BENEFITS OF PROBIOTICS The human body relies on the normal flora (probiotics) for several functions including, metabolising foods and certain drugs. Absorbing nutrients. Preventing colonisation by pathogenic bacteria. Provide nutritional benefits including inducing growth factors. Increasing the bioavailability of minerals. Stabilise the mucosal barrier and decrease intestinal permeability. Providing numerous health benefits. When taken orally, probiotics pass through the gut and attach to and colonise the intestinal and urogenital mucosa, where they inhibit bacterial pathogens by  “competitive exclusion”, via: • Competition for limited nutrients. • Producing lactic acid and substances called bacteriocins, which inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria and fungi. • Producing biosurfactants that can prevent pathogenic (bad) bacteria from adhering to the epithelium. • Inhibiting the translocation of bacteria across the intestinal mucosa, by strengthening the epithelial barrier. • Some of the lactobacilli species, which include L-acidophilus, L-rhamnosus and L-casei (one of the best) also produce hydrogen peroxide,...

The common cold (viral upper respiratory tract infection (VURI), acute viral rhinopharyngitis, acute coryza, or cold) is a contagious, viral infectious disease of the upper respiratory system, caused primarily by rhinoviruses and corona viruses. Common symptoms include a sore throat, runny nose, and fever. There is no cure; however, symptoms usually resolve spontaneously in 7 to 10 days, with some symptoms possibly lasting for up to three weeks. The common cold is the most frequent infectious disease in humans with on average two to four infections a year in individual adults and up to 6 - 12 in individual children. Collectively, colds, influenza, and other infections with similar symptoms are included in the diagnosis of influenza-like illness. They may also be termed upper respiratory tract infections (URTI). Influenza involves the lungs while the common cold does not.  Symptoms are cough, sore throat, runny nose, and nasal congestion; sometimes this may...