Probiotics Information

 What are Probiotics?      Pro means “For” and Bio stands for “Life”

Probiotics are live microorganisms (bacteria) that line your digestive tract and support your body’s ability to absorb nutrients and fight infection. Commonly known as your gut flora, it weighs between two and four kilograms in the average adult. Your body contains about 10X the number of bacteria as it does cells of your body, so it’s a no brainer that your bacteria count is so important to your health. Your gut contains both beneficial and harmful bacteria. Digestive experts agree that the balance of gut flora should be approximately 85 percent good bacteria and 15 percent bad bacteria. If this ratio gets out of balance, the condition is known as dysbiosis, which means there’s an imbalance of too much of a certain type of fungus, yeast or bacteria that affects the body in a negative way.

How can Probiotics help me as an Athlete?

An athlete’s skill, endurance and power traditionally develop from physical training. This can alter the composition of the gut flora, weaken the immune system, cause muscle fatigue that can lead to injuries and lower one’s energy. A daily dose of replenishing your bacteria count can have significant beneficial effects for athletes wanting to train harder and more importantly perform at their peak.

Probiotic benefits have been proven effective in supporting immune function, increased energy, reducing inflammation, facilitating recovery from fatigue by increasing antioxidant absorption, promote healthy digestion and also help sleep quality and duration. All benefits an athlete of any level needs to perform at their best.

Research has shown that Probiotics can also help with…

• Improving nutritional value of foods
• Replenish cells       •Better mental health
• Healthier Skin         •Reduce allergy severity
• Increase in Endurance
• Protecting against traveller’s diarrhoea

And just in case you needed more convincing athletes can benefit in more ways….

• Probiotics enhances the synthesis of B vitamins and improves absorption of Calcium (bone building)
• Increase iron absorption and improve iron levels. It also has a powerful effect on the immune system and can help reduce the risk of acquiring the common cold.
• Improves lactose tolerance and digestibility of milk products
• Improvements in blood pressure                           
• Helps prevent and reduce acne
• Helps with cholesterol metabolism                           
• Assists with problems of constipation
• Supports re-establishment of micro-flora after antibiotic use
• Can help with recurring Urinary Tract Infection (UTI)
• Helps with detoxification & colon cleansing
• Helps alleviate bad breath                           
• Helps the colonization within the intestine

Why should an Athlete take Probiotics?

Great health starts with the body’s capability to absorb essential nutrients and eradicate metabolic toxins and by products. Today much of our food contains little to no probiotics because sanitation appears everywhere in the want to kill bad bacteria. Unfortunately, this also leads to the demise of many good species of bacteria we require daily.

• The quality of vegetables has changed because of the soil they are grown in. This means the overall quality of the strains of probiotic foods have changed as well.
• Today’s society do not eat 12 serves of fermented foods per day.
• Antibiotic use is far more prevalent than in previous generations. This medicine use will kill off all types of bacteria within our system which makes it even more vital in society today to replenish the good bacteria back into our gut flora.

Over 80% of our immune system is contained in our gut, bacteria are the first line of defense of the immune system. They are responsible for providing essential enzymes, to make nutrients available to the body, to clean up cholesterol, to create B vitamins, to clean out the lower bowels, to extinguish bad bacteria and eliminate toxins in the body

All disease begins in the colon and it is the good bacteria's job to promote a healthy colon

The healthier bacteria we have in our digestive system, the stronger our resistance to pathogens and toxins meaning we can train harder and push ourselves to the limit more often.

• Producing vitamins, enzymes, amino acids and essential fatty acids
• Defence against pathogens
• Promoting the absorption of enzymes from foods
• Stabilising the immune system
• Breaking down metabolic toxins

The balance of healthy versus unhealthy micro-organisms in the body is a delicate one, easily upset by diet, lifestyle factors, antibiotics and environmental toxins. When balance is compromised, disrupting the gut microflora (known as dysbiosis) and then unwanted bacteria begin to thrive, our immune response is weakened, and infections can gain hold. Ultimately as athletes we do not want to be fighting sickness, low energy and constant muscle fatigue while we are training or competing to be the best versions of ourselves.

Protein intake is one issue of vital importance to athletes because of its role in recovery and muscle building. Because your body can only digest about 25 grams of protein at a time, the more you are able to absorb amino acids from what you consume, the greater your anabolic growth potential. Research demonstrates that probiotics play a key role in the muscle growth process and improved recovery by increasing uptake of amino acids in the small intestine. For example, the spore Bacillus Coagulans was shown in research to increase protein uptake, leading to reduced muscle damage, decreased muscle soreness and improved recovery among athletes.

An athlete can be more prone to bacterial and viral infections for up to 72 hours after training. It makes perfect sense that the number one supplement to compliment all your dietary needs, training habits and performance aspirations has to be Innergy – Athlete Probiotics.

When should an Athlete take Probiotics?

Everyday! We are made up of trillions of bacteria and on any given day we can be killing off millions of good bacteria through diet, exercise and natural ageing. So, it is ideal to top up your good bacterial count with a daily dose of Innergy. Take it first thing after waking up from your night’s sleep as a fast breaking ritual or have Innergy as your pre training or competition drink to blast your cells into life!