Duncan CrowBacteria may account for up to 70% of the dry weight of fecal content. Bad bacterial fluorish, called dysbiosis, is the reason behind the bowel disorders epidemic in developed countries. Since a couple of pounds of *you* is bacterial ecology, you had better be sure it is beneficial; this is easily accomplished in the three or more quarts/liters in your gut by feeding the ecology as opposed to eating much smaller numbers of inert probiotics and not feeding them, a plan that is obviously flawed from the outset.
Inulin references confirm that dietary inulin is a historic and necessary food for the good bowel bacteria bifidobacteria and the better-known lactobacilli, our main probiotics. FOS (fructo-oligosaccharide) is actually a 3% waste fraction of natural inulin that appeals to a wider variety of organisms.
The discussion group Candidiasis is where to get the most comprehensive information on correcting dysbiosis and bowel disorders including candida.
Buy Inulin here and start to correct your bowel ecology today.
Feedback from people who have used and are using this more scientific approach and got better in a much shorter time than diet alone underscores its validity.
Psyllium fiber, available in natural or orange
Stabilized Rice Bran, a nutrient-dense antioxidant-rich insoluble fiber
Dreamfields low-carb pasta containing inulin and fiber, might allow the dietary flexibility you need.
Correct dysbiosis even more quickly by adding one of these probiotics:
NSI probiotic (15 strains - 35 billion CFUs per 2-cap serving) with Viablend™ Gastric Acid Bypass Technology (First choice!)
Now Foods - Eight probiotic formula in enteric-coated capsules
Now Foods - Probiotic Defense with SBOs in a powder or capsules with NO bacillus licheniformis!
Now Foods - Probiotic capsule with 8 billion oganisms - old school but tried and true
What is Dysbiosis?
Dysbiosis, also called dysbacteriosis, is an overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria, viruses, yeasts and fungi that produce gas, irritation and toxins in the bowel 24 hours a day as they ferment your food, because they are not being adequately suppressed by the probiotic organisms, especially bifidobacteria strains.
Here's a quote directly from the research:
In Crohn disease, concentrations of Bacteroides, Eubacteria and Peptostreptococcus are increased, whereas bifidobacteria numbers are significantly reduced. Furthermore, in ulcerative colitis, concentrations of facultative anaerobic bacteria are increased.Other research has linked low bifidobacteria numbers and low probiotic controls generally to ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), bowel candida, vaginitis and vaginal yeast infections, urinary tract infections (UTI), rheumatoid arthritis, pancreatitis, ear infections, diarrhea, constipation, lupus, breast cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, acne, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), and psoriasis.
Bad gut bacteria often begins with an antibiotic regime, sometimes showing up first as antibiotic-associated diarrhea, and is perpetuated by a fiber-deficient and high-carbohydrate diet. Fiber fermentation is a necessary part of digestion and much of it is supposed to be done by the probiotics, which control bad bacteria. Reducing dietary intake of foods that allow vitality of the bad bacteria and candida, while increasing dietary intake of the correct "prebiotic" (probiotic food) inulin, to feed bifidobacteria and somewhat, lactobacilli, will improve their numbers and their control of bowel dysbiosis. This is why maintaining vitality of the probiotic culture in perhaps three or more liters of intestinal slurry works very quickly, while eating relatively much smaller numbers of inert probiotics and not attending to their vitality doesn't work very well.
Not just any probiotic organisms will do the job.
Not acidophilus or other lactobacilli, but bifidobacteria, is really the main probiotic gut bacteria, particularly in young children in whom it can be up to 95% of the total organisms.
On the left, the proof that lactobacilli are not very good probiotics: high numbers of lactobacilli and pathogens may co-exist in the bowel as bifidobacteria numbers fall, while even small fluctuations in probiotic bifidobacteria numbers produce large variations in bowel bacteria, including lacobacilli.
So, the correct way to reverse dysbiosis is not with medication or acidophilus but by bringing up the bifidobacteria numbers with a prebiotic, inulin.
What is prebiotic inulin ?
<< Here's a good deal on inulin, an indigestible, natural functional food ingredient that is water-extracted from the root of the chicory plant, Cichorium intybus, and a few other species. It is comprised of chains of sugar molecules ranging from 3 to 60 units long, the lengths varying according to plant source, type of climate, time of harvest, and the duration and conditions of post-harvest storage. The chain length of "native inulin" averages 9 molecules, while commercial FOS averages 3.7.
FOS and sugars are known to be problematic by supporting harmful bacteria; "native inulin" contains only small amounts of FOS and sugar and does not appreciably support pathogens; instead, it works as a PREbiotic, meaning it feeds PRObiotic bacteria such as bifidobacteria and lactobacilli.
