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The Skinny on Probiotics · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to you stuff you should know from house Stuff
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant from Jerry, This
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: is Snow. No guest producer, No Ben Bolan, just us.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: That really got into your crowd? And what the three
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: D printing? Frank, What I don't know that prank? Ben
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Bolan sitting in for you? Oh that yeah, how many
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: pranks have you pulled? No, no, I didn't know. I
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: didn't know it was three D printing. I thought he
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: printed something for me. No, no, no, I thought that
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: was great. I thought it was pretty fun. Yeah, you
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: know what, I'm looking forward to. What are Christmas episode?
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: In our Halloween episode? Because those two no one can
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: complain about. There are no sides to be taken. Oh,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: you guys seem to favor Christmas in the Christmas episode.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: You're a very new true about it. Yeah, those are
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: definitely we love those episodes. We do or like anything
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: on like Plato or Spammer or we didn't do Plato yet,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: did we. No, it's in the queue. Yeah, it's coming. Yeah,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: it's supposedly very neat stuff. That's right. I was deprived
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: as a child that was not allowed to play with toys.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: But I just sit in a room quietly for the
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: first twelve years of my life. A little Albert I wish. Yeah, yeah,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: at least he got to be exposed to rabbits and
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: stuff like that. Speaking of you know, I did a
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: video on little Albert. Oh yeah, don't be dumb. No
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: on psychology is nuts? Okay. Oh and speaking of video,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: what a perfect segue. We have a new video series
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: out called Studio Show Notes. And if you've ever wanted
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: to get inside the studio with this, this is the
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: best way to do it. Yeah. That or win a contest. Yeah,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: we like bring the cameras in here, and we talk
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: about like some newsy things. It's usually a news item
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: that relates to a past show or if there's an
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: update or a correction. And it's short and sweet and uh,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: that's short. It's cool. No, it's sweet. It's tangy. Yeah,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: short and tangy. Yeah, it's good. Yes. So the Studio
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Show Notes. Yeah, And you can go to our YouTube
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: channel search Josh and Chuck and YouTube. Check those out
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: and don't be done. We've got some good videos going
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: lately and psychology is nuts, right, thanks man? Yeah, so
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: now onto probiotics, Chuck, Yes, you remember when we went
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: to Guatemala. Yeah, you and Jerry both took probiotics. I
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: think I had a timed into it. I did, and
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: it did nothing to help you. There was a Jerry
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: which one if you got sick? Oh, I did, yes,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: because of the ice and the rum drinks. Think. I
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: closed my mouth in the shower, did everything right all week,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: and that last night I went crazy at a dance
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: club and drank ice y with alcohol. Man, that's crazy. Yeah,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't trade it though. That was like one of
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: the best nights. How long are you sick for? I
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: don't remember, but I had what do they call it?
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: The gut? Chuck late, that's so gross? Is so gross?
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: That's so gross. It tore me up. Luckily it was
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: after I'd gotten back home because I could not imagine.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: I remember thinking at the time, Man, if I was
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: in Guatemala suffering through this right now, I would be miserable. Yeah,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: because I'd be missing out on the trip from our
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: friends at at the Cooperative for Education co ed dot org.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: The question remains, thought, Well, no, I know you took probiotics,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: but the question remains, like, did it help you? Did
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: it shorten the duration of your travelers diarrhea? Have no
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: idea what someone called? No, you don't. No one knows
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: because probiotics, although very intuitive, isn't backed up with science.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Not not yet. Yeah, a little bit. Uh, and we'll
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: we'll get to findings. But um, yeah, I don't want
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: to spoil it yet. We'll get to that later. No,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: but again, it's extremely intuitive. It makes a lot of sense.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Probiotics means for life or good life in favor of life. Yeah. Um,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: it's the idea and the practice of taking bacteria that's
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: been proven or suggested to be beneficial to the health
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: of our guts um and ingesting it like either in
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: a pill form or in certain types of food. Yeah.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Northern Europe and Japan have been big on this for
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: a while. Yeah. As a matter of fact, the whole
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: concept of eating bacteria to improve health rather than contracting
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: disease comes from Europe, comes from Central Europe or Eastern Europe.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: There's a Nobel Prize winner and his name was Eli.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Uh what is it nice um? And mansh Nikov said Russian. Yeah,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: but he was studying Bulgarians. He was studying the longevity
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: of Bulgarian peasants, and Bulgarian peasants were known to eat
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: a fermented milk product called caelo mil yaco, which is
