By Michael Biamonte, C.C.N.

A startling fact I’ve discovered recently is that many patients cannot tolerate acidophilus, whether it is milk-free or not. For those of you reading this who do not know what acidophilus is, acidophilus is a friendly bacteria, commonly found in yogurt, which lives in your intestinal tract. It fights off parasites, harmful germs, bacteria, yeast and funguses that can grow and make you very ill.

If you’re an educated reader, at this point you must be thinking I’m referring to acidophilus that is either a milk base, has milk sugars in it, or something of that nature. And I assure you right now-absolutely-I am not! When I say your acidophilus might be making you sick, I’m referring to any type of acidophilus sold in any health food store anywhere. It doesn’t matter what base it’s in, or what it’s derived from. I’m referring to any acidophilus or any bifidus bacteria under the sun.

This is a startling statement but I can prove it with research facts.

Recently, I found in my own practice many patients reporting skin rashes, skin itching and skin sensitivities after taking acidophilus and bifidus bacteria. I mistakenly thought that this was due to their getting a cleansing reaction in their intestinal tract; that these friendly bacteria must have been cleaning poisons or toxins or harmful organisms like Candida or parasites out of their intestines. Some patients even reported having vaginal infections break out after acidophilus. Truly, I thought, this must be due to the fact that it’s having some good response.

Well, I’ve recently discovered that acidophilus in some people can cause an actual allergic or immune suppressing response. In other words, there are some people who are sensitive and allergic to this friendly intestinal flora. Now, these people will usually have many other problems too. It’s actually rare to find someone who simply has an acidophilus allergy as his/her only symptom.

The typical profile of someone who reacts poorly to acidophilus is this: Upon taking acidophilus of any kind, they may develop skin rashes or skin itching, or some type of skin sensitivity. Also, they may develop what seems like a sinus infection or nasal drip. They may suffer very severe abdominal cramps or diarrhea, or discover that they have an increase in food allergies or environmental sensitivities. Many people with this profile-the acidophilus allergy-already have bad food allergies and are very sensitive to many things in their environment. But, acidophilus makes it worse.

Now, why would this be? How could this friendly bacteria, this great nutritional supplement which has been hailed in books all over the world as providing so much benefit to mankind, cause this problem?

Well, there’s a simple reason that I’ve discovered. I have found that many people are lacking a protective layer in their intestinal tract, which is naturally there, and which would prevent them from becoming sensitive or irritated by even their friendly, normal, natural intestinal bacteria. Without this natural protective coating or layer in their intestinal tract (even friendly bacteria which should be there to help you produce vitamins, keep harmful germs out of your system, and many other benefits) horrible reactions will occur and send someone running to the doctor.

Recently, I’ve discovered substances which are natural and found in plants which, when taken orally, help to build up this protective layer and de-sensitize someone to acidophilus and also in general to most food allergies, chemicals, and toxins in their environment.

It seems that in most people who are chemically sensitive or allergic to anything, the very first flaw in their system is in the intestinal tract. The intestinal tract lacking this protective coating, or worse yet, having intestinal permeability (which is also called “leaky gut syndrome”) are the underlying flaws in most people who are allergic. When someone lacks this protective coating in their intestinal tract, foods, chemicals, and microorganisms such as parasites, bacteria, yeast and viruses can then begin irritating the lining of the intestinal tract. What will happen next is that the immune system will start reacting at the line of the intestinal tract in order to fight back. This creates inflammation, swelling, and further irritation of the intestinal lining. This, in itself, besides causing intestinal pain, intestinal cramps and irritation, will begin allergic reactions throughout the body. It seems that these allergic reactions, begun in the intestinal tract, trigger skin reactions such as itching, hives, rashes, etc. As this continues for a length of time, the next step is that the intestinal lining becomes further degraded and starts to actually develop barriers that are leaky. The normal villi in the intestinal tract, which are hair-like structures that help absorb vitamins, minerals, and different nutrients from your food, become damaged. These tiny hairs are not able to absorb the nutrients from your food that are passing through your intestines and then send them into your bloodstream so your cells, glands and organs can use them.

Instead, holes or leaky patches develop at different points of the intestinal tract where large particles of foods, pollens, chemicals, microorganisms, whatever, then fall between the cracks and into your bloodstream. It is only the presence of these larger holes or leaks that allow these substances that would have never normally gotten into your bloodstream, to enter. Being in your bloodstream, they now create havoc. Bad reactions, allergies, environmental allergies are soon to follow. This is how the person then becomes an “allergic to everything” type of person.

One of the major differences discovered in someone who is HIV positive as opposed to someone who has full-blown AIDS is the person with full-blown AIDS has developed this leaky gut syndrome. Naturally, due to that, he is much more susceptible to contracting other infections and other problems. The person who is merely HIV positive, who doesn’t have this leaky gut syndrome, has more protection as his intestinal tract is not allowing these things to pass through.

It would be correct to say that most likely all people suffering from any type of skin rash or sensitivity have, to some degree, this syndrome of leaky gut, or a weakened protective lining of the intestinal tract.

The good news is that this situation can be remedied. Using some of the substances I mentioned earlier, the plant substances which are called mucins, to rebuild the friendly protective coating of the intestinal tract, and then using other specific nutrients which have been found to be able to rebuild the actual lining of the intestinal tract itself and strengthen it so as to repair the leaky patches, this problem can be resolved in a matter of a few months.

The first step in handling this problem would be to ascertain exactly what’s happening in the person’s digestive system. A new test has been developed which enables a practitioner to determine the total amount of friendly and harmful bacteria, the amounts of yeast and parasites in one’s intestines, whether or not one is missing the substances in the intestines which protects the lining of the intestines, and whether or not the intestinal tract has become leaky. This test also would scan the digestive system and absorption system, to see if one is digesting and absorbing everything correctly from their food. It also tells a great deal about how well the immune system is functioning in the intestinal tract. This is the ideally suited test to determine exactly what’s needed on someone suffering from this syndrome.

After the testing, the first step would be to put the person on a program to clear out any harmful bacteria or harmful microorganisms that are living in the intestines. Once they’re eliminated, we then can begin building up the friendly bacteria in the system, and then we can begin repairing the intestinal tract.

In some cases, even though harmful organisms are present in the intestines and would continue to break down the intestinal tract, causing the same problem all over again, it is necessary to strengthen and heal the intestinal tract a bit before one even begins to clear away these harmful organisms. This is true in cases where people are so chemically sensitive or so allergic that they can no longer even tolerate taking the natural substances which might be able to clear away the harmful bacteria or microorganisms from their system. If this is the case, the person would first need a round or so of these substances to strengthen his intestinal tract so that he would be able to tolerate the substances that remove the harmful bacteria or harmful parasites.

Once this is accomplished the person would naturally, then be able to tolerate friendly bacteria. So, for those who are very, very sensitive, they have to actually begin the entire program by correcting as best as we can the weakness of the intestinal lining that causes the bad reaction before beginning the program to totally and completely correct the problem.

This is permissible because after the person has cleared away the bad microorganisms and then started to establish friendly bacteria, he can then go back on the substances that then heal the intestinal tract for a longer period of time, so as to obtain a complete and thorough regeneration of the area.

We are having fantastic successes and in some cases almost miraculous results in our own practice. We hope this information benefits you.