes an effective dose. And when you're talking about probiotics,
what you're taking are called all any forming units cf US,
(17:02):
and these are viable bacteria that can reproduce and spread
and colonize your colon. Right. So this panel of UM
I guess, probiotic experts academics got together and I think
Florida in October of two thousand thirteen and said, we've
studied all the literature, We've done some meta analysis, and
(17:22):
this is what we've concluded, and they recommend that you
take no less than one billion colony forming units c
f US, so it's tend to the ninth power. And
like you said, Emily takes them that are like fifteen
billion colony forming units UM. And that they also said
that we need to study more particular species and strains,
(17:45):
because if you say Biffeto Bacterium or Lacto bacillus, you're
talking about an entire genera of bacteria, not even like
a strain or species, a genera, right, And you you
can't say, oh, Biffeto Bacterium is good for uh crones.
That's like saying red pills make you healthy? Like what
(18:08):
what what type of red pills and what do the
red pills specifically do. So, thanks to the Human Microbiome Project,
which we've talked about before in the episode, we're starting
to get a clearer picture of what constitutes a healthy
gut in an average person depending on your genetic makeup, right,
and what constitutes an unhealthy gut. And once we start
(18:30):
to understand what a healthy gut looks more like, we
can kind of enrich that environment and maybe add more
bacteria to the beneficial bacteria probiotic list. Yeah, there's a
researcher um at the University of Colorado School of Medicine
that says that there's just a misconception out there that
(18:50):
you're just reseting your good bacteria that's missing. She her
basic point is is there's a lot of over generalization
going on, like you were talking about with the red pill. Um.
She thinks there's a lot of potential in the future
and that it could end up doing a lot of this,
But the notion of you know, you're receding your bacteria
(19:10):
and it's good for you and that's all you need
to know, it's just a big oversimplification of what's going
on because everyone's different and like you said, the different
strains and h what's good for one person might not
be as good for another. It's like super specific. But
the two the two genera biffido Bacterium and UM Lactobacillus
(19:30):
have been shown to the reason they're considered probiotics is
because they are not necessarily going in and recolonizing your
your gut, like those things are present, but again, you're
the the healthy microbiome we're starting to understand is just
this huge grab bag that can change from person to person,
(19:52):
from UM race to race basically UM. But those two specifically,
those two genera specific have effects on things like your
immune system, like they spur the production of immunoglobin A
or UM beta defense in which are both they they're
they're both immune proteins that go after pathogens, so they
(20:16):
help with your immune system. These two things do specifically, Yeah,
that's what you you want to look for those two,
and those are the two main players anyway, Like if
you're going to get a probiotic, you're probably gonna find those.
But not coincidentally, those are also the ones that were
discovered a hundreds something years ago and have been studied
in one form of fashion ever since. So as we
(20:37):
start to come across more potentially good bacteria from the
Human Microbiome Project, they will be studied in um more
detail and we'll get a better idea of this particular strain,
of this species of this genera is probably good for this, right. Yeah.
And then there's the whole thing of prebiotics, which we
(20:58):
should talk about right for this. Okay, So you're in
the store and you want to get something good for
your gut because you've been pooping, you have a diarrhea,
and you just got general trouble with your stomach. Place forever,
(21:21):
place forever. Uh. You go in and you see probiotics
and you think, hey, I've heard of those on the news.
There Jamie Nae Curtis is dancing on the beach um
coating herself with yogurt and she's doing great. And but
this pre biotic, what in the world is that that
is not the same prebiotics spurs this growth. It's these bacteria.
(21:42):
It's like food for probiotics. Yeah. Instead of a probiotic,
which is the actual bacteria you're ingesting, probiotics will help
them grow Yeah, you're giving it a nourishing environment to
grow in, and you can take them both at the
same time. Yeah, there's something called symbiotics, which is prebiotic
and the probiotics. So it's the food and the thing
that eats the food all mixed together. And things like yogurt, kefir, kimchi, miso,
(22:06):
sour kraut, fermented foods like that, they have it naturally.
Those are symbiotics. They have both and and probe prebiotics.
It's kind of just fiber in a lot of cases,
dietary fiber that they like to eat and ferment. Al Right, Well,
we talked earlier about Um, you don't know exactly how
much you're getting in some of these foods. Um, that's
(22:29):
a problem because you don't know if you don't know
what dosage you need, you don't know how much is
six Because these things are you know, that's why there's
fifteen billion of them in a tiny little pill. They
die very easily and through packaging and chipping. Uh, you
don't know how much you're gonna be getting in the end. Yeah,
if you're if not in the end, you know what
(22:49):
I mean? Well, you know, like if you look if
you go into a health of food store or something, right,
and they have probiotics. They might have some of that
are refrigerated, but then they have some on the shelf.