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: sheep's milk yogurt, known colloquially here in the US is
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Bulgarian sour milk, and it's a fermented milk product. Sounds
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: it does, but all that, it's pretty tasty. It's probably
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: like keffer. I've never had that either. It's not bad.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: It's like it's like a much more liquid e Greek yogurt. Okay.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: I definitely though if if I had a hot day
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: working in the yard and then it's about some Bulgarian
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: sour milk it's room temperature, yeah no, you would not
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: want to do that. But after a m you just
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: eat it. Okay, your Bulgarian, your balky bartacamus now and
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: you are living forever because you've been eating Bulgarian sour
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: milk for your whole life. So minch Nikof was studying
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: this at the beginning of the twentieth century, and in
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: around nine I think around ninety seven he published this
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: whole idea like wait a minute, I figured it out.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: There is a fermented or fermenting bacteria called lacto bacillus
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: that basically produces lactic acid during the fermentation process, and
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: it's in this food stuff, and if you eat this
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: food stuff, you will gain health benefits from it. And
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: everybody was like, shut up, you crazy Russian. You're probably
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: friends with rescipute or something, and we're not going to
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: listen to you. But it turns out he was totally right. Well, yeah,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: I think he was like, these are Bulgarian peasants. They
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: should not be this healthy, you know, because they don't
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: have all the benefits of living in a different place
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: and having a lot of wealth. Now, and you saw
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: perfect strangers like BALKI was not risk averse, accident prone.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: There are a lot of reasons you shouldn't have been alive,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: see Bulgarian. I think. So I didn't watch it? What
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: I didn't watch it? I know the show, but I
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: didn't watch it. You should go back and watch it. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: cut show. I like the dude and the other guy too. Yeah.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: I don't know why I didn't watch it becausin what
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: year was that? Yeah, mid late eighties, like eighties, seven
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: eighty eight. I was watching Moonlighting. You could have watched
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: them both. I don't think they were on in different
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: time slots. You remember the time slot, dude, the one
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: where they have to move a piano upstairs. Classic it is.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: It's great TV. But I guess did they get it
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: all the way to the top and it rolled back
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: on somebody? I think that happened in the middle oh man. Yeah.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: So anyway, Um, Mitchtikov publishes his findings, they go largely
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: ignored and um. Around the same time, actually, a few
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: years before, there was a Frenchman named ri ti A
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: and in he started studying the poop of healthy breastfed
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: infants and he noticed that the healthiest ones all had
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: something called what he called bifido bacterium. So why shape
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Graham negative bacteria? And uh he said, you know what,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: I think this is linked to health. And again no
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: one listened to him because at the time it was like,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: we're all happy with germ theory. Yeah that sounds that
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: was probably like magic. This flies in the face of
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: germ theories, like, yeah, we agree, there's little tiny things around,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: but they're trying to kill us. They're not making us healthier. Well,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: these two guys said, yes they are, and they provided
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: the basis for probiotics, which still today. The two types
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: of probiotics, the two genera of probiotics that are UM
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: that are viewed as beneficial are lack of basilus and bacteria. Yeah,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: it's crazy that they were onto this way back then
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: and now it's becoming a very trendy thing. And uh,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: if you go to buy a supplement, they say to
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: look for like at least so many billion of those
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: two strains. One billion is the minimum amount, but they
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: recommend much more than that, Like Emily takes ones. It's
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: like fifteen billion. Because and we'll get into this too,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: you can't necessarily count on all those fifteen billion being
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: alive by the time they hit your intestines, I know,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: but we'll get to that. Although it's sort of just
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: so let's let's talk about UM probiotics in general. Like
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: the World Health Organization, like you said, Europe and Japan
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: have been hip to the probiotics for a while UM
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: and the World Health Organization created a definition that's just
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: out of this world. Live microorganisms, which, when administered in
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host. That
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: sounds on the host to say the person, right and
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: live organisms like you could that could be possums. Yeah,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: but the need of possums that doesn't confer health in
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: a bit, Well, there's only one way to find out
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: if it does or not. Yeah, yeah, haven't tried it.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: And like we said these days, um, it's in a
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: lot of food products. Um, A lot of people are
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: on the supplement plan though, just to take him in