Further, when FOS and sugar are removed, the resulting average chain length of 22 is an extremely specific feed, as the graph at the bottom of this article from research that used "long chain inulin" illustrates.
Actively fermenting probiotics not only outcompete the bad organisms, they produce benefical short chain fatty acids and b-vitamins, exude anti-cancer enzymes, acids and bacteriocin anti-biotics. Only an actively growing probiotic culture creates an unfavorable environment on the crucial position of the bowel lining for unhealthy bowel bacteria such as E.coli, Clostridia, Salmonella, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus and Rotavirus, yeasts, and opportunistic fungi such as candida strains, which can only fluorish in an environment of intestinal dysbiosis. The outcome from feeding your bowel organisms a little inulin is improved bowel habit, nutrient absorption, blood sugar and insulin levels, LDL and VLDL cholesterol, blood pressure, and reduced cancer risk.
More than 36,000 plants world-wide contain inulin, in widely varying amounts. Note the huge variance though, between Onion (2-6%), Garlic (9-16%), Leek (3-10%), Banana (0.3-0.7%), Asparagus (10-15%), Jerusalem artichokes (15-20%), Chicory (13-20%), and wheat (1-4%).
Several portions of high inulin-containing foods daily would meet the minimum of a several grams of inulin; obviously, grains and bananas contain an insignificant amount of inulin but a significant amount of problematic sugars and starches. (see table 1)
Recent human experiments conducted by Gibson et al. (1995) at the Dunn Clinical Nutrition Center (UK) demonstrated that a daily intake of 15 grams inulin during 15 days renders Bifidus the numerically predominant species in feces and colon, while stagnating or decreasing numbers of bacteroides, fusobacteria, clostridia and colifoms -- leaving the total bacterial count essentially unchanged. In addition, inulin's relatively long chain length can also provide a greater number of available carbohydrate units to be used for beneficial bacterial growth. 
As a soluble dietary fiber, inulin also shortens fecal transit time, slightly increases fecal bulk, reduces constipation, has been shown to reduce both serum and hepatic cholesterol and triglycerides, and may provide improved absorption of minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron, and phosphate. Furthermore, unlike FOS, inulin's longer chain length makes it more easily tolerated by the human intestinal system. (Tokunaga, Oku, and Hosoya 1986).
How Exactly Can Hulda Clark's Protocols Be Improved?
While recommending the removal of methanol sources as part of her parasite treatment, Dr. Hulda Clark failed to recognize that the methanol she pursues is not from trace external sources but large amounts created within the bowel during bowel dysbiosis as follows: Natural food fermentation by several non-probiotic bacterial species produces a lot of hydrogen. Hydrogen-using bacteria, hydrogenotrophic methanogens they're called, in turn produce methane from it, adding to the large amount of methane that is aleady being directly produced through fermentation by many bacterial species; methane is known to be a major component of bowel gases. Many methane-using bacteria called methanotrophs use methane to produce largequantities of toxic methanol. Because Dr. Hulda Clark left correcting dysbiosis with inulin out of her protocols, her more literal adherents who follow her works to the letter inadvertently maintain their dysbiosis and also maintain their main methanol exposure. The fact is, inulin references show dysbiosis increases cancer, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, irritable bowel syndrome and candida risk. Clark purports that her protocols are "a cure for all diseases", so obviously her approaches to intestinal health are works in progress and should be treated as such.
What About Elaine Gottschall's Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD)?
The SCD is fundamentally flawed today due to followers maintaining Gottschall's basic ignorance of the difference between short FOS and long inulin fractions, and the crucially important role inulin plays in bowel health; both are detailed by our more current inulin references. Worse, the SCD promotes the use of honey and other carbohydrates that have been proven to promote bowel dysbiosis and, in the upper intestine, a medical condition called SIBO (Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth). Further, the more dogmatic SCD followers also limit the PREbiotic food, inulin, that is already deficient in the diet, and in doing so restrict crucial probiotic fermentation. The followers of Elaine Gottschall's SCD are thus in danger of increasing inflammatory bowel diseases as well as increasing cancer and candida risk.
Proof of aberrant crypt foci and colon polyposis (cancer) increasing in dysbiosis is seen in the research below. followers have seized on what amounts to snapshots of works in progress, and are propagating arguably dangerous health dogma to a unsuspecting and trusting population instead of making the major changes that current prebiotic research and 5,000 years of historic practice predicate. Of course, many people still posess the character to be followers, but increasingly many are waking up and an increasingly free-thinking majority will use this information to think for themselves. This is for you.
What does the prebiotic research tell us?
Part of the inulin references, the table below shows that even though the negative cultures were incubated for an additional seven days at body temperature, much longer than they sit in the human gut, the pathogens exhibited little or no growth on FOS-free, sugar-free inulin. Many other studies referenced in A Comprehensive Scientific Review compare prebiotics in detail and show negative results for bacterial pathogens, yeasts, and fungi cultured on "native inulin", even though the natural product contains about 3% FOS and 10% sugar. Of course, in the natural environment of the gut, probiotic organisms do not allow pathogens to compete for long.