Like what's the difference. Well, the ones on the shelf
have undergone a process of freeze drying. They're basically in
cryonic suspendure suspended animation right then, and it protects them
(23:10):
being in that state like basically, and it protects them
from exposure to um when they're if they're exposed to
heat or cold or um moisture, all they're not moisture.
Once they're exposed the moisture, they come back and they're
they're in trouble unless they're in your tomic. But so
those those have been free stright, the ones that are
(23:31):
in the refrigerator are likely not freeze right, and they're
much more fragile. Yeah, that's what Emily's are refrigerated and expensive. Well, yeah,
because it costs a lot more to take care of
them to keep them in a state of um life
so that they can have an effect. The problem is
when you buy those at the store, you have no
(23:53):
idea of what you're buying is the real deal or not,
because like you said, the f d A isn't regulating this,
Uh true, But there you can do a little research
and find out, like, you know, I don't think there's
a ton of snake oil out there, is there? Well,
so I read this article from consumer lab dot com.
(24:14):
Was it called snake oil as proa No, it was.
It was basically it was saying like in two thousand nine,
they did a random sample of probiotics on the market,
didn't have the advertised amount of bacteria and because they
had died off some for whatever reason. Yeah, because that's
the thing, like, let's say I sell you a bunch
(24:35):
of bacteria and you're gonna put them into pills, but
you don't. You know, man, I got some poto back
to how much? What do you what do you want?
How much? We'll talk later. I'll give you a good deal,
all right, So but you you don't invest and let
it not be like that last batch. This one's this
one's even cool. I had him died neon green for you.
(24:55):
All right, you can do something with that um but
they have like vacuum machines that you you deal with
this this bacteria and put into pillform or whatever. Let's
say you don't invest in that. You just run it
through a regular pill machine, all the bacteria dies. Even
if you know that stead, you can still slap that
in and be like, there's fifty billion cf us in
(25:15):
each pill. Pill get it, come get it. Knowing they're dead,
nothing's going to happen to you. You're not running a
foul of the FDA so long as you're not saying,
and this stuff can cure your crowns disease, because all
the FDA is concerned with is your claims to what
your product can do, not whether that's stuff's in there. Yeah,
(25:37):
I will say this. I often find myself buying them
for her because I'm errand boy. At the health food store,
they have very boring labels. They look more like medicine
and they say, you know, fifteen thousand or fifteen billion. Sorry,
wo uh, it's all listened on the label. I went
(26:01):
to get her recently, I was at a big chain
grocery store and she said, Hey, I'm out, just see
what they have there. And I knew what they wouldn't
have the stuff that the health food store had, but
I perused and what you find in the grocery store
are major brands selling what to me, looks like a
bunch of bs for sure. I mean, why not if
(26:24):
every if a hundred million, if people want to buy
a hundred million dollars with of Activita, and you're you're
a supplement manufacturer, why wouldn't you get in on that.
You already know the ins and outs of the federal
regulations here sucker by this, Yeah, that's the problem. Like
and even with the good stuff that you trust that
the health food store, it's not necessarily snake oil. It
(26:46):
is probably made in earnest um. But the key is
it may have undergone like the refrigerator truck maybe broke
down on the way and the whole batch was ruined.
They're still gonna sell it, and they'll still there's no
no repercussion, and you will have no idea whether it's
effective or not. That's why we need probiotics probably do work,
(27:09):
but we have to figure out how to how much
is the right amount, and how to deliver that amount
in a way that is going to basically stay effective
throughout the production and transportation and distribution segments, some kind
of regulations, and then when it hits your stomach, it's
gonna survive your stomach and then dissolving your gut, which
(27:31):
is what's supposed to happen. So we're just not quite
there yet. But that doesn't mean that they're those probiotics
that you trust don't actually work. They very well may work. Yeah,
And the consensus that everyone agrees on is you're not
gonna you're not gonna hurt yourself by taking probiotics. Right there.
There have been studies that have shown like, if you're
a healthy person, it may not do anything for you,
(27:54):
but it's probably not going to hurt you. But there
was one big exception with pancreatitis. In this article, Um,
there's a study that's cited to where a group of
people who have pancreatitisents with pancreatitis. Some received probiotics, others
received a placebo. And even with everything else being equal,
(28:14):
all things being equal, the people who are taking probiotics,
twenty four of them died, which is twice the number
of the death in the placebo group, which is just weird.
That is weird. And then also, if you have a
lowered or compromised immune system, you probably should avoid probiotics.
Is the other warning that I came across. I've also
seen that it could possibly maybe help with not getting cancer,
(28:37):
but you shouldn't take them if you're getting cancer treatment.