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: a capsule form, right, But when you add something like
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: a probiotic to food, you create what's called in the
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: industry a functional food. And there's a bit of problem
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: with functional foods in that they have made a lot
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: of claims because they're not regulated by the f d A. Uh,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: and so they can say certain things they can't say
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: other things. And like, um, I guess we can go
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: ahead and say because it's public news. Dan and who
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: made Activia. Um, we all saw the commercials with Jamie
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Lee Curtis. Just one serving will make your regular. Um.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: I even worked on a photo shoot for I just
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: remembered that now with her for Activita for Activia way
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: back in the day. And uh, she got mad because
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: the PA was taking pictures of her like mad, mad
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: she wasn't very nice about it. What did she say? Um, well,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: I was just doing that p A thing where you know,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: there's a scene he's try and get close and listen.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Were you the one who was taking pictures? No, no, no, no,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: not my friend was um. And it was on the beach,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: and I just remember him taking pictures in her like.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: She didn't smash his camera. She didn't show him penna,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: but she had it smashed. No, no, no, she had it. Um.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: She had the film taken from him though this is
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: pretty digital. Oh well, yeah, I just remember that. I'm
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: not knocking Jamie Lee Curtis. No. I mean, you know,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: it's like the paparazzi following me all the way. You
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: can't even get away from it on a film smashed
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: the camera. Um. But danon Um did get into trouble
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: because they overstated the effects. And while they're not under
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: the f d A, the FDC got involved and said
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: the Federal Trade Commission and called them out and they
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: had to stop making those claims of regularity. Um. They
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: had to stop making claims that it prevented cold and flu. Yeah,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: and they had to pay out one million dollars to
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: thirty nine state attorney generals, which I don't I guess
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: those are fines. I couldn't get exactly how they're settlements.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: They were sued, well, I don't think they were sued. Yeah,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: it turned by the way attorneys general. Yeah, sorry, it
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: was William Stapphire's ghosts going through me. But um, they
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: they sue like they get together and say hey, like,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: I guess I just thought they were fine. Well, either way,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: they had to pay out money, and they had to
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: stop overstating these things and go to more generalized claims,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: which they paid out twenty one million. You say, yeah,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: I mean that it may have ended up being more
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: than that. Even that's not too bad because the first
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: year that activity was out, according to this article, it
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: made a hundred million dollars in sales. Twenty one million
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: here chairs, But the point is if activity it could
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: make a hundred million dollars in sales. It's a yogurt.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Everybody a hundred million dollars in sales in the US,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: and it's a yogurt. It show It's like, wow, people
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: really want this, they want probiotics. They believe in it.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: But we find after looking into it, like, well, there
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: everybody like, yes, it makes sense, we know it makes sense,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: and yes, yogurt can be delicious, but we also know
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: yogurt is good for you. Yeah, and and but we've
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: got to get to the science of all this, and
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: we will get to the science of this right after this.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: Everybody so chuck. Everybody's really hot and heavy to buy activity,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: to take probiotics supplements, like everyone wants us to work
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: because the idea of friendly little bacteria getting into our
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: tommi's and you know, tickling everything just right to make
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: everything go well, you know, especially like if you can't
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: poop or something like that, or if you're pooping a lot,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: right then then this idea very much appeals to you.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Eat some yogurt, feel better. That sounds great. That's like
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: what food ideally is supposed to do is to make
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: you feel better, not give you diabetes and a few
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: from standing up from the couch. You know, it's supposed
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: to like make you jump on the beach and have
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: someone's camera broken when they take pictures. It's supposed to
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: make you poop. Like that's what food is supposed to do.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: And I think that's why Activita sold as much as
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: it did and that's why people want this stuff to work.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: But like I said, we have to get into the
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: science of it, and the science is there in some cases,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: but not nearly as far as it's being stretched at
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: this point. Yeah. I went to the Harvard uh et
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: U site to look at the skinny on what they
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: found in right now in they can pretty much say
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: with great confidence through study scientific study that, uh, it
