Probiotics an Effective Solution for Celiac Disease

With antibiotics running rampant as a medical solution while causing massive destruction to beneficial gut flora, it is imperative to make every attempt to restore that ‘good’ bacteria in the body. Probiotics, also known as ‘friendly’ or ‘good’ bacteria, are essential for optimal health and have been shown to protect the body against a slew of health conditions. One such condition which may be prevented or even reversed with the regular ingestion of probiotics is celiac disease.

Probiotics Shown to Reverse Celiac Disease

Celiac disease is a condition referring to damage to the small intestine which prevents it from properly absorbing important food parts that contribute to health. The damage caused to the lining of the small intestine is from a reaction of eating gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. If consuming gluten while having celiac disease, your immune system will attack the small intestine, leading to the difficulty of nutrient absorption. After reaching the point of developing celiac disease, you will want to follow a strict gluten-free diet.

A study examining the impact orally ingested probiotics have on the development of celiac disease found that probiotics are actually a sound solution for reversing the diseases’ development. Using a mouse model, researchers fed Saccharomyces boulardi KK1, a probiotic strain, to mice and found that:

“The selected probiotic treatment reversing disease development will allow the study of the role of probiotics as a new therapeutic approach of CD.”

Another PubMed study reports:

“Impairment of the intestinal barrier is a key event in various gastrointestinal diseases, including inflammatory bowel diseases, celiac disease, gastrointestinal infections, diarrhea, and critical illness. Recent studies demonstrated that probiotic bacteria have beneficial effects in these diseases by effectively improving intestinal barrier function.”

With at least 3 million Americans being affected by celiac disease, the findings highlighting the benefits of probiotics and their positive impact on the disease will prove more than useful. Each person’s body contains nearly 100 trillion bacteria, with many of them being ‘good’ bacteria and some being bad. Although the the friendly bacteria are crucial for positively impacting countless diseases like depression, metabolic syndrome, and mental illnesses,  bad bacteria has a place too – with the optimal ratio being 85 percent ‘good’ bacteria and 15 percent bad bacteria.

While suffering from inflammatory diseases like celiac disease, heart disease, or autoimmune disorders, it is imperative to limit grains in your diet if you are to see positive results from probiotic use. Being highly pro-inflammatory, grains will essentially render the anti-inflammatory aspects of probiotics useless. However, following a grainless diet while consuming probiotic-rich foods such as yogurt, or taking as a supplement, should help to reverse celiac disease while simultaneously promoting overall health.