But I don't know if that's right on either. I
haven't heard that one. Uh. Some Canadians have researched UM
and they think and see, this is still the wild West,
like we said, like there's so many claims that they
think might like in ten years, this would be a
completely different show. But researchers in Canada have linked UH
(28:59):
supplement it's too lower levels of anxiety, UM and stress
and UH. This past December, the British Journal of Nutrition
found that women supplementing their diet UM we're more likely
to lose weight compared to the placebo. Again, like there's
that that just could be correlation to you never know,
but it makes sense because there's that mind gut connection
(29:22):
where like the vast majority of our serotonin is produced
in our gut and travels up to our brains. Yeah,
well that's what they're the Canadians are thinking exactly that.
As far as stress reduction, they're thinking that's a two
way street there. So what do you do in the
meantime by the yogurt and just take a bath in it.
That's that's one thing you can do, UM if you
(29:44):
have some especially if you have some sort of gut
related disease or condition. UM, find peer viewed academic articles
on what probiotics may or may not work for that condition,
and then try that. Go find the best ones you
can find are the ones that you trust the most.
UM And the National Institutes of Health actually has a
(30:07):
pretty open minded UM probiotics page. Several probiotics page, but UM,
at least the one I lacked to Basilus gives recommended
doses for different UM I guess bowel conditions. Yeah, I
bet you there's It's probably not the hardest thing to
get some funding for studying this stuff right now. Yeah,
it's probably a good time to be in that research.
(30:29):
The microbiome is so hot right now. Yeah, they're doing
I mean, they're testing all kinds of things that the
lady from Colorado said that, Um, they've done studies and
rodents that suggests that certain microbes might mitigate a high
fat diet. So maybe it could help treat obesity, who knows?
Who knows? This is when we should definitely follow up
(30:52):
on with studio show notes. Oh we will man in
a year, Okay, if we're still doing that show, we are,
by god, you got it? Yeah, I got nothing else. Um,
they won't hurt you. They could help give it a try.
Although again, if you have pancreatitus, look into it. And
(31:13):
again I suggest to not if you really want to
see if it works, go to the nutrition health food store.
Spend a little money on the real deal. Don't buy
the little box at your grocery store that has like
if it has a lot of pictures of people smiling
and things. I say, no, okay, why is words from chuck? Uh?
(31:36):
If you want to know more about probiotics, you can
type that word in the search part how stuff works
dot com. And since I said search part, it's time
for a listener mail. Uh. This is an archaeologist wrote
in to say we did a good job. Guys. I'm
so relieved my faith is maintained. Always knew. Um, you
weren't experts, but you do do a lot of research,
(31:57):
and so I take things you say with a pinch
of salt. But you were really spot on with my
field of expertise with archaeology. Um, and I'm gonna trust
you more from now on. Since university I've done digs
the Viking Age and York, the Talayokic Bronze Age and Majorca,
and the Hellenic Byzantine period in Georgia. Um, so he's
(32:20):
done a lot of digs. He's touting his dicks. I've
encountered many different archaeological methods and from now and I
think I'll refer to them, refer them to your podcast.
Um though you only use the example of excavating by
meter square holes, which always causes a single tear to
roll down my cheek. An entire site is when an
entire site is done like that. You also mentioned the
(32:42):
B word brush, which must never be spoken of, let
alone used on a dig. It smears what you're excavating.
It makes it hard to see. So apparently they don't brush.
Maybe I bet it's air, canned air or something. Yeah, exactly.
Movies get it wrong then, because everyone uses a brush
in the movies. Everybody knows that maybe this guy is
(33:05):
getting it wrong over movies. Over All, those guys that
give you nine out of ten, you've covered all the
important bits like uni uniformitarianism, the conflict between civil engineers
and archaeologists at a development, the legal antiquities, and the
thorny issue of returning artifacts to their country of origin.
Was that repatriation? Um, you even got the Nazis in there.
(33:26):
I can't tell you about Arians or North Germanic people's
because I'm hardly an expert and don't want to muddy
the waters. But one of my lecturers told us that
the first non combat unit into Stalingrad in the Second
World War were the s s archaeologists. They were digging
a Bronze age burial mound and earshot of the siege guns.
So that is all the best from will Um, the
(33:49):
archaeologist in Sussex, England and not a fan of brush.
I'm sorry, he says, Sussex UK. Yeah, he just starts
to bullet there. That was close. Thanks a lot. Will
we pre ship that We're glad we gained your trust
or it was fortified by archaeology episode which I think
both of us liked. Uh. If you want to let
us know how we regained your trust or gained it
(34:13):
or it was fortified or whatever, who cares, Just let
us know whatever you want to let us know. You
can tweet to us at s Y s K podcast.
You can join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff
you should know and as always send us an email
to Stuff Podcast at how stuff Works dot com, and
as always, join us at our home on the web,
(34:34):
Stuff you Should Know dot com. For more on this
and thousands of other topics, is it how stuff Works
dot com.
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