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: can help your bowel situation. It can reduce diarrhea. Hey man,
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: your bow sitch. It can help you maybe if you
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: have IBS or if you have taken antibiotics that give
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: you diarrhea because they give me diarrhea like crazy. Um,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: they've they've pretty much sussed that out with studies. Yes,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: all those are backed up with study. Yeah, um, so
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: it'll it can help you. If you have intestinal issues,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: it can help you. Um. There are other intestinal issues
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: that it's being touted to be able to help, like
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Crohn's disease. Jury is still out on that, even though
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: a lot of people are like, yeah, probiotics can help
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: and that would make sense intuitively because the beneficial probiotics
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: like um Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus um supposedly cut down on
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: inflammation and an inflammation response, and that's what Crohn's disease is.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: UM and they they supposedly also can help with everything
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: from vaginal infections UM to allergies, childhood allergies. All of
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: these claims are being made about probiotics and again, intuitively
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: they may help, they could consumably help, but the science
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: is not. They're backing it up. And that's not to
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: say that the science is saying no this, We've we've
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: shown that this doesn't have an effect. It's at the
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: point where these studies are just now beginning to be
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: carried out, so a body of study on them is
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: starting to now be a massed in the United States
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: at least. Yeah. Um, it's a difficult thing to study
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: because you have to study feces uh and um. I
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: think Molly wrote this. She pointed out a good point.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: Even if you do study feces, and even if you
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: do find that a certain amount of bacteria has made
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: it all the way through into your feces, um, you
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: don't necessarily know what exactly it did, right, I mean,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: it has reported findings like I felt better or I
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: didn't have diarrhea as long this time. I took any
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: bodys and there's a lot of dispute also over what
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: constitutes an effective dose. And when you're talking about probiotics,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: what you're taking are called all any forming units cf US,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: and these are viable bacteria that can reproduce and spread
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: and colonize your colon. Right. So this panel of UM
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: I guess, probiotic experts academics got together and I think
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Florida in October of two thousand thirteen and said, we've
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: studied all the literature, We've done some meta analysis, and
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: this is what we've concluded, and they recommend that you
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: take no less than one billion colony forming units c
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: f US, so it's tend to the ninth power. And
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: like you said, Emily takes them that are like fifteen
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: billion colony forming units UM. And that they also said
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: that we need to study more particular species and strains,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: because if you say Biffeto Bacterium or Lacto bacillus, you're
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: talking about an entire genera of bacteria, not even like
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: a strain or species, a genera, right, And you you
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: can't say, oh, Biffeto Bacterium is good for uh crones.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: That's like saying red pills make you healthy? Like what
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: what what type of red pills and what do the
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: red pills specifically do. So, thanks to the Human Microbiome Project,
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: which we've talked about before in the episode, we're starting
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: to get a clearer picture of what constitutes a healthy
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: gut in an average person depending on your genetic makeup, right,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: and what constitutes an unhealthy gut. And once we start
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: to understand what a healthy gut looks more like, we
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: can kind of enrich that environment and maybe add more
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: bacteria to the beneficial bacteria probiotic list. Yeah, there's a
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: researcher um at the University of Colorado School of Medicine
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: that says that there's just a misconception out there that
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: you're just reseting your good bacteria that's missing. She her
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: basic point is is there's a lot of over generalization
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: going on, like you were talking about with the red pill. Um.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: She thinks there's a lot of potential in the future
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: and that it could end up doing a lot of this,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: But the notion of you know, you're receding your bacteria
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: and it's good for you and that's all you need
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: to know, it's just a big oversimplification of what's going
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: on because everyone's different and like you said, the different
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: strains and h what's good for one person might not
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: be as good for another. It's like super specific. But
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: the two the two genera biffido Bacterium and UM Lactobacillus
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: have been shown to the reason they're considered probiotics is
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: because they are not necessarily going in and recolonizing your
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: your gut, like those things are present, but again, you're
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: the the healthy microbiome we're starting to understand is just