Some probiotic manufacturers may be passing along their own confusion to the public on the difference between FOS and inulin. They correctly state (perhaps to increase probiotic sales?) that FOS can cause digestive upset, but they don't mention that the inulin references detail a better prebiotic that does not cause issues that short chain FOS does.
Inulin References:
A Comprehensive Scientific Review (1.35MB)
Bryan C. Tungland, 2000
Prebiotic carbohydrates modify the mucosa associated microflora of the human large bowel.
NOTE the mucosal layer is a crucially important position where delicate bowel lining tissues are exposed to the outcome
Gut 2004
Intestinal or bowel dysbiosis and prebiotics
from the US National Library of Medicine (Medline) database
Inflammatory Bowel Disease and prebiotics
from the US National Library of Medicine (Medline) database
Diabetes and prebiotics
from the US National Library of Medicine (Medline) database
Bacillary dysentery as a causative factor of irritable bowel syndrome and its pathogenesis.
Gut Aug 2004
Small Intestinal Bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) in fibromyalgia and irritable bowel syndrome
British Medical Journal 2004
Here's a fair primer on Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)
Dysbacteriosis in patients with colon polyposis
NOTE the link chronic dysbiosis has to colon cancer.
Zh Mikrobiol Epidemiol Immunobiol. Sept-Oct 2001
Experimental evidences on the potential of prebiotic fructans to reduce the risk of colon cancer.
Br J Nutr. 2002
Inulin-type fructans and reduction in colon cancer risk: review of experimental and human data.
Br J Nutr. 2005
Dysbiosis in inflammatory bowel disease
Gut 2004
Dysbiosis as a prerequisite for IBD
Gut 2004
Synbiotic therapy (Bifidobacterium longum/Synergy 1) initiates resolution of inflammation in patients with active ulcerative colitis: a randomised controlled pilot trial
Gut 2005
Effect of dietary inulin supplementation on inflammation of pouch mucosa in patients with an ileal pouch-anal anastomosis.
Dis Colon Rectum. 2002
Probiotics and Prebiotics in the Elderly
Postgraduate Medical Journal. 2004
Fermentation of polysaccharides by Klebsielleae and other facultative bacilli
Appl. Environ. Microbiol. May 1980
Inulin and oligofructose as dietary fiber: a review of the evidence.
Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2001 Jul; 41(5): 353-62.
Antioxidative effects of Cichorium intybus root extract on LDL (low density lipoprotein) oxidation.
Arch Pharm Res. 2001 Oct; 24(5): 431-6.
Anti-hepatotoxic effects of root and root callus extracts of Cichorium intybus L.
J Ethnopharmacol. 1998 Dec; 63(3): 227-31.
Prebiotics and probiotics: are they functional foods?
Am J Clin Nutr. 2000 Jun;71(6 Suppl):1682S-7S; discussion 1688S-90S. Review.
Addition of inulin to a moderately high-carbohydrate diet reduces hepatic lipogenesis and plasma triacylglycerol concentrations in humans.
Am J Clin Nutr. 2003 Mar;77(3):559-64.
Applications of inulin and oligofructose in health and nutrition.
J Biosci. 2002 Dec;27(7):703-14.
Dietary chicory inulin increases whole-body bone mineral density in growing male rats.
J Nutr. 2002 Dec;132(12):3599-602.
Non-toxic potentiation of cancer radiotherapy by dietary oligofructose or inulin.
Anticancer Res. 2002 Nov-Dec;22(6A):3319-23.
Biomarkers of bone health appropriate for evaluating functional foods designed to reduce risk of osteoporosis.
Br J Nutr. 2002 Nov;88 Suppl 2:S225-32. Review.
Antitumorigenic activity of the prebiotic inulin enriched with oligofructose in combination with the probiotics Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Bifidobacterium lactis on azoxymethane-induced colon carcinogenesis in rats.
Carcinogenesis. 2002 Nov;23(11):1953-60.
Functional food concept and its application to prebiotics.
Dig Liver Dis. 2002 Sep;34 Suppl 2:S105-10. Review.
Dietary inulin suppresses azoxymethane-induced preneoplastic aberrant crypt foci in mature Fisher 344 rats.
J Nutr. 2002 Sep;132(9):2804-8.
Dietary inulin suppresses azoxymethane-induced aberrant crypt foci and colon tumors at the promotion stage in young Fisher 344 rats.
J Nutr. 2002 Sep;132(9):2809-13.
Effects of prebiotics on mineral metabolism.
Am J Clin Nutr 2001 Feb;73(2 Suppl):459S-464S