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: this huge grab bag that can change from person to person,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: from UM race to race basically UM. But those two specifically,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: those two genera specific have effects on things like your
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: immune system, like they spur the production of immunoglobin A
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: or UM beta defense in which are both they they're
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: they're both immune proteins that go after pathogens, so they
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: help with your immune system. These two things do specifically, Yeah,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: that's what you you want to look for those two,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: and those are the two main players anyway, Like if
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: you're going to get a probiotic, you're probably gonna find those.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: But not coincidentally, those are also the ones that were
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: discovered a hundreds something years ago and have been studied
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: in one form of fashion ever since. So as we
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: start to come across more potentially good bacteria from the
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: Human Microbiome Project, they will be studied in um more
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: detail and we'll get a better idea of this particular strain,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: of this species of this genera is probably good for this, right. Yeah.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: And then there's the whole thing of prebiotics, which we
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: should talk about right for this. Okay, So you're in
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: the store and you want to get something good for
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: your gut because you've been pooping, you have a diarrhea,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: and you just got general trouble with your stomach. Place forever,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: place forever. Uh. You go in and you see probiotics
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: and you think, hey, I've heard of those on the news.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: There Jamie Nae Curtis is dancing on the beach um
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: coating herself with yogurt and she's doing great. And but
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: this pre biotic, what in the world is that that
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: is not the same prebiotics spurs this growth. It's these bacteria.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: It's like food for probiotics. Yeah. Instead of a probiotic,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: which is the actual bacteria you're ingesting, probiotics will help
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: them grow Yeah, you're giving it a nourishing environment to
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: grow in, and you can take them both at the
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: same time. Yeah, there's something called symbiotics, which is prebiotic
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: and the probiotics. So it's the food and the thing
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: that eats the food all mixed together. And things like yogurt, kefir, kimchi, miso,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: sour kraut, fermented foods like that, they have it naturally.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: Those are symbiotics. They have both and and probe prebiotics.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: It's kind of just fiber in a lot of cases,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: dietary fiber that they like to eat and ferment. Al Right, Well,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: we talked earlier about Um, you don't know exactly how
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: much you're getting in some of these foods. Um, that's
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: a problem because you don't know if you don't know
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: what dosage you need, you don't know how much is
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: six Because these things are you know, that's why there's
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: fifteen billion of them in a tiny little pill. They
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: die very easily and through packaging and chipping. Uh, you
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: don't know how much you're gonna be getting in the end. Yeah,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: if you're if not in the end, you know what
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: I mean? Well, you know, like if you look if
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: you go into a health of food store or something, right,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: and they have probiotics. They might have some of that
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: are refrigerated, but then they have some on the shelf.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Like what's the difference. Well, the ones on the shelf
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: have undergone a process of freeze drying. They're basically in
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: cryonic suspendure suspended animation right then, and it protects them
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: being in that state like basically, and it protects them
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: from exposure to um when they're if they're exposed to
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: heat or cold or um moisture, all they're not moisture.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Once they're exposed the moisture, they come back and they're
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: they're in trouble unless they're in your tomic. But so
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: those those have been free stright, the ones that are
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: in the refrigerator are likely not freeze right, and they're
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: much more fragile. Yeah, that's what Emily's are refrigerated and expensive. Well, yeah,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: because it costs a lot more to take care of
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: them to keep them in a state of um life
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: so that they can have an effect. The problem is
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: when you buy those at the store, you have no
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: idea of what you're buying is the real deal or not,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: because like you said, the f d A isn't regulating this,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: Uh true, But there you can do a little research
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: and find out, like, you know, I don't think there's
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: a ton of snake oil out there, is there? Well,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: so I read this article from consumer lab dot com.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Was it called snake oil as proa No, it was.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: It was basically it was saying like in two thousand nine,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: they did a random sample of probiotics on the market,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: didn't have the advertised amount of bacteria and because they
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: had died off some for whatever reason. Yeah, because that's
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: the thing, like, let's say I sell you a bunch
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: of bacteria and you're gonna put them into pills, but
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: you don't. You know, man, I got some poto back
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: to how much? What do you what do you want?
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: How much? We'll talk later. I'll give you a good deal,
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: all right, So but you you don't invest and let
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: it not be like that last batch. This one's this
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: one's even cool. I had him died neon green for you.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: All right, you can do something with that um but
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: they have like vacuum machines that you you deal with
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: this this bacteria and put into pillform or whatever. Let's
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: say you don't invest in that. You just run it
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: through a regular pill machine, all the bacteria dies. Even
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: if you know that stead, you can still slap that
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: in and be like, there's fifty billion cf us in
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: each pill. Pill get it, come get it. Knowing they're dead,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: nothing's going to happen to you. You're not running a
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: foul of the FDA so long as you're not saying,
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: and this stuff can cure your crowns disease, because all
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: the FDA is concerned with is your claims to what
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: your product can do, not whether that's stuff's in there. Yeah,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: I will say this. I often find myself buying them
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: for her because I'm errand boy. At the health food store,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: they have very boring labels. They look more like medicine
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: and they say, you know, fifteen thousand or fifteen billion. Sorry,
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: wo uh, it's all listened on the label. I went
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: to get her recently, I was at a big chain
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: grocery store and she said, Hey, I'm out, just see
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: what they have there. And I knew what they wouldn't
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: have the stuff that the health food store had, but
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: I perused and what you find in the grocery store
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: are major brands selling what to me, looks like a
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: bunch of bs for sure. I mean, why not if
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: every if a hundred million, if people want to buy
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: a hundred million dollars with of Activita, and you're you're
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: a supplement manufacturer, why wouldn't you get in on that.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: You already know the ins and outs of the federal
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: regulations here sucker by this, Yeah, that's the problem. Like
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: and even with the good stuff that you trust that
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: the health food store, it's not necessarily snake oil. It
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: is probably made in earnest um. But the key is
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: it may have undergone like the refrigerator truck maybe broke
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: down on the way and the whole batch was ruined.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: They're still gonna sell it, and they'll still there's no
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: no repercussion, and you will have no idea whether it's
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: effective or not. That's why we need probiotics probably do work,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: but we have to figure out how to how much
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: is the right amount, and how to deliver that amount
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: in a way that is going to basically stay effective
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: throughout the production and transportation and distribution segments, some kind
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: of regulations, and then when it hits your stomach, it's
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: gonna survive your stomach and then dissolving your gut, which
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: is what's supposed to happen. So we're just not quite
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: there yet. But that doesn't mean that they're those probiotics
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: that you trust don't actually work. They very well may work. Yeah,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: And the consensus that everyone agrees on is you're not
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: gonna you're not gonna hurt yourself by taking probiotics. Right there.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: There have been studies that have shown like, if you're
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: a healthy person, it may not do anything for you,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: but it's probably not going to hurt you. But there
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: was one big exception with pancreatitis. In this article, Um,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: there's a study that's cited to where a group of
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: people who have pancreatitisents with pancreatitis. Some received probiotics, others
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: received a placebo. And even with everything else being equal,
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: all things being equal, the people who are taking probiotics,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: twenty four of them died, which is twice the number
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: of the death in the placebo group, which is just weird.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: That is weird. And then also, if you have a
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: lowered or compromised immune system, you probably should avoid probiotics.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Is the other warning that I came across. I've also
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: seen that it could possibly maybe help with not getting cancer,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: but you shouldn't take them if you're getting cancer treatment.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: But I don't know if that's right on either. I
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: haven't heard that one. Uh. Some Canadians have researched UM
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: and they think and see, this is still the wild West,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: like we said, like there's so many claims that they
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: think might like in ten years, this would be a
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: completely different show. But researchers in Canada have linked UH
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: supplement it's too lower levels of anxiety, UM and stress
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: and UH. This past December, the British Journal of Nutrition
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: found that women supplementing their diet UM we're more likely
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: to lose weight compared to the placebo. Again, like there's
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: that that just could be correlation to you never know,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: but it makes sense because there's that mind gut connection
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: where like the vast majority of our serotonin is produced
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: in our gut and travels up to our brains. Yeah,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: well that's what they're the Canadians are thinking exactly that.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: As far as stress reduction, they're thinking that's a two
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: way street there. So what do you do in the
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: meantime by the yogurt and just take a bath in it.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: That's that's one thing you can do, UM if you
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: have some especially if you have some sort of gut
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: related disease or condition. UM, find peer viewed academic articles
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: on what probiotics may or may not work for that condition,
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: and then try that. Go find the best ones you
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: can find are the ones that you trust the most.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: UM And the National Institutes of Health actually has a
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: pretty open minded UM probiotics page. Several probiotics page, but UM,
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: at least the one I lacked to Basilus gives recommended
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: doses for different UM I guess bowel conditions. Yeah, I
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: bet you there's It's probably not the hardest thing to
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: get some funding for studying this stuff right now. Yeah,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: it's probably a good time to be in that research.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: The microbiome is so hot right now. Yeah, they're doing
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, they're testing all kinds of things that the
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: lady from Colorado said that, Um, they've done studies and
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: rodents that suggests that certain microbes might mitigate a high
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: fat diet. So maybe it could help treat obesity, who knows?
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: Who knows? This is when we should definitely follow up
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: on with studio show notes. Oh we will man in
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: a year, Okay, if we're still doing that show, we are,
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: by god, you got it? Yeah, I got nothing else. Um,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: they won't hurt you. They could help give it a try.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: Although again, if you have pancreatitus, look into it. And
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: again I suggest to not if you really want to
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: see if it works, go to the nutrition health food store.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: Spend a little money on the real deal. Don't buy
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: the little box at your grocery store that has like
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: if it has a lot of pictures of people smiling
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: and things. I say, no, okay, why is words from chuck? Uh?
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: If you want to know more about probiotics, you can
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: type that word in the search part how stuff works
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: dot com. And since I said search part, it's time
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: for a listener mail. Uh. This is an archaeologist wrote
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: in to say we did a good job. Guys. I'm
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: so relieved my faith is maintained. Always knew. Um, you
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: weren't experts, but you do do a lot of research,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: and so I take things you say with a pinch
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: of salt. But you were really spot on with my
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: field of expertise with archaeology. Um, and I'm gonna trust
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: you more from now on. Since university I've done digs
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: the Viking Age and York, the Talayokic Bronze Age and Majorca,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: and the Hellenic Byzantine period in Georgia. Um, so he's
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: done a lot of digs. He's touting his dicks. I've
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: encountered many different archaeological methods and from now and I
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: think I'll refer to them, refer them to your podcast.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: Um though you only use the example of excavating by
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: meter square holes, which always causes a single tear to
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: roll down my cheek. An entire site is when an
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: entire site is done like that. You also mentioned the
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: B word brush, which must never be spoken of, let
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: alone used on a dig. It smears what you're excavating.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: It makes it hard to see. So apparently they don't brush.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: Maybe I bet it's air, canned air or something. Yeah, exactly.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: Movies get it wrong then, because everyone uses a brush
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: in the movies. Everybody knows that maybe this guy is
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: getting it wrong over movies. Over All, those guys that
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: give you nine out of ten, you've covered all the
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: important bits like uni uniformitarianism, the conflict between civil engineers
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: and archaeologists at a development, the legal antiquities, and the
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: thorny issue of returning artifacts to their country of origin.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: Was that repatriation? Um, you even got the Nazis in there.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: I can't tell you about Arians or North Germanic people's
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: because I'm hardly an expert and don't want to muddy
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: the waters. But one of my lecturers told us that
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: the first non combat unit into Stalingrad in the Second
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: World War were the s s archaeologists. They were digging
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: a Bronze age burial mound and earshot of the siege guns.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: So that is all the best from will Um, the
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: archaeologist in Sussex, England and not a fan of brush.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, he says, Sussex UK. Yeah, he just starts
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: to bullet there. That was close. Thanks a lot. Will
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: we pre ship that We're glad we gained your trust
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: or it was fortified by archaeology episode which I think
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: both of us liked. Uh. If you want to let
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: us know how we regained your trust or gained it
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: or it was fortified or whatever, who cares, Just let
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: us know whatever you want to let us know. You
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: can tweet to us at s Y s K podcast.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: You can join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: you should know and as always send us an email
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: to Stuff Podcast at how stuff Works dot com, and
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: as always, join us at our home on the web,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know dot com. For more on this
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics, is it how stuff Works
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: dot